Genesis 3

I've done a quick dissection of Genesis 1 & 2, so I'm moving along now.

Genesis Chapter 3

¹Now the serpent was more subtil (sic) than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
²And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
³But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
⁴And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
⁵For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
⁶And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

The first question that comes to mind when I read this is: did Eve not think it odd that the serpent was talking to her?  Seriously, the only way that I can conceive where it wouldn't be odd if a serpent spoke to me would be if all the animals spoke (ala Wicked).  An apologist may say that:

There remains the problem that animals have no vocal chords and that it is very unlikely that God would have given them temporarily for the occasion. But does this make the bible a bed time story book and the God of the bible somebody that rambles on, or somebody that must be discovered behind the stories that have been made up by simple people who did not know better? Or does this mean that the bible is a dictation solely by the Holy Spirit Who demands blind faith from us at all times and that it is best to be a parrot that mindlessly repeats Scripture? DOUBLY NO! Have you never heard of horse whisperers, or snake enchanters, whether they are occult or not? .... Consider that Eve was in the glory days of the garden of Eden and that Adam, her husband, had both discerned and named the animals...

But of course if you are the kind of sceptic (sic) that thinks that the human being as well as the animals are molecule machines without a soul, then this entire conversation is lost on you. For I do believe that these animals spoke the words, every letter of them, that they have been recorded as having spoken, but not with a physical mouth but with their soul body.(http://ezinearticles.com/?Did-the-Serpent-Speak-Literally?&id=2974715, 06/09/10)
I do not see how this is a plausible explanation. This author talks about how Paul calls for reason (in an unquoted part) and talks about how blind faith is not necessary, yet he then goes along with his blind faith.  Perhaps we are to believe that Eve was dimwitted enough to not notice how odd it was that a snake was speaking to her. Or that all animals were struck dumb after this incident of serpent manipulation.  For me, the most obvious explanation is that this never happened.  This supposed event occurred how many years (centuries) before it was written down?

⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
⁸And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

If God can walk, he must have some kind of body.  That would indicate some sort of physical presence that can be seen or touched.  Where is he hiding?



⁹And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou?

 And how is Adam able to hide from him who supposedly knows all?  Granted, that hasn't been mentioned, yet is "popular knowledge."

¹⁰And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked; and I hid myself.
¹¹And he said, Who told thee that thou [wast] naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

This line seems to question popular conception of God as omniscient. An apologist would probably say that God knew what Adam and Eve had done, but wanted them to take responsibility for their actions.  What a good parent!


¹²And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
¹³And the LORD God said unto the woman, What [is] this [that] thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

¹⁴And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:





Near the 9 minute mark Ricky jokes about the snake's punishment. 

¹⁵And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

¹⁶Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Woman! Thou has messed up royally.  I give man dominion over you. 


¹⁷And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;
¹⁸Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.

And there we have original sin.  Though sin is not mentioned.  According to Wikipedia, the concept of original sin did not arise until the 2nd Century and and is not accepted by Judaism.  It is more of a Christian concept.  Imagine that, a christian concept without a biblical base.

²⁰And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
²¹Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
²²And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

²³Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

It appears God says that  knowledge and eternal life are what separate god and man.  Also, is God speaking in the royal we or is he stating that there are others like him?  A quick google search shows that believers tend to think that this is either the use of the royal we or a foreshadowing of the trinity.  The later is highly implausible since they were written by different people at different times.


²⁴So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

One would think that a flaming sword would be quite difficult to hide and that humanity would have found the garden of Eden.  I imagine that someone who was making apologies for the biblical discrepancies and lack of historicity might say that the Garden was destroyed in the great flood (which also never occurred) along with the sword.