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3:1 The serpent is the Devil, that is Satan, in which serpent is used figuratively (see Rev. 20:2). Some great commentators have suggested that the Devil was speaking through a snake just like how an angel spoke through a donkey to Balaam in Number 22, either way Satan is the tempter here. (John Litteral) CCC 391
3:4-6 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God". CCC 398
Eve neglected everything that she should have said in opposition to the serpent, and, just as the serpent had desired, she raised her eyes from the serpent in front of her and gazed at the Tree she had been commanded not to approach. Now the serpent kept quiet, for it already perceived her guilt. (St. Ephrem)
Gluttony also had a place in the sin of our first parents. "The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes to look upon and beautiful to contemplate, and having taken of its fruit she ate." Yet the very goodness and beauty of the fruit was not their first motive for sinning, but the persuasive words of the serpent, who said (Genesis 3:5): "your eyes would be opened, and you would be as gods": and it was by coveting this that the woman fell into pride. So the sin of gluttony resulted from the sin of pride. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
3:7 The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay". Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "return to the ground",for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history. CCC 400
They began to cover themselves because they saw that they had been despoiled of the purity and simplicity of their untainted nature. Just as by way of an inner and deeper knowledge they were able to realize, not that they were without garments, but that the protective covering of virtue was no longer theirs. (St. Ambrose)
3:8 heard the voice of the Lord God walking: In one way God may be said to walk wherever throughout Scripture the presence of God is implied. This also probably means that God made it sound as if He was walking in order to alarm them and to bring them into a state of humility. (St Thomas Aquinas)
3:9 Where are you: God put the question with an appearance of uncertainty, in order that even here He might prove man to be the subject of a free will in the alternative of either a denial or a confession, and give to him the opportunity of freely acknowledging his transgression, and, so far, of lightening it. (Tertullian)
3:12 Adam wrongfully tries to blame Eve for his sin. But St. Paul says, "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.(1 Tim. 2:14)" Nicholas of Lyra clarifies this by saying, "Adam was not seduced by the devil, but he was seduced in the sense that he ate from the forbidden tree at the exhortation of the woman, so that he would not sadden her." Though Adam was not deceived in the same manner as Eve, he still sinned and should have stepped up and kept Eve from being seduced by the Devil, which makes his sin more grievous. (John Litteral)
3:13 Eve tries to do the same as Adam and pass off the blame to somone else. The serpent surely deceived her, but she was guilty of pride and wishing to attain something that was against the will of God, and she also sinned by offering it to Adam. (John Litteral)
3:14 see note 3:1. The animal itself also became the object of the curse for the benefit of humanity. When we see the snake crawling and slithering on the ground, we remember the original curse and understand the extent of the evil caused by sin. As the snake is born to move in this fashion, it received no harm |
from the curse. (Theodoret of Cyrus)
3:15 This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium ("first gospel"): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. CCC 410
Pope John Paul II shows us how this relates to Mary and the Lord Jesus... "She (Mary) is "a woman clothed with the sun", with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of stars (cf. Rev 12:1). One can say she is a Woman of cosmic scale, on a scale with the whole work of creation. At the same time she is "suffering the pangs and anguish of childbirth" (Rev 12:2) like Eve "the mother of all the living" (Gen 3:20). She also suffers because "before the woman who is about to give birth" (cf. Rev 12:4) there stands "the great dragon ... that ancient serpent" (Rev 12:9), already known from the Proto-evangelium: the Evil One, the "father of lies" and of sin (cf. Jn 8:44). The "ancient serpent" wishes to devour "the child". While we see in this text an echo of the Infancy Narrative (cf. Mt 2:13,16), we can also see that the struggle with evil and the Evil One marks the biblical exemplar of the "woman" from the beginning to the end of history. It is also a struggle for man, for his true good, for his salvation. Is not the Bible trying to tell us that it is precisely in the "woman" - Eve-Mary - that history witnesses a dramatic struggle for every human being, the struggle for his or her fundamental "yes" or "no" to God and God's eternal plan for humanity?" John Paul II MULIERIS DIGNITATEM
3:16 As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequence the rupture of the original communion between man and woman.... and the beautiful vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of work. Nevertheless, the order of creation persists, though seriously disturbed. CCC 1607-1608
under your husband's power: This directly concerns original sin and its lasting consequences in man and woman. Burdened by hereditary sinfulness, they bear within themselves the constant "inclination to sin", the tendency to go against the moral order. Even though this verse refers directly to marriage, indirectly it concerns the different spheres of social life: the situations in which the woman remains disadvantaged or discriminated against by the fact of being a woman...... St. Paul presents a new way under Christ 'as a "mutual subjection out of reverence for Christ" (cf. Eph 5:21). This is especially true because the husband is called the "head" of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church; he is so in order to give "himself up for her" (Eph 5:25), and giving himself up for her means giving up even his own life. However, whereas in the relationship between Christ and the Church the subjection is only on the part of the Church, in the relationship between husband and wife the "subjection" is not one-sided but mutual.' John Paul II MULIERIS DIGNITATEM 10
3:20 Scripture shows why she was called Eve, that is, Life, because she is the mother of all the living. For the word Eve is translated as life. (St. Jerome)
3:21 Eve was called 'woman' because she was taken out of man, but here she was given the surname 'Eve' because she was given the responsibilty the succession of those who are born. (John Litteral)
3:22 Now, God had forbidden Adam to partake of the fruit of the tree of life, not because he had begrudged him of eternal life, but to check the course of sin. Indeed, death is healing, not punishment, for it checks the onset of sin: "he who has died has been acquitted of sin. Rom 6:7" He ordered him to live directly opposite the garden so that he would remember his trouble free existence and hate sin for causing his life of hardship. (Theodoret of Cyrus) Eating of the tree of life warded off corruption of the body. (St. Thomas Aquinas Sum Theo 1.97.4 quoting Ps. Aug.)
3:23-24 God expells Adam and Eve from the garden and places the highest rank of angels, Cherubims, to guard it. The fiery sword could mean fire coming out of the ground, or figurative for some kind of punishment that would be inflicted on any tresspassers. (St. Thomas Aquinas) |