GENESIS 3
The First Sin
About This Chapter
Genesis 3 marks a turning point in the biblical story. Until now, God has provided Adam and Eve with everything they need, placing them in a garden where they can live in His presence. But they have also been given a command, and this chapter reveals what happens when that command is challenged.
As you read, pay attention to how temptation begins with questioning what God has said. The decision Adam and Eve make affects more than their life in the garden. It changes their relationship with God, introduces shame and suffering into the human experience, and leads to their removal from Eden.
Yet even as God announces the consequences of their disobedience, there is a statement that Christians have long understood as pointing toward the eventual defeat of evil. This becomes an important connection to the larger story of Scripture.
1Now the serpent was more cunning than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree in the garden?"
2The woman answered the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. 3But about the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You must not eat its fruit, and you must not even touch it, or you will die.'"
4"You will not die!" the serpent told the woman. 5"God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6The woman saw that the tree's fruit looked good to eat and beautiful to look at, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was there with her, and he ate it too. 7Then their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8In the cool part of the day, the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden, and they hid from him among the trees. 9But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10The man answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid."
11"Who told you that you were naked?" God asked. "Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?"
12The man said, "The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What have you done?"
The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate it."
The Results of Sin
14So the LORD God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than all the farm animals
and all the wild animals.
You will crawl on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
15I will make you and the woman enemies,
and your children and her child will be enemies too.
He will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
What This Means: God announces that hostility will exist between the serpent and the woman’s offspring. The statement that her offspring will strike the serpent’s head has traditionally been understood by Christians as pointing forward to Jesus Christ and His victory over Satan. This interpretation connects the beginning of humanity’s fall with the hope of redemption developed throughout Scripture.
16To the woman he said,
"I will make your pain in childbirth much worse.
You will have children in pain.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree I commanded you not to eat from,
"the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will have to work hard
to get food from it.
18It will grow thorns and weeds for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19You will sweat to earn your food
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
You are dust,
and to dust you will return."
20Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all who live.
21The LORD God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife and dressed them.
Sent Out of the Garden
22Then the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out and take fruit from the tree of life too, and eat it, and live forever." 23So the LORD God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground he had been taken from. 24After he drove the man out, God placed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a flaming sword that flashed back and forth, to guard the way to the tree of life.
What This Means: Adam and Eve are driven from Eden and prevented from reaching the tree of life. The tree appears again in Revelation 22, where it stands in the New Jerusalem, and God’s people are no longer separated from Him. This connection brings the biblical story full circle, from humanity’s loss of access to the tree of life to its restoration in God’s renewed creation.