Genesis 3:2

2 The woman answered the serpent, "We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden,

Genesis 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 3:2

And the woman said unto the serpent
Or to him that spoke in the serpent, which she might take to be a messenger from heaven, a holy angel: had she known who it was, she might be chargeable with imprudence in giving an answer, and carrying on a conversation with him; and yet even supposing this, she might have a good design in her answer; partly to set the matter in a true light, and assert what was truth; and partly to set forth the goodness and liberality of God, in the large provision he had made, and the generous grant he had given them: from this discourse of Eve and the serpent, no doubt Plato ^F7 had his notion of the first men discoursing with beasts: we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
of all and every one of them, which is to be understood, excepting the one after mentioned; so far are we from being debarred from eating of any, which the speech of the Serpent might imply, that they were allowed to eat of what they pleased, but one.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 In Politico, ut supra, (apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 12.) c. 14.

Genesis 3:2 In-Context

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any wild animal which ADONAI, God, had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You are not to eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman answered the serpent, "We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden,

3 but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, 'You are neither to eat from it nor touch it, or you will die.'"

4 The serpent said to the woman, "It is not true that you will surely die;

5 because God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."