Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Home Page: Quantum Study Bible

What should I learn from this chapter?

• Men: Honor your wives
• Wives: Honor your husband
• The awkward position of Adam
• The line of authority

Genesis 3

The Temptation and Fall of Man

Genesis 3:¹ Now the serpent was more cunning (crafty, manipulative) than any beast of the field which the Lord (Yĕhovah) God (Elohiym) had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God (Elohiym) indeed said (Did He really really say?), ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

Genesis 3:2-3 And the woman said to (answered) the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God (Elohiym) has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Genesis 3:4-5 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God (Elohiym) knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God (Elohiym), knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:6-7 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

• Adam is now not just “the man”, but Eve’s husband.

• Think of Adam’s position. He is thoroughly in love with Eve. If he doesn’t eat from the tree he deserts Eve. If he does eat from the tree, he deserts God. Feel the agony of that choice. Satan’s method of operation is to ensnare men between two unimaginable choices.

• Matthew 10:37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (bg: Likewise, husband or wife.) Adam should have chose God instead of Eve.

Genesis 3:⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened,

Genesis 3:^7b and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the Lord (Yĕhovah) God (Elohiym) walking in the garden in the cool (literally: Spirit) of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

• Eve is now Adam’s wife instead of “the woman”.
• The separation between God and man has begun. They distance themselves from God in shame.

• Hiding themselves:
  
  • Man now needs a covering of protection. God provides a blood offering by killing an animal to temporarily cover their sins (and bodies). By 31 AD God provides a permanent solution: the blood offering of His own Son, Jesus.
    
    Something innocent had to die for something guilty.

Genesis 3:9 Then the Lord (Yĕhovah) God (Elohiym) called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:10 So he (Adam) said, “I heard Your (God’s) voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked?

• It’s a lie. They were not vulnerable : they were protected by God. The only thing that could hurt them was they, themselves.
• Who shamed you Adam? Note: Shame is rooted in the serpent and like a knife it will cut the umbilical cord of dignity between God and man.

Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

Genesis 3:12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

• In other words, Adam is saying: “It’s YOUR fault…YOU gave her to me.” Also … “It’s Eve’s fault! She gave me the fruit.”

• Ever since the serpent came on the scene, words are being twisted. Truth however cannot be twisted or marred in any way. Lies must be invented but truth just is.

Genesis 3:13 And the Lord (Yĕhovah) God (Elohiym) said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

• “It’s the serpent’s fault!”

• Up until Gen 3:8, Eve was called the woman. From then on out, she is called his wife. She is put under his authority as part of the curse. He becomes like the thorns of the ground to her. The man is cursed to fight the thorns of the ground and the woman is cursed to fight the thorns in their relationship. The thorns of the ground resist the man. The man resists the woman. Both will toil against each other and against the ground.

---

---

Genesis 3:14-15 So the Lord (Yĕhovah) God (Elohiym) said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

Genesis 3:¹⁵ And I (God) will put enmity (war) between you (Satan) and the woman (from the line of Eve all the way to Mary),

And between your (Satan’s) seed (descendants) and her (Eve’s) Seed;

He (Jesus, Eve’s descendant from the virgin Mary) shall bruise your (the serpent’s) head and you (the serpent) shall bruise His heel.”

Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”

• Two curses: Pain in birth and pain in marriage.
  
  • BIRTH: Although the verse addresses a woman in labor, what can bring forth more pain than one’s own family?
    
  • The pattern of pain during a birthing process is also used to describe God giving birth to the nation Israel which brings pain to God.
    • Isaiah 66:9 Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the Lord. 
      
  • MARRIAGE: The word “desire” has been interpreted by men as “to manipulate”. Women do not want to manipulate their men, but rather, they desire to please and promote him because her status is reflected by her husband’s. But if men believe women are manipulative then his thought patterns create a union of enmity. The woman becomes his enemy. He will relate to her in an abusive antagonist manner.
    
    However; when a woman’s only experience is abusive, then a woman will default to manipulation in order to preserve herself. She will also carry it into her next relationship.

“A man’s worse fear is to be laughed at (shamed and manipulated). A woman’s worse fear is to be killed (by her husband) (which is the worst kind of abuse).” ~Gavin DeBecker “The Gift of Fear”

• For a husband or a wife to abuse their spouse (since they are “one”) is like a body with a stroke. One side can function but the other side is damaged. It is NOT up to the abuser to decide if he/she is abusive, it is up to their suffering mate.
  
  ”Oh, how I grieve to hear pastors (of the flock) teach so erroneously concerning women. They set women up to be abused, the ewes of their flock. In this regard they are led by Satan and become like the worthless shepherd who tears the hooves from the sheep.” ~Barbara Grover
  
  Concerning the line of authority, scripture tells men to learn to understand their wives. If they marry an abused woman, he must be aware of her very specific needs. An abused woman is more likely to hurt her husband emotionally and an abusive man is more likely to kill his wife physically.
  
  • Proverbs 31:10-31 The Virtuous Wife: Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.
  • I Corinthians 7:3 Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
  • Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
  • Ephesians 5:28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
  • I Peter 3:7: A Word to Husbands: Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
    
    Note: Both men and women, husbands and wives, are part of the believing Bride of Christ. For a husband to abuse his wife is akin to demonstrating that Jesus could abuse His Bride, Jesus who gave His life for her.
    
    The man is symbolic of the flesh and the woman represents the spirit of the man (good or bad). A man who abuses his wife, without nurturing her, abuses his own spirit. The flesh and the spirit are one. If one half is abused, then it is like someone who has had a stroke and cannot move half his body.
    
    Concerning God’s line of authority we learn: God can do a “by-pass”.

Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:

• Some Christian men conclude from this verse they should not listen to their wife. This only results in destroying a marriage. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
  • Mark 3:25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
  • Why would a Christian man want to destroy half of his own self, when Jesus taught: when God made them male and female He made them ONE.
  • Mark 10:8 And the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
  • For a man to mistreat his wife is like giving his own body a stroke where one half of his body doesn’t function.
  • Just as the man is cursed to be plagued by thorns, so the woman will be plagued by trying to please her husband. The man must wrestle with the ground and the woman must wrestle with her husband. This is the curse. The thorns resist the man. The husband resists his wife. (But Jesus reversed the curse!)
  • And if a man’s home is his castle, why would he keep his wife out, whom he thinks is his enemy, but open the gates (which are meant to protect) to destructive outsiders like adultery, sexually transmitted diseases, and pornography. These are the Trojan horses teeming with demons. To partake in fornication and/or adultery is spiritually taking on the demons of others.

Genesis 3:18-19 “Cursed is the ground for your sake (because of you);

In toil (hard work, sweat) you shall eat of it (from it) all the days of your life.

• Life is now hard for Adam and Eve; if life gets easy man’s sin nature tends to bend toward misusing God’s blessings for his own sin filled purposes.

Genesis 3:¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,

• When Jesus emptied Himself of His Godhead, He became a man and as a man, He endured the curse of the thorns when the Roman soldiers put a crown of thorns on His head.
• Jesus hung naked on the cross.
  Thistle is a symbol of desolation or wilderness. Thistles grow in any naked piece of land. They love to takeover in a vacuum of greenery. God is where life is (greenery), but troubles (thistles) spring up in a vacuum.
• Thorns are also the beginning of man’s redemption being part of the crown of thorns wrapped around Jesus’ head. When Abraham began to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice, their was a ram whose head was caught in thicket of thorns, representing Jesus and the crown of thorns. [Ref Genesis 22:16]
  He who wore the thorns destroyed the curse of the thorns.
• Jesus is the perfect husband for His bride having reversed the curse.

– – – – –

The husband who struggles with provisions from the ground deserves respect from his wife and likewise the wife deserves respect from her husband. The aim of both should be to reverse the curse each for the other.

– – – – –

When God cursed the ground, the side effect was that He cursed man – because man was created from the ground.

Genesis 3:¹⁸ And you shall eat the herb of the field.

• Didn’t they eat the herb of the field before they sinned?
  
  
  • Genesis 1:29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
    Before the fall the ground yielded its fruit gladly in the same way Eve yielded to Adam gladly. However, once sin enters, abuse enters.
  • The curse isn’t reversed until Revelation 22:3 when there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
    
    • Isaiah 11:6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
    • Isaiah 65:25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall bet he serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” Says the Lord.
    • Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
      
  • Now, this same herb which gave nourishment becomes a curse, and now, herbs, or vegetables, are used in scripture to symbolize the world and the sin of the world which is “worldliness”
    
  • By contrast, the fruit of the vine, above the ground, is used symbolically of that which is spiritual.
    
    • Examples:
      
      • The Jews wanted to return to Egypt (symbolic of the world and worldliness) to eat their leeks and onions.
        • Deuteronomy 11:10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden;
          
      • King Ahab and Jezebel killed Naboth in order to turn his vineyard into a vegetable garden.
        • I Kings 21:2 So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house; and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money.”
        • Note: Ahab wanted to convert a spiritual vineyard into a worldly garden, (symbolically speaking)
          
      • On the other hand, fruit is like the Spirit of God, the fruit of the Spirit brings forth life.Nehemiah 9:25 And they took strong cities and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all goods, Cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, And fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and grew fat, and delighted themselves in Your great goodness.

Genesis 3:¹⁹ In the sweat of your face (stress) you shall eat bread (literally: bread/meat/food) till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust (red clay) you shall return.”

Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

• Eve is the mother of ALL living. This excludes theories of other wives predating Eve or other children.

• Eve is called the mother of nations.
  
  
  • Gen 2:23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman (Isha h802), Because she was taken out of Man (‘îš.”)Isha=wife, female and Is=man, husband
  • ḥaûâ=Chavvâh, causatively from h2331; life-giver (breath); Chavvah, the first woman:—Eve.
  • Traditional Jewish exegesis such as Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 38) says that Adam spoke the Hebrew language (making it the global language before the Tower of Babel) because the names he gives “Eve” is Isha (Book of Genesis 2:23) and Chavva h2332 (Genesis 3:20) – which only make sense in Hebrew.

• Hebrew therefore is the first language of the world, and the Hebrew alphabet is a living language.

Genesis 3:21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed (covered) them.

• The words “white”, “wool” and “snow” all symbolize purity.

• Romans 4:7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered;

Genesis 3:22-24 Then the Lord (Yĕhovah) God (Elohiym) said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (plural),

Genesis 3:²² to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— ²³ therefore the Lord (Yĕhovah) God (Elohiym) sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

Genesis 3:²⁴ So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim (angels) at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (vs the tree of good and evil).

• Thoughts concerning Gen 3:24
  
  • Before Adam and Eve sinned they had eternal life. The cells in their body continually regenerated without the decay of age.
    
  • God could not allow them to live forever in this sinful condition.
    
  • Since God “drove” them out, they did not go willingly.
    
  • Since angels guarded the eastern entrance, there must have been only one entrance to the Tree of Life. Today the one and only entrance to the Tree of Life is through believing in the identity (name) of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus the Christ who died, was buried, and rose from the dead to cover the sins of men as a sacrificial sinless Lamb of God. The tree of Law (Good and Evil) is satisfied. When Jesus returns to earth at His second advent He will enter Jerusalem through the eastern gate. Perhaps returning men to the Garden of Eden. It is believed Jerusalem is the location of the original Garden of Eden. The “Eastern Gate” is the only way to God, it is through Jesus the Christ. There are no other ways. The Tree of Life is Jesus who satisfied the tree of Good and Evil, the Law.
    
  • Adam and Eve sinned before they had children because ALL men are born with innate sin. There are no sinless people.
    
  • Since Adam and Eve sinned before they had children then they must have eaten from the tree almost immediately following creation because they had perfect bodies and were in the prime of life with teeming hormones. Therefore; Cain was most likely born within the first year in a fallen state: See Timeline BC 3999 BC

---

Humor:

Marriage is Psychological. One is psycho and the other is logical.

---