Genesis 3
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · Beginnings · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
24 verses · 655 words · ~3 min read · ~4 min listen
The Serpentʼs Deception
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LordGod had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
2The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”
4“You will not surely die,” the serpent told the woman. 5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
7And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.
God Arraigns Adam and Eve
8Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LordGod walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LordGod among the trees of the garden.
9But the LordGod called out to the man, “Where are you?”
10“I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
11“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LordGod. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13Then the LordGod said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”
The Fate of the Serpent
14So the LordGod said to the serpent:
The Punishment of Mankind
16To the woman He said:
17And to Adam He said:
20And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living.
The Expulsion from Paradise
21And the LordGod made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
22Then the LordGod said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
23Therefore the LordGod banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.
Footnotes (5)
- a v1 Hebrew nachash, translated in this chapter as serpent, is translated in most cases as snake.
- b v8 Or at the breezy (time); Hebrew unto the Ruach
- c v15 Or He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel. The same Hebrew root for crush, bruise, or strikeappears twice in this verse.
- d v16 Or You will desire to control your husband
- e v20 Eve sounds like the Hebrew for giving life or living.
Study notes on this chapter · 5
Adam, the first man, and Christ, the last Adam
Paul says Adam was 'a type of the one to come': through one man sin and death entered the world, and through one man grace and life come to many. In 1 Corinthians he contrasts the first man, from the dust, with the last Adam, a life-giving spirit, and ties resurrection to this pairing.
When: Genesis, the opening of human history; Romans, c. AD 57; 1 Corinthians, c. AD 55.
Ways people read this (3)
- Adam was a historical individual whose act affected all humanity, as Paul's parallel suggests (common in many traditions).
- Adam is a representative figure for humanity, and Paul's point is about Christ's role more than Adam's historicity.
- Traditions differ on how Adam's sin is transmitted (original sin, ancestral sin, inherited mortality and so on).
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
The tree of life restored
After the fall, humanity is barred from the tree of life in Eden. Revelation's final chapters picture the tree of life along the river in the new Jerusalem, open to those who overcome and wash their robes. Many readers see the Bible's storyline as beginning and ending in a garden-city.
When: Genesis; Revelation, c. AD 90s.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
The offspring who will crush the serpent
After the fall, God tells the serpent that the woman's offspring will strike its head while it strikes his heel. Christian tradition has long read this as the first hint of a coming deliverer (sometimes called the protoevangelium). The New Testament alludes to it (Romans 16:20) but does not quote it as a prediction of Jesus.
When: Set at the beginning of human history; written down within the Torah.
Ways people read this (2)
- Traditional Christian reading: a promise of Christ's victory over evil.
- Many Jewish and some modern Christian readers see a general statement about the ongoing conflict between humanity and evil.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
The king of Tyre in Eden
Ezekiel's lament over the king of Tyre describes him as having been in Eden, the garden of God, a guardian cherub on the holy mountain, blameless until iniquity was found in him, and cast to the ground. The passage has been read as a description of a human king, of Adam, or of Satan.
When: Ezekiel, c. 586 BC.
Ways people read this (4)
- A poetic indictment of the king of Tyre, who has claimed to be a god, using Eden imagery (the plain historical reading).
- A figure who also reflects Satan's fall, as early church writers and many later readers held.
- A retelling of the Adam story, with the king as a failed Adam-figure.
- Jewish tradition reads it as about a proud human king, with echoes of Adam.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.
The woman and the dragon
John sees a woman clothed with the sun who gives birth to a male child destined to rule the nations, while a red dragon waits to devour him. The child is caught up to God and the woman flees to the wilderness. The passage draws on Genesis 3, Joseph's dream and Psalm 2.
When: Revelation, c. AD 90s.
Ways people read this (4)
- The woman is Israel (or the faithful remnant), from whom the Messiah came.
- The woman is the church, persecuted by Satan, and the child represents Christ or the church's faithful.
- The woman is Mary, the mother of Jesus (a common Catholic and Orthodox reading alongside others), with the larger picture being the church.
- The woman is a figure for the whole people of God, both Israel and the church, from Eve to the end.
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.