Genesis

14 Pages 3446 Words

y both became aware of what they had done and realized they were naked; and they made drapes of fig leaves to cover themselves. Commentary 1-Barnes Notes According to Barnes, the serpent is called “a beast of the field”; that is “neither a domesticated animal nor one of the smaller sorts.” It is not the wisdom, but the wiliness of the serpent that is intriguing. The serpent has no arms or legs by which to escape danger. Therefore, the mode of attack that he chose, conversation, is very interesting. “No startling proposal or disobedience is made, no advice or persuasion to partake of the fruit is employed. The suggestion or assertion of the false only is plainly offered; and the bewildered mind is left to draw its own false inferences, and pursue its own misguided course. The tempter addresses the woman as the more susceptible and unguarded of the two creatures he would betray. He ventures upon a half-questioning, half-insinuating remark: ‘It is so, then, that God hath said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.’ This seems...