Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

According to Gen 2 only Adam was instructed about the tree. IN gen 3 we know that Eve knew the command so we either must think Adam told her, or God told her. According to Cheryl’s video she believes God told her. Perhaps this could be true but is this not also an argument from silence, as the bible NEVER tells us that God spoke directly to Eve about the command.

How could this be an argument from silence since Eve said “God said”. It would certainly be an argument from silence if you believe that “Adam said” because no one refers to that. But “God said” is either the truth and God indeed did tell her, or she lied. Which do you prefer? If she lied, for what reason did she lie? Who tempted her to lie? Why wasn’t she corrected by God?

Perhaps this could be true

It is the ONLY evidence that we have about who told Eve. I think that it is wise to believe Eve.

the bible NEVER tells us that God spoke directly to Eve about the command.

That is not true. What you perhaps mean is that God isn’t quoted directly. He is quoted indirectly and this is good enough to say that God spoke to Eve.

No where does Gen tell us that God commanded Eve…. about not eating the fruit. The natural flow of the passage is to assume it was Adam who instructed her.

If God would have told her only the exact same food to eat as He told Adam (He spoke to her and gave her additional foods to eat in addition to what He had said to Adam), and we ignored Eve’s claim that God said, there is still the problem of the additional information that God gave to Eve that is not directly quoted to Adam in chapter 2. Either “God said” this to Eve just as He also spoke to them both and gave them additional foods to eat outside of what He gave to Adam or Eve is a liar because there is no evidence that Adam told Eve that she couldn’t touch the fruit. But Eve said “God said” and I believe her.

The natural flow of the passage is to assume it was Adam who instructed her.

It isn’t natural at all unless one assumes that God wouldn’t stoop to speak to a woman. And we would also have to assume that Eve lied. I don’t think that this is the natural flow of the passage because it would be really hard to prove that Eve sinned before she ate the fruit.

Adam simply told Eve what God had told him. So i agree with the JW’s that is was more probable that Adam was the one who told Eve, but again i wouldn’t push the significance of this too far as the JW’s seem to have done. I wouldn’t say that God only communicated with the man.

You are giving me your opinion, but you will have to deal with the fact of the additional instruction by God and where this came from because it isn’t quoted in chapter 2. I am very grateful that you admit that God only communicated with the man. Now with admitting this fact, can you see any reason why God would directly tell Eve what she could eat but fail to tell her what she could not eat?

Okay I am going to start another comment here so that this one isn’t too long.