Lin

“Ortlund seems to be saying that Eve set out with the willful intent to twist what God had said, as if she needed no encouragement from the serpent.  If that was true, the serpent would likely never have had to convince Eve with craft and subtlety with his “surely argument.”  All he would have had to have said was “Go ahead and eat,” and Eve would have followed the lust in her heart.”

Cindy, I have had to read your comments several times. So much to think on! You have made some excellent points.

If Eve ‘misquoted’ God, I doubt we would be taught that she was “deceived” in scritpure. Misquoting God is lying about what He said.  That is exactly what you are saying above. It would have already been in her heart. She would not need for the serpent to say, Surely….
Bottomline in the passage is that Eve admits she was deceived. Adam blames Eve and God. Adam: Willful deliberate sin. Eve: Deceived.
There might be some reading here that think we are communicating that Eve did not sin. That is not true. She sinned because she was deceived. Isn’t this what the much debated 1 Tim 2 teaches us?

Ortlund writes in his footnotes:

“Eve’s reply in verses 2-3 shows that she has been instructed in the command of 2:16-17, although she misquotes God.  The inaccuracies in her quote are to be explained in terms of sin’s operations in her mind, not in terms of “limited knowledge”… (emphasis is mine)”

Where does he get that she misquoted God? And, where do we see in this account sin entering her mind before the talk with the serpent?