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The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:1-7
How long the paradisiacal state of innocence and felicity continued the historian does not declare, probably as not falling within the scope of his immediate design. Psalms 49:12 has been thought, though without suffici…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:1
The tempter. I. WHO TEMPTS? 1. Not the mere serpent. 2. A higher power of evil. 3. This higher power a person. 4. The leader of the fallen angels. II. WHY PERMITTED? Easy to see why moved; why permitted, a mystery. But…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:1-7
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:1
Now (literally, and) the serpent. Nachash, from nachash— (a) To make naked; whence atom, plural arumim, naked (Genesis 2:25). (b) To crafty (1 Samuel 23:22). If applied to the serpent in the sense of πανοῦ ργος (Aquila…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:1-7
The moral chaos before the moral restoration. Hitherto the moral nature of man may be said to be absorbed in his religious nature. He has held intercourse with his Creator. He has ruled earth as "the paragon of animals.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:4
The tempter's chief weapon. Narrative of the fall is of interest not only as the record of how mankind became sinful, but as showing the working of that "lie" (2 Thessalonians 2:11) by which the tempter continually seek…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:4
And the serpent said unto the woman. "As God had preached to Adam, so Satan now also preaches to Eve … The object of Satan was to draw away Eve by his word or saying from that which God had said" (Luther). Ye shall not…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:5
For ( כִּי—nam, γαρ, for because; assigning the reason God doth know. Thus the serpent practically charges the Deity with (a) in affirming that to be true which he knew to be false; (b) in doing this while delivering hi…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:6-8
Observe the steps of the transgression: not steps upward, but downward toward the pit. 1. She saw. A great deal of sin comes in at the eye. Let us not look on that which we are in danger of lusting after, Mt 5:28. 2. Sh…
The Fall of Man. (b. c. 4004.)
THE FALL OF MAN. (B. C. 4004.) Here we see what Eve's parley with the tempter ended in. Satan, at length, gains his point, and the strong-hold is taken by his wiles. God tried the obedience of our first parents by forbi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:6
The first sin. I. THE TEMPTATION. 1. The fact. That sin is possible even in pure beings without the intervention of solicitation, at least ab extra, must be held to be the doctrine of Scripture (vide James 1:14 and Jud…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:6
And (when) the woman saw. "An impure look, infected with the poison of concupiscence" (Calvin); cf. Joshua 7:21. That the tree was good for food. "The fruit of this tree may have been neither poisonous nor beautiful, or…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:7
And the eyes of them both were opened. The fatal deed committed, the promised results ensued, but not the anticipated blessings. Traditions of the Fall. I. ORIENTAL. 1. Babylonian. "There is nothing in the Chaldean frag…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:8-19
The first judgment scene. I. THE FLIGHT Or THE CRIMINALS. 1. It is the instinct of sinful men to flee from God. "Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God" (Genesis 3:8). So "Jonah rose up to fl…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:8
The working of the sin-stricken conscience. I. GOD THE JUDGE REVEALING HIMSELF. The voice of the Lord God represents to men the knowledge of themselves, which, like light, would be intolerable to the shamefaced. II. MAN…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:8-19
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:8
And they heard the voice of the Lord God. Either Genesis 3:9, Genesis 3:10 And the Lord God called unto Adam. Adam's absence was a clear proof that something was wrong. Hitherto he had always welcomed the Divine approac…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:9-13
Observe the startling question, Adam, where art thou? Those who by sin go astray from God, should seriously consider where they are; they are afar off from all good, in the midst of their enemies, in bondage to Satan, a…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:9-10
We have here the arraignment of these deserters before the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, who, though he is not tied to observe formalities, yet proceeds against them with all possible fairness, that he may be jus…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:9-24
The word of God in the moral chaos. These verses bring before us very distinctly the elements of man's sinful state, and of the redemptive dispensation of God which came out of it by the action of his brooding Spirit of…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:9
The searching question. We can picture the dread of this question. Have you considered its love—that it is really the first word of the gospel? Already the Shepherd goes forth to seek the lost sheep. The Bible shows us—…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:11-13
We have here the offenders found guilty by their own confession, and yet endeavouring to excuse and extenuate their fault. They could not confess and justify what they had done, but they confess and palliate it. Observe…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 3:13
And the Lord said unto the woman—without noticing the excuses, but simply accepting the admission, and passing on, "following up the transgression, even to the root—not the psychological merely, but the historical (Lang…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:14-15
God passes sentence; and he begins where the sin began, with the serpent. The devil's instruments must share in the devil's punishments. Under the cover of the serpent, the devil is sentenced to be degraded and accursed…