The serpent's craft. The fall of our first parents. Their punishment.
The promise of a Redeemer.
3:1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth
which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God
commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?
3:2. And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that
are in paradise we do eat:
3:3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God
hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch
it, lest perhaps we die.
3:4. And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death.
3:5. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof,
your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and
evil.
3:6. And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the
eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and
did eat, and gave to her husband, who did eat.
3:7. And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived
themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made
themselves aprons.
And the eyes, etc... Not that they were blind before, (for the woman saw
that the tree was fair to the eyes, ver. 6.) nor yet that their eyes
were opened to any more perfect knowledge of good; but only to the
unhappy experience of having lost the good of original grace and
innocence, and incurred the dreadful evil of sin. From whence followed a
shame of their being naked; which they minded not before; because being
now stript of original grace, they quickly began to be subject to the
shameful rebellions of the flesh.
3:8. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise
at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of
the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise.
3:9. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou?
3:10. And he said: I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid,
because I was naked, and I hid myself.
3:11. And he said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked,
but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou
shouldst not eat?
3:12. And Adam said: The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion,
gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
3:13. And the Lord God said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? And
she answered: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.
3:14. And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this
thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon
thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life.
3:15. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and
her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her
heel.
She shall crush... Ipsa, the woman; so divers of the fathers read this
place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz., the seed.
The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the
woman crushes the serpent's head.
3:16. To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy
conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt
be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee.
3:17. And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of
thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that
thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and
toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.
3:18. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt
eat the herbs of the earth.
3:19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to
the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust
thou shalt return.
3:20. And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the
mother of all the living.
3:21. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and
clothed them.
3:22. And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and
evil: now therefore lest perhaps he put forth his hand and take also of
the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.
Behold Adam, etc... This was spoken by way of reproaching him with his
pride, in affecting a knowledge that might make him like to God.
3:23. And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till
the earth from which he was taken.
3:24. And he cast out Adam: and placed before the paradise of pleasure
Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of
the tree of life.