Genesis 3:13 Commentary and Bible Study

The Lord now turns from Adam, allowing his excuse to stand for the moment, and turns to the woman. Eve however does the same. God’s question to her expresses his own horror at her sin so that she is helped to see it for herself. How have you committed such great evil as to bring ruin not only yourself but on your husband? How have you who were created to be a helpmeet for your husband proved to be Satan’s instrument in his disobedience and death? But Eve also is not open about her guilt, and tries to pass the blame still further. We see the evasion of guilt which has been a feature of human behaviour ever since the fall. ‘The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.’ Eve imagined that it was some sort of excuse that she claimed that she was beguiled or deceived. But that was to ignore the nature of her sin in believing the serpent more than the Lord, who had given her life and so many good things. The serpent did not simply beguile her. In her own mind, to her own taste, it was good to look at, good for food, good for wisdom, and she wanted that wisdom, and she slowly and deliberately took and ate. Nevertheless, Paul tells us that she was deceived: ‘The serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness’ (2 Corinthians 11:3), and also says, ‘It was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression’ (1 Timothy 2:14). She was not deceived to the extent that she did not know what she was doing. She was certainly taken in by his lie, but she wanted to believe it was true because of the advantage she imagined for herself.