The following is taken from Genesis 3
The first appearance of Nachash the serpent and probably one of the oldest (dating back to the polytheistic hebrew) and most important books of the Tenach.
3 Now the serpent(A) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?(B)”
Strong’s #5172: nachash (pronounced naw-khash’)
a primitive root; properly, to hiss, i.e. whisper a (magic) spell; generally, to prognosticate:–X certainly, divine, enchanter, (use) X enchantment, learn by experience, X indeed, diligently observe.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon:
ׁ
nâchash
- to practice divination, divine, observe signs, learn by experience, diligently observe, practice fortunetelling, take as an omen
1a) (Piel)
1a1) to practice divination
1a2) to observe the signs or omen
s
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,© 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”(D)
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.(E) 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,(F) knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable(G) for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband,(H) who was with her, and he ate it.(I) 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked;(J) so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.(K)
Recap:
Gen 3:3
Eve touched the fruit and ate the fruit this passage shows us that this god had lied.
Gen 3:4-5
Nachash tells eve she will not die and that her eyes will be open and she will be like god knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:7
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked;(J) so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.(K
)
This passage shows that what Nachash said was true.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking(L) in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid(M) from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”(N)
In the above passage this god does not know where his creation is showing he is not omniscient. It also shows that he is walking (and making the sound of walking) indicating he is not omnipresent because he must move from one place to another by walking.
Now if your defence of this god is to say that this is just a story then you agree that this book is nothing more than a metaphor and that the bible is not a literal history. Because if it is a literal history then the god you worship is both a liar and neither omnipresent, omniscient or omnipotent and not much of a god at all then…
Let that sink in…
So if we should be willing to accept that this one book of the bible which is recounted as a history is in actuality a metaphor then we of course are forced to accept the possibility that any other or even all books of the bible are in fact metaphorical, or allegorical and not literal history.
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid(O) because I was naked;§ so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?(Q) Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?®”
Again showing he is not omniscient because he does not know who told Adam he was naked.
This passage shows again that this god is not omniscient because he must ask Adam if he has eaten from the fruit.
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me(S)—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Adam throws Eve under the bus.
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me,(T) and I ate.”
Eve throws Gadreel the Nachash under the bus.
Gadreel, Gadriel or Gaderel (Hebrew: גדר האל gader ha-el, literally “wall of God”) is listed as one of the chiefs in the fallen Watchers. This is depicted in the second section of the “Book of Enoch”; “Parables”. He is said to have been responsible for deceiving Eve.
Gadreel was mentioned as the third of five “satans”
(
Strong’s Definitions
שָׂטַן sâṭan, saw-tan’; a primitive root; to attack, (figuratively) accuse:—(be an) adversary, resist.
KJV Translation Count — Total: 6x
The KJV translates Strong’s H7853 in the following manner: adversary (5x), resist (1x).)
who led other angels into copulating with humans, leading to the creation of the giant-like Nephilim. The others were called Yeqon (or Yaqum, Aramaic “he shall rise”), Asbeel (“deserter from God”), Penemue (“the inside”), and Kasdaye (“Chaldean”, “covered hand”)
.
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
Here it should ve noted that there is no time is spent to convince the serpent of his misdeed no sort of opportunity to defend his case or to explain his justifications for doing so. Also he did not perpetrate the crime in and of its self but simply offered up a choice. As we have seen the serpent told the truth about the purpose of the fruit and what happens (their eyes were opened) he explained the “lie” of god. The serpent simply proposed a question to Eve as seen in. Gen 3:1
(Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?)
Was his crime actually the enticement of Eve to eat the fruit? Or was his crime exposing gods lie and telling Eve the actual truth? The later of the two is more apparent by the deduction shown by God.
Where god in Gen 3: 11 displays his line of reckoning (And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?(Q) Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?)
God knows that they would not know they were naked unless their eyes had been open and they had become like gods. So naturally they would not have eaten due to believing the lie that they would die and so someone must have told them the truth that he didn’t want them to know and there is no other characters present who could have known said truth or told them.
God therefore punishes Adam and Eve for their disobedience to his command and punishes the serpent for exposing his lie and telling the truth. The exposure of the truth in and of its self would be enough to “entice” them to eat? Hardly would it be so, the conscious choice had to be made. Regardless of the truth of the fruit the ultimate choice to disobey was made by Eve and subsequently by Adam.
God is upset with the serpent for having exposed his bullshit. God for whatever reason did not want man to have the knowledge of good and evil.
Now about gods lie, the contemporary Christian will say that the wages of sin is death. But god did not say that their disobedience would cause their death he never made that clear. He indicated that the simple act of eating the fruit or even touching it for that matter would be the cause of death. So to say that the wages of sin is death is not giving god an excuse and claiming that he did not lie because in fact neither Adam or eve dies and death is not given as one of the punishments in the curse in the following scriptures. This further proves that god lied the same way one tells a lie to prevent someone from being willing to do something. God is using the lie to instil a sense of fear in man and using that false fear as a deterant. Or as a means to insure that man obey his command.
The serpent is being punished for removing the fear that was the deterant and explaining the truth.
We do not know at what point if ever the serpent himself was given such a command to uphold a lie and refrain from telling a truth. So this tells us that either god never did give such a command to the serpent and therefore the serpent broke no laws and is being punished out of spite. Or that god did give such command to the serpent and the serpent chose to rebel against god and do what was right rather than perpetuate gods lie. Either way the serpent chose to assist Adam in gaining knowledge at his own risk and detriment in a sort of promethian sacrifice.
So finally we come to the obvious question that must be asked. Why, did god, not want mankind to have the knowledge of good and evil and why did the serpent feel that it was so important that he did have said knowledge and was willing to take the heat for exposing the truth?
Although the story of Lucifer making rebellion and attempting to claim the throne of god with 1 /3 of the angels is nowhere in the bible and only exists in the popular culture. In this biblical passage a rebellion of sorts did take place when the serpent chose to rebel against a lie and bring truth.
Rebellion against authority in and of its self is not something done lightly for no reason if said authority is considered just. It is when authority is unjust that rebellion is the natural result.
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” was a motto suggested, but not used, for the Seal of the United States. Jefferson chose it for his own seal. The origin of the motto is not known for certain, it is believed to have been a quote by Benjamin Franklin.
So if god is the tyrant then who is the true god the serpent has chosen to obey?
The paradox of this passage must also be noted, that only until after having eaten the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil does Eve and Adam know right from wrong. God punishes Eve and Adam for doing something that they could not have known was wrong at the time they had done it. But was it innately wrong to seek knowledge? Or was the disobedience what was wrong? Either way in truth they could not be held accountable for their actions at the moment of making the choice if they did not know disobedience was wrong. Once again god openly displays his injustice.
To understand the metaphor one has to look no further than the serpent and the meaning of the name Nachash. To observe diligently and learn from experience. In order to know good and evil Eve and Adam had to “learn from experience” !!! And to understand the entirety of this passage and its meaning the reader must “observe diligently” !!!
“Cursed(U) are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust(V)
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a](W) and hers;(X)
he will crush[b] your head,(Y)
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.(Z)
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.(AA)”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’(AB)
“Cursed(AC) is the ground(AD) because of you;
through painful toil(AE) you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.(AF)
18 It will produce thorns and thistles(AG) for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.(AH)
19 By the sweat of your brow(AI)
you will eat your food(AJ)
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”(AK)
20 Adam[c] named his wife Eve,d because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.(AM) 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us,(AN) knowing good and evil.
In this passage god himself openly admits both that there are other god’“s” that are like him and that he had lied and the serpent had told the truth about the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil!
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life(AO) and eat, and live forever.”
Here god shows a great fear within himself over the possibility of man living forever and takes immediate action to prevent it. God does not explain or justify as to why he does not want man to live forever and neither does he explain why man having the knowledge of good and evil and being like the god’ “s” is a bad thing. The only logical conclusion one could come to is that such would make man “like” gods and elevate man to his own level.
23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden(AP) to work the ground(AQ) from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden(AR) cherubim(AS) and a flaming sword(AT) flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.(AU
