Mark

Waneta,

If you look closely at the Hebrew in Genesis 3, there is nothing in the grammar to suggest that Eve’s motive’s were good and Adam’s bad. In fact the ‘desire’ Eve has, is the same word used in the Ten commandments for ‘thy shall not covet’. Her desire was not a good motive.

Also her actions in hiding and covering are the same as Adam. Adam blames God and Eve (evident by the emphatic use of the Hebrew) which is exactly the same in Eve’s blame shifting to the serpent. In both the man and the woman’s response the Hebrew is emphatic in showing that they are blaming another and not taking responsibility for their own actions. Here is a snippet from an exegetical work of mine to explain what i mean

Gen 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Verse 12 gives Adam’s defense of his actions. One would expect a direct yes or no answer to God’s probing questions in verse 11. However, Adam does not respond this way. He passes the blame. First the Hebrew emphasis that it was ‘the woman’ who is to blame, since in this case the object of the verb precedes the verb. Note also the inclusion of the personal pronoun awh (she gave), which gives greater emphasis to Adam’s blaming of Eve. Second, the man makes the bold claim to God, “you gave to me”. In the context, it is clear that Adam also blames God. Nowhere does Adam admit his own sin in eating the forbidden fruit.
This is clearly the nature of Adam’s sin- denial of his actions involved. However, it is interesting that God does not rebuke Adam for what he has said. Wenham states that God’s silence is an indication of his rejection of Adam’s plea. But this appears to be overstated, since nothing Adam said is in and of itself a lie.

Gen 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

God begins by with an immediate questioning of the mans wife- ‘what is this you did?’ The interrogative followed by the pronoun taz-hm (this) emphasizes the question. Almost literally, “what in the world have you done? This is the first point in which the woman is addressed for her part in the destruction of the garden.
Similar to the man’s response, the woman shifts the blame- ‘the serpent
deceived me and I ate’. Again the Hebrew places the emphasis on the ‘serpent’ by placing the subject at the beginning of the sentence before the verb. It is made clear that the woman in essence is blaming the serpent, not accepting responsibility. Also the verb ynanXh (to deceive) is in the Hiphil stem, the causative pattern showing how the woman is putting the ‘cause’ of the fall onto the serpent. As with her husband she is not admiting her part in the fall and her own sin.

Sorry, the Hebrew didn’t work, but hopefully this helps anyway. You cannot exegetically draw the conclusions that you have, namely, that Eve’s motives were good and Adam’s evil- like Satan. The text speaks against such things. Both are guilty and culpable for their own actions in the fall