Genesis 3:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil 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?
a snake (from its hiss) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
was
הָיָ֣הha.Yah
H1961
to exist · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
subtil
עָר֔וּם'a.Rum
H6175
cunning (usually in a bad sense) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
beast
חַיַּ֣תchai.Yat
H2416
alive · noun, common feminine singular construct
field
הַשָּׂדֶ֔הha.sa.Deh
H7704
a field (as flat) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהִ֑ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
made
עָשָׂ֖ה'a.Sah
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
said
וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙vai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
woman
הָ֣אִשָּׁ֔הha.'i.Shah
H802
a woman · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Yea
אַ֚ף'af
H637
meaning accession (used as an adverb or conjunction) · interjection
God
אֱלֹהִ֔ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
said
אָמַ֣ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
eat
תֹֽאכְל֔וּto.khe.Lu
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
tree
עֵ֥ץ'etz
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine singular construct
garden
הַגָּֽןha.GAN
H1588
a garden (as fenced) · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that…
2 Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the…
Revelation 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Matthew 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Genesis 3:13-15 And 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.
Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Matthew 4:6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 3:1-5
We have here an account of the temptation with which Satan assaulted our first parents, to draw them into sin, and which proved fatal to them. Here observe,
I. The tempter, and that was the devil, in the shape and likeness of a serpent.
1. It is certain it was the devil that beguiled Eve. The devil and Satan is the old serpent (Rev 12:9), a malignant spirit, by creation an angel of light and an immediate attendant upon God's throne, but by sin become an apostate from his first state and a rebel against God's crown and dignity. Multitudes of the angels fell; but this that attacked our first parents was surely the prince of the devils, the ring-leader in the rebellion: no sooner was he a sinne…
Now the serpent was more subtle - We have here one of the most difficult as well as the most important narratives in the whole book of God. The last chapter ended with a short but striking account of the perfection and felicity of the first human beings, and this opens with an account of their transgression, degradation, and ruin. That man is in a fallen state, the history of the world, with that of the life and miseries of every human being, establishes beyond successful contradiction. But how, and by what agency, was this brought about? Here is a great mystery, and I may appeal to all persons who have read the various comments that have been written on the Mosaic account, whether they have…
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made,.... Many instances are given of the subtlety of serpents, in hiding their heads when struck at, rolling themselves up, stopping their ear at the voice of the charmer, putting off their skin, lying in sand of the same colour with them, and biting the feet of horses, and other things of the like kind; but by these it does not appear to be now more subtle than any other creature, whatever it might be at its first creation; particularly the fox greatly exceeds it: the words therefore may be rendered, "that serpent"; that particular serpent, of which so much is spoken of afterwards; "or the serpent was becom…
The Church Fathers
[Hyperichius] also said, 'The serpent whispered to Eve and cast her out of paradise. The man who whispers against his neighbour is like the serpent. He condemns the soul of whoever listens to him, and he does not save his own.'
As for the serpent's speech, either Adam understood the serpent's own mode of communication, or Satan spoke through it, or the serpent posed the question in his mind and speech was given to it, or Satan sought from God that speech be given to the serpent for a short time.
(Chapter 3, Verse 1) Now the serpent was more cunning than any other wild animal that was on the earth. In Hebrew, the word for cunning is Arom (אָרוּם), which Aquila and Theodotion translate as πανοῦργον. This means wicked and deceitful. Therefore, from this word, it is demonstrated more of a craftiness and cunningness than wisdom.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Adam — Red, a Babylonian word, the generic name for man, having the same meaning in the Hebrew and the Assyrian languages. It was the name given to the first man, whose creation, fall, and subsequent…
Devil — (Gr. diabolos), a slanderer, the arch-enemy of man’s spiritual interest (Job 1:6; Rev. 2:10; Zech. 3:1). He is called also “the accuser of the brethen” (Rev. 12:10). In Lev. 17:7 the word “devil” is…
Serpent — (Heb. nahash; Gr. ophis), frequently noticed in Scripture. More than forty species are found in Syria and Arabia. The poisonous character of the serpent is alluded to in Jacob’s blessing on Dan (Gen.…
Sin — Is “any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God” (1 John 3:4; Rom. 4:15), in the inward state and habit of the soul, as well as in the outward conduct of the life, whether by…
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil — Stood in the midst of the garden of Eden, beside the tree of life (Gen. 2, 3). Adam and Eve were forbidden to take of the fruit which grew upon it. But they disobeyed the divine injunction, and so…
Wisdom, The, Of Solomon — a, book of the Apocrypha, may be divided into two parts, the first, chs. 1-9, containing the doctrine of wisdom in its moral and intellectual aspects: the second, the doctrine of wisdom as shown in…
Craftiness · .Satan, in the temptation of Eve — .Satan, in the temptation of Eve
Deceit · Exemplified: The devil — Exemplified: The devil
Devil, The · The author of the fall — The author of the fall
Fall Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Fall Of Man, The · Through temptation of the devil
Now the serpent was more subtil In this chapter, Moses explains, that man, after he had been deceived by Satan revolted from his Maker, became entirely changed and so degenerate, that the image of God, in which he had been formed, was obliterated. He then declares, that the whole world, which had been created for the sake of man, fell together with him from its primary original; and that in this ways much of its native excellence was destroyed. But here many and arduous questions arise. For when Moses says that the serpent was crafty beyond all other animals, he seems to intimate, that it had been induced to deceive man, not by the instigation of Satan, but by its own malignity. I answer, th…
"The serpent was more subtle than all the beasts of the field, which Jehovah God had made." - The serpent is here described not only as a beast, but also as a creature of God; it must therefore have been good, like everything else that He had made. Subtilty was a natural characteristic of the serpent (Mat 10:16), which led the evil one to select it as his instrument. Nevertheless the predicate ערוּם is not used here in the good sense of φρόνιμος (lxx), prudens, but in the bad sense of πανοῦργος, callidus. For its subtilty was manifested as the craft of a tempter to evil, in the simple fact that it was to the weaker woman that it turned; and cunning was also displayed in what it said: "Hath…
The rebellion of the man and the woman shattered their unity and harmony with earth, animals, each other, and God.
3:1 Genesis describes the deceiver as a serpent, one of the animals God created (see also 3:14 and study note). He is later identified as Satan, the great enemy of God’s people (Rev 12:9; 20:2). His manipulative language and his disguise as a serpent, the shrewdest of all creatures, show him as a master deceiver. Satan has various methods for opposing God’s people (see 1 Chr 21:1; Zech 3:1-2); deception remains among his key strategies (cp. 2 Cor 11:3, 14). The Hebrew term for shrewd (‘arum) can be positive (“prudent,” Prov 14:8) or negative (as here; see Job 5:12). It forms a…
Infidelity · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Influence · Satan over Adam and Eve — Satan over Adam and Eve
Man · Disobeyed God by eating part of the forbidden fruit — Disobeyed God by eating part of the forbidden fruit
Presumption · .Satan, when he said to Eve, “You will surely not die,” — .Satan, when he said to Eve, “You will surely not die,”
Serpent · Satan appears to Eve in the form of — Satan appears to Eve in the form of
Serpents · Characterised as subtle — Characterised as subtle
Temptation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Woman · Deceived by Satan — Deceived by Satan
Women · Fall of, and curse upon — Fall of, and curse upon
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
