The Serpent’s Deception
The serpent begins by bending God's words into a question, and the woman repeats the command with the tree at its center. The serpent answers by denying death and recasting the fruit as a path to godlike knowledge.
N1ow the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” 2The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4“You will not surely die,” the serpent told the woman. 5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The woman sees the tree as desirable and eats, then gives fruit to her husband beside her, and he eats as well. Their eyes open, but what they first perceive is their nakedness, so they sew coverings for themselves.
6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. 7And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.