Cheryl Schatz

Susanna said:

The woman is said to have learned the commandment from the man, and was therefore responsible to the man for helping him keep it, an argument created and supported by giving ‘ezer the meaning “helper.” On the contrary we find that the woman says that “God had said” and God holds her equally responsible for the breaking of the commandment. That the man answered first does not signify that God had only called him, it is an inference based on the singular that we find after ha’adam.

I agree that the woman’s testimony was that God gave her the command and in Genesis 1, God speaks to “them”. However I do not agree that God called both humans yet only the man answered. God specifically said “you” singular.

We have now two options:
1. If we affirm that ha’adam refers only to the man, then God calls only the man which would indicate that God spoke only the man at all times since the writer portrays a picture in which God is seemingly ignorant of the disobedience and seems to want to simply communicate with the human He had created.
2. If ha’adam refers to both the man and the woman, God calls both the man and the woman for He spoke both to the man and the woman at all times.

Why do you think there are only two options? Would you consider this an option?:

3. God knows what has happened and he calls the man to explain where he is (hiding) and why (the cowering Watchman is a traitor). The Watchman of the garden must answer to God first. Since we know that God spoken to both of them (Gen. 1) and Eve’s testimony is that “God said…” we know that God picking Adam to be called to account first is not an indication that He only ever spoke to one man.

Is this anything wrong with this option?

If we exclude Eve from the above text and from Gen 1.27, we must also exclude her from Gen 3.9 since the grammar and the persons spoken of are the same.

Eve is not excluded later when God speaks to her, but yes, she is excluded as the initial “rubber meets the road” first one accountable is called on the carpet.