Genesis 3:1 (WEB)
Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Genesis 3:1 (KJV)
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?
Key words
- נָחָשׁnachash · Hebrew
- 'serpent.' Revelation 12:9 later unmasks him as 'that ancient serpent, called the Devil and Satan.'
- עָרוּםarum · Hebrew
- 'subtil,' crafty — a deliberate pun on arummim (עֲרוּמִּים), 'naked,' in the previous verse (2:25). The naked couple meet the cunning serpent.
Why it matters
This opens the temptation scene in which Eve, with Adam 'with her' (3:6), stands at the tree and falls. Pitre's four-point parallel places Eve beside Adam at the tree of the fall and Mary beside Jesus at the tree of the cross (John 19:25). The serpent introduced here is the one whose head the Woman's seed will crush.
Catechism · 2
“Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Gen 3:1-5; Wis 2:24.
“This is what man's first sin consisted of.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Gen 3:1-11 ; Rom 5:19.
Fathers and councils · 13
Irenaeus of Lyons
“…the Lord, tempted man, as the Scripture says that the serpent said to the woman: “Has God indeed said this, Ye shall not eat from every tree of the garden?”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1.
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Catena Aurea on Luke
- Ambrose of MilanCatena Aurea on Luke
“(Gen. 3:1) So they diffuse the poison of their father.” — the author cites it
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Tertullian
“…were suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was exhibiting the Lord’s cross on which the “serpent” the devil was “made a show of,” and, for every one hurt by such snakes—that is, his angels—on turning intently from the peccancy of sins to the sacraments of Christ’s cross, salvation was…” — editor's note: Comp. Col. ii. 14, 15, as before; also Gen. iii. 1, etc.; 2 Cor. xi. 3; Rev. xii. 9.
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John Damascene
“And hence it was through it that the devil, the prince of evil, made his most wicked suggestion to our first parents.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1.
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John Cassian
- John Cassian, Conferences I–X VIII.10Conference VIII
“…where it says: “But the serpent was wiser” or as the Hebrew copies express it, “more subtle than all the beasts of the earth, which the Lord God had made.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1.
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Augustine of Hippo
“To death.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1. [See A.N.F. vol. iii. p. 63, note 12.—C.]
Read the whole comment“For if an angel is able to use air, mist, cloud, fire, and any other natural substance or corporal species; and man to use face, tongue, hand, pen, letters, or any other significants, for the purpose of intimating the secret things of his own mind: in a word, if,…” — editor's note: [Judg. xiii. 20. This mysterious subject may be illustrated from Holy Scripture so as to justify our author’s very broad statement. It throws light on Gen.…
Read the whole comment“Who even in the case of Job, kept for him his wife, that by her the husband might be, not comforted, but tempted?” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1–6.
Read the whole comment“…and the woman did not eat alone, but gave to her husband, and they eat together; although she alone spoke with the serpent, and she alone was led away by him: so also in the case of that hidden and secret kind of wedlock, which is transacted and discerned in a single human being, the carnal, or as I may say, since it…” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1–6
Read the whole comment“They died by listening to the devil, whom they would not have listened to had they but listened to the Lord; for man, having his place between Him who created and him who was fallen, ought to have obeyed the Creator, not the deceiver.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1.
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Jerome
“Perchance, mindful of his old trick, he will try to tempt Bonosus with hunger.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1–6; Matt. iv. 1–4.
Read the whole comment““The serpent,” we are told, “was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1.
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Hippolytus of Rome
“What, then, is meant by the serpent but Antichrist, that deceiver who is mentioned in Genesis, who deceived Eve and supplanted Adam (πτερνίσας, bruised Adam’s heel)?” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 1.
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Cross-references · 21
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.10.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.10.
Cited together in Tractates on the Gospel of John Tractate 42.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.10.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.10.
Cited together in Catechism §391.
Cited together in Ambrose of Milan on Luke 5:27–32 (2) (Catena Aurea).
Cited together in Ambrose of Milan on Luke 5:27–32 (2) (Catena Aurea).
Cited together in Ambrose of Milan on Luke 5:27–32 (2) (Catena Aurea).
Cited together in Catechism §391 and 1 other place.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity XII.12.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity XII.12.
Cited together in Catechism §397.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity XII.12.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity XII.12.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.23.
Cited together in Catechism §391.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.10.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.10.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.23.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.23.