(For earlier posts in this series, see Introduction, Part 1.)

Genesis 2 ended in a happy creation glow. The newlyweds were living in harmony with God and each other, and all was well. Unfortunately it didn’t stay that way for long.

Genesis 3:1-7

Enter, the serpent. Wasting no time, he homes in on the woman and tries to twist God’s words, but Eve isn’t having any of it – she counters with what God really said. Then he tells her outright that God has lied, and that eating the forbidden fruit will in fact make her wise like Him.

Hm, wise like God eh. So Eve takes a closer look at the fruit. She sees that it’s good to eat and the lure of power is too much for her, so she eats it, and offers it to Adam (’who was with her’), and he eats it too. They do the ONE thing God has commanded them not to do! This can’t be good…

I have two thoughts / questions at this point:

• Was Adam with Eve all along? The dialogue between Eve and the serpent sounds to me like he’s singled her out on her own. Adam isn’t mentioned here – surely he would have made some contribution? (On the other hand, Mark Driscoll suggests that Adam was there all along, just standing by and doing nothing – which he says is a common male sin. I make no comment…) Anyway, my feeling is that the passage is in two scenes: the serpent tempts Eve, then some time later when Eve is with Adam, the two of them sin.
• In Genesis 2, God gave the instruction not to eat the forbidden fruit to Adam. Eve wasn’t even created yet. The account doesn’t say who filled her in – was it God or Adam who explained the rule to her? If it was Adam, perhaps her sin displays a lack of faith in Adam’s judgment as well as a rebellion against God. Anyway, at some point she persuades Adam to trust and respect her view of things instead of God’s. She undermines God’s authority in her husband’s life.

Immediately Adam and Eve realise they are ‘naked’, and cover themselves. And there’s an uneasy peace, until God comes along.

Genesis 3:8-21

As soon as they know God is near, Adam and Eve hide. Just like little children, they hide, and just like a father, God knows exactly where they are and what they’ve done, but wants them to admit it. Interestingly, he calls Adam. Not Eve. “Where are you?” he asks, and Adam says, “I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid from you.” Ah, but there’s only one way Adam could know he was naked, and God asks him directly, “Did you eat from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Uh oh. Adam’s in a tight spot. God knows what he did, and now he’s in for it. What do we do in such situations? Well that’s easy. We blame someone else. Adam, in fact, blames everyone else.

“This woman who you put here with me…” Clearly it’s not Adam’s fault. Eve told him to do it, so it’s Eve’s fault. And actually, it’s God’s fault too because God was the one who put her there and now she’s messed everything up for him! Oh how uncomfortably familiar that sounds.

So God turns to Eve. What has she to say for herself? Will she at least accept responsibility for her actions?

“The serpent tricked me…” Nope, it’s not her fault either. But wait, God turns to the serpent. Because to be fair, he did start it. Nothing the humans said was false, they just missed out the part where they made a deliberate choice to disobey God. So here come the punishments:

• The serpent is cursed to slither on its belly and to be the enemy of the woman and her offspring.
• The woman’s task of childbearing becomes painful. ‘Yet’ her desire for her husband will remain, and he will rule over her.
• The man is rebuked for trusting his wife over God. The ground is cursed because of this sin and his work will become hard and ultimately futile.

Note that the man and woman’s punishments are a ‘curse’ on what was originally good: the basic original gender roles necessary for the survival of humanity (childbearing and working to produce food). So what about “Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you”? Well. It follows on from the childbearing curse, and the two thoughts seem to be linked. The man is told, “Work will be hard, but you will need to work in order to get food”, and the woman is told, “Having children will be difficult and painful, but you won’t stop desiring your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Which leads us to the question, is the man’s rule over his wife part of her punishment, or was it part of God’s original plan? Is it “He will still rule over you”? ie, a simple clarification that although her role as wife and mother will be more difficult now, she can’t just decide to be independent and do her own thing. Like the man, her task will get harder, but it will continue. Or is it, “Now, because of your sin, he will rule over you”? ie, the whole idea of submission is a result of the fall?

Well, this is the first time that the woman’s submission to the man is explicitly stated, but not the first time it is (arguably) implied.

• As Grant pointed out, the man is created first. It is he who needs a helper, and the woman is created to be his helper. As I said in part 1, the woman is created by splitting the man in two, but one part is still called ‘man’, and he names the other part ‘woman’ (’from man’). Adam also names his wife ‘Eve’ at the end of Genesis 3.
• When Adam and Eve are hiding, God calls Adam. Why doesn’t He call Eve (since presumably He knows she sinned first), or why doesn’t He call both of them? It seems to be a subtle reminder of their roles, I think, and the ways they’ve rebelled against those roles. “Adam: you don’t answer to Eve, you answer to Me. Eve: you are Adam’s helper, not his leader.”

Now before you jump all over me, that doesn’t mean that Adam was held accountable for Eve’s sin as well as his own, and it doesn’t mean that their relationship was not an equal one. But I do think Adam’s headship is implied in his earlier creation, in his naming of Eve, and in the pointed way that God addresses him. “Step up Adam, you are the leader here, even if you’ve chosen not to lead.”

Other interpretations abound, of course. I wouldn’t say it’s conclusive. It’s quite an important point though so we’ll come back to it later. Either way, the man is certainly the leader after the fall, and the woman’s punishment seems to suggest that their relationship will not be an easy one. Ain’t that the truth. To be fair, it’s already pretty damaged by this point. Eve has plonked herself in God’s rightful place by persuading Adam to listen to her rather than to God. Not cool. And now he’s pushed her out into the firing line by blaming her for his own sinful actions. Again, not cool.

Fast forward to today, and men and women have a long history of opposition, confusion and mistrust. The curses are all still forcefully in effect, and yet – just as God said – we still work, we still have children and we still seek relationships with the opposite sex, even though we know that these things are all difficult and painful. And many of us still really don’t like snakes very much.

So, we have the basis for a theology on gender roles (at least in marriage…), but there’s nothing here that spells out for us what an application of these roles should look like in practice. So in part 3, whenever that takes shape, I think we shall have a look at Ephesians, and one of many contentious passages which really shouldn’t be contentious.

Phew, that was a long post.

(For the next post in this series, see Part 3.)