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From: Genesis 3:1-8

Temptation and the First Sins

[1] The serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God
had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree
of the garden’?” [2] And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden; [3] but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
[4] But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. [5] For God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” [6] So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make
one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband,
and he ate. [7] Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

[8] And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool
of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God among the trees of the garden.

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Commentary:

3:1-24. “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but af-
firms a primeval event, a deed that took place “at the beginning of the history of
man”. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history
is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (”Catechism
of the Catholic Church”, 390). The Bible is teaching us here about the origin of
evil —of all the evils mankind experiences, and particularly the evil of death. Evil
does not come from God (he created man to live a happy life and to be his friend);
it comes from sin, that is, from the fact that man broke the divine commandment,
thereby destroying the happiness he was created for, and his harmony with
God, with himself, and with creation in general. “Man, tempted by the devil, let
his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed
God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin
would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness” (”Cate-
chism of the Catholic Church”, 397).

In his description of that original sin and its consequences, the sacred writer
uses symbolic language (garden, tree, serpent) in order to convey an important
historical and religious truth—that no sooner did he walk the earth than man dis-
obeyed God, and therein lies the cause of evil. We can also see here how every
sin happens and what results from it: “The eyes of our soul grow dull. Reason
proclaims itself sufficient to understand everything, without the aid of God. This
is a subtle temptation, which hides behind the power of our intellect, given by
our Father God to man so that he might know and love him freely. Seduced by
this temptation, the human mind appoints itself the center of the universe, being
thrilled with the prospect that ‘you shall be like gods’ (Gen 3:15). So filled with
love for itself, it turns its back on the love of God” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Pas-
sing By”, 6).

3:1. The serpent symbolizes the devil, a personal being who tries to frustrate
God’s plans and draw man to perdition. “Behind the disobedient choice of our
first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall in-
to death out of envy (Wis 2:24). Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this
being a fallen angel, called ‘Satan’ or the ‘devil’. The Church teaches what Satan
was at first a good angel, made by God: ‘The devil and the other demons were
indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing’
(Fourth Vatican Council)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 391.).

3:2-5. The devil’s temptation strategy is very realistically described here: he falsi-
fies what God has said, raises suspicions about God’s plans and intentions, and,
finally, portrays God as man’s enemy. “The analysis of sin in its original dimen-
sion indicates that, through the influence of the ‘father of lies’, “throughout the
history of humanity there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God”,
even to the point of hating him: ‘Love of self to the point of contempt for God,’ as
St Augustine puts it (cf. “De Civitate Dei”, 14, 28). Man will be inclined to see in
God primarily a limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and
the fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modern age, when the atheis-
tic ideologies seek “to root out religion” on the grounds that religion causes the
radical “’alienation’ of man”, as if man were dispossessed of his own humanity
when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to man, and
exclusively to man! Hence a process of thought and historico-sociological prac-
tice in which the rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his ‘death’.
An absurdity, both in concept and expression!” (John Paul II, “Dominum Et Vivi-
ficantem”, 38).

3:6 And so both of them, the man and the woman, disobeyed God’s command-
ment. Genesis refers not to an apple but to a mysterious fruit: eating it symbo-
lizes Adam and Eve’s sin—one of disobedience.

The sacred writer leads us to the denouement by giving a masterly psychologi-
cal description of temptation, dialogue with the tempter, doubt about God’s truth-
fulness, and then yielding to one’s sensual appetites. This sin, Pope John Paul
II also commented, “constitutes “the principle and root of all the others”. We find
ourselves faced with the original reality of sin in human history and at the same
time in the whole of the economy of salvation. [...] This original disobedience pre-
supposes “a rejection”, or at least “a turning away from the truth contained in the
Word of God”, who creates the world. [...] ‘Disobedience’ means precisely going
beyond that limit, which remains impassable to the will and the freedom of man
as a created being. For God the Creator is the one definitive source of the moral
order in the world created by him. Man cannot decide by himself what is good
and what is evil—cannot ‘know good and evil, like God’. In the created world “God”
indeed remains the first and sovereign source “for deciding about good and evil”,
through the intimate truth of being, which is the reflection “of the Word”, the eter-
nal son, consubstantial with the Father. To man, created to the image of God,
the Holy Spirit gives the gift of “conscience”, so that in this conscience the image
may faithfully reflect its model, which is both Wisdom and eternal Law, the source
of the moral order in man and in the world. ‘Disobedience’, as the original dimen-
sion of sin, means the “rejection of this source”, through man’s claim to become
an independent and exclusive source for deciding about good and evil” (”Domi-
num Et Vivificantem”, 33-36).

3:7-13. This passage begins the description of the effects of the original sin. Man
and woman have come to know evil, and it shows, initially, in a most direct way—
in their own bodies. The inner harmony described in Genesis 2:25 is broken, and
concupiscence rears its head. Their friendship with God is also broken, and they
flee from his presence, to avoid their nakedness being seen. As if his Creator
could not see them! The harmony between man and woman is also fractured: he
puts the blame on her, and she puts it on the serpent. But all three share in the
responsibility, and therefore all three are going to pay the penalty.

“The harmony in which they found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now
destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered;
the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions (cf. Gen 3:7-16), their
relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is
broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man (cf. Gen 3:17, 19).
Because of man, creation is now subject ‘to its bondage to decay’ (Rom 8:21).
Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true:
man will ‘return to the ground’ (Gen 3:19), for out of it he was taken. “Death
makes its entrance into human history” (cf. Rom 5:12)” (”Catechism of the Ca-
tholic Church”, 400).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.