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NASB | Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, "Can it really be that God has said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" [Rev 12:9-11] |
Bible Question:
My mother-in-law (Roman Catholic) believes that in the story of the fall, the forbidden fruit represents intercourse between Adam and Eve. She says that original sin and the fall of man wouldn't have occurred just by "eating some fruit". I told her man's fall occurred because they disobeyed God, by eating the fruit. I couldn't convince her, I told her that there was nothing in the text that would indicate that the fruit represented anything other than the fruit. She apparently learned this in Catholic grade school 50 years ago. Does anyone else hold to this view? Am I right to read this story literally? Emmaus - I tried to check the Catechism, but couldn't find anything in there (but I'm not that good at finding my way through that beast), do you know if this is Catholic doctrine? Thanks, reilly |
Bible Answer: Eden's fruit trees were all there for man to eat from "to satisfaction." (Ge 2:16) But one tree, that "of the knowledge of good and bad," was placed off limits for the human pair. Eve quoted Jehovah God's prohibition given to her husband as including even the 'touching' of the tree, with the penalty of death to result from disrespect for and violation of the divine law. (Ge 2:17; 3:3) Traditional teachings have attempted to explain the prohibited fruit in a variety of ways: as a symbol of sexual intercourse, represented by an "apple"; as standing for the mere cognizance of right and wrong; and as the knowledge attained upon reaching maturity and also through experience, which knowledge can be put to a good or a bad use. Yet, in view of the Creator's command to "be fruitful and become many and fill the earth" (Ge 1:28), sexual intercourse could not be what the tree's fruit represented, for in what other way could procreation and multiplication have been effected? The mere ability to recognize right and wrong most certainly cannot be meant, for obedience to God's command required of sinless man that he be able to exercise such moral discrimination. Nor could the knowledge attained upon reaching maturity be meant, for it would not be sin on man's part to reach this state, nor would his Creator logically obligate him to remain in an immature state. As to the genus of the tree, the Scriptural record is silent. But it becomes apparent that the tree of the knowledge of good and bad symbolized the divine right, which man's Creator retains, to designate to his creatures what is "good" and what is "bad," thereafter requiring the practice of that which is declared good and the abstaining from that which is pronounced bad in order to remain approved by God as Sovereign Ruler. Both the prohibition and the subsequent pronouncement of the sentence passed upon the disobedient pair emphasize the fact that it was the act of disobedience in eating the prohibited fruit that constituted the original sin.-Ge 3:3. While some modern critics may balk at the very simplicity of the Edenic account, it should be obvious that the actual circumstances made a simple test most fitting. The life of the newly created man and woman was simple, not complicated and encumbered with all the complex problems, predicaments, and perplexity that disobedience to God has since brought to the human race. Nonetheless, for all its simplicity, the test expressed the universal truth of God's sovereignty as well as man's dependence upon God and his duty toward God. The simplicity of the test in Eden illustrates the principle stated millenniums later by God's Son, that "the person faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and the person unrighteous in what is least is unrighteous also in much."-Lu 16:10. Eden's having this "tree of the knowledge of good and bad" within it, however, was clearly not intended to serve as a thorn in the flesh of the human pair, nor was it so designated in order to raise an issue, or to serve as the subject for debate. If Adam and Eve had acknowledged God's will in the matter and had respected his instructions, their garden home would have continued unmarred as a place of pleasure and delight. The record shows that the issue and debate over the tree, along with the temptation to violate God's ordinance, were put upon mankind by God's Adversary, Satan the Devil. (Ge 3:1-6; compare Re 12:9.) Adam and Eve's exercise of their will, as free moral agents, in rebellion against God's rightful sovereignty led to their loss of Paradise and it's blessings. Of even graver consequence, they lost the opportunity to partake of another of Eden's trees, this one representing the right to life everlasting. Thus the account says that Jehovah God "drove the man out and posted at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubs and the flaming blade of a sword that was turning itself continually to guard the way to the tree of life."-Ge 3:22-24. |