1. The fall of man (3:1-24)
A new character is introduced into the narrative in the form of a serpent. How one interprets the serpent is immaterial to the intent of the plot. The character of the serpent is clear enough. It is intrinsic to neither God nor man but exits apart from each, possessing an inimitable craftiness (3:1a). The introduction of the serpent brings into focus again the problem posed in 2:16-17. In the ensuing dialogue with the woman, the Creator’s authority is maliciously challenged, realities are distorted, and God himself is misrepresented. By appealing to the unreasonableness of God’s command, the serpent sets itself over against God. God is no longer depicted as benevolent, desiring the harmonious well-being of his creation. He is defined by the serpent as selfishly malevolent, with only his own best interests at stake.
In undermining the correlation between God’s commands and man’s own best interest, the serpent portrays a false view of sin as something beneficial to man. In so doing the serpent creates for man a false view of man by promising him elevation to the level of deity (vv.4-5): You will be like God. The temptation posed is great. Man becomes suspicious of God. He is no longer to be trusted. Sin is no longer considered destructive. Man’s own interests are best served by self-determination.
Man chooses the path of the serpent and thereby usurps the divine prerogatives and becomes his own authority. Distrust leads to disobedience. Eve succumbs to the persuasion of the Tempter (v.6). Sin quickly spreads to Adam and results in shame (v.7). They are ill at ease together. The disintegration of harmony within creation has begun. The serpent’s promise of their eyes being opened (v.5) comes true but in a distorted and pathetic manner (v.7).
With renewed encounter with God and, feeling the guilt of their crime, Adam and Eve hide. Edenic Paradise is transformed into a courtroom. The accused attempt to rationalize their participation in the crime (vv.12-13). The pathetic nature of their defense is exposed. Sentence is decreed by the Judge (vv.14-19). A curse is placed sequentially upon the serpent in its creatureliness, upon the woman in her childbirth, and upon man in his labors.
With respect to the demonic force God promises the ultimate subjugation of the serpent by the seed of the woman. It is the good news that the damage caused by the serpent is only temporary. The curse is extended beyond Adam and Eve’s experience of toil, pain, and death to a cosmic judgment as well; for the earth itself is called to yield thorns and thistles. Redemption, if it is to occur, will necessarily have to include the entire cosmos and not merely man. All this is a result of man’s distrust of the Creator.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about God’s sentence is that it is shot through with evidence of his grace toward his creation. Not only is that loving-kindness perceived explicitly (cf. v.21), but there is a hint of a plan to redeem his creation (v.15). God will not give up on his world. This grace is also apparent in the mitigation of the punishment. The guilty pair, deserving death (cf. 2:17), are not only spared, but protected. They are given, again, the gift of life, albeit outside of Paradise and removed from the Tree (or Source) of Life (vv.22-24). The way back to God is deliberately more difficult and prefigures the elaborately designed systems to make atonement possible in the OT. The cherubim as guardians of Paradise (v.24) are elsewhere depicted as guardians of the Holy of Holies and the ark it contained (Ex 36:35; 37:7-9). Only when Christ died are those guardians “set aside”; the veil embroidered with the cherubim is torn, and the way to God is reopened (Mt 27:51).