V. 22.And the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made (built) he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
A new expression is this again, unheard before. Moses does not use the verb "to create," or "to make," as in Gen. 1:26; but the verb "to build." This has caused all commentators to conclude that some great mystery lies under so singular a phraseology. Lyra thinks, with his Rabbi Solomon, that the new form of the female body is intended to be intimated. For, as the form of buildings is broader at the base, but narrower at the upper part, so, he says, the bodies of women are broader in the middle, and more contracted in the upper parts, while men have wider chests and broader shoulders. But these are mere peculiarities of certain parts of the body; whereas the Scripture is speaking of the body as a whole, and calling it a building; just as Christ himself calls the body the house of a man, Math. 12:29.
Others have recourse to an allegory, and say, that the woman is here called "a building," on account of her being spoken of in the Scriptures as a similitude of the Church. And as in a house there are various parts, walls, beams, rafters, roof, etc.; so in the Church, which is represented by the Holy Spirit under the similitude of a body, on account of the diversity of its members, there are various offices and administrators. As to myself I am by no means displeased at anything that is appropriately advanced by those who would transfer what is here said respecting the building of the woman, to Christ and his Church. But as all these opinions amount only to an allegory after all, the historical and proper meaning of this passage must be diligently searched into and retained. For a woman, especially a married woman, is here sacredly termed "a building," not allegorically, but historically and really. And the Scriptures universally use this form of expression.
Hence Rachel says to Jacob, "Take my maid Bilhah, that I may also be built up by her," Gen. 30:3. The Scriptures speak in the same manner also concerning Sarah, Gen. 16:2. And in Exodus, it is said concerning the midwives, "that the Lord built them a house," Exod. 1:21; that is, that the Lord repaid them for all the services which they had rendered unto his people Israel, contrary to the command of the king, by blessing them with a household and family. So again, in the history of David, when he had it in his heart to build a house for the Lord, he receives this answer from God by Nathan, "Furthermore, I tell thee, that the Lord will build thee an house," 1 Chron. 17:10.
It is a form of expression therefore quite general in the Scripture, to term a woman a domestic "building," on account of the fruits of generation and the bringing up of the offspring. But the real nature of this building up, which would have existed had Adam not fallen, we have now lost by his sin; so that we cannot now reach it, as we have all along observed, even in thought. Our present fallen condition in this life retains certain small miserable remnants of the original domestic life, cultivation of the earth, and defense of property; and also of dominion over the beasts. We have the rule over sheep, oxen, geese, fowls, etc.; though boars, bears, lions, etc., regard not this our dominion. So also there remains a certain hardly visible remnant of this female building. Whoso taketh to himself a wife, hath as it were in her a certain nest and home. He dwells with her in a certain place, as birds nestle with their young in their little nest. But this dwelling together in the one nest they know not, who live unmarried like the impure Papists.
This living together of male and female, as man and wife, in the state of matrimony, their keeping house together, their being blessed together with offspring, their bringing up their children, is a faint picture and remnant of that blessed original married life, on account of the nature of which, Moses here terms the woman a "building." The posterity of Adam, had he continued in his innocency, would have taken to themselves wives, would have parted from Adam their father, and would have chosen for themselves certain little garden spots of their own, and would have there dwelt with their wives, tilled the ground, and brought up their children. There would have been no need of splendid mansions built of hewn stone, nor of rich kitchens, nor cellars of wine, which now make up the luxuries of life. But as birds in their little nests, the married pairs would have dwelt together here and there, diligently laboring and calling upon God. And the women would have been the principal cause of their husbands living in certain dwelling places in paradise. Whereas now, under our present fallen and calamitous state by sin, we absolutely need houses of wood and stone, to defend us from the injuries of the weather. And though we cannot form even a conception, as we have said, of the original felicity of man and woman in their marriage happiness, yet even these miserable remnants, we repeat, are excellent gifts of God; to live in the possession of which, without continual thanks, is wickedness in the extreme.
With reference to the "dominion" which man received from the hand of God, we feel how much of that dominion is lost since our fall and defilement by sin. Yet, what an infinite mercy still remains to us, that this "dominion" was given to man and not to the devil! For how should we possibly have been able to stand in this matter, against such an invisible enemy, especially if power to harm had been possessed by him equal to his will? We might all have been in danger of annihilation in an hour, yea, in a moment, if Satan had determined to infuriate the wild beasts against us. Although well nigh all the original "dominion" is lost, it is an infinite blessing that our present remnants of it are not possessed by the devil!
It is an infinite mercy also that we possess our present remnants of generation. Although, in the state of original innocency women, as we know, would have brought forth without pain; yet there would have been a much more extensive fruitfulness. Whereas now the blessing of generation is impeded by numberless diseases. It often happens that the fruit of the womb does not arrive at maturity and birth and sometimes the woman is barren altogether. All these defects are the punishments of the horrible fall of Adam and of original sin. Just in the same manner, to this present day, is the woman the "building," and house, and home of the husband. To the woman the man devotes himself. With her he lives; and together with her, he undertakes the labor and care of bringing up the family; as it is written below, verse 24, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife," etc.
But this living together as man and wife is not only attended with those other trials, which afflict the marriage state in great number and variety on account of sin, but is also astonishingly deformed and marred by perverse nature; seeing that there are not only those who consider it to be very wise and great to reproach the female sex and to despise marriage, but who even forsake the wives whom they have married, and cast off all paternal care of their children. Such men destroy the building of God by their perverseness and wickedness. Men of this description are a kind of monsters in nature. Wherefore let us show our obedience to the Word of God by acknowledging our wives to be the building of the Lord; through whom not only our house is built up by generation, and by whom other necessary domestic duties are performed; but through whom we the husbands themselves are also built up, by our rising offspring around us. For wives are, as we have said, a certain nest and center of habitation to which the husbands resort, where they dwell and live in pleasure and happiness.
When Moses adds, "And he brought her unto the man," this is a certain divine description of espousals especially worthy our observation. For Adam does not take hold of Eve when created and draw her to himself, according to his own purpose and will, but he waits till God brings her to him; just according to the saying of Christ, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder," Math. 19:6, for the joining of male and female is a lawful joining and ordinance, and an institution divine.
Wherefore Moses here adopts his peculiar and appropriate phraseology, "And he brought her to the man." Who brought her to the man? He, God, Jehovah, Elohim, the Jehovah God, the Whole Divinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These all unitedly say to Adam, Behold, this is thy bride with whom thou art to dwell and with whom thou art to generate and bring up children. And there is no doubt whatever that Adam received Eve with the utmost pleasure; for even now, in this corrupt state of nature, the mutual love between bride and bridegroom is peculiar, great and excellent.
But apart from the epileptic and apoplectic lust in the marriage state today, it was a chaste and most pleasing love, and union itself was most honorable and most holy. Now however sin pours itself in and expresses itself from the eyes and ears everywhere, and then in all the senses.
This passage demands particular notice. For it stands as the revealed will of God, not only against all abuses of the sex and lusts of every kind, but also as a confirmation of marriage, and all those impious revilings and refusings by which the papacy has deformed and marred matrimony. Is it not worthy of admiration that God instituted and ordained marriage even in the state of innocency? Much more need then have we of this divine institution and ordination in our present state, wherein our flesh is weak and so corrupt through sin. This divine consolation therefore stands proof and invincible against all doctrines of devils, 1 Tim. 4:1. By the Scripture before us, we see that marriage is a state of life divine; that is, ordained of God himself.
What was it therefore that came into the minds of those tools of Satan and enemies of Christ, who deny that there could be any holiness or chastity in marriage, and who affirmed that those only were adapted for ministers of churches who lived in celibacy, because the Scriptures, they argued, said, Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, Is. 52:11. Are then those who are married unclean? If so, God himself is the author and institutor of uncleanness, who himself brought Eve to Adam. Adam himself also did evil in suffering himself to be persuaded to enter into a state of uncleanness, when his nature in his state of innocency needed not marriage. But have not the impious Papists suffered the righteous punishments of such blasphemies? They have not only polluted themselves with harlots in multitudes, but have indulged in other unmentionable wickednesses, even unto abomination, and are at this day just ripe for the punishments of Sodom and Gomorrah.
When I was a boy, marriage was positively considered so infamous on account of all this impure and impious celibacy, that I used to believe I could not even think of the married life without sin. For the minds of men generally were filled with the persuasion that if any one wished to live a holy life, and a life acceptable to God, a man must never become a husband nor a woman a wife, but must take upon them the vow of celibacy; and hence many men who had married became on the death of their wives either monks or contemptible priests. All those worthy men therefore who have labored and endeavored to cause marriage to be honored as aforetime, according to the Word of God, and to be held in all its due praise, have taken upon themselves a highly useful and necessary service to the Church of Christ. So that now, blessed be God, all men consider it to be good and holy to live in unanimity and tranquility with a wife, even though it should be the lot of any one, Prov. 16:33, to have a wife that is barren, or laboring under any other affliction.
I do not however deny that there are some men who can live chastely without marriage; but let these who have thus a gift greater than the most of mankind, sail in their own ship. But as for that chastity which the Pope so highly lauds in his monks and nuns, and contemptible priests, it is in the first place polluted and contaminated by numberless horrible sins; and in addition to all this, celibacy is an institution of man without any warrant from the Word of God. O, what triumphs would the Papists celebrate could they but prove by the Word of God their celibacy to be a divine institution, as we can abundantly prove marriage to be. With what mighty weight of the Pope's authority would they compel all men to adopt their life of celibacy. Whereas now the only commendation of celibacy, which they can discover, is a tradition of men, or rather as Paul hath it, a doctrine of devils, Col. 2:8; 1 Tim. 4:1.
V. 23a.And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.
The sentence which immediately follows, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother," etc., is cited by our Lord, Math. 19:5, as the words of God himself, and not of Adam. But in that particular point there is no difficulty whatever, because as Adam was pure and holy the words of Adam may rightly be said to be divine words or the voice of God, for God spoke through him. All the words and the works of Adam in that state of innocency are divine, and therefore may truly be said to be the words and works of God.
Eve is presented to Adam by God himself. And just in the same manner as the will of God is prepared to institute marriage, so Adam is prepared to receive Eve with all pleasure and holiness when brought unto him. So even now also the affection of the intended husband toward his betrothed spouse, is of a particular and elevated kind. It is, nevertheless, deeply contaminated with that leprous lust of the flesh which, in righteous Adam, had no existence.
It is worthy of our greatest wonder and admiration, that Adam, the moment he glanced his eye on Eve, knew her to be a building formed out of himself. He immediately said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." These are not the words of an ignorant one, nor of one who was a sinner; nor of one who was ignorant of the works and of the creation of God. They are the words of one righteous and wise, and full of the Holy Spirit; of that Holy Spirit who reveals to the world, before ignorant of such high and holy wisdom, that God is the efficient cause of marriage and of man's taking to himself a wife, and that the final cause of marriage is that the wife might be unto her husband a civil, moral and domestic habitation, and cohabitation. This knowledge comes not from the five senses and reason merely. It is a revelation, as we here see, of the Holy Spirit.
The expressionHAPAAM, "now," "in this instance," or "at length," is by no means useless or superfluous as it may at first seem. That very word in this sentence, uttered by Adam, most beautifully expresses the glad surprise and exulting joy of a noble spirit which had been seeking this delightful meet companion of life and of bed; a companionship full, not only of love, but of holiness. As if Adam had said, I have seen all beasts; I have considered all the females among them given to them of God for the multiplication and preservation of their kind, but all these are nothing to me! This female however is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She is at length what and all I want. With her I desire to live, and with her to obey the will of God in the propagation of a posterity. This is the kind of overflowing feeling of joy and love which this particular word "HAPAAM," used by Adam, is intended to express.
Now however this true purity, innocence and holiness are lost. There still remains indeed a feeling of joy and affection in the intended husband toward his spouse; but it is impure and corrupt, on account of sin. The affection of Adam however was most pure, most holy and most grateful to God, when under the excess of it, he said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." She is not made of stone, nor of wood, nor of a lump of earth, as I was. She is nearer to me than all this, for she is made of my own very bones and very flesh.
V. 23b.She shall be called Woman (man-formed), because she was taken out of Man.
As Adam knew by the Holy Spirit the things just mentioned, which he saw not before, and as he praises God and extols him for his having created for him a meet life-companion out of his own body; so now, by the same Spirit, he prophesies of his Eve's future, when he says that she ought to be called a man-formed or man-like female (virago). The truth is, that it is utterly impossible for any interpreter to convey through any other language the peculiar strength and beauty of the original Hebrew expression.ISCHsignifies a man,—and Adam says concerning Eve, "She shall be calledISCHA," as if we should say, She shall be calledvira, fromvir, a man. Because a wife is an heroic or man-like woman; for she does man-like things, and performs man-like duties.
This name Adam gives to the woman contains in it a wonderful and sweet description of marriage, in which, as the lawyers express it, "The woman shines in the rays of her husband." For whatever the husband possesses, is possessed and held by the wife also. And not only is all their wealth possessed by them in common, but their children also, their food, their bed, and their habitation. Their wishes are also equal. So that the husband differs from the wife in no other thing than in sex. In every other respect, the woman is really a man. For whatsoever the man possesses in their house, the woman possesses also; and what the man is, that also is the woman; she differs from the man in sex only. In a word the woman, as Paul remarks in his instructions to Timothy, is man-formed and man-like by her very origin; for, as the apostle says to Timothy, Adam was first formed, then Eve from the man, and not the man from the woman, 1 Tim. 2:13.
Of this communion of all things in marriage, we still possess some feeble remnants, though miserable indeed they be when compared with what they were in their original state. For even now the wife, if she be but an honorable, modest and godly woman, participates in all the cares, wishes, desires, pursuits, duties and actions of her husband. And it was for this end indeed that she was created "in the beginning;" and for this end was calledvirago, that she might differ in sex only from the father of the family, since she was taken from man.
And though this name can apply in its strictest and fullest sense to Eve only, who, alone of all women, was created thus out of man, yet our Lord applies the whole sentence of Adam to all wives when he says that man and wife are one flesh, Math. 19:5, 6. Although therefore thy wife be not made of thy flesh and thy bones; yet, because she is thy wife, she is as much the mistress of thy house, as thou art the master thereof, except that by the law of God, which was brought in after the fall the woman is made subject to the man. That is the woman's punishment, as are many other troubles also which come short of the glories of paradise, concerning which glories the sacred text before us gives us so much information. For Moses is not here speaking of the miserable life which all married people now live; but concerning the life of innocency, in which, had that innocency continued, the government of the man and of the woman would have been equal and the same.
Hence it is that Adam gave the name, "woman,"ISCHA, or "man-formed female,"viragoorvira, to Eve, prophetically on account of the equal administration of all things with her husband in the house. But now the sweat of the brow rests upon the man. And to the wife it is commanded that she be in subjection to the man. There still remain however certain remnants or dregs as it were of the woman's dominion. So that the wife may still be called man-like female, on account of her common possession of all things with her husband.
V. 24.Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.
Christ in Math. 19:5 and Paul in 1 Cor. 6:16, apply these words of Adam, as a common rule or law for our marriages since the loss of original innocence. If therefore Adam had remained in his original state of innocency, the children born unto him would have married; and leaving the table and dwelling place of their parents, and living no longer with them, would have had their own trees under which they would have lived separate from their parents. They would have come from time to time to their father Adam, sung a hymn, spoken gloriously of God, called upon him, and then returned to their own houses.
And even now, though all other things are changed, yet this close bond between married persons still remains firm. So that a man would leave his father and his mother much sooner than he would leave his wife. And where we find the contrary to this, for married persons are now sometimes found to leave and forsake each other, all this is not only contrary to the present divine command by the mouth of Adam, but such things are awful signs of that horrible corruption, which has come upon man through sin; and such corruption and unfaithfulness are greatly increased by Satan, the father of all dissensions.
Heathen nations also have discovered that there is nothing more appropriate for man nor beneficial for kingdoms than this oneness of the life of married persons. Hence they affirm, that it is a conclusion drawn from the law of nature that a wife, who shall retain her individuality or oneness of life with her husband, even unto death, is necessary for man. Hence also Christ himself says, that Moses suffered the Jews to give their wives a bill of divorcement, because of the hardness of their hearts; but that in the beginning it was not so, Mark 10:4, Math. 19:8. These evils of divorcements have all arisen since the fall through sin; as have also adulteries, poisonings and such like, which are sometimes found among married persons. Scarce a thousandth part of that primitive innocent, holy marriage is now left to us. And even to this day the husband and the wife have their home-nest, for the sake of mutual help and generation, according to the command of God, issued by the mouth of our first parent Adam; by which this state of married life and this leaving father and mother is exaltedly and gloriously commended, as well as commanded of God himself; as Christ also affirms in his reference to the words of Adam, on which we are now dwelling.
This "leaving father and mother" however is not to be understood as a command that the children of Adam, when married, should have nothing more to do with their parents. The command reaches only to dwelling any longer with their father and mother. It enjoins the children when married to have their own home-nest. In the present state of sin, and all its various evils, we often find that children are compelled to support their parents, when worn down with age and necessities. But had paradise and all its innocency continued, the state of life would have been inconceivably more exalted and blessed than our present fallen and sinful condition. Yet even then this same command of Adam, or rather of God himself, would have been obeyed. The husband, through love of his wife, would have chosen his homestead and made his home-nest with her, as the little birds do, and would have left his father and his mother for that purpose.
This sentence of Adam is also prophetic. For as yet there was no father or mother; nor consequently were there any children. Adam nevertheless through the Holy Spirit prophesies of that married life, which should be in the world, and predictively describes the separate dwelling of man and wife, and the separate domestic authorities and governments of the several families in all ages; that each family should have their own nest habitation, authority and rule.
V. 25.And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
This short closing sentence of the present chapter might have been omitted without any loss, seeing that it mentions a circumstance for recording which there seems no great need. For what does it concern us to know whether those in paradise walked about naked or clothed in raiment? This little clause of the concluding sentence however is very striking and very necessary. It shows us in a matter apparently quite insignificant, how dreadful an amount of evil this nature of ours has suffered through original sin.
All nations, more especially those of the north, hold nakedness of the body in great abhorrence. In like manner the more grave and modest characters among us, not only condemn short military jackets, as they are called, which are worn by our youth, but avoid public baths. And our uncomely parts, 1 Cor. 12:23, are always most studiously covered. This among us is wisdom and a moral discipline worthy of all praise. But Adam and Eve, Moses informs us, went about naked, and were not ashamed. For them therefore to go about naked was not only not disgraceful, but even laudable, delightful and glorious to God.
But all this delight and glory we have now lost by sin. We alone, of all creatures, are born naked; and with an uncovered skin we enter into this world. Whereas all the other animals bring into the world with them, as coverings of their own, skins, hairs, bristles, feathers or scales. We, on the other hand, continually need the shadow of buildings to protect us from the heat of the sun, and a multitude of garments to defend us from the rain, the hail, the frost and the snow. Adam however, had he continued innocent, would have felt none of these injuries or inconveniences. But as the human eyes retain still that peculiarity of nature, that they are not evilly affected or distressed either by cold or by heat; so would the whole body of Adam have been entirely free from the distresses of cold or heat, had he never fallen. Had Eve, our mother, sat among us naked the mere form of her breast and other members of her body would not have offended us. But now because of sin they awaken in us shame and inflame us with evil lust and passion.
This brief clause therefore shows us the awfulness of the evil which has come upon us, as the consequence of the sin of ... [text not printed] ... would be considered a proof of utter insanity. That very state of body therefore which was in Adam and Eve their highest glory, would be in us, should we be seen in that state, our deepest shame. It was the very glory of man and would have continued to be so, had he remained in his original innocency, that while all the other animals had need of hairs, feathers, scales, etc., to cover their unsightliness, man alone was created with that dignity and beauty of body, that he could appear uncovered, in the glory of his created nakedness. But all this glory is lost. We are now compelled not only for necessary protection, but for the sake of avoiding the deepest turpitude, to cover our bodies with more study and care than any other animals of God's creation. For they all come into the world covered by nature.
After this manner therefore does this second chapter of the book of Genesis more clearly and fully describe the creative work of the sixth day. In what manner man was created by the wonderful counsel of God. In what manner the garden of Eden was formed, in which man might have lived in the highest possible pleasure. In what manner, by means of the prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the external worship of the future church was instituted by divine authority. By what external worship and in which place, had the prohibition of the tree of knowledge not been violated by Adam and Eve, they would have testified their obedience to God, had they not been deceived and drawn aside by the snares of Satan.
Some suppose that Adam with his Eve passed the night of the sixth day in paradise until the following seventh day, the Sabbath. And what occurred on the Sabbath day, the following chapter will inform us.
V. 1a.Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made.
In the preceding chapter, we were taught the manner in which man was created on the sixth day; that he was created in the image and after the likeness of God, that his will was good and perfect, and that his reason or intellect was also perfect, so that whatsoever God willed or said, that man also willed, believed and understood. And this knowledge was necessarily accompanied by the knowledge of all other creatures, etc. For wherever the perfect knowledge of God is, there must also be, of necessity, the perfect knowledge of other things, which are inferior to God.
This original state of things shows how horrible the fall of Adam and Eve was, by which we have lost all that most beautifully and gloriously illumined reason, and all that will which was wholly conformed to the Word and will of God. For by the same sin and ruin we have lost also all the original dignity of our bodies, so that now, it is the extreme of baseness to be seen "naked," whereas originally that nudity was the especial and most beautiful and dignified privilege of the human race, with which they were endowed of God above all the beasts of the creation. And the greatest loss of all these losses is, that not only is the will lost, but there has followed in its place a certain absolute aversion to the will of God. So that man neither wills nor does any one of those things which God wills and commands. Nay, we know not what God is, what grace is, what righteousness is; nor in fact what sin itself is which has caused the loss of all.
These are indeed horrible defects in our fallen nature, to which they, who see not and understand not, are more blind than moles. Universal experience indeed shows us all these calamities; but we never feel the real magnitude of them until we look back to that unintelligible but real state of innocency, in which there existed the perfection of will, the perfection of reason and that glorious dignity of the nakedness of the human body. When we truly contemplate our loss of all these gifts and contrast that privation with the original possession of them, then do we, in some measure, estimate the mighty evil of original sin.
Great causes of gross error therefore are created by those who extenuate this mighty evil of original sin, who speak of our corrupt nature after the manner of philosophers, who would represent human nature as not thus corrupted. For such men maintain that there remain, not only in the nature of man, but in the nature of the devil also, certain natural qualities which are sound and whole. But this is utterly false. What and how little remains in us that is good and whole, we do indeed in some measure see and feel. But what and how much we have lost, they most certainly see not who dispute about certain remnants of good being still left in human nature. For most certainly a good and upright and perfect will, well-pleasing to God, obedient to God, confiding in the Creator, and righteously using all his creatures with thanksgiving, is wholly lost. So that our fallen will makes out of God a devil and dreads the very mention of his name; especially when hard pressed under his judgments. Are these things, I pray you, proofs that human nature is whole and uncorrupted?
But consider the state of those inferior things to these that pertain unto God himself. The marriage union of male and female is an institution appointed of God. How is that union polluted by the fall and by sin! With what fury of lust is the flesh inflamed! By means of sin therefore this divinely appointed union has lost all its beauty and glory as a work of God, and is defiled with pollutions, corruptions and sins innumerable. In like manner also we have a body; but how miserable, how variously deformed by sin. It no longer retains the dignity of nakedness, but requires careful and perpetual coverings of its shame.
So also we possess a will and a power of reason. But with what multiplied corruptions are they vitiated! For as our reason is beclouded with great and varied ignorance, so our will also is not only greatly warped by self-will, and not only averse to God, but the enemy of God! It rushes with pleasure into evil, when it ought to be doing quite the contrary.
This multiform corruption of nature therefore ought not only not to be extenuated, but to be as much as possible magnified. It ought to be shown that man is not only fallen from the image of God, from the knowledge of God, from the knowledge of all other creatures, and from all the dignity and glory of his nakedness, into ignorance of God, into blasphemies against God, and into hatred and contempt of God; but that he is fallen even into enmity against God; to say nothing at the present time of that tyranny of Satan to which our nature has by sin made itself the basest slave. These things, I say, are not to be extenuated, but to be magnified by every possible description of them; because if the magnitude of our disease be not fully known, we shall never know nor desire the remedy. Moreover the more you extenuate sin, the less you make grace to be valued.
And there is nothing which can tend to amplify and magnify the nature and extent of original sin more fully and appropriately than the words of Moses himself, when he says, that Adam and Eve were both naked, and were not ashamed. No polluted lust was excited by the sight of each other's nakedness. But the one looking on the other saw and acknowledged the goodness of God. They both rejoiced in God, and both felt secure in the goodness of God. Whereas now, we not only cannot feel ourselves free from sin; not only do not feel ourselves secure in the goodness of God, but labor under hatred of God and despair of his goodness and mercy. Such a horrible state of the fall as this clearly proves how far nature is from being in any degree sound and whole.
But with how much greater impudence still do our human reasoners make this their affirmation of there being still left something sound and whole, in the nature of the devil! For in the devil there is a greater enmity, hatred and rage against God than in man. But the devil was not created thus evil. He had a will conformed to the will of God. This will however he lost, and he lost also that most beautiful and most lucid intellect with which he was endowed, and he was converted into a horrible spirit, filled with rage against his Creator. Must not that have been then a most awful corruption, which transformed a friend of God into the most bitter and determined enemy of God?
But here human reasoners bring forward that sentence of Aristotle, "Reason prays for the best." And they attempt to confirm it by passages from the Scriptures and by the opinions of philosophers, who hold that right reason is the cause of all virtues. Now I deny not that these sentiments are true, when they are applied to things subject to reason; such as the management of cattle, the building of a house, and the sowing of a field. But in the higher and divine things, they are not true. For how can that reason be said to be right, which hates God? How can that will be said to be good, which resists the will of God and refuses to obey God?
When therefore men say with Aristotle, "Reason prays for the best," reply thou to them, Yes! Reason prays for the best, humanly; that is, in things in which reason has a judgment. In such things, reason dictates and leads to what is good and useful in a human, bodily or carnal sense. But since reason is filled with ignorance of God and aversion to the will of God, how can reason be called good in this sense? For it is a well known fact, that when the knowledge of God is preached with the intent that reason may be restored, then those who are the best men, if I may so speak, and men of the best kind of reason and will, are those who the most bitterly hate the gospel.
In the sacred matter of divinity therefore let our sentiments be, that reason in all men stands as the greatest enemy against God; and also that the best will in men is most adverse to the will of God; seeing that from this very source arise hatred of the Word and persecution of all godly ministers. Wherefore, as I said, let us never extenuate, but rather magnify that mighty evil, which human nature has derived from the sin of our first parents; then will the effect be that we shall deplore this our fallen state and cry and sigh unto Christ our great Physician, who was sent unto us by the Father for the very end that those evils, which Satan has inflicted on us through sin, might by him be healed, and that we might be restored unto that eternal glory, which by sin we had lost.
But with reference to the part of sacred history which Moses describes in this chapter, I have already expressed my mind; namely, that this temptation took place on the Sabbath day. For Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day; Adam earlier in the day and Eve in the evening. On the following day, the Sabbath day, Adam spoke to his wife Eve concerning the will of God; informing her that the most gracious Lord had created all paradise for the use and pleasure of men; that he had also created by his especial goodness the tree of life, by the use of which the powers of their bodies might be restored, and continued in perpetual youth; but that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was prohibited; of which it was not lawful for them to eat; and that this obedience to their merciful Creator they were solemnly bound to render. After Adam had communicated this information to Eve, he perhaps led her about in paradise and showed her the prohibited tree. Thus did Adam and Eve in their original innocence and righteousness, full of safety and security through their confidence in their God so good and so merciful, walk about together in paradise; considering together the word and the command of God; and blessing their God on the Sabbath day as they ought to do. But in the midst of all this happiness, Oh! the grief! Satan enters, and within a few hours destroys all, as we shall in this chapter hear.
Here again is poured forth a whole sea of questions. For curious men inquire, why God permitted so much to Satan as to tempt Eve? They ask also, why Satan employed the serpent in his temptation of Eve, rather than any other beast of the creation. But who shall render a reason for those things, which he sees the Divine Majesty to have permitted to be done? Why do we not rather say with Job, that God cannot be called to an account, and that none can compel him to render unto us his own reasons for all those things which he does or permits to be done. Why do we not on the same ground expostulate with God, because the grass is not green and the trees are not in leaf all the year round now as in the beginning. For I fully believe, that in paradise, had the state of original innocency continued, there would have been a perpetual spring without any winter or frost or snow, as they now exist since the fall and its sin. All these things depend wholly on the will and power of God. This is enough for us to know. To inquire into these things farther than this is impious curiosity. Wherefore let us, the clay of his hands, cease to inquire into and dispute about such things as these, which belong alone to the will of our Potter! Let us not judge our God, but rather leave ourselves to be judged by him.
The answer therefore to all such questions and arguments ought to be this: It pleased God that Adam should be put under peril and trial, that he might exercise his powers. Just as now, when we are baptized and translated into the kingdom of Christ, God will not have us to be at ease. He will have his Word and his gifts to be exercised by us. Therefore he permits us, weak creatures, to be put into the sieve of Satan. Hence it is that we see the church, when made clean by the Word, to be put under perpetual peril and trial. The Sacramentarians, the Anabaptists and other fanatical teachers, who harass the church with various trials, are stirred up against her, to which great trials are also added internal vexations. All these things are permitted of God to take place, not however because it is his intention to forsake his church or to suffer her to perish. But as wisdom says, all these conflicts are brought upon the church and upon the godly, that they might overcome them; and thus learn by actual sight and experience that wisdom is more powerful than all things.
Another question is here raised, on which we may dispute perhaps with less peril and with greater profit: Why the Scripture speaks of this matter thus obscurely and does not openly say, that one of the fallen angels entered into the serpent and through the serpent spoke to Eve and deceived her? But to this I reply, that all these things were involved in obscurity, that they might be reserved for Christ and for his Spirit, whose glory it is to shine throughout the whole world, as the mid-day sun, and to open all the mysteries of the Scriptures. As this Spirit of Christ dwelt in the prophets, those holy prophets understood all such mysteries of the Word. We have said above however that as the beasts of the creation had each different gifts, so the serpent excelled all other creatures in the gift of guile, and therefore it was the best adapted for this stratagem of Satan.
Of this peculiarity in the serpent the present text of Moses is an evident proof; for he says at the opening of this chapter, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made." We marvel even now at the gift of insidious cunning in the fox, and also at its astonishing ingenuity in escaping danger. For sometimes when closely pursued by the dogs and quite worn out and ready to drop with exhaustion, it will hold up its tail; and while the dogs stop their course with the intent of rushing with all their force to seize it, the fox with marvelous celerity secures a little advantage ground and thus escapes their capture. There are also other beasts whose remarkable sagacity and industry surprise us; but subtilty was the peculiar natural property of the serpent, and therefore it seemed to Satan to be the instrument best adapted for his deception of Eve.
V. 1b.And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
Human reasoners dispute also concerning the nature of this temptation, as to what it really was; whether our first parents sinned by idolatry or by pride or by self-security or simply by eating the fruit. But if we consider these things a little more carefully, as we ought to do, we shall find that this temptation was the most awful and the most bitter of all temptations. Because the serpent attacked the good will of God itself, and endeavored to prove by this very prohibition from the tree of life that the will of God toward man was not good. The serpent therefore attacks the image of God itself. He assails those highest and most perfect powers, which in the newly-created nature of Adam and Eve were as yet uncorrupted. He aims at overturning that highest worship of God, which God himself had just ordained. In vain therefore do we dispute about this sin or that. For Eve is enticed unto all sins at once, when she is thus enticed to act contrary to the Word and the will of God.
Moses therefore speaks here most considerately, when he uses the expression, "And the serpent said." Here,WORDattacksword. TheWORDwhich the Lord had spoken to Adam was, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat." This Word was to Adam the Gospel, and the law thus given was his worship. It was a service and an obedience which in this state of innocence Adam was able to render unto God. These are the Divine things Satan attacks. These are the things he aims at overturning. Nor does he merely intend, as those think who know nothing of the matter, to point out the tree to Eve and to invite her to pluck the fruit. He does indeed point to the tree, but he does something far worse than this. He adds another and a new word, as it is his practice to do at the present day in the Church.
For wherever the Gospel is purely preached, there men have a sure rule for their faith, and by that they are able to guard against idolatry. But there Satan plies temptations of every kind, and he tries by what means he can the most effectually to draw men away from the Word, or how he can most completely corrupt the Word itself. Thus in the Greek Church also, in the time of the apostles, heresies of every kind were stirred up. One heretic denies that Christ is the Son of God. Another denies that he is the Son of Mary, just as the anabaptists of our day impiously deny that Christ assumed anything of the flesh of Mary. So again in the times of Basil more particularly, men attempted to deny that the Holy Ghost is God.
Our own age in like manner has witnessed the same examples of heresies. For no sooner had a purer doctrine of the Gospel shone upon us, than assailants of the works and Word of God of every kind rose up on every side. Not however that temptations of other kinds cease. For Satan still tempts to whoredom, to adultery and to other like great sins. But this temptation, when Satan attacks the Word and the works of God, is by far the heaviest and most dangerous; and that temptation the most intimately concerns the Church and the saints.
It was in this manner therefore that Satan attacked Adam and Eve on this solemn occasion. His aim was to tear away from them the Word, in order that giving up the Word and their confidence in God, they might believe a lie. When this takes place what wonder is it if a man afterwards becomes proud, a despiser of God, an adulterer or anything else? This temptation therefore is the head and chief of all temptations. It brings with it the breach and the violation of the whole ten commandments. For unbelief is the fountain-source of all sins. When Satan has brought a man under this temptation and has wrested from him or corrupted in his heart the Word, he may do anything with him.
Thus when Eve had suffered the Word to be beaten out of her heart by a lie, she found no difficulty whatever in approaching the tree and plucking from it the fruit. It is foolish therefore to think of this temptation, as the sophists and the monks think of it; that Eve, when she had looked upon the tree, began to be inflamed by degrees with the desire of plucking the fruit; until at last, overcome with the longing for it, she plucked the fruit and put it to her mouth. The sum of the whole temptation and her fall by it was that she listened to anotherwordand departed from thatWORDwhich God had spoken to her, which was that if she did eat of the tree she should surely die. But let us now contemplate the words of Moses in the order in which we find them.
In the first place Satan here imitates God. For as God had preached to Adam, so Satan now also preaches to Eve. For perfectly true is that saying of the proverb, "All evil begins in the name of God." Just therefore as salvation comes from the pure Word of God, so perdition comes from the corrupted Word of God. What I term the corrupted Word of God is not that only which is corrupted by the vocal ministry, but that which is corrupted by the internal persuasions of the heart or by opinions of the mind, disagreeing with the Word.
Moses implies all this in his expression, "He said." For the object of Satan was to draw away Eve by his word or saying, from that which God had said; and thus by taking the Word of God out of sight, he corrupted that perfection of will which man had before; so that man became a rebel. He corrupted also his understanding so that he doubted concerning the will of God. Upon this immediately followed a rebellious hand, stretched forth to pluck the fruit contrary to the command of God. Then followed a rebellious mouth and rebellious teeth; in a word all evils follow soon upon unbelief or doubt concerning the Word and God. For what can be worse than for a man to disobey God, and obey Satan!
This very same craft and malice all heretics imitate. Under the show of doing good, they wrest from men God and his Word. They take the Word away from before their eyes and set before them another, and a new word and a new god; a god which is nowhere, and no god at all. For if you examine the words of these men, nothing can be more holy, nothing more religious. They call God to witness that they seek with their whole heart the salvation of the Church. They express their utter detestation of all who teach wicked things. They profess their great desire to spread the name and the glory of God. But why should I enlarge? They wish to appear to be anything but the devil's teachers or heretics. And yet, their one whole aim is to suppress the true doctrine and to obscure the knowledge of God. And when they have done this, the fall of their listeners is easily enough effected.
For unwary men suffer themselves to be drawn away from the Word to dangerous disputations, Rom. 14:1. Not content with the Word, they begin to inquire why and for what reason these and those things were done. And just as Eve, when she listened to the devil, calling the command of God into doubt fell; so it continually happens that we, by listening to him, are brought to doubt whether God is willing that we, when heavily oppressed with sin and death, should be saved by Christ; and thus, being misled and deceived, we suffer ourselves to be induced to put on cowls and cloaks in order that we may be crowned of God with salvation on account of our works of perfection.
Thus before men are aware, another and a new god is set before them by Satan; for he also sets a word before us; but not that Word which is set before us of God, who declareth that repentance and remission of sins should be preached unto all men in the name of Christ, Luke 24:47. When the Word of God is in this manner altered and corrupted, then, as Moses says, in his song, "there are brought in among us new gods, newly come up whom our fathers knew not, and feared not," Deut. 32:17.
It is profitable to be well acquainted with these snares of Satan. For if he were to teach men that they might commit murder and fornication, and might resist their parents, etc., who is there who would not immediately see that he was persuading them to do things forbidden by the Lord? And thus it would be easy to guard against him. But in the case of which we are speaking, when he sets before us another word, when he disputes with us concerning the will and willingness of God, when he brings before our eyes the name of God, and of the church, and of the people of God, then we cannot so easily be on our guard against him. On the contrary there is need of the firmest judgment of the spirit to enable us to distinguish between the true God and the new god.
It is such judgment as this that Christ exercises, when Satan attempts to persuade him to command that the stones be made bread, and to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple. For Satan's aim was to persuade Christ to attempt something without the Word. But the Tempter could not deceive Christ as he had deceived Eve. For Christ holds fast the Word and does not suffer himself to be drawn away from the true God to the new and false god. Hence unbelief and doubting, which follow a departure from the Word, are the fountain and source of all sin. And it is because the world is full of these that it remains in idolatry, denies the truth of God and forms to itself new gods.
The monk is an idolator. For his imaginations are that if he lives according to the rule of Francis or Dominic, he shall be in the way to the kingdom of God. But this is making a new god, and becoming an idolator. Because the true God declares that the way to the kingdom of heaven is believing in Christ. When this faith is lost therefore unbelief and idolatry immediately enter in, which transfer the glory of God to works. Thus the Anabaptists, the Sacramentarians and the Papists are all idolators! Not because they worship stocks and stones, but because, leaving the Word of God, they worship their own thoughts.
The portion of the Scripture therefore now before us is designed to teach us that the beginning of original sin was this effectual temptation of the devil, when he had drawn Eve away from the Word to idolatry, contrary to the first and second and third commandments. Therefore the words stand here, "Yea, hath God said?" It is horrible audacity for the devil to represent a new god and deny the former true and eternal God with the utmost self-confidence. It is as if the devil had said, "Ye must be fools indeed if ye believe that God really gave you such a commandment. For God is by no means such a God as to be so greatly concerned whether ye eat the fruit or eat it not. For as the tree is 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;' how, think ye, he can be so filled with envy as to be unwilling that ye should be wise!"
Moreover this inexpressible malice fully proves that, although Moses makes mention of the serpent only and not of Satan, Satan was the real contriver of the whole transaction. And although these things had been thus involved in obscurity in this sacred history of them, yet the holy fathers and prophets, under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, at once saw that this temptation was not the work of the serpent, but that there was in the serpent that spirit, which was the enemy of Adam's innocent nature; even the spirit, concerning whom Christ plainly declares in the Gospel, "that he abode not in the truth; and that he was a murderer and a liar from the beginning," Luke 8:44. It was left however, as we have said, for the Gospel to explain these things more clearly and to make manifest this enemy of God and of men. But the fathers saw all this by the following mode of reasoning: It is certain that at the time of the temptation all creatures stood in perfect obedience, according to the sentence of Moses, "And God saw everything that he had made and, behold, it was very good." But here in the serpent, such a spirit manifests himself who proves to be the enemy of God and who corrupts the Word of God, that he might draw away man into sin and death.
It is manifest therefore that there was something, some spirit in the serpent, far worse than the serpent itself by nature; a spirit which might properly be called the enemy of God; a spirit that was a liar and a murderer; a spirit in whom there was the greatest and the most horrible and reckless unconcern; a spirit which trembled not to corrupt the commandment of God and to tempt man to idolatry; though he knew by that act of idolatry the whole human race must perish. These things are truly horrible when they are viewed by us aright. And we see even now examples of the same security and unconcern in Papists and other sects; an unconcern by which they corrupt the Word of God and seduce men.
Eve at first nobly resisted the Tempter. For as yet she was guided by the illumination of that Holy Spirit, of whom we have spoken, and by whom she knew that man was created perfect and in the likeness of God. At length however she suffered herself to be persuaded and overcome.
With respect to the fall of the angels, it is uncertain on which day the fall took place; whether on the second or on the third day. This only can be proved, and that is known from the Gospel, namely, that Satan fell from Heaven, for Christ himself testifies of the manner of the fall, where he says, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," Luke 10:18. But whether the heavens were then "finished" or yet in their rude unformed state, we know not. The discussion of this point however belongs not to our present exposition of the passage before us. Our present duty is to contemplate the extreme malice here disclosed, joined with the most horrible unconcern. For this spirit trembles not to call the commandment of the divine majesty into doubt; though he fully knew all the time, what an awful calamity must thereby fall upon the whole human race.
In the second place the wonderful subtlety here exercised is especially to be considered, which is discovered first in this: that Satan attacks the highest powers of man and assails the very image of God in him; namely, his will, which as yet thought and judged aright concerning God. "Now the serpent was more subtle," says our text, "than any beast of the field, which Jehovah God had made." But the subtlety manifested in this instance far exceeded all the natural subtlety of the serpent. For Satan here disputes with man concerning the Word and the will of God. This the serpent in his natural state and condition could not do; for in that, he was subject to the "dominion" of man. But the spirit which spoke in the serpent is so subtle that he overcomes man and persuades him to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree. It is not therefore a creature of God, in his created good state, that here speaks; but it is a spirit, who is the bitterest enemy of God and of men; a spirit, who is indeed a creature of God, but not created thus evil by God. It is a creature, who abode not in the truth; as Christ says, John 8:44. These facts are consequences, plainly resulting from the Gospel and from the text of Moses before us.
The subtlety which we are contemplating is seen also from the stratagem of Satan in attacking the weak part of human nature; namely Eve, the woman; and not Adam, the man. For although both of them were created equally righteous, yet Adam excelled Eve. For as in all the endowments of nature, the male strength exceeds that of the female sex, so in the state of the innocency and perfection of human nature, the male in some degree excelled the female. Hence Satan, seeing that Adam was the more excellent creature, dared not attack him; for he had fears lest his attempts should fail. And my belief is that if he had attempted Adam first, Adam would have had the victory. He would more likely have crushed the serpent with his foot, and would have said to him, "Hold your tongue. The Lord hath commanded otherwise." Satan therefore attacks Eve as the weaker part, and tries her strength. For he sees that she has so much trust in, and dependence on, her husband, that she will not think it possible that she should be persuaded to do wrong after what her husband had told her.
By this portion of the sacred record we are also instructed concerning the divine permission; that God sometimes permits the devil to enter into beasts, as he here entered into the serpent. For there can be no doubt that the serpent, in the assumption of whose form Satan talked with Eve was a real and natural serpent. But when men enter into discussions whether this serpent assumed on that occasion a human countenance, etc., all such discussions are absurd. The creature was doubtless a most beautiful serpent in its natural state; otherwise Eve would not have conversed with it so securely. After the sin of the fall however that beauty of the serpent was changed. For God's rebuke to him declares that hereafter "he should go upon his belly on the ground." Whereas before, he walked upright, as the male fowl. God also declares "that he should eat dust," whereas before, he fed upon better food, even upon the productions of the earth. Nay, even the original security of man with the serpent is lost. We flee from serpents at the sight of them, as they also flee from us.
These are all wounds, which have been inflicted on nature on account of sin; just in the same way we have lost the glory of our nakedness, the rectitude of our will and the soundness of our intellect and understanding. I believe also, that the serpent lost much of his subtlety, which Moses here lauds, as a distinguishing gift of God. Moreover, I believe that in the same proportion as the serpent is now an evil creature amidst the beasts, so it was then a good creature; and a blessed and lovely creature; a creature with which not man only, but all the other beasts also, lived in perfect freedom and with great pleasure. The serpent therefore was a creature, the best adapted of all the other living creatures for the purpose of Satan. By it he could secure the most easy access to Eve, and could the most effectually converse with her so as to draw her into sin.
Such is my opinion concerning the natural serpent, the beautiful nature of which Satan planned thus to abuse. I believe it was originally a most beautiful creature, without any poison in its tail and without those filthy scales with which it is now covered. For these grew upon it after the sin of the fall. Hence we find it a precept given by Moses that any beast, which should kill any person, should itself immediately be killed, Exod. 21:28; and for no other reason than because Satan sinned by using a beast when he murdered man. Hence also a serpent is killed wherever found, as a lasting memorial of this diabolical malice and this fall of man, wrought by his means.
With reference to the grammatical expression here used, the Latin interpreter renders the HebrewAPHKIby cur. Though this rendering is not very wide of the real sense of the passage, yet it does not convey the true and proper meaning. For it is the highest and greatest of all temptations, when a dispute is entered upon, concerning the counsel of God, why God did this or that. But my judgment is, that the weight of the matter does not rest on this particle of expression why? or wherefore? But rather on the name God,ELOHIM. It is this that constitutes the greatness and awfulness of the temptation.
It is as if Satan had said, "Ye must be foolish indeed if ye suppose that God could possibly be unwilling that ye should eat of this tree when he had himself given you 'dominion' over all the trees of paradise; nay, when he had positively created all the trees for your sakes. How can he, who bestowed as a free favor all things upon you, possibly envy you these particular fruits, which are so sweet and so pleasant!" For Satan's whole aim is to devise a means of drawing them away from the Word and from the knowledge of God, and to bring them to conclude that what they had stated was not really the will of God, and that such was not really what God had commanded them. That this is the true sense of the whole divine passage, that which follows tends to prove; when Satan says, "Ye shall not surely die." For all the stratagems of Satan centre in this one:—to draw men away from the Word, and from faith unto a new and false god.
And this same plan of Satan all fanatical spirits follow. Hence, Arius reasons and inquires, Do you really think that Christ is God, when he himself says, "My Father is greater than I?" In the same manner also the Sacramentarians ask, Do you really think that the bread is the body and the wine the blood of Christ? Christ most certainly had no thoughts so absurd. When men begin thus to indulge their own cogitations, they by degrees depart from the Word and fall into error.
Since therefore, the whole force of the temptation was in leading Eve to doubt whether God really did say so; it is a more correct rendering to leave the emphasis resting on the name of God. The leaving it to rest on the interrogative particle, why? takes away from the peculiar force of the meaning. In my judgment therefore the passage will be best rendered by making the emphasis to rest on thenot. Hath God said that ye shallnoteat of every tree of the garden? For Satan's real aim is, not to set up an inquiry why God said this. His object is to bring Eve to conclude that God had positively not so commanded, in order that by bringing her to this conclusion he might wrest from her the Word. Satan saw that the reasoning power of Eve might in this way be the most effectually deceived, if he drew away from her sight and judgment the Word of God, under the very name of God. And he thinks the same still.
This question of Satan is full of insidious deception. He does not speak particularly, but generally; he includes in his interrogation, all the trees of the garden together. As if he had said, "You have committed unto you an universal 'dominion' over all the beasts of the earth; and do you really suppose that God, who has thus given you 'dominion' over all the beasts of the earth, has not given you the same dominion over all the trees of the earth? Why, you ought rather to think that as God has put under you the whole earth and all the beasts of the earth; so he has also granted you the use of all things which grow upon the earth." This is indeed the very height and depth of temptation. Satan here endeavors to gain over the mind of Eve to his purpose, by artfully drawing her into the conclusion that God is never unlike himself; and that therefore if God had given them universal dominion over all the other creatures, he had given them universal dominion over all the trees also. From this therefore it would naturally follow that the commandment not to eat of the tree of life, was not the commandment of God; or that if it were his commandment, it was not so to be understood that he really wished them not to eat of that tree.
Wherefore this temptation was a double temptation, by which as a twofold means Satan aimed at the same end. The one part of the temptation is, "God hath not said this, therefore ye may eat of this tree." The second branch of this awful temptation is, "God hath given unto you all things; therefore all things are yours; and therefore this tree is not forbidden you, etc., etc." Now, both branches of this temptation are directed to the same object; to draw Eve away from the Word and from faith. For this commandment concerning not eating of this tree of knowledge, which God gave to Adam and to Eve, proves that Adam with his posterity, had they continued in their original innocency, would have lived in that perfection of nature by faith, until he and they had been translated from this corporeal life unto the life spiritual and eternal. For wherever the Word is, there of necessity is faith also. For the Word was this, "Of the tree of the knowledge, etc., thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam and Eve must therefore have believed that this tree involved in it something perilous to their salvation. Therefore in this very Word of commandment, faith also is included.
We, who are designed to be transferred from this state of sin to a state of eternal righteousness, also live by faith. But we have a Word, different from that which Adam had in his state of nature's innocence and perfection. For he was designed to be transferred simply from a state of animal life to that of a spiritual and eternal life. Wherefore this tree, as I have before observed, was intended of God to be a temple as it were in the midst of paradise, in which the Word God spoke to Adam might be preached. The substance of this Word was, that all the other trees of paradise were healthful and to be eaten; but that this tree of knowledge, involved in it the danger of destruction; and that therefore they should learn to obey God and his Word, and to render unto God his worship, by not eating of this tree, seeing that God had forbidden them to eat of this particular tree.
In this manner therefore nature, in its uncorrupt and perfect state, even while it possessed the knowledge of God, had yet a Word or precept of God, above the comprehension of Adam, which he was called upon to believe. And this Word or precept was delivered to man in his state of innocency, that Adam might have a sign or form of worshipping God, of giving him thanks, and of instructing his children in this knowledge of God. Now the devil, beholding this and knowing that this Word or precept of God was above the understanding of man, plies Eve with his temptation and draws her into thinking, whether this really was the commandment and will of God. And this is the very origin of all temptation; when the reason of man attempts to judge concerning the Word and God without the Word.
Now the will of God was that this his precept should be unto man an occasion of his obedience and of his external worship of God; and that this tree should be a sign, by means of which man should testify that he did obey God. But Satan by setting on foot the doubtful disputation, whether God really did give such a commandment, endeavors to draw man away from this obedience into sin. Here the salvation of Eve consisted solely in her determinately urging the commandment of God, and not suffering herself to be drawn aside into other disputations, whether God really had given such a commandment. And whether as God had created all things for man's sake, it could be possible that this one tree only was created, containing something incomprehensible and dangerous to man's salvation. It seems indeed unto men, to be a show of wisdom, to inquire into these things more curiously than is lawful. But as soon as the mind begins to indulge in such disputations, man is lost. But now let us hear the answer Eve makes to Satan:
Vs. 2, 3.And the woman said unto the serpent: Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest perchance ye die.
Eve's beginnings are successful enough. She makes a distinction between all the other trees of the garden and this tree. She rehearses the commandment of God. But when she comes to relate also the punishment, she fails. She does not relate the punishment, as it had been declared by the Lord. The Lord had said, absolutely, "For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," Gen. 2:17. Out of this absolute declaration, Eve makes an expression, not absolute, "Lest perchance ye should die."
This defect in the statement of Eve is very remarkable, and demands particular observation; for it proves that she had turned aside from faith to unbelief. For as the promise of God demands faith, so the threatening of God demands faith also. Eve ought to have made her statement as a fact, and a certainty. "If I eat, I shall surely die." This faith however Satan so assails, with his insidious speech, as to induce Eve to add the expression, "perchance." For the devil had effectually persuaded her to think that God surely was not so cruel as to kill her for merely tasting a fruit. Hence the heart of Eve was now filled with the poison of Satan.
This text therefore is also by no means properly translated in our version. The meaning of the original Hebrew is that Eve speaks her own words; whereas she is ostensibly reciting the Word of God; and that she adds to the Word of God her own expression, "perchance." Wherefore the artifice of the lying spirit has completely succeeded. For the object which he especially had in view; namely, to draw Eve away from the Word and from faith; he has now so far accomplished, as to cause Eve to corrupt the Word of God; or, to use the expression of Paul, "he has turned her aside from the will of God, and caused her to go after Satan", 1 Tim. 5:15. And the beginning of certain ruin is to be turned aside from God, and to be turned after Satan; that is, not to stand firmly in the Word and in faith. When Satan therefore sees this beginning in Eve, he plies against her his whole power as against a bowing wall, until she falls prostrate on the ground.
Vs. 4, 5.And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
This is the satanic rhetoric adopted by the tempter to prostrate utterly a poor weak woman; when he sees her turning away from God and inclined to listen to another teacher. Before, when he said in his satanic insidiousness, "Hath God, indeed, thus commanded you?" he did not positively deny the Word. He only attempted by speaking in the form of a question to draw Eve aside into doubting. But now, having fully accomplished his first point, he begins with daring presumption to deny the Word of God altogether, and to charge God himself with falsehood and cruelty. He is not now content with having caused Eve to add her expression, "perchance." Out of the "perchance," he now makes a plain and positive denial: "Ye shall not surely die."
We here witness therefore what a horrible thing it is when Satan once begins to tempt a man. For then ruin causes ruin and that which was at first apparently a trifling offense against God, ends eventually in a mighty destruction. It was an awful step into sin for Eve to turn from God and his Word and to lend her ears to Satan. But this her next step is more awful; for she now agrees with Satan, while he charges God with falsehood, and as it were smites him in the face. Eve therefore now is no longer the woman merely turned away from God, as in the first stage of her temptation. She now begins to join Satan in his contempt of God and in his denial of the truth of his Word. She now believes the father of lies, directly contrary to the Word of God.
Let these things therefore be to us a solemn lesson and a terrible proof, to teach us what man is! For if these things occurred in nature, while it was yet in its state of perfection, what shall we think may become of us! We have proofs, even now, before our eyes. Many, who at the commencement of our course gave thanks with us unto God for his revealed Word, are not only fallen away from it, but are become our bitterest adversaries!
Thus it was also with the Arians. No sooner had they begun to fall away from faith in the divinity of the Son, than they quickly grew into a violent enmity against him. So that they became the bitter enemies of the true Church and persecuted her with the greatest cruelty. Precisely the same examples of ultimate rage against the truth have we witnessed also in the Anabaptists. They were all led away from the Word, and tempted to use the doubtful expression, "perchance." Shortly after Satan drove them to turn the doubting "perchance" into a positive "not," "God hath not said," etc. Then from forsakers of God, they became the open persecutors of God, imitating in this their father, Satan; who after he had fallen from heaven by sin became the most bitter enemy of Christ and his church. Nor are examples of the very same description few in our day. For we have no enemies more bitter against us than those who have fallen away from the doctrine they once professed with us. And from this very sin that awful description which David has given us of the "fool" arose, Ps. 14:1: "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." For those thus fallen are not satisfied with having turned away from God, unless they have become the assailants also of God himself and of his Word.
Wherefore there is absolutely need that we abide by this rule, and moor ourselves to this sacred anchor as it were through life. Since it is agreed for a certainty that the Word, which we possess and confess, is the Word of God, we should assent and cleave to it with all simplicity of faith and not dispute concerning it with curious inquiry. For all inquiring and curious disputation bring with them most certain ruin.
Thus for instance we have the plain and manifest Word of Christ concerning the Lord's Supper, when he says concerning the bread, "This is my body, which is given for you," Luke 22:19. And concerning the cup, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood", 1 Cor. 11:25. When therefore fanatics depart from faith in these plain words, and fall into disputing how these things can be, they by degrees stray so far, as positively to deny that these are the words of Christ, and at length they fiercely fight against them. Just as it befell Eve, as recorded in the passage of Moses now before us.