Genesis 3:4

_AND THE SERPENT SAID UNTO THE WOMAN, YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE:_ Ye shall not surely die. Sensible of the advantage he had gained in arresting her attention, the tempter lost no time in continuing his assault; and, having found that she was firm in her belief as to the certainty of the prohibition, he shifted his ground, and pressed her with an idea of the stern severity of the threatening-a threatening so cruel, so tremendous, so utterly disproportionate to the eating of a little fruit, that he boldly professed his inability to believe it: "Ye shall not surely die." This was an appeal to Eve's self-love. The argument, put in the way the tempter expressed it, was strong; because her understanding could not certainly perceive any just or reasonable proportion between the sin and its punishment; and it was armed with additional strength when followed by the strong asseveration, "God doth k...

4._And the serpent said unto the woman _Satan now springs more boldly forward; and because he sees a breach open before him, he breaks through in a direct assault, for he is never wont to engage in open war until we voluntarily expose ourselves to him, naked and unarmed. He cautiously approaches us at first with blandishments; but when he has stolen in upon us, he dares to exalt himself petulantly and with proud confidence against God; just as he now seizing upon Eve’s doubt, penetrates further, that he may turn it into a direct negative. It behaves us to be instructed, by much examples, to beware of his snares, and, by making timely resistance, to keep him far from us, that nearer access may not be permitted to him. He now, therefore, does not ask doubtingly, as before, whether or not the command of God, which he opposes, be true, but openly accuses God of falsehood, for he asserts that...

1-5 Satan assaulted our first parents, to draw them to sin, and the temptation proved fatal to them. The tempter was the devil, in the shape and likeness of a serpent. Satan's plan was to draw our first parents to sin, and so to separate between them and their God. Thus the devil was from the beginning a murderer, and the great mischief maker. The person tempted was the woman: it was Satan's policy to enter into talk with her when she was alone. There are many temptations to which being alone gives great advantage; but the communion of saints tends very much to their strength and safety. Satan took advantage by finding her near the forbidden tree. They that would not eat the forbidden fruit, must not come near the forbidden tree. Satan tempted Eve, that by her he might tempt Adam. It is his policy to send temptations by hands we do not suspect, and by those that have most influence upon...

Verse Genesis 3:4. _YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE_] Here the _father of lies_ at once appears; and appears too in flatly contradicting the assertion of God. The tempter, through the _nachash_, insinuates the impossibility of her dying, as if he had said, God has created thee immortal, thy death therefore is impossible; and God knows this, for as thou livest by the _tree of life_, so shalt thou get increase of wisdom by the _tree of knowledge_....

- Section III - The Fall - The Fall 1. נחשׁ _nachash_ “serpent; related: hiss,” Gesenius; “sting,” Mey. ערוּם _'ārûm_ “subtle, crafty, using craft for defence.” 7. תפר _tāpar_ “sew, stitch, tack together.” חגורה _chăgôrâh_ “girdle, not necessarily apron.” This chapter continues the piece commenced at Genesis 2:4. The same combination of divine names is found here, except in the dialogue between the serpent and the woman, where God (אלהים _'ĕlohı̂ym_) alone is used. It is natural for the tempter to use only the more distant and abstract name of God. It narrat

EXPOSITION GENESIS 3:1 How long the paradisiacal state of innocence and felicity continued the historian does not declare, probably as not falling within the scope of his immediate design. Psalms 49:12 has been thought, though without sufficient reason, to hint that man's Eden life was of comparatively short duration. The present chapter relates the tragic incident which brought it to a termination. Into the question of the origin of moral evil in the universe it does not enter. The recta-physical problem of how the first thought of sin could arise in innocent beings it does not attempt to resolve. It seeks to explain the genesis of evil with reference to man. Nor even with regard to this does it aim at an exhaustive dissertation, but only at such a statement of its begin

AND THE SERPENT SAID UNTO THE WOMAN,.... In reply to her answer: YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE; in direct contradiction to the divine threatening, and which he would insinuate was a mere threatening, and which God never intended to put in execution; so that they had nothing to fear from that, God would never be so rigid and severe, and beat so hard upon them as to put them to death for such an offence, if it was one; he only gave out the menace to frighten them, and deter from it: however, at most it was not a certain thing they should die, and they might safely conclude they would not....

Genesis 3:1. _Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?_ He began with a question. How much of evil begins with questioning! The serpent does not dare to state a lie, but he suggests one: «Has God refused you all the fruit of these many trees that grow in the garden?» Genesis 3:2. _And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die._ Eve had begun to feel the fascination of the evil one, for she softened down the word of God. The Lord had said concerning th

CHAPTER 3 The Fall of Man _ 1. The serpent and the woman (Genesis 3:1)_ 2. The fall and the immediate results (Genesis 3:6) 3. Jehovah Elohim questions Adam (Genesis 3:8) 4. His question to the woman (Genesis 3:13) 5. The curse upon the serpent (Genesis 3:14) 6. The first prophecy (Genesis 3:15) 7. The sentence upon the woman (Genesis 3:16)

Among the animals formed by Yahweh, in His first attempt to provide man with a companion, was the serpent; at that time either a quadruped or holding itself erect. It was eminent among its fellows for cleverness. In antiquity serpents were often regarded as mysteriously gifted with wisdom or cunning, sometimes as good but more often as evil. It is a mistake to think of it here as an incarnation of the devil; the ability to speak and reason is quite commonly attributed to the animals in folk-stories. Its wisdom is shown in the familiarity with the nature of the tree, its cunning in the intentional mistake it makes as to the prohibition, by which the woman is led to correct it and thus the opening for conversation is made. Craftily it contrives to instil a resentment at God's unreasonableness into the woman's mind: can it really be that God has insisted on a condition so unheard-of as this...