Genesis 3:1-5

“The serpents obvious inaccuracy in his rendition of God’s prohibition sounds like cunning or lack of subtlety. In fact, it is a well-known trick of the con-man to appear stupid to put others in a position of sham superiority. Any hustler knows that she better start by losing some games and give the impression to other that they will be easy winners.” —ANDRE LACOCQUE, THE TRIAL OF INNOCENCE: ADAM, EVE, AND THE YAHWIST, 145.

“[I]n Genesis 2–3 Adam and Eve’s sin is a departure from a relationship of love and trust of their creator. The ser-pent offers them a fake deification; a tragic imitation of a divine nature that they already have. They are already God’s divine image (both in Gen 1:26–28 and also in Gen 2…), carrying the divine breath (2:7), with divine privileges (such as the ability to name parts of creation as God himself did on Days 1–3) and wisdom (see esp. 2:25 where they are םימורע: “naked” or “shrewd”). God has already showed them the difference between good and evil and would continue to guide them in that discernment. They are the image-idols of the creator Yahweh God, the serpent offers them a shot at becoming only like “gods” (elohim, so, correctly, the LXX). In apparent ignorance or forgetfulness of—or in rebellion against—their true identity they fall prey to the serpent’s insinuations that their creator had deceived them (Gen 3:1–5). The tree that should have proved their discernment between wrongdoing and faithfulness to God, becomes instead a tree that leads to their experience of… both evil and, lingering, good. In the same way that idolaters become like what they worship (Pss 115:4–8; 135:15–18), so the humans become like the (leafclad) tree (3:7). They give up the splendor of their creator, inclining to the voice of the creature, and are left bereft of the glory that was theirs by rights. Their action strikes at the heart of their identity. In succumbing to the lie that they need something they already have, they annihilate themselves, and, so, “after sin there is nothing for it but death.” —CRISPIN FLETCHER-LOUIS, “2 ENOCH AND THE NEW PERSPECTIVE ON APOCALYPTIC,” P. 138-139.

“Desirable (תאוה) to the eyes”

“Precisely at this point the author raises the issue of becoming ”wise”: ”And the woman saw that the tree was … also desirable for gaining wisdom” (3:6). Thus, the temptation is not presented as a general rebellion from God‘s authority. Rather, it is portrayed as a quest for wisdom and ”the good” apart from God‘s provision.” —JOHN H. SAILHAMER, THE PENTATEUCH AS NARRATIVE: A BIBLICAL-THEOLOGICAL COMMENTARY, P. 104.

Bibliography

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Mangum, Douglas, Miles Custis, and Wendy Widder. Genesis 1–11. Lexham Research Commentaries. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012.
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https://bibleproject.com/course/adam-noah/
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https://www.gotquestions.org/two-Creation-accounts.html
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Terje Stordalen, Echoes of Eden: Genesis 2-3 and Symbolism of the Garden of Eden in Biblical Hebrew Literature
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Seth Postell, Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to the Torah and Tanakh
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John H. Walton. About The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2–3 and the Human Origins Debate
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https://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2006/02/literal-renderings-of-texts-of.html