This is such a great read on Adam, Eve, and the Serpent from a Hebrew speaker’s perspective. It provides some interpretation I’ve never heard but can certainly appreciate. It also walks along tangents of research I’ve done on my own on Adam and Eve.
Why Read The Bible In Hebrew?
Originally posted on Twitter by Ari Lamm on February 3, 2023
Let’s talk about one of the most iconic villains in world history—the Serpent from the Book of Genesis.
Why exactly was the Serpent out to get Adam and Eve? A thread (for non-Hebrew readers, too!) 🧵 1
I know what you’re gonna ask. Isn’t the serpent just Satan—or the inclination to do evil—given flesh?
I do think there’s truth to this!
But, the Bible doesn’t say this. In the text itself, the snake is just… a snake. So why does it bother trying to get Adam and Eve to sin? 2
In order to answer this question, we need to ask a preliminary question:
Why does the text of Genesis seem out of order?
In Gen 2, we first hear about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. So then, right away, we get to the story of the serpent, right?
…Nope! 3
Instead, we get this odd intermission (2:18-25) that begins with God’s observation, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner”.
Easy fix, right? God just needs to create Woman!
…well, not so fast. What’s God’s next move? 4
At first, God offers Adam the choice of a soulmate from among the animal kingdom!
“So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man…but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner” (2:19-20). 5
Bizarre, no? How could this be?
To answer, we need to identify the central question at the heart of the Bible’s account of Creation:
What is humanity?
Are we godlike beings, fundamentally different from animals? Or are we glorified animals, fundamentally different from God? 6
In the first two chapters of Genesis, the Bible actually gives us both perspectives.
On one hand, humans are unique. We’re different—in kind, not just degree—from the animals.
Think back, e.g., to Genesis 1. Unlike any other being, “God created humans in his image” (1:27) 7
And while the views of Creation in Gen 1 and 2 differ, the Bible clearly intends them to be read as one. Just look at the Hebrew of Gen 2:4
“These are the generations (elleh toledot) of the heavens and the earth when they were created (b-r-‘).” 8
For years commentators have wondered, is this verse the end of Gen 1 or the beginning of Gen 2?
On one hand, it uses the verb for “create” (b-r-‘) characteristic of Gen 1, but not Gen 2. On the other, the phrase “elleh toledot” always—no exceptions—*begins* a story. 9
The obvious answer is: it’s both—it’s the bridge verse that ties Gen 1 and Gen 2 together. So yes, the humans of Gen 2 are the same divine-image bearing humans of Gen 1.
Moreover, even in Gen 2, God creates humanity before any other being (2:7).
Humanity is clearly special! 10
And this, of course, is why Man can’t find a soulmate from among the animals. They’re simply too removed from him.
In fact, there is no being in creation fit to partner with us other than…us.
…And this explains one of the most famous mistranslations in Biblical history. 11
How did God create Eve? He made her from Adam’s rib, right?
…Wrong!
Here’s the verse: “The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man…He took one of his ribs…And the rib (tzela) that the Lord God had taken from the man He made (va’yiven) into a woman” (2:21-22). 12
Wait, but doesn’t that say God made Eve from Adam’s rib?
Well, no…
The Hebrew word being translated as “rib” here is “tzela”. But it only means that in much later Hebrew (like *way* after the Bible).
In the Bible itself, however, it never takes that meaning. 13
In the Bible, the word “tzela” is actually always an architectural term. It means “side”.
The next time we meet this word in the Bible, it’s in constructing the Ark of the Covenant: “two rings on one side (tzela) of it and two rings on the other side (tzela)” (Exodus 25:12). 14
So “tzela” refers to one part of a building that, when you fit it together with the other part, forms a whole.
And that’s clearly the meaning in Genesis! How do I know? Well, remember the Hebrew word the Bible uses for “made” (as in “made into a woman”)?
It’s “va’yiven”. 15
That root (b-n-h) quite literally means “to build” in the architectural sense!
So God didn’t make Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. Rather, He split the first human in half—He built one side into Man and the other into Woman. They are two halves of the same structure. 16
One being—one flesh—longing to be united.
Literarily, this explains the Bible’s very next line: “Therefore (‘al kein) a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (2:24).
How does Woman’s creation lead to this “therefore”? 17
Genesis’s answer is that once you understand Man and Woman as two halves of the same being, you can then understand the attraction of marriage.
After all, man comes from the flesh of his parents…and so only leaves them for another being of whose flesh he is a part. 18
Okay, so we’ve seen how you can read Genesis 1-2 and easily point to humanity’s uniqueness—its *difference* from animal life.
But then here’s the question: why on earth does the Bible propose that Adam *might* have found a soulmate from among the animal kingdom?! 19
The answer’s simple:
So many other elements of the text suggest that man is, in essence, just another animal.
Consider: the first human being is formed from dirt (2:7), just like the rest of the beasts (2:19). In Genesis 1, humans and land animals are created on the same day 20
Wait, but doesn’t humankind get a little something extra during its creation? Like how God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (2:7).
Not really.
Like take that phrase “living being” (nefesh chayah). Sounds extraordinary, right? 21
Well, slow your roll. Because it’s the same phrase Genesis uses to describe all the rest of the beasts (1:24).
From this perspective, Adam finding a mate from the animal kingdom makes perfect sense!
…And therein lies the key to explaining the serpent’s role in Genesis 3.
22
Here’s the first time we meet the serpent:
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal (chayyat ha’sadeh) that the Lord God had made” (3:1)
This is SUPER crucial! Because see that Hebrew phrase “chayyat ha’sadeh” (wild animal)? Where have we seen it before? 23
Answer: it appears only *one* other place in the entire Book of Genesis…
Back in Genesis 2!
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone’…So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field (chayyat ha’sadeh)” (18-19). 24
So “chayyat ha’sadeh” describes the animals from whom Adam was supposed to choose a mate…and whom he ultimately rejected as unsuitable.
This failed speed-dating-with-the-animals leads directly to the Creation of Woman. And it’s at *this* moment that the serpent appears. 25
The Bible, in other words, tells us *exactly* why the serpent is here, and why he’s out to get humanity.
He’s the most sophisticated of the “chayyat ha’sadeh”. He represents the jilted would-be-soulmates of the animal kingdom.
And he’s here to take humanity down a peg. 26
The serpent’s attitude can be summed up as: “You think you’re better than us?!”
He wants to prove to the first Man and Woman that they’ve gotten too big for their britches. They think they’re gods. But they’re not.
“You’re animals”, says the serpent, “just like us”. 27
And the Bible, for its part, helps us feel the serpent’s indignation at the outset!
How?
Well, remember how the verse describes the serpent? “Crafty (‘arum)” (3:1). Now look one verse earlier (2:25). “And the man and his wife were both naked (‘arumim”) and were not ashamed”. 28
The Hebrew for “crafty” and “naked” is nearly identical!
The implication is the serpent might have a point—he’s as clever as the first man and woman are naive.
So in order to show them they’re not better than the animals, he sets out to trick them into debasing themselves. 29
He does this by playing on their insecurities. “You know God is holding out on you, right? He’s kept the Tree of Knowledge for Himself!”
“But the serpent said to the woman…’God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God'” (3:4-5).
30
We know the result. Man and Woman sin, and God is furious. But in order to understand the point of the narrative, it’s just as important to see *how* exactly God expresses His anger.
He does so, on one hand, by re-emphasizing the boundaries between God and human beings. 31
Through their punishments, God reminds Adam of his origins in the dust of the ground, and Eve that ultimately she is not above the natural world but very much a part of it.
In fact, even the name “Eve”, which Adam first calls her immediately afterwards, drives home the point. 32
The Hebrew name “Eve” (Chavah) is a variation of the word for “beast” (Chayah). A fitting parallel to Adam’s own name, which in Hebrew means “Dirt”.
Adam’s coining the name Eve reflects his willingness to finally admit that he and his soulmate are just beasts born from dust. 33
So the serpent won, right?
Man’s aspiration to godhood is folly, and humans are just animals by another name. Sure, the serpent was punished too. But in the end, didn’t he prove his point?
Well…not so fast. 34
The Bible ultimately rejects the serpent’s nihilistic view of humanity. Yes, God reinforces the boundary between God and Man. But He likewise reminds us that we *are* indeed, different than the animals. We *are* something more.
Consider the literary sequence of Gen 3:20-21.
35
Right before verse 20 are Adam and Eve’s punishments, through which God highlights humanity’s lowliness.
Then comes verse 20, in which Adam finally concedes the point. He calls Woman “Eve” (Chavah). He embraces his own identity as “Dirt” and calls his mate “Beast”. 36
Finally, we get verse 21: “And the Lord God made garments of skins for Adam and for his wife and clothed them.”
Is this just some stray detail in the story that just happens to come after verse 20 (naming Eve), but isn’t actually connected to it?
Think again… 37
It’s actually God’s direct response to the human despair in verse 20. He gently reminds the first Man and Woman not to be *too* self-effacing. Not to surrender entirely to their animal identities.
Instead, God clothes them. 38
He helps them become the only beings in Creation to behave in such a fashion. In effect, God instructs them: you are not gods…but neither are you mere beasts.
And in so doing, He restores their dignity.
God’s desire to elevate humankind explains the very next verse as well. 39
God proclaims that since Man has tasted the Tree of Knowledge, “now he might reach out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever” (3:22). So He bars the way back to the Tree of Life.
Why?
Is it jealousy, as the serpent implied to Eve? 40
The Hebrew for “might reach out his hand” (pen yishlach yado) helps us read this verse correctly.
In Biblical Hebrew, that syntactical combo refers to touching something that has been leant to you—or for whose safekeeping you’re responsible—but which doesn’t belong to you. 41
The best example is the prohibition against illicitly using an item someone else entrusted to you.
If you’re suspected of violating, then the court needs “to determine whether or not the owner had laid hands (lo shalach yado) on the neighbor’s goods” (Exodus 2:27). 42
Okay, so now back to the Tree of Life. What was God’s concern?
Well, remember…humanity had *already* been eating from the Tree of Life. That’s the clear upshot of the earlier narrative. They could eat from “every tree” (2:16). Only exception was the Tree of Knowledge. 43
So on one hand, once they eat from the Tree of Knowledge—reaching for divinity—God reinforces the divine/human boundary by barring the Tree of Life.
In doing so, God frames the Tree of Life as an object entrusted to humanity that they brazenly treated as if they owned it. 44
“But you DON’T own it”, God points out. “It belongs to Me. You are not gods!”
And yet, what does God leave implanted within humanity? The effects of the Tree of Knowledge!
Why? Because, Genesis tells us, while humans aren’t gods, they’re also something more than mere beasts. 45
So what are we in the end?
We’re human.
Wonderfully, complicatedly, wretchedly, exaltedly human.
At our worst, we can behave like beasts—with cruelty, injustice, or even just boorish incuriousness.
Sometimes we should worry that the serpent might have been right about us… 46
But in the end, the Bible reminds us, the serpent is wrong.
We *do* ultimately stand apart from the beasts of the field. True, we humans aren’t gods. But we *are* bearers of the divine image.
…And this represents both a promise, and a set of responsibilities. 47
The promise is that every single descendant of Adam and Eve possesses equal and intrinsic worth in God’s eyes. None of us bears *more* of God’s image than any other.
Were the Bible’s serpent indeed a demon in disguise, surely he reveals himself in those who still forget this. 48
But what comes with this promise is the responsibility to bear that divine imprint with grace and steadfastness. To do our best to deserve it by acting kindly, justly, and with virtue.
In the end, I suppose, the question of who’s right about us—the serpent or God—is up to us! 49
P.S. As always, deepest thanks to @zenahitz and the @CatherineProj for empowering me to think about this stuff! And it’s just amazing and deeply inspiring to me that even after our Hebrew study group concluded, those incredible folks have continued on their own—to this day! @mentions
And finally P.P.S. if you liked this thread, definitely check out my weekly podcast on the Bible called Good Faith Effort! @gfaitheffort
Talk about cool stuff like this all the time, like on our latest episode featuring @zugzwanged!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ala… ❤️🔥❤️🔥
Good Faith Effort: Alastair Roberts – How To Read The Bible on Apple Podcasts Show Good Faith Effort, Ep Alastair Roberts – How To Read The Bible – Jan 16, 2023
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alastair-roberts-how-to-read-the-bible/id1536163226?i=1000594826994
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