Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said to TL:

In Eve’s (so called) confession the grammar is precise. The word order is emphatic to show that Eve is saying it is the serpents fault. In fact the same grammatical structure is also with Adam blaming Eve. Also like I said the Hiphil stem of the verb ‘to decieve’ is a causative stem. Eve is putting the ‘cause’ onto the serpent. So if you want to say adam is blaming Eve you MUST say Eve did the same thing since the grammar works the same way. You cannot pick one and not the other unless of course you want to ignore the text.

The problem is that Eve told the truth and blamed the one who was the reason for her deception. Adam blamed Eve when she was not to blame as she was not the cause of his eating. God proves that the serpent was indeed to blame and so God curses him. God does not accept Adam’s blame of Eve and instead of blaming Eve, God puts the blame only on Adam. The problem that you are having is that you think that both blaming another for why they ate means that both were wrong. This is not a given and paying attention to God’s Words will not allow us to shift the blame onto the woman as the blame has been shifted onto the deceiver.

Eve does more than ‘name’ her deceiver- she blames him.

Uh-huh, and so does God (He says “because you did this…” So what is your point?

Also Adam acknowledges that he ate the fruit aswell, so there is again no difference here. What both fail to do is admit their own sin and blame another.

That is not true. Both admitted what they did “I ate”, but only one blamed God (The woman whom You gave to be with me” and only one blamed a deceived person for their own sin. Only one admitted that they were deceived as a true reason for their sin.

The two confessions are not like each other and God affirmed this.

Also the ‘desire’ I am talking about is her desire for the apple not the desire for her husband. Look again. Eve is coveting the fruit to gain wisdom. Grammar is precise about this again.

This is part of the deception. What does it prove? That she was fully deceived. We should be able to agree on that and blame the man just as God blamed placed the blame on the one who was not deceived.