Genesis 3:1b–3

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

God didn’t say anything about not touching the tree.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” — Genesis 2:16–17

Eve misquotes the command. That’s understandable, since she was created after the command was given. Still, it’s interesting that she got it wrong. How?

The Bible doesn’t say, so it can’t be very important. If this was something we had to know, God would have told us. Still, it’s interesting. Why did Eve misquote the command?

Of course, it’s possible that God repeated the command to Eve—and added the do not touch bit—but leaving that out would be a disturbing omission in an inspired document. Also, revising a command in that way would be unlike anything else that scripture records God doing.

So, it looks like Eve got this second-hand from Adam. That’s a problem. Before the fall, Adam must not have lied. One way or another, this has to be a miscommunication.

It would make sense for Adam to tell Eve not to even touch the tree; safety warnings get inflated all the time. If we want a child to avoid something we often tell them to not even go near it. But Eve thought this was part of God’s command, not Adam’s embellishment. How can that happen without Adam lying?

One possibility is that Adam said to her, “God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden,’ so don’t even touch it.” In English, there’s no verbal sound for the close quote after the word “garden.” The transition from the quote of God’s words to Adam’s own words would be silent in English.

If the language Adam and Eve were speaking was similar in this way, then there would be no way for Eve to know that the part about not touching the tree was Adam’s words not God’s.

Eve would have thought it was all part of what God said.

Meanwhile, Eve is now chatting with the serpent about God’s restrictions on her and Adam. Quantitatively, the tree they cannot eat of is insignificant compared to all the trees they can eat of.

But that one tree is now the focus. The serpent has maneuvered the conversation to the subject of God’s restrictions.

For the rest of this encounter, the trees they can eat of will not be mentioned.

Only the restrictions will be an issue.

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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. Saturdays' by Matt Richardson. Subscribe here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

The weekly study guides, which include questions for discussion or meditation, are here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Scripture taken from the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.