The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 137

restoring sight t~ the Llind _(2 Kin.i;s vi. signe,l to indicate the complete per.-cc,rlon 17, 20; Pa. cxlv1. 8; Isa. xln. 7), 1s nl~o hy Evo of the Divine purpose of her ninr- usetl to tlcnoto tho impartation of power to riegc with Adam, which was to be a help- rerccil·o (physically, mentally, spiritno.lly) meet for him, and not bis destroyer. With objects i1ot ot!-.C"rwisc disccrniblo (er. ~h. xxi. her. An indication that A,lam wets prcscn t 19 ; Is:i.. xxxv. 6). Here it wns designed to throughout the whole preceding scene (Dc- be amuiguous; liko all Satan's oracles, sug- litzsch, Wordsworth), which is not likely, gesting to tho hearer tho nttainment of higher else why did he not reStrnin Eve I or that he wisdom, but meaning in the intention of the arrived just as the temptation closecl (Calvin), speaker only o. discovery of their nnkcdncss. which is only a conjecture ; better regardecl The samo ambi~ity o.ttachcs to the devil's as a rP-forence to their conjugal oneness exposition of his own text. And ye shall (Macdonald). And he did eat. And so in- be as gods. Literally, as Elohim; not w,; volved himself in the criminality of his 6ml (LXX. ), sicut dii (Vnlgate), o.s gods already guilty partner; not simply ~s being (A. V. ), as the angels (R. J onnthan), o.s the "captivated with her allurements"(" fondly devils (.Ainsworth), da:monibusque, diisve overcome with female charms"-:11Iilton, 'Par. siiniles (Rosenmiillcr), as princes (White) ; Lost,' Book x.), which 1 Tim. ii. U is sup- but o.s the supreme Deity (Calvin, Keil, posed to justify; but likewise as being" per- Kalisch, et ahi)-ostensibly a promise of suaded by Satan's impostures," which doubt- divinity. Knowing good and evil. As they less Eve had related to him. This much i.s knew this o.heacly from the prohibition, the distinctly implied in those Scriptures which language must imply a fulness and nccnracy speak of Adam as the chief transgressor of understanding such as was competent only (vide Rom. v. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22). to Elohim (vide on ver. 22). Ver. 7.-And the eye9 of them both were Ver. 6.-And (when) the woman saw. opened. The fatal deed committed, the "An impure look, infected with the poison promised results ensued, but not the anti- of concupiscence" (Culvin); cf. Joshua viL cipated blessings. (1) The eyes of their 21. That the trea was good for food. " The minds were opened to perceive that they fruit of this tree may have been neither poi- were no longer innocent, and (2) the eyes sonous nor beautiful, or it may have been of their bodies to behold that they were not both ; but sin has the strange power of in- precisely as they had been. And they knew vesting the object of tlesire for the time being, that they were na.ked. (1) Spiritua.l.ly (cf. whatever its tme chamcter, with a wonderful Exod. xxxiL 25 ; Ezek. xvi 22 ; Rev. iii. attraction" (Inglis). And that it (was) plea- 17), o.nd (2) corporeally, having lost that sant. Li ternlly, n desire (Ps. x. 17), a lust enswathing light of'purity which previously (Num. xL 4). To tho eyes. 'Aprarov roi,; en girt their bodies (vide eh. iL 25 ). And li<f,6a">-..µoi,;: (LXX.) ; pulchrum oculia (Vul- they sewed. Literally, fastened or tied by i:ate); lustyc unto the eyes (Covc1·dale) ; i. e. twisting. Fig leaves. Not the pisang treo stimulating desire through the eyes (cf. 1 (Musa Paradisiaca), whose leaves attain tho John iL 16). And a tree to be desired to length of twelve feet and the breadth of two (Knobel Bohlen) ; but the common fig tree make (onc)wiso. ~•:;,?1;:i~ (from ~~~-(1) to (Ficus Garica), which is aboriginal in West- look nt, to bcholtl ; hence (2) to be prudent ern Asia, especially in Persia, Syria, and .A,s;a 1 Sam. xviiL 30. Hiph., (1) to look at; (2) Minor (Kalisch, Keil, Jl,Iacdona!J). Together, to turn tho mind to ; (3) to bo or become and me.de themselves aprons. Literally, understanding, Ps. ii. 10) being suscept- ginlles, .,,.,p,/;wµara (LXX.), i. e. to ,n-ap ible of two renderings, tho clause has been nbout their loins. This sense of shame which to.ken to mean "I\ tree desirable to look nt" causetl them to seek a covering for their (Syriac, Onkelos, Vulgate, Gesenius, Kalisch, nuility was not due to any physicnl cormp- Wordsworth), or, more correctly, as it stnnds tion of the body (Baumgarten), but to the in the English Version, the external loveli- consciousness of guilt \\;th which their souls ness of the tree having been nlrendy stated were laden, and which impelle,l them to llco in tl~e preceding clause (LXX., Aben Ezra, from the prescn~,, of their olfcnded Sovereign. Colvm, Hengstenberg, Mo.cdonald). This is the third time the chD.I'ms of the trco aro TRADITIO"NS OF THE FALL. discerned and expressed by the woman-a significant intimation of how for the· Divine I. Oi:rn:ITAL. I. Babylonian. "There interdict had recetlod from her consciousness. is nothing in the Chaldean fragments indi- Bhe took of the fruit thereof, and did eat. cating n belief in the garden of Ellen or the Thus~onsummatingthesin(Jamosi.15). And tree of knowledgo ; there is only an obscuro go.ve also to her husband. Being desirous, doubtless, ·of ma!dng him n shnrer in her nllusiou to n thirst for knowledge having supposed folicity. '.l'he fil'st time Adam is been n canse of man's fall" . . . The Jctail~ 1tyled Eve's husband, or man ; perhnps de- of the temptation are lost in the cnn•)iform  60 TIIE BOOK OF GENESIS. [cR. Ill. 1-7.