Narrative Lectionary Program Year – “Creation and Fall”
Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17; 3:1-8
Free Additional Resources for Study & Sermon Preparation
“The Fall of Adam and Eve”, Hugo van der Goes, ca. 1470
Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Daniel D. Maurer
The second creation story in Genesis is anything but simple. It may appear straightforward from its onset, but anyone reading closely should question who fills the roles of the good and bad guys. On top of that, the story’s moral complexity competes head to head with the passage of time ever since it was penned thousands of years ago— history dumps gallons of mistranslations and false assumptions all over the original Hebrew. And like a can of shellac spilled over a sidewalk mural, you’re left wondering what the original artwork looked like.
Think I’m being too hard on good ol’ Father Time? Try this little quiz.
1) Which fruit did Eve eat and pass to Adam? Answer: an Apple.
2) The true identity of the snake in the garden. Answer: the Devil (Satan)
3) The Lord God told Adam the truth, that the fruit of the tree would end up killing him (eventually). Answer: Of course!
If you figured out that all the answers are wrong, you’re well informed and you know how to read closely! Most folks often get #1 and #2 wrong. Number 3 is a bit trickier, because one interpretation is that God really didn’t lie, because God intended the phrase “in the day you eat of it” to be metaphorical, as in “a day is like 1000 years.” Groan.
The real difficulty here is that the snake (not the Devil, remember) tells the truth. Then, lo and behold, when Adam and Eve eat of the fruit, God even acknowledges the snake’s assertions by admitting, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (v. 22b).
Some have speculated that God did, in fact, tell a lie, but that it was a “white lie” like a parent tells a child not to touch a hot stove or it will burn off a hand. But that speculation is exactly that, a speculation.
What did God intend? We don’t know. All we have is the story. I do not believe the story was literal in that it really happened 6000-some-odd years ago. But you might have guessed that.
But stories often reveal deeper truths than a simple reportage can. The ancient Hebrews weren’t interested in playing news reporter, anyway.
I’ll leave to you to root out what deeper truths this story unearths. I have an inkling that perhaps this tale has retained its timelessness because it goes to the very core of a human desire to be like God. Now, as for the identities of the good guys and the bad guys . . . I don’t think the original author intended the readers to concern themselves with such questions. It’s far more important to allow people to mull over the repercussions of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.
Now, as for the snake, I still think that he got a bum rap. He did tell the truth, after all. I also think it’s great that the artist Hugo van der Goes gave the snake platypus-like hands in the painting from 1470 above.
Seems logical.
God needed something to take away when God needed to curse the snake.
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Historical Exegetical Resources
Navigating the Bible: Text/Rabbinic commentary and Divrei Torah.
I.2, To His Wife, Tertullian (c. 206)
The Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the Serpent: sermon by George Whitefield.
From Calvin's Commentary on Genesis. Chapter 3.
Contemporary Resources
Exegetical Links
Who’s the Hero and Who’s the Villain? Richard Kalmin, JTS – 2012
Eve Was Framed, the Serpent Was Right! Carl Gregg, Pluralism, Pragmatism, Progressivism – Patheos, 2014
"Adam," "Eve," "Buechner on Animals," Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words.
Environmental/earth-centered reflections, from the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota Environmental Stewardship Commission.
Great Quotes
“I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.”
“I do not wish to be a coward like the father of mankind and throw the blame upon a woman.”
“She remembered the story from her childhood, about Adam and Eve in the garden, and the talking snake. Even as a little girl she had said - to the consternation of her family - What kind of idiot was Eve, to believe a snake? But now she understood, for she had heard the voice of the snake and had watched as a wise and powerful man had fallen under its spell.
Eat the fruit and you can have the desires of your heart. It’s not evil, it’s noble and good. You’ll be praised for it.
And it’s delicious.”
Video Resources
The Surprising Key to Building a Healthy Relationship that Lasts
(Because what more is the second creation story about than relationship?)
Daily Devotional Feed
Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Readers: Narrator, God, Serpent, Woman
Narrator: These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man,
God: You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.
Narrator: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,
Serpent: Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?
Narrator: The woman said to the serpent,
Woman: We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’
Narrator: But the serpent said to the woman,
Serpent: You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Narrator: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.