What do we learn about Genesis chapter 3 in The Book of Eden? by Bruce C. E. Fleming
In Genesis chapter three there are four characters in view. They each speak and their words are recorded in this chapter. They are the woman and the man, their attacker and God their creator.
At the beginning of Genesis 3 we learn about the attack that was made on the first man and woman in the Garden of Eden. The tempter-in-the serpent spoke through an animal to the woman and the man.
It seems to many readers in English that only the woman was attacked at the tree. But the Hebrew pronouns used by the serpent are all plural. The “you” included them both. It meant you both, like the southern pronoun y’all.
Jesus later called Satan the Father of Lies and a murderer. Satan was there to bring about the death of them both and used lies as his weapon. As a result of his lies he got them both to eat the forbidden fruit.
His first lie was to hide his true nature. The voice of the serpent was the voice of Satan, the most beautiful of all the angels of heaven. He did not present himself to the couple in this way. “Hello there. I am the most beautiful of all the angels of heaven and I am a rebel against my Creator. I want to be like God and I am here to contradict God and get you to disobey him.”
No. He lied by hiding his true nature and slipping into the body of a serpent, one of the creatures in the Garden over whom they both ruled.
When Satan misquoted God’s words, another way that he lied, the woman rightly ruled over him and corrected his words. At this point he revealed he was not just an animal. He did not accept her rule over him, just like he did not accept God’s rule over him either. He continued to lie to her. He succeeded in deceiving her and she ate the fruit.
From the New Testament, in two places, we learn clearly that he did not succeed in deceiving the man. But he didn’t have to.
The man who was right there with her, when the serpent addressed them both saying y’all, ate the fruit too. The man openly rebelled against God. Not willing to obey God he followed the lead of the Liar and rejected God’s rule over him.
All this is written about in the first few verses of Genesis chapter 3. What is written in the rest of the chapter is what the man and the woman did next. And what happened when God came and sought them out.
For our purposes here it is important to point out that in verse 16 of Genesis chapter 3 God spoke to the woman. What he said is recorded in only 11 Hebrew words.
The verse is made up of four Lines of thought. In Line one God acted in two ways. In Lines 2-4 God did not act further. Instead God taught the woman about what had happened and about what was coming.
These 11 words are critical to our understanding of what happened in the Garden of Eden. What we learn from these words influences how we look at the seven key Bible passages about women and men.
The problem is that these words in Genesis 3:16 have been mistranslated into our modern languages. The good news is that these mistranslations can be corrected and restored to the original meaning of the 11 Hebrew words God spoke to the woman in the Garden of Eden.
Dr. Joy Fleming spent more than seven years researching Genesis chapters 2 and 3 and revealed that contrary to what most people have believed, God did not curse Eve (or Adam) or limit woman in any way in the Garden of Eden.
Want to know more? Go deeper? The Book of Eden, Genesis 2-3 is based on the work of Dr. Joy Fleming. It takes the reader from the creation of the first human and the planting of the Garden of Eden, all the way through to the first marriage, the attack, God’s words to the serpent-tempter, to the woman and to the man and to the closing of the Garden of Eden.
The biggest reveals come in chapters 6 and 7 which are all about God’s words to the woman and how these same words also tie in to her situation, surrounded as she was by the two willing rebels against God!
You can get a copy for yourself and another to study with a friend at this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097W9KWRG?binding=paperback&qid=1633598650&sr=8-1&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tpbk
