Genesis 3:2

2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of 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 And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed. Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the brutes on the earth, which the Lord God made, and the serpent said to the woman, Wherefore has God said, Eat not of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

5 For God knew that in whatever day ye should eat of it your eyes would be opened, and ye would be as gods, knowing good and evil.