hypocrites and backsliders: lesson 017 blame it on the woman: how the first sin in genesis produced...

Hypocrites and Backsliders:Lesson 017

Blame it on the Woman: How The First Sin in Genesis Produced

Hypocrites and Backsliders

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Soul Diagram

Thinking DecidingBeing

“and breathed into him the breath of lives and man became a living soul.” Gen 2:7

TemptationCapitulation

Backsliding

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Adam and Eve after the Fall

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Old (Adam Genes) Man

Human Good Sins

SIN Nature

Soul

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The Sin Nature

Human Good

Personal Sins

Trend toward

Lasciviousness

Mark 7.21-23

Trend toward

AsceticismHebrews

6.1

SIN NATURE

Strength

Weakness

Sins borne at the cross – 1 Peter 2.24

Rejected and condemned at the cross – Titus 3.5

S

WArea of WeaknessHebrews 12.1

Area of StrengthIsaiah 64.6

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The Sequence of Cognitive (Intelligent) Emotions

• Hypocrisy and Backsliding are related to how we think, so, we need to know “How We Think”.

• There is a sequence to thinking:• 1. There is an event.• 2. Then we Perceive the Event.• 3. Then we Appraise the Event.• 4. Filtering the Appraisal we get a Representation.• 5. Then we Respond or React to the

Representation by what we Choose (our Volition).

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation

Cognitive Response Emotional ReactionThe Volitional

Interlude

Rational Emotional

OR

SCAttributionMoodBeliefsAttitudeKnowledge

The Sequence of ThinkingThe Sequence of Thinking

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation

The “Obedience” Response

The “Disobedience”Reaction

The VolitionalInterlude

Communion SeparationOR

The Sequence of Temptation for The Sequence of Temptation for EveEve

Insubordination

Approximation

Speculation

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation






Consideration

…he saith unto the woman, 'Is it true that God hath said, “Ye do not eat of every tree of the garden?”

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation






•2 Ishah said: “from the fruit of the

trees of the garden we may eat,”

Conversation and misquotation by Omission

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation






•‘but from the fruit of the tree which

is in the middle of the garden.

God has said. You should not eat

from it or touch it”

•Misquotation by Substitution

and Addition.

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation






…”lest you die.”

Misquotation by Substitution and Mitigation

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation






Contradiction

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!”

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation






Misapplication

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you would be like God, knowing good and evil.”

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The Event

Perception

Appraisal Filter

Representation






Rationalization

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise...

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Representation• In short, the cognitive representations that people

form of an event differ in a variety of ways from the information on which they were based.

• Yet it is ultimately these representations, and not the original event, that govern subsequent thoughts, judgments, and behaviors.

• Eve reacted emotionally to the Event of Temptation Filtering through her Self Esteem (emotional) aspect of her Self Concept (“I want to make myself wise like God”); and succumbed to the temptation -- the First Backslider!

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• So when the woman saw that the tree was good

for food: "So" marks the following clause as introducing a consequence.

• The woman saw how beautiful the tree was, and how good the fruit would be to eat.

• “a person desires the fruit of the tree because [eating] it makes that person become wise.”

• She thought, “How wonderful it would be to become wise.”

• So without further discussion with the snake she takes some fruit and eats it.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Then she gave some to her husband, and he also

ate it. • Genesis 3.7. Then the eyes of both were opened:

although Then is the ordinary Hebrew connective, it marks an abrupt development in events and has the sense of “immediately, right away, just then.” their eyes were opened.

• This idiom indicates that they understood the enormity of their action and it overwhelmed them, for they realized they were now sinful, and realized, what their bodies would do in producing a world full of sinners.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• They knew that they were naked: knew translates

the common Hebrew verb meaning know, but in this context the man and the woman acquire the knowledge instantly, and so some expression like “realized, found out, discovered” is more suitable.

• So they covered their bodies, distressed at the havoc which they foresaw that sin would yet wreak on the human race (shame is not mentioned in this chapter, it is inferred from chapter 2).

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• And they sewed fig leaves: sewed suggests

fastening things together with needle and thread.

• It may be more appropriate to use a more general term meaning to “fasten, attach, hook together.”

• Adam and Eve's desire to cover their nakedness portrays their realization of the fearsome tragedy that they had brought on their offspring.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Mankind had changed forever -- he had lost

his innocence and would evermore be a sinner.

• Evil had entered man's world.• Sinful man cannot commune with a

righteous God, so Adam and Eve had to withdraw.

• Note that Religion was their way to withdraw.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Genesis 3.8. And they heard the sound of the Lord

God walking in the garden: • Cool of the day is similar in sense to the

expression in Song 2.17 and 4.6, “the day breathes.”

• Both expressions refer to the late afternoon and early evening, when the sun has gone down and a breeze cools the air.

• “That evening when a breeze was stirring.” • “at the time of the evening breeze.”

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• The man and his wife hid themselves: • From the presence of the Lord God among

the trees of the garden: from the presence is often better translated simply as “from,” as in tev, niv, and others.

• However, the expression in Hebrew is literally “from the face,” and in this context the meaning may be taken as “from his sight.”

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Among the trees may be taken as “behind

the trees” or “where they thought God could not see them because of the trees.”

• Sin caused them to hide from God; sin immediately became the separator which separated from God.

• Adam and Eve were effectively separated from God by their sin; they knew it and they hid.

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Their bodies now have a genetically resident sin nature.

• Romans 8:7-8 (NKJV)7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

• 1 John 1:8 (NKJV)8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Fear caused them to shrink from God, and to hate

his appearance -- for now it became true, "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7).

• They realized the full horror of this separation; their depth of perception of sin was greater than that of those commentators who classify their action as childish.

• Indeed, it is only in a realization similar to Adam's that man finds the wisdom of God (I Cor 1:23-25).

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Genesis 3.9.• But the Lord God called to the man and said to

him: called and said are represented as two events.

• “Called out and asked him.”• Where are you? In this question you is singular,

since God is addressing the man.• From Adam’s reply to God in the next verse, it

appears that he does not take Where are you? as a question about his location but rather as a request to explain why he is hiding.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Genesis 3.10. I heard the sound of thee in the

garden, and I was afraid: • Hearing God’s sound and being naked had caused

Adam to be afraid - not ashamed, and as a consequence he had hidden himself.

• I was naked: according to verse 7 Adam in verse 10 is no longer totally naked.

• Therefore, there is more to "naked" than what a loincloth could hide.

• Some have speculated that they were "clothed" in a righteous light that they lost when they sinned.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Others believe that the spreading of the sinful

nature through their brain cells changed the way they thought about nakedness.

• In either case, they knew Jehovah Elohim would not like it!

• Note that Adam was already clothed in fig leaves so he was not talking of physical nakedness, but spiritual nakedness.

• Hiding themselves was not a childish act, but rather a spiritually insightful one, for they recognized that a Holy God could not have communion with sinful man.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• That recognition is demonstrated in Adam's fear

(v.10), not shame, at being naked.• The focus has shifted from the Serpent's "Elohim",

back to their personal, "Jehovah Elohim".• Genesis 3:11. The man has confessed to his

nakedness but has said nothing about his disobedience. Therefore God pursues the questioning.

• Who told you that you were naked? may have to be expressed in the present: “… that you are naked.”

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• The word told in this context actually means

“spoke to you so that you found out.” • A restructuring used in one translation to

make the sense of this verse clearer is “God asked him, ‘How did you know that you were naked? Who told you? Have you eaten …?”

• Have you eaten of the tree …? is often better translated “Did you eat the fruit of the tree …?” or “Did you eat some of the fruit of the tree …?”

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Genesis 3.12.• In his confession the man directly blames the woman and

indirectly blames God.• The woman whom thou gavest to be with me: that is, “the

woman you put here with me.” • (What happened to, “This is the proper step! bone of my

bone, and flesh of my flesh!”)• The man is confessing his guilt without accepting the

blame.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Genesis 3.13. God accepts the man’s accusation

of the woman and so asks her “What is this that you have done?” which is better rendered in English by tev “Why did you do that?”

• The Hebrew question goes beyond a “Why?” question; for example, “Tell me what happened” or “Tell me what you did.”

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• The woman said: said may be more appropriately

translated “answered” or “replied.” • “But the woman blamed the snake, and said … ” or

“The woman said, ‘It wasn’t my fault. The snake ….’ ”

• The serpent made me forget: Forget means “forgetting because I was tricked, deceived, misled.”

• And I ate should be linked clearly as a consequence of the serpent’s deceit; for example, “so I ate the fruit,” or “that is why I ate some of the fruit.”

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• God, who knows everything, quickly forced Adam

to face the facts (vv.9-11), and then a pathetic scene ensued.

• Note Adam's and Eve's lack of confession; they both tried to pass the blame.

• Adam tried to blame God for giving him Eve, at the same time blaming Eve; and Eve blamed it on the serpent.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• Pathetic but typical; do we not find ourselves

doing likewise? • It seems to be a universal human failing to

seek a scapegoat for our shortcomings -- just watch children; and then ourselves.

• It is sobering to realize that we are no different than the parents of the human race and that man is always a pathetic sight when he, as a sinner, tries to confront his God in his own strength.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• The fabric of their defense was so transparent that

God did not bother to address it, but proceeded immediately to His sentence.

• Adam and Eve were conscious of sin, of their failure, and of the doom they had brought on the whole human race.

• God had placed the future of man in the hands of a perfect man; He could not have done more--it was in the best care imaginable; yet man chose to be independent of God.

• All the blame for sin belongs to man and absolutely not any to God.

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Genesis 3 Exegesis• This passage provides the foundation for the

doctrine of original sin, for from this point on all human beings were born sinners.

• Our individual, personal sins are the result of that sin nature.

• A clear way to understand this is to recognize that as an apple tree can only bear apples, and nothing else; likewise, a sinner can only procreate sinners.

• If I inherited life from Adam, I also inherited a sin nature from him--since Adam's sin, life and a sin nature have been inseparable.

hypocrites and backsliders: lesson 017 blame it on the woman: how the first sin in genesis produced...

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