But alas! Because no interpretation hitherto given of it has afforded me the smallest satisfaction; Because I think the above mode of accounting for every part of the whole transaction is consistent and satisfactory, and in my opinion removes many embarrassments, and solves the chief difficulties. They seem to have lost all just notions of honor and dishonor, of what was shameful and what was praise-worthy. That whatever this nachash was, he stood at the head of all inferior animals for wisdom and understanding. It is yet to be discovered that the serpentine race have any peculiar enmity against mankind, nor is there any proof that men hate serpents more than they do other noxious animals. As the original word is the same which is used to point out the Supreme Being, Genesis 1:1, so it has here the same signification, and the object of the tempter appears to have been this: to persuade our first parents that they should, by eating of this fruit, become wise and powerful as God, (for knowledge is power), and be able to exist for ever, independently of him. The fruit appeared to be wholesome and nutritive. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, I will put enmity between thee and the woman -, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return -, Ολιγη δε κεισομεσθα<-144 Κονις, οστεων λυθεντωνπ, And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living -, Και εκαλεσεν Αδαμ το ονομα της γυναικος αυτου Ζωη, ὁτι μητηρ παντων των ζωντων·. Now the serpent was more subtle - We have here one of the most difficult as well as the most important narratives in the whole book of God. View the entire commentary, New International Version (NIV). For as no being but God can exist independently of any supporting agency, so man could not have continued to live without a particular supporting agent; and this supporting agent under God appears to have been the tree of life. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, … How wonderful is the economy of God! The serpent is a part of that which the Lord God had made (Gen. 3:1), but he is no longer in the condition the Lord had made. In this account we find. How few ingenuously confess their own sin! They are continually making excuses for their crimes; the strength and subtlety of the tempter, the natural weakness of their own minds, the unfavorable circumstances in which they were placed, etc., etc., are all pleaded as excuses for their sins, and thus the possibility of repentance is precluded; for till a man take his sin to himself, till he acknowledge that he alone is guilty, he cannot be humbled, and consequently cannot be saved. But how, and by what agency, was this brought about? Disruption and violence appear in every part of nature; vice, profligacy, and misery, through all the tribes of men and orders of society. Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Genesis 3… THE SENTENCE. Return to him with all thy soul, and receive this exhortation as a call from his mercy. Hence it will be necessary to examine the root accurately, to see if its ideal meaning will enable us to ascertain the animal intended in the text. - We have here some farther proofs of the fallen state of man, and that the consequences of that state extend to his remotest posterity. From being a model of grace … The Lord God called, (probably with a loud voice,) Where art thou? And in Isaiah 65:25, the same creature is meant as in Genesis 3:1, for in the words, And dust shall be the serpent's meat, there is an evident allusion to the text of Moses. Though their eyes were opened to see their nakedness, yet their mind was clouded, and their judgment confused. This seems to be the most natural sense of the place. Now the serpent was more cunning than any … Let us review the whole of this melancholy business, the fall and its effects. The Book of Ruth: New International Commentary on the Old Testament [NICOT], The Communicant's Companion - Slightly Imperfect, The Message of Isaiah: The Bible Speaks Today [BST]. Some suppose that his removal from the tree of life was in mercy, to prevent a second temptation. Thus a simple monosyllable, still in use among us in its first sense, conveyed at once to the minds of our ancestors the two following particulars: So he drove out the man - Three things are noted here: By the flaming sword turning every way, or flame folding back upon itself, we may understand the formidable appearances which these cherubim assumed, in order to render the passage to the tree of life inaccessible. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 … Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden," etc. They have no organs for speech, or any kind of articulate sound; they can only hiss. 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