[Thankful Jane]

Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner

That's one way to look at it. But where do you get the idea that Adam was even aware of the existence of the serpent? Unless I'm forgetting something, there is no data in the account that shows this. Adam may truly have been unaware of the serpent's existence much less his words.

Dear SC,

I got this idea from my husband who introduced me to a book by Larry Crabb entitled The Silence of Adam. Crabb points out the words I have italicized in the verse below which indicate that Adam was with Eve when she was deceived.

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.

I think it is a stretch to say that there is no evidence Adam was aware of the existence of the serpent, since at the very least he was present to hear what God said to the serpent, to Eve, and to himself. It appears that the serpent was there because God spoke directly to him and said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed…” Afterwards Adam named the woman Eve, which means the mother of all living. This name makes sense because He had heard God pronounce (to the serpent) that she would have seed (children) which meant they were not going to die, as should have been the case, but rather live.

Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner

Further, Adam was NOT deceived. We know this from Paul's word in 1 Timothy: "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." Do you really think he should admit to a sin he didn't commit?

I didn’t say Adam needed to repent in the garden for being deceived. It is true that he did not need to repent for being deceived, because the N.T. clearly says he was not deceived. What he needed to repent for in the garden was directly disobeying God’s earlier word to him not to eat of that tree. His sin was direct disobedience to God. However, the point I was trying to make was that we need to admit we are deceived like Eve did whenever we are found by God to have been deceived. I was applying this to our present situation. (I really don’t know why you thought I was saying Adam should repent for being deceived.)

Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner

Eve first sinned -- clearly sinned -- by adding to the Word of God. She added that they weren't even to touch the fruit of the tree. Unless the writer of Genesis left something out, this was Eve's theology.

And it seems so good. She is so opposed to the darn fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that she is willing to bolster God's commandment. Trouble is, she wasn't able to bolster her own resolve. Not only did she touch it, she ate it, and even offered it to her husband.

Genesis shows that Adam was the only one who was told directly by God not to take of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve was not formed yet, so she wasn’t there to hear this word for herself. God may have come back later and told her, but I think it is more likely that Adam told her what God had said. This means that it is possible that the words she heard were secondhand from Adam, and he may not have repeated them exactly. In other words, Adam may have been the one who was sloppy with the repetition of God’s words and taught Eve her word-added “theology.” Of course, it is possible, that he repeated them correctly, and she didn't remember them accurately.

Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner

Adam's transgression here is interesting. He followed his wife into sin. It may be that she had already lost her spiritual glow and/or that her nakedness was already apparent to Adam. This surely must have concerned him because now she was not unlike the very animals he had catalogued.

So you think she may have already lost her spiritual glow and/or her nakedness was already apparent to Adam so she was not unlike the very animals he had catalogued?! Whew. As far as I can tell this is pure speculation. What clue do you have to this in the Bible?

If you are saying that between the time she took a bite and he took a bite, he saw what had happened to her, that doesn’t make much sense. The Bible says that their eyes were opened to see that they were naked after they ate of the tree. Using this logic, this would mean that she would have seen first because her eyes were opened first… and if Adam by some means did see that something had changed about her, shouldn’t that have warned him not to take her up on her offer? After all, he was a pretty smart fellow to name all those animals.

Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner

He condescended to her level. He did it in full knowledge of the gravity of his act (again, 1 Timothy 2:14). Surely this is a picture of what Christ did in coming down to our level in the likeness of the flesh of sin. So to me, Adam did the right thing. He even, like Christ, took the fall, as it were quite literally.

The New Testament says that Adam was a figure of Christ, but I don’t think that this is referring to Adam’s fall. Christ was perfectly obedient to God in what He did. He was sinless. Adam was clearly disobedient and sinful in what he did. He did what God told him not to do when he ate of that tree. Christ was obedient to God's will. He didn't blame others or God for His death. Adam clearly blamed someone else, including God. It doesn’t fit that in his fall Adam was a figure of Christ.

Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner

Sorry if I've veered into another tributary here in the stream of this thread, but this stuff is just so interesting to me.
SC

I think this topic is a major turn off of this thread. I am guilty of opening the door to this further tributary by my comments to Mike. Sorry. Perhaps this is a topic for another thread (or forum J), that is, if it is of interest to you, SC, and/or to others.

I have never spent time on this topic until the last year or so, and have done so only because God kept having people talk to me about the subject and put books in my hand to read. I finally decided the Lord wanted me to educate myself about all this, so I’m in the learning process and looking closely at the Bible to confirm or refute what I read from others. That’s probably why this came to mind and I shared what I did to Mike. A lot of what I’ve learned to date has been a real blessing.

Thankful