Go to Related Reading
About this book

Genesis

About this book

Disobedience and Expulsion from the Garden

Chapter 3

1 Now the serpent was shrewder than any of the wild animals⁠ that the Lord God had made.⁠ He said to the woman,⁠ “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?”⁠ 2 The woman said to the serpent,⁠ “We may eat of the fruit from the trees of the orchard;⁠ 3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.’”⁠ 4 The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die,⁠ 5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God,⁠ knowing good and evil.”⁠ 6 When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye,⁠ and was desirable for making one wise,⁠ she took some of its fruit and ate it.⁠ She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her,⁠ and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.⁠ 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day,⁠ and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”⁠ 10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”⁠ 11 And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”⁠ 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”⁠ 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the cattle and all the living creatures of the field!⁠ On your belly you will crawl⁠ and dust you will eat all the days of your life.⁠ 15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”⁠ 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains;⁠ with pain you will give birth to children.⁠ You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.”⁠ 17 But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed the voice of52 your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,⁠ ‘You must not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed because of you;⁠ in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.⁠ 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grass of the field.⁠ 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”⁠ 20 The man named his wife Eve,⁠ because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments from skin⁠ for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.⁠ 22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,⁠ he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”⁠ 23 So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden⁠ to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. 24 When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword⁠ to guard the way to the tree of life.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 3:13 and 4 Maccabees 18:8

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry

Share:

Summary

In Genesis 3, Eve tells God that the serpent tricked her into eating the forbidden fruit. 4 Maccabees has the mother of seven martyrs declare that the deceitful serpent never defiled her virginity, interpreting the serpent's trickery as sexual seduction.

Passages

Genesis 3:13

Hebrew Bible
11 And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

4 Maccabees 18:8

Pseudepigrapha, Wisdom and Poetry
6 The mother of the seven sons also spoke these righteous words to her children: 7 “I was a pure virgin and did not leave my father’s house, and I guarded the rib from which woman was built. 8 No seducer in the desert or deceiver in the field ruined me, nor did the seducer, the deceitful snake, defile the purity of my virginity. 9 I lived with my husband through the years of my youth, and when these sons had grown up, their father died. He was fortunate, for he lived a life blessed with children and never knew the grief of losing them.
19–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4 Maccabees

References

“... As a corollary of her completely cooperating in fulfilling her destiny as the wife made to be helpmate for her future husband, she heeded the cautions of the Torah concerning the seducer who might destroy her chastity. 4 Maccabees 18:8 recalls the case recorded in Deut 22:25–27, recontextualizing the phrase ἐv πεδίῳ and describing rather clearly the same circumstances (being accosted and raped in a deserted place). By remaining in the private spaces of her father’s house, she took the necessary precautions against this eventuality. What follows is an interesting reading of the Fall of Eve and the activity of the serpent in the garden. The language of Eve’s defense in Gen 3:13, “the serpent beguiled (ἠπάτησεv) me,” is the same language of seduction found in Exod 22:16 (ἀπατήσῃ), which describes a case similar to the one covered in Deut 22:25–27. The author of 4 Maccabees makes this same connection when he refers to “the deceitful (ἀπάτης) serpent,” suggesting that Satan is particularly interested in corrupting women through the extramarital advances of males. Paul in 2 Cor 11:2–3 evokes the same suggestive overtones of Satan’s activity as seduction (here, though, away from “fidelity” to Christ, the bridegroom of the Church). The mother’s vigilance against any assault contributes not only to her own honor, but also to the honor of the seven brothers, affirming the legitimacy of their birth. ...”
David A. DeSilva, 4 Maccabees: Introduction and Commentary on the Greek Text in Codex Sinaiticus, SEPT (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 258.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

Genesis 3:13 and 4 Maccabees 18:8

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library