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†. Gen 3:5a . . but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes
will be opened and you will be like divine beings
The Hebrew word for "divine beings" is 'elohiym (el-o-heem') which is the
very same word describing man's creator in Gen 1:1.
If someone presented you with an opportunity to be a God; wouldn't you
take it? I think so; especially if you didn't know any better.
The thing to note is that the Serpent's prediction wasn't altogether untrue.
In time they did become gods (Gen 3:22, Ps 82) and their eyes were opened
(Gen 3:7) but his prediction was a half-truth. In other words; he withheld a
very important aspect of god-ism; and that is there is only one true god
(2Chron 15:3, Jer 10:10, John 17:3) so that by default, Eve and her
husband became false gods since in the Bible there is no intermediate layer
of gods sandwiched between the true and the false.
Anyway: the Serpent insinuated that their creator was withholding the tree,
not because it was poisonous or anything like that; but to keep the humans
in check: much in the way that some of the world's despots utilize illiteracy,
control of radio and television programming, and limited internet access to
keep their subjects in check. In effect, the Serpent was saying that God got
His wisdom from that very same tree and that's why He didn't want to share
the fruit with them; because then they might become savvy enough to go
out on their own without depending so much upon their maker.
In her defense; the woman was inexperienced, and certainly no match for
the Serpent's intelligence nor his powers of persuasion. But her defeat
wasn't inevitable. She could have easily resisted the Serpent by simply
sticking to her guns and parroting God's instructions over and over again
until the Serpent got disgusted and gave up. But no, she dropped God's
instructions early on; and thus set the stage for the utter ruin of her own
posterity.
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†. Gen 3:5a . . but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes
will be opened and you will be like divine beings
The Hebrew word for "divine beings" is 'elohiym (el-o-heem') which is the
very same word describing man's creator in Gen 1:1.
If someone presented you with an opportunity to be a God; wouldn't you
take it? I think so; especially if you didn't know any better.
The thing to note is that the Serpent's prediction wasn't altogether untrue.
In time they did become gods (Gen 3:22, Ps 82) and their eyes were opened
(Gen 3:7) but his prediction was a half-truth. In other words; he withheld a
very important aspect of god-ism; and that is there is only one true god
(2Chron 15:3, Jer 10:10, John 17:3) so that by default, Eve and her
husband became false gods since in the Bible there is no intermediate layer
of gods sandwiched between the true and the false.
Anyway: the Serpent insinuated that their creator was withholding the tree,
not because it was poisonous or anything like that; but to keep the humans
in check: much in the way that some of the world's despots utilize illiteracy,
control of radio and television programming, and limited internet access to
keep their subjects in check. In effect, the Serpent was saying that God got
His wisdom from that very same tree and that's why He didn't want to share
the fruit with them; because then they might become savvy enough to go
out on their own without depending so much upon their maker.
In her defense; the woman was inexperienced, and certainly no match for
the Serpent's intelligence nor his powers of persuasion. But her defeat
wasn't inevitable. She could have easily resisted the Serpent by simply
sticking to her guns and parroting God's instructions over and over again
until the Serpent got disgusted and gave up. But no, she dropped God's
instructions early on; and thus set the stage for the utter ruin of her own
posterity.
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