Genesis 3
Many people conclude that the words “very good” and “not ashamed” and “pleasant” used to describe God’s creation in Genesis 1 and 2 stand in contrast to the word “subtle” also translated in some Bible versions as “cunning" (to describe the serpent). They say that this adjective introduced the first negative element in what, so far, has been only perfection.
However, I do not see the negative. I see a factual statement about an animal that was also perfectly created.
To me, the negative in Genesis 3 is not found in an adjective, but in an act. It is not in the serpent, but in Satan using the serpent as his medium.
The Act of Eve
Likewise, some say that Eve's fault was that she downgraded the prohibition of God by leaving out the word "surely" in her answer to the serpent. On the contrary, I see Eve emphasizing what God said by stressing out that they were even forbidden to "touch" the fruit.
By adding touch to eat, she stressed seriosity and focussed on the act rather on the consequence, while Satan, through the serpent, tried to cast doubt over the consequence, in which he eventually succeeded. There occurs to be differences in focus here.
Satan succeeded not because of Eve's downgrading God's severity of the consequence; he succeeded because of Eve's disadvantage in not knowing what death was all about. Satan implied that death is a state of enlightenment, just another way of being alive. This implication has ever since been the basis of spiritualism.
Thus, Eve's acceptance of the serpent’s revision of God's prohibition is not because of doubt on Eve’s part about God's integrity and what He had commanded them, but rather seeking understanding beyond what was divinely revealed.
I do not think that Eve's act of taking the fruit was in defiance of what God had prohibited. Eve was lured into misguidance, as many who are going beyond "Thus saith the Lord" today.
And Adam?
Like Eve, Adam knew not right from wrong. He too did not understand what death would encompass. He understood however that Eve had stepped over a boundary into another kind of reality, the forbidden one. Even not knowing how and what that would be, he willingly chose to join her fate.
So, Eve was misguided and deceived, and transgressed because she knew the precept. Adam, "who was with her" (Gen. 3:6 in Dutch NBG51 version) - was one with her - chose to sin with full state of mind.
In the context of the Bible, Adam, by doing so, transgressed too.
While the apostle Paul portrays Eve's act as the starting point of sin, that she provided for an entrance of sin into this world, the act of Adam goes beyond what Eve did: he knowingly chose to disobey because he loved his wife more than he loved God.
In that, he became the example of those who, while perfectly knowing what is forbidden, choose to do sin anyway, i.e. to transgress.
Adam+Eve, Man+Woman
Some Christians take the text "Adam was not deceived, but Eve" (1 Tim. 2:14) and throw it back to their female counterparts. They fail to see that "By the act of one man, sin entered this world" (Rom. 5:15-19), Paul is pointing to Adam (as the federal head of the human race) and not to Eve, and that what Adam did is not less than Eve's. Adam and Eve were "with each other" when they "conspired" to sin.
Education After the Fall
When Eve was deceived and Adam decided to join her fate, they faced, among many other consequences, banishment from God’s nature classroom.
When we rightly understand their fall, we can better understand the purpose of education for us in this present age.
Before, education entailed lessons in good only.
After the Fall, to the curriculum were added lessons in evil.
Before, I Am your God, because...; Now added, I will continue to be your God, if you do as I say from now on...
Before, lessons in facts. Now added, lessons in promises and hope of Restoration.
Education before the Fall was about intimately being of one mind with God; Education after the Fall is about getting close enough to God, to catch a glimpse of His matchless love and integrity, and regain understanding in the mind of God.
God promised Adam and Eve, I will teach you true moral knowledge if you would want to be My students. And God daily did in classroom Eden.
Satan promised Eve moral enlightenment and knowledge he could no more deliver than a fig tree produces grapes.
Satan set up a class of moral knowledge, but by proving he is not able to deliver to his promise, he actually dismissed the students right after class started. He is a bad teacher and a liar.
Education is About Accepting Authority
Accepting the authority of the teacher is the basis for learning and understanding the lessons. Eve naively accepted the wrong authority. Adam willingly chose to join the consequences. Both disrespected authority and disobeyed. Both transgressed and forfeited the glory of God.
Man vs The Man
But God provided the solution to man's problem through another Man, Jesus.
And this is the aim of all Divine education since Eden: there is a solution to sin and transgression, and it is in another Man - One, Who's beginnings are with God, and Who never left His place.
The utter beauty - and our security - of God's integrity is that The Plan of Salvation was in place even before the foundation of the worlds, just in case. Because God can never be caught off-guard. He knew from the start in Genesis 1 and 2 that He was making humans with freedom of choice. He knows what we are made from. He knows our weak spots.
Thus, after the terrible Fall, God introduced another Creation Bereshit Bara Elohim Curriculum, the Re-creation and restoration of man in and through Christ, the Man.
See, what manner of Love! --1 John 3:1
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