Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

My issue lies in that if we always see ‘quotes’ as the very literal words someone spoke, whether Eve or Jesus we come to problems. Because no 2 gospel writers ‘quotes’ Jesus with the exact same words all the time. Do you see what i am saying? For example i believe Jesus spoke a sermon on the mount and both records of it do not contradict, yet both versions do not have the exact same ‘quoted’ words of Jesus.

Mark, there is a difference between a quote and saying things in your own words. A quote is:

1. to repeat (a passage, phrase, etc.) from a book, speech, or the like, as by way of authority, illustration, etc.
2. to repeat words from (a book, author, etc.).
3. to use a brief excerpt from: The composer quotes Beethoven’s Fifth in his latest work.
4. to cite, offer, or bring forward as evidence or support.
5. to enclose (words) within quotation marks.

Notice that a “quote” is to “repeat”. We can tell the difference between a “quote” and a person’s only interpretation by the grammar that a person uses. Eve said:

Gen 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

Since God wouldn’t not have said “we may eat” this is not a quote. Saying things in your own words is saying things the way you understand it. Eve said “we” because she understood that the prohibition was for Adam and herself.

God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'”

This is a quote. It is not represented as Eve’s understanding but as the exact words of God. Eve says “God has said” and then she uses the words that God would have said. God doesn’t say “we” as if Eve is interpreting the command but “you” (plural). Quotes are meant to be accurate. We know that Eve got the quote right because she was not called on the carpet (or the grass) regarding her quote. And God did not go behind her thousands of years later to correct her mistake. God doesn’t need to do that because she was an intelligent woman and her mind wasn’t tainted by sin. She got it right the first time. Now if Adam’s first choice – the dog – had said it, then I would agree that he may have made a mistake on God’s quote because he is only a dog brain.