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The Woman and the Serpent (First Sunday in Lent)

Peter Hawkins and Eric Reymond discuss seduction, curiosity, craftiness, and misogyny in Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7. The text is appointed for the First Sunday in Lent, in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Transcript

Voiceover Voice:
There’s a playfulness of the text with the very premise of a talking snake.

Helena Martin:
This is Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study. Join us each week as two Yale Divinity School professors look at an upcoming text from the Revised Common Lectionary.

This week, we’re pivoting from the Season after the Epiphany to everyone’s favorite: Lent. To get us started on this new liturgical season, we have Peter Hawkins, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Literature, and Senior Lector Eric Reymond.

They’re discussing Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, which is appointed for the First Sunday in Lent in Year A. Here’s the text.

[Genesis 2:15-17 and 3:1-7]
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’”

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Peter Hawkins:
Oh boy, Eric. There’s a lot in this text. We’ve got our talking snake. We’ve got an active woman. We have a lot for you to help me with, okay? The serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the Lord God had made. So the Lord God is responsible for the serpent, and for the serpents craftiness or the am I asking the wrong question? Help me with crafty.

Eric Reymond:
Right. So, in Hebrew, the word is arum. And here again, we have a wordplay in the text where if you’re reading from chapter two into chapter three, it’s really unmistakable and impossible to not notice the verse that precedes chapter 3:1 is the end of chapter 2:25. And it says the two of them, referring to Adam and Eve, they were arumim. And in verse 25 arumim means naked. They were naked, but they weren’t bothered by it. The next verse says the snake was arum. Crafty in this context, craftier than all the other animals. The words are different. Analogically they’re not directly related to each other, but two words sound almost identical. And through that connection of the similar sounds, I think we’re meant to call attention, or the author is calling attention, to the connection between a knowledge and craftiness and the knowledge of their nakedness, which plays in the last part of the passage where they realize that they are naked at that point and hide themselves.

Peter Hawkins:
The serpent takes us back to Genesis 1, but with an addition. In Genesis 1, there’s all the trees with their seed bearing fruit and the herbs of the field. All of those are fit to be eaten. But then we’re told here that there’s one tree that’s off limits. So new information in this passage, and then the serpent plays with that and plays with Eve who gets brought into it. What do you think her trespass really amounts to?

Eric Reymond:
Well, I mean, I think it’s a curious story. I know it’s an important, significant text for many reasons, and it becomes the starting point for many other famous poems and works.

Peter Hawkins:
You’re thinking of Paradise Lost.

Eric Reymond:
I am. I am actually. Yeah. And not all of these, not all of the things that are drawn from the text are necessarily positive things. But I think that there’s a playfulness of the text with the very premise of a talking snake and the fact that you seem to never get the straight truth from anyone. God’s warning is if you eat of the tree at the middle of the garden, you will certainly die. And not to do it. But then they don’t die. And, this plays with the well, she observes the fruit and she makes a determination that the fruit looks good to eat, good for food. It’s attractive in terms of it doesn’t look ugly.

Peter Hawkins:
And there’s going to be a pay-off.

Eric Reymond:
And there’s going to be a payoff. That it’s going to provide understanding and intelligence. And there’s the same word for, it’s attractive in order for it to provide intelligence. The word, lǝhaśkîl is the same word that’s used to describe the king and the king’s role in the other passages in the Bible that described the successor to David. That he is going to rule with haśkîl. With the same root.

And so it seems in some ways that although Eve, in certainly later tradition, is portrayed in a negative light for her transgression. In some ways that the way it’s written. It seems like she is pursuing it for some positive reasons. Not simply being seduced, though certainly that’s an element of it as well.

Peter Hawkins:
Is Adam seduced?

Eric Reymond:
He seems to be not so much an active participant in the early part of it. It seems more like his role in the story is his interactions with God.

Peter Hawkins:
But here rather than being with God, he’s with Eve.

Eric Reymond:
That’s right. Yeah.

Peter Hawkins:
Is it the heart of all of this disobedience? A command was given, you may do this, but you may not do that. And then the serpent wants to finesse that, and Eve and Adam buy that finessing.

Eric Reymond:
Right.

Peter Hawkins:
But there’s a clear command and it has to do with food. I’m just thinking about the Hebrew Jewishness of all of this, where commands are essential later on in terms of law, and we’re eating what you eating. What you don’t eat is at the core of so much of practice.

Eric Reymond:
Sure.

Peter Hawkins:
So, I’m wondering what’s at stake in this, in terms of obedience and disobedience.

Eric Reymond:
Right. You would think that one of the prohibitions would be against the fruit that was, or a similar kind of fruit that was eaten here. But, yes, the transgressions with regard to consuming this one, this one thing that you should not do. I mean, it’s sort of highlighted that there’s so many other possibilities for you to choose from. It’s the one thing that you’re not supposed to do is what gets violated.

Peter Hawkins:
Yeah. I’m thinking of the first creation story where the humans are told to increase and multiply.

Eric Reymond:
Right.

Peter Hawkins:
And they’re told to eat everything that’s a plant. And they’re told what else? They’re told to fill the earth and rein over it or subdue it. Have dominion over it.

Eric Reymond:
Dominion over it, yeah.

Peter Hawkins:
But in the second version, the only thing they’re told to do is not do one thing. Eve comes off really badly in the tradition.

Eric Reymond:
Right.

Peter Hawkins:
She’s Adam’s rib, as opposed to the crown of creation. Another way to view her sequence of birth. And here she’s interesting. She’s curious. Things that we value, and yet the traditional interpretation of this passage is to say she took over. Adam didn’t control her. She was bamboozled. She was seduced. And we then bear the result of that. She gets a bum rap on the basis of this passage.

Eric Reymond:
Sure. Building off of that, of course, the misogyny that is a later effect of that.

Helena Martin:
Thanks for listening. And thank you, Professors Hawkins and Reymond, for getting us started for Lent this year.

Remember to rate and subscribe to this podcast wherever you’re listening, and visit our website: YaleBibleStudy.org.

Chapter, Verse, and Season is a production of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. It’s produced by: Creator and Managing Editor, Joel Baden; Production Manager, Kelly Morrissey; Associate Producer, Aidan Stoddart; and I’m your Host and Executive Producer, Helena Martin. Mixing on today’s episode, and our theme music, are by Calvin Linderman.

We’ll be back with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.

Book of the Bible:
Genesis
Subjects:
Genesis

Guests

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Dr. Peter S. Hawkins
Dr. Eric D. Reymond
Dr. Eric D. Reymond

Text

New Revised Standard Version Bible
Copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Credits

Host and Executive Producer: Helena Martin
Production Manager: Kelly Morrissey
Creator and Managing Editor: Joel Baden
Assistant Producer: Aidan Stoddart
Music: Calvin Linderman

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A Dazzling Darkness (2nd Sunday after Christmast)

Awet Andemicael and Adam Eitel discuss the mystery, language and lyricism in John 1:1-18. The text is appointed for the Second Sunday after Christmas, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

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Young Jesus in the Temple (1st Sunday after Christmas)

Gregory Sterling and Harold Attridge discuss the humanity of young Jesus and the role of Mary as mother in Luke 2:41-52. The text is appointed for the First Sunday after Christmas, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

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Expectations (Christmas)

Sarah Drummond and Joel Baden discuss birth, kingship and signs of God’s redemption in Isaiah 9:2-7. The text is appointed for Christmas (Proper 1), December 24, Years A, B, and C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

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Mary’s Vibrant Language (Advent 4)

Felicity Harley-McGowan and Bruce Gordon discuss the Magnificat and our understanding of Mary through the ages in relation to Luke 1:46b-55. The text is appointed for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent 4), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

 

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Hope vs. Anesthesia (Advent 3)

Joel Baden and Sarah Drummond discuss hope, apathy, and why the context of prophecy matters in Zephaniah 3:14-20. The text is appointed for the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent 3), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

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A Reason to Hope (Advent 2)

Peter Hawkins and Eric Reymond discuss disaster and hope, glory, and reversal in Baruch 5:1-9. The text is appointed for the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent 2), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

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The Righteous Branch (Advent 1)

Joel Baden and Tisa Wenger discuss messianic prophecy, timelessness, and historic context in Jeremiah 33:14-16. The text is appointed for the First Sunday of Advent (Advent 1), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

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Introducing Chapter, Verse, and Season

Chapter, Verse, and Season gives listeners the opportunity to overhear the kinds of conversations that take place in the halls of Yale Divinity School. Each week, professors from different theological disciplines chat about biblical texts from the Revised Common Lectionary. They bring their own interests to the table and hopefully spark new insights into the scripture appointed for each Sunday.

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