And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
Eve answers the serpent, and at first her words look right. But commentators see in them the point where her trust in God began to slip. They also ask why she answered him at all.
Before we weigh what Eve said, writers ask whether she should have spoken. The serpent's question attacked God's goodness, and she knew better.
The enemy's approach was indeed subtle. It was to awaken distrust of God in Eve's heart. Could it be good to refuse man the fruit of any tree in the garden? Distrust of God opens the door to every sin. Eve ought at once to have turned away. She knew the goodness of the LORD God. Why then talk a moment longer with one who questioned it? To allow it was to sit in judgment on Him, to doubt His love, to accept the serpent as a better friend.
Even a fair-sounding reply was a loss, because she entered the argument at all.
If you do not want temptation to defeat you, do not argue with Satan. When Eve began to argue the case with the serpent, he was too strong for her. The devil reasoned her right out of Paradise. If you enter into a discussion with him, you give him half the victory.
Eve keeps the sense of God's permission, but not its full warmth. One writer treats the words she dropped as proof that the serpent's hint had already landed.
But Eve's first reply has two sad features. First, it was not made up of God's own words. Second, the two she left out were the ones that show the tempter's suggestion had already begun to take effect. Her answer shows that her thoughts of God's generosity are already smaller and poorer than His own words. The thin edge of the wedge was already inserted. All the rest, sadly, was easy.
Eve names the trees she may eat, then moves straight to the one she may not. Notice also where she places that tree — "in the midst of the garden" — though Genesis put the tree of life there.
Here we see a soul that has lost its balance. It wavers, and flounders all the more as it tries to regain it. What tree had God put into "the midst" of the garden? According to the inspired account, it was the tree of life. Prohibition — was that at the very heart of paradise? Did everything there radiate, so to speak, from the threat of death? Sadly, slight as the matter may seem, it tells us where the woman's soul is. For how easily with us does one forbidden thing blot out of our view a thousand blessings!
As her reply runs on, she widens the ban and softens the penalty. One writer counts both moves as damage to the truth.
Had she held fast the sense of her responsibility to obey, she would have resented the question rather than answered it. And her answer lets us see that Satan's evil intent did not fail of its effect. She adds to the prohibition, and takes from the penalty. The LORD had not said a word about touching the forbidden fruit. But He had threatened death, in the most certain terms, on the day they ate it. Exaggerating truth is no more the truth than reducing it; either weakens it, and both are Satan's work.
One writer supplies the reply Eve could have given — an answer resting wholly on God's goodness.
Simple rest in the infinite goodness of God would have kept Eve safe from all this reasoning. She should have said to the serpent, "I have the fullest confidence in God's goodness. So I think it impossible that He could withhold any real good from me. If that fruit were good for me, I would surely have it. But God has forbidden it, and that proves I would be no better off by eating it — I would be much worse off. I am convinced of God's love, and I am convinced of God's truth. And I believe you are an evil one, come to draw my heart away from the fountain of goodness and truth. Get behind me, Satan." This would have been a noble reply. But it was not given.
- Doubt — the serpent's question targeted God's goodness. Letting it in was already the wound, since distrust of God opens the door to every sin.
- Debate — arguing with the tempter hands him half the victory before anyone takes a bite. The safe move was to turn away at once.
- Diminish — her retelling makes God's generosity smaller than His own words had made it.
- Distort — she then tightens the ban and softens the penalty. Stretching the truth weakens it just as cutting it does.
- Displace — one forbidden thing now fills her view, and a garden of blessings drops out of sight. All the rest came easily.
but of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, and ye shall not touch it, lest ye die.
Eve answers the serpent by repeating God's command. Three small changes have crept into it. She moves the tree to the centre, forbids a touch God never forbade, and softens a certainty into a risk.
Which tree stands at the centre of the garden? One writer weighs Eve's answer:
Notice how plain it is that she has already fallen. She has let in the question about God's ways seeming strange. At once her eyes fasten on the forbidden thing until she can see little else. God had set the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and without any prohibition. For the woman now it is the forbidden tree that occupies that place. Instead of life, she puts death — or what was identified with death for her — as the central thing. The "garden of delight" has faded from her eyes.
Eve adds a clause about touching. One writer sets her handling of God's word beside the Lord Jesus under attack:
Either to add to God's word or to take from it proves very clearly that His word is not living in my heart or governing my conscience... The Lord Jesus, in His conflict with Satan, applied the word accurately, because He lived on it and valued it more than His necessary food. He could not misquote or misapply the word, nor could He be indifferent about it. Not so Eve. She added to what God had said. His command was simple enough: "You shall not eat of it." To this Eve adds her own words, "neither shall you touch it." These were Eve's words, and not God's.
One writer follows where her added clause leads:
A mere touch, as she put it to herself, was death. Why, then, had He put it before them only to forbid it? What was He guarding from them with such jealous care? Must it not be something He valued highly?
Her "lest you die" leaves the outcome open. That change reaches further than wording:
She first adds to the prohibition, then she weakens the penalty. Instead of "you shall surely die," it is for her only "lest" — for fear — "you die." There is no real certainty that death would be the result. So the question of God's love becomes a question of His truth as well. I do not want on the throne a being I cannot trust; that is where the tampering with His word comes from. The heart deceives the head. If I do not want a thing to be true, I soon learn to question whether it is.
Why does the serpent's flat denial in the next verse meet so little resistance?
Even as to the threat, the solemn words, "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die," have shrunk on Eve's lips to "lest you die." Her heart is set on a forbidden pleasure. The threatened punishment is the only barrier left, and she sees even that through a shrinking lens. How easily Satan can silence every remaining fear with the bold contradiction of God's word: "You will not surely die!"
Her answer stretches the command in one direction and shrinks it in the other. Both moves damage the word equally:
She adds to the prohibition and takes from the penalty. The Lord had not said a word about touching the forbidden fruit, but had threatened death in the most certain terms in the day of eating it. Exaggeration of truth is no more the truth than reduction of it; either weakens it, and both are Satan's work. By the truth we are sanctified, and His word is truth.
This scene stands as a caution against quoting God loosely:
So we ought to guard the exact words of God the Holy Spirit. We must not add to His words, as Eve added "neither shall you touch it" to the prohibition. The apostles, too, thought that John was not to die. But "Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, 'If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?'" Read the warnings against this snare (Proverbs 30:5-6; Revelation 22:18-19).
- Displaced. The forbidden tree takes the place that belonged to the tree of life. Once one restriction fills the view, the garden of delight fades.
- Added. "Neither shall you touch it" is Eve's sentence, not God's — proof that His word was no longer governing her.
- Diluted. "Surely die" becomes "lest you die." Doubt about God's love turns into doubt about His truth.
- Defenceless. The threat has already shrunk in her own mind. So the serpent's flat denial in the next verse meets no resistance.
- Applied. Stretching Scripture and trimming it are the same work. The Lord Jesus met the same enemy by quoting the word exactly, because He lived on it.