Cheryl

Michael,

You said:

Why did Eve add to the commandment? “I must not touch it or you will die!” Did Adam add that in to Eve (The Woman) when he told her about the tree? If so then if the Devil was spying on them he could use that against her/them! For the serpent was touching the tree for he was in it! Just a thought.

For the answer to this question we need to read the account carefully. The woman said that “God said” so her testimony is that God told her. Many think that Eve was not talked to directly by God regarding the prohibition but this is refuted by the text. In Gen. 1:27-29 God speaks to “them” and tells “them” what they can eat. The giving of the food that they can eat encompasses the prohibition. God said:

Gen 1:29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

Since in this verse God gave “them” every tree that has fruit yielding seed and we know that every tree was given them for food except for one, then we can confidently conclude that the one tree that has been forbidden them to eat did not have fruit that yielded seed. Thus in Genesis 1:29 was a restatement of the prohibition in a different way.

Did God talk to Eve directly and give her the prohibition? We can rightfully assume that he did, since he talked to both of them about what they could eat and Eve said that “God said” she was not to even touch the forbidden fruit. The conversation between God and Eve is not directly recorded in scripture but the testimony of a sinless woman (at the time it was said) is plenty of evidence that God told Eve not to touch the fruit.