clarice

HI, Cheryl,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while, and I want to say that I enjoy it a lot. I agree with what you say on a lot of things concerning Adam and Eve’s relationship and the fall. However, I’ve noticed some things about Genesis that are either ignored or overlooked in many christian discussions. In Genesis 2:17, God clearly tells Adam he is not to eat from “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” under penalty of death. In Genesis 3:3, Eve refers to this same tree as the “tree in the midst of the garden”. Why is that? It’s as if Eve didn’t know all the facts concerning the tree that Adam was given in the original prohibition. OTOH, Eve was given (along with Adam) an extra prohibition not to touch said tree. Unlike other people, I take Eve’s words as fact about what God said to her and Adam. I do not believe that God didn’t speak to her personally, or that Eve lied, misunderstood, or added words to what was said to her. I think the reason why Eve was deceived and Adam was not was because Adam knew that the tree symbolized a knowledge that God did not intend for him to have at that point. Eve, OTOH, did not exactly know what this tree symbolized. She was caught off guard by the serpent when he told her she would “be like God knowing good and evil”. It was as if the serpent was implying that God was holding out of her concerning information about the tree. She probably did not know that Adam had full knowledge of what the tree symbolized so she did not turn to him for help, and his silence didn’t do anything to convince her otherwise. I think this is the real reason behind the statement that Eve was deceived and Adam was not. My question is: why didn’t God inform Eve that the tree symbolized the knowledge of good and evil? I think the answer is in the roles Adam and Eve were created to fill. For the record; I do not believe that Adam had any authority over Eve or anything like that. I believe genesis 1:26-28 clearly shows that men and women are to rule the earth equally. However, I agree with the jewish interpretation of the ezer kenegdo as someone who will support the man when he is righteous and oppose him when he is not. Charis, one of your other commentators, says that the Paul says the woman is suppose to be the guardian or watchman of the family. I think this is true because proverbs 31:27 says:

“She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.”

The hebrew word for “looketh well” is tsaphah. It means to keep watch, or to look ahead. The noun form is the word used for the watchman of a city who warns of danger or an approaching enemy. The hebrew word for ways is haliykah. It can mean a procession, march, or paths. Clearly, this is more than just domestic concerns. I take this to mean that women are to look out for their family’s spiritual well being. Adam was to guard the garden, but Eve was to guard her relationship with Adam. In genesis 2:22, God is said to “build” Eve. The hebrew word is banah, and it has the same root word as binah (insight, understanding, discernment). The jewish sages took this to mean that God gave Eve and extra dose of spiritual insight. Well, I wouldn’t go that far, I think this is the reason why women are so relationship oriented toward their husbands, children, female friends, and other people. We were deliberately built this way for a spiritual purpose. Skip Moen is a blogger who seeks to understand the scriptures from a hebrew world view. He has some very insightful things to say about the role of the ezer kenegdo on his blog. He thinks the ezer kenegdo was created to act as an advocate or a boundary setter in the relationship. He looks at the hebrew word zakar which means male. It has a homophone that means to remember and in the hebrew worldview, to remember God’s laws is to act on it. The hebrew word for female is n?qebah, and it has a homophone in hebrew that means a setting for gemstones. For example; a bezel setting is the most ancient method for setting gemstones in jewelry. It consists of a band of metal that wraps around the circumference or boundary of the gemstone to protect and secure it in place. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jeremiah 31:22 states that a woman will compass a male. The word for woman is not the ordinary hebrew word for woman.
It is the word n?qebah (female), and the n?qebah will compass (hebrew word cabab meaning to surround or encircle or in other words form a boundary) the male (not zakar, but the hebrew word gebar which means a mighty warrior man). The female will surround and protect the strong male. Of course, what does this have to do with Eve’s deception? I think that Adam was told that the tree symbolized knowledge of good and evil because he was suppose to know the facts, remember what God told him to do, and ACT ON IT in order to protect the garden. Eve, OTOH, was given the prohibition not to eat from the tree, but she did not know what the tree symbolized. Instead, she was given an extra prohibition not to touch the tree. In other words, God established an extra boundary and Eve was suppose to KEEP THE BOUNDARIES and encourage Adam to do the same. Once God created Adam and Eve in their respective roles and co-rule of the earth, he had to give them an opportunity to sin in order to test their faith in him. I believe this is why Eve was not told what the tree symbolized. If she was built with extra binah, she needed to learn to discern a truth from a lie. That didn’t make her infallible though because Eve lacked spiritual maturity.. Adam had more experience in his relationship with God. He saw him plant a garden, was given instructions on how to care for the garden, given specific facts about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he named the animals. Eve was a latecomer on the scene, and she didn’t have this experience. Eve needed spiritual maturity and growth to exercise her discernment abilities. In Heb 5:14, it says:

“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

If Eve had doubts, she should have had enough faith in God to ignore the serpent, encourage Adam to do the same, and inquire of the Lord concerning the matter (like Rebecca did concerning her twins). In other words, if she had maintained the boundaries established by God until she took up the matter with Him, she wouldn’t have fallen into sin. That said, Adam was not deceived, had all the facts, and he failed to inform his wife when he saw she was in danger of being deceived. Adam was suppose to remember what he was created for and act on it. Eve was the ezer kenegdo, but because of her spiritual immaturity, Adam should’ve acted as a safeguard for his wife. In other words, a man and woman were created to watch each other’s backs and act in tandem to protect and rule the garden in their perspective roles. I think the main reason Eve sinned in her spiritual immaturity is due to her desire to fill her role as ezer kenegdo to benefit her relationship with her husband. In genesis 3:6, Eve thought the tree would give her a special wisdom (sakal). She confused a knowledge of good and evil with the wisdom known as sakal. In hebrew, sakal is about being prudent, or to discern and understand what the lord would want us to do. In proverbs 19:14, it says:

“Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent (sakal) wife is from the LORD.”

Obviously, sakal in a wife is a desirable quality to fill the role of the ezer kenegdo. Unfortunately, Eve bought the serpent’s lies and thought she could get sakal the fast track way without inquiring with the Lord. In her spiritual immaturity, she forgot to maintain the boundaries established by the lord. Adam knew what he was doing, and he deliberately chose to stay silent and let Eve take the blame for him. He knew there was extending circumstances for her sin and none for his. Anyway, this is my take on the fall.