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| Enter the Serpent
The Fall begins with a simple question, calculated to distort God’s command to Adam that “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Gn 2:17). The serpent enters the garden, spies Eve, and asks, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” (Gn 3:1; emphasis added). Here it will be necessary, as in so many places in the biblical story, to pay close attention to narrative details, as the serpent subtly twists God’s words. The serpent knows that there is only one tree of the garden from which Adam and Eve cannot eat. Why, then, does he suggest that God has forbidden them to eat from any of the trees? Behind the serpent’s question is more than just where Adam and Eve are to find their lunch. With such a wording, the serpent suggests that God’s law is arbitrary—only one tree is off-limits, but God could just as easily have prohibited them from eating the fruit of all of the trees. With such a wording, the serpent also suggests something about the character of God. If his law is arbitrary, then the 3 John Paul II, Puebla: A Pilgrimage of Faith (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1979), 86. lawgiver may be nothing more than an omnipotent tyrant! Notice that the serpent does not refer to the “L ORD God,” with whom Adam and Eve are in covenant, but simply to “God,” subtly challenging God’s relationship and character. Eve answers the serpent’s question by saying that they can eat the fruit of all the trees of the garden, except one. She then adds the detail, “Neither shall you touch it, lest you die” (Gn 3:3; emphasis added). Eve’s response reveals the effect of the serpent’s cunning, for God never said that they would die if they merely touched the tree, as a careful reader of Genesis 2 will note. Eve is falling right into the serpent’s trap. She starts exaggerating the command, making it seem arbitrary and pointless: “We can’t even touch it! That’s how much of a tyrant God is!” p 16 Who Was the Serpent? Revelation gives an inspired commentary on Genesis 3, revealing the diabolic identity behind the serpent: “That ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rv 12:9). Satan was a good angel, created by God, who abused his free will and chose to rebel against God. Many such rebellious angelic beings exist and are known as “demons” or “devils” ( Catechism Nos. 391–395). Genesis’ description of Satan as a serpent is an example of how “the account of the fall … uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event” ( Catechism No. 390). The serpent, seeing his opening, promises life where God warned of death: “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gn 3:4–5). The serpent, the father of lies, accuses God of being a liar! The serpent wants Eve to think that the reason God said that they couldn’t eat of the tree was because he knows that when they eat it, they will be like him. They will be all-knowing! All-powerful! Free! The serpent suggests that if Eve eats the forbidden fruit, then she will be like God. Here again, this little detail, a single repeated word, should loudly echo in our ears. In the first creation story, we were told that both man and woman were created in God’s image and likeness. The phrase “like God” is carefully repeated, showing that what was given in the first account of creation is something that will now be grasped at in the second story. The irony is that Adam and Eve tải về 6.33 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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