Mark

Kay,

No i am not saying Eve was not banished for her sin aswell. Her sin seperated her from the presence of God, she was equally banished, she was equally kept form the tree of life.

What i am saying is that the hebrew grammar only talks about ‘the man’ not man(gender inclusive). Therefore we can come to 2 conclusions. God addresses ‘the man’ because he is the leader, but the punishment/ knowing good and evil applies to both. Or, only ‘the man’ was banned and Eve wasn’t.
In the first instance we have to read into the text this presumption (my view). in the second it has to be true that if Adam was the only one banished( Cheryls view), then Adam was the only one who became like God, because again the grammar only refers to ‘the man’. If we take the literal grammatical approach it contradicts with verse 7 where ‘both’ their eyes are opened after eating the fruit. That is they both equally rebelled against God and sinned.

The first view is what we see in the rest of scripture, that is, the leader has a resposiblity that the others don’t.
The second is a contradiction and therefore following the precise grammar here cannot be the proper way to interpret this text, otherwise the word IS fallible, which i dont believe.

Again with the ‘with’ text, it comes after the coversation with the serpent.

Kay, your final questions are good ones. Although i think it would be far more beneficial to first look at all the contorversial texts in more depth, before we begin discussing the practical sides of the arguments. The reason i say this is because it is easy to pick practical implications of both views and try to use them as proof that that view is invalid. However atm i am more interested in seeing what the bible says before discussing those things, so as not to distort the bible itself, especiallty if we are going to try and help Lauren understand the views fairly.