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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 3:6 and Genesis 21:12

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Genesis, Eve sees that the forbidden fruit is good to eat and pleasing to look at, and she eats it. Later in the book, Abraham sees sending Hagar and Ishmael away as evil, yet obeys God's word to listen to Sarah instead of acting on what he sees.

Passages

Genesis 3:6

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Genesis 21:12

Hebrew Bible
10 So she said to Abraham, “Banish that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave woman will not be an heir along with my son Isaac!” 11 Sarah’s demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be evil in your eyes20 about the boy or your slave wife. Do all that Sarah is telling you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted. 13 But I will also make the son of the slave wife into a great nation, for he is your descendant too.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

"... Turning again to the book of Genesis, this example helps to demonstrate how the moral and legal aspects of a permutation of רעע may function in the context of human and divine will. In both of these passages, the Hebrew lexeme רעע appears as indication of Abraham’s moral outrage. The question to be answered is whether or not these two phrases in verses 11–12 should be translated with an emphasis upon moral infraction or with the more simple translation of displeasure, as they are usually translated. I contend that the most reasonable explanation is that Abraham considers the driving out (גרש, verse 9) of Hagar and his son as being tantamount to an egregious action and crime. It would be difficult to argue that this situation is merely displeasing to Abraham. Sprinkle has suggested that Sarah’s actions and Abraham’s consent, solidified by the admonishment of אלהים (verse 12), alludes to a possible anachronism of the law of divorce found in Covenant Code (Exodus 21:10–11). Whether that is true or not, the permutations of רעע in verses 11 and 12 refer to the moral and ethical evaluation of what is a difficult legal situation for Abraham, who is having to drive his son, Ishmael, out of his life. Thus Abraham is being admonished in v. 12 by אלהים not to let this thing be ‘evil’ in his eyes, in the sense that by obeying the voice of Sarah, he would be committing a great sin against אלהים (compare Genesis 39:9), thereby incurring the divine curse upon himself ..."
Nathan S. French, “A Theocentric Interpretation of הדעת טוב ורע: The Knowledge of Good and Evil as the Knowledge for Administering Reward and Punishment” (PhD diss., University of Aberdeen, 2018), 213.

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

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Genesis 3:6 and Genesis 21:12

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