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Having spoken about the nakedness of the ancestors, which, with heavenly clothing, was beautiful and did not serve as a reason for shame, Moses turns to the story of the serpent’s cunning and says: “The serpent was wisest of all the beasts that are on the earth, which the Lord God made” (Gen. 3:1). The serpent was more cunning than the dumb animals controlled by man, but if his cunning exceeded the level to which animals are placed, it does not follow from this that he rose to the level of man. God created the serpent more cunning than dumb beasts and more cunning than irrational animals, but since he did not have reason, it is clear that he did not have human wisdom. Adam surpassed the serpent in the very image of creation, and in soul, and in mind, and in the glory with which he was endowed, and in his place of residence, and therefore it is clear that he is immeasurably superior to the serpent in cunning. Adam surpassed all beasts in wisdom, because God made him their ruler and ruler; he was the most cunning of all, because he gave names to everyone. Just as the Israelites could not look at the face of Moses without a veil, so the animals could not look at the bright image of Adam. Having lowered their eyes, they passed in front of him when he named them, because their eyes could not look at his glory. So, although the serpent was more cunning than the beasts, he was nevertheless foolish before Adam and Eve, the lords of the beasts. Having spoken about the cunning of the serpent, Moses turns to the story of his malicious approach to Eve and says: “And the serpent said to the woman: Did God truly say: Do not eat from every tree of paradise?” (Gen.3:1). The serpent spoke, and it was either the hissing characteristic of the serpent, which Adam understood, or Satan spoke into the serpent, or the serpent, by his own intention, asked for the gift of speech, or Satan asked God to give this gift of speech to the serpent for a while. But the tempting word would not have led those tempted into sin if the tempter had not been guided by their own desire. Even if the tempter had not come, the tree itself would have led them into the fight with its beauty. Although the first parents sought excuses for themselves in the advice of the serpent, it was their own desire that harmed them more than the advice of the serpent. For it is said: “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eye... and it was desirable in appearance: and she took of its fruit and tasted poison” (Gen. 3:6). And if a wife is conquered by the beauty of the tree and the pleasantness of its fruit, then she is not conquered by the advice that has entered her ear. She was led into crime by a desire that was revealed in herself. But since the commandment was given for testing, it was an opportunity for the tempter to come. What was created in paradise and outside of paradise, God gave all this to man out of goodness and did not demand anything from him for what he created, but adorned him and clothed him with glory. Whatever was in paradise, on earth, in the air and waters was all given to man out of goodness, but only the tree was taken away from him in truth. When God created man, He did not make him mortal, but He did not create him immortal either, so that Adam himself, by observing or breaking a commandment, would acquire for himself from one of the two trees what he wanted. And although God created the tree of life, he hid it from Adam; firstly, so that with its beauty it would not lead the ancestors into the struggle and would not aggravate the struggle, and, secondly, in order to preserve the commandment of the Invisible, they should not find motivation (to seek encouragement) in the reward that was before their eyes. Although God gave everything to the first parents out of goodness, he wanted to give them immortal life, which was acquired by eating the fruits of the tree of life. Therefore, he gave them only a commandment, and it was not so great, it could not be equal to the abundant reward prepared for them. And having forbidden them to eat the fruits of one tree, so that they would be under the commandment, God gave them the whole of paradise - so that they would not be forced to break the law due to a lack of food. But although, as I said, the test was necessary, God did not allow Satan to send any Angel, or Seraphim, or Cherubim to Adam for this purpose. He also did not allow Satan himself to come to Adam in the Garden of Eden in human or divine form, as he approached our Lord on the mountain. Nor did any larger or better beasts, the hippopotamus and the leviathan, come to Adam, nor did any other beasts or clean animals come, lest this serve as some kind of excuse for those who transgressed the commandment. It was allowed for the serpent to come to them, who, although cunning, is immeasurably despicable and vile. The serpent, having approached the people, did not perform any real miracle, did not even take on a false appearance, but appeared in the form that it had: he appeared as a reptile, with his eyes drooping down, because he could not look at the radiance of the image of the one he wanted to tempt. Out of fear, he did not come to Adam, but came to Eve in order to quickly persuade her to eat the fruits of that tree from which it was forbidden to eat - while she had not yet tasted the fruits allowed to her from thousands and those (darkness, that is, tens of thousands) of other trees. She did not eat, not because she was fasting, but because hunger had not yet taken possession of her, for she had only just been created. Of course, the serpent was not forbidden to go with such haste to Eve, for this haste of the serpent did not serve in his favor. He came at a time when Eve, barely created, did not yet know what hunger was, and the beauty of the tree did not arouse in her a struggle of desires. So, since Eve did not feel hungry, and the tree did not lead her into struggle, the serpent was not prevented from becoming her tempter. For if Eve had won in a short battle and in a short struggle, and the serpent, and whoever was in the serpent, had suffered the punishment that they suffered, then Eve and her husband would have tasted the fruits of life and acquired eternal life, having received in truth the existence that was promised to them; they would truly begin to possess everything that was previously given to them by goodness. Therefore the tempter hastened to come, and was not restrained. The very fact that the tempter comes along with the commandment could convince those being tempted that he is the tempter and warn them against his wiles. The tempter comes and promises them something great, but he could not boast about anything small. And the one who was in the serpent said this to his wife through him: “Did God truly say: Do not eat from every tree of paradise?” (Gen.3:1). Here it should be noted that the commandment would be great if it were forbidden to eat the fruits of all trees, according to what the serpent said, and since the opposite was commanded, the commandment was almost not considered a commandment, for it was very light and given only for a while, until the tempter departed from them. Eve answered the serpent and said: “We will eat the fruit of every tree of paradise: but from the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of paradise, God said, do not eat from it, but touch it, lest you die” (Gen. 3: 2-3). The serpent and those who were in the serpent, hearing that the fruits of all the trees of paradise were given to them for food, and that it was forbidden to eat the fruits of only one tree, already thought that they should leave in shame, for they saw that they had nothing to promise. Therefore, the tempter pays attention to the very commandment of the One who gave it, which was forbidden not only to eat the fruits of the tree, but even to approach it, and he realized that God warned them against looking at the tree, so that they would not be captivated by its beauty, and therefore inclines Eve to turn her gaze to it and says: “You will not die. For God knows that if you take away the day from him, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like a god, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5). Eve did not delve into the words of the serpent, did not judge that he, as a tempter, was saying the opposite of what God said, did not object to the serpent with his own words and did not say: “How can my eyes be opened when they are not closed? And how, having eaten the fruit of the tree, do I know good and evil, when even before eating I have such knowledge? She lost sight of what she should have said in response to the serpent, and at his request, she turned her eyes away from the serpent that was in front of her, fixing her gaze on the tree, which was forbidden to approach. The serpent fell silent because he had long noticed her guilt. It was not so much the promise that Eve heard that convinced her to taste the fruit of this tree, but rather that her gaze fixed on the tree seduced her into plucking its fruit and eating it. Eve could say to the serpent: “If I am deprived of sight, then how can I see everything visible? If I don’t know how to distinguish between good and evil, then why do I understand whether your promise is good or bad? Why do I know that it is good to be a god, and that it is desirable to have open eyes? How do I know that death is evil if I am deprived of it - and why did you come to me? Your coming to us testifies that we have all this, for I know your promise with the vision that I already have, and with the ability to distinguish between good and bad, which I already have. If I have what you promise me, then where is all your cunning, since your cunning did not hide from me? - But Eve did not say that to the serpent, for, having said so, she would have defeated him, but she fixed her gaze on the tree in order to be defeated more quickly. Eve, having given herself over to the desire of her eyes and longing to be the god that the serpent promised her, picks the forbidden fruit and eats it secretly from her husband, and then gives it to her husband, who also eats it. Since Eve believed the serpent, she hastened and tasted before her husband, hoping that, already endued with divinity, she would return to the one from whom she came as a man. She hastened to taste her husband first, in order to become the head of the one who was her head, to become the mistress of the one from whom she had to receive commands, to appear in divinity older than the one before whom she was younger in humanity. When she tasted it and did not become more excellent than before, although she did not diminish, she did not have her eyes opened, because she did not become a god, as she expected, and did not notice that her eyes were opened to see her nakedness, then she brought the fruit to her husband, and with many requests persuaded him to taste, although it is not written that she begged him. So, Eve, having eaten, did not die, as God said, but she also did not become a god, as the serpent said. If her nakedness had been revealed, then Adam would have been in fear and would not have tasted, and although he would not have become guilty as one who had not tasted, he would not have been a winner - as one who had not been tempted. In this case, Adam would have restrained himself from eating the naked woman, and not by love for Him who gave the commandment or by the fear of God. Since it was necessary that Adam should not be tempted for a long time by the deception of Eve, as she was tempted by the promise of the serpent, then Eve approached the tree, ate its fruit, and her nakedness was not revealed. When she deceived Adam, and he also tasted it, then the Scripture says: “The eyes of both were opened, and they understood that the Nazis were besha” (Gen. 3:7). So, their eyes were opened, but not in order to become gods for them, as the serpent said, but in order to see their nakedness, which is what the enemy wanted. That is why the eyes of the first parents were first opened to see everything; they are imprisoned so that they do not see the tree of life and their own nakedness. The enemy was jealous of the first parents, for they, in glory and the gift of speech, appeared above everything on earth; they alone were promised eternal life, which the tree of life could give. Thus, envying both what Adam had and what he should have acquired, the enemy plots his intrigues and in a short-term battle takes away from them what they should not have lost in a long struggle. If the serpent had not drawn them into crime, then they would have tasted the fruits of the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would not have become forbidden to them, for from one of these trees they would have acquired infallible knowledge, and from the other they would have received eternal life and would have become godlike in humanity. The first parents would have acquired infallible knowledge and immortal life while still in the flesh, but the serpent, with his promise, deprived them of what they could have acquired, and assured them that they would acquire it by breaking the commandment - and all for the sole purpose of not acquiring what God had promised through keeping the commandment. Having promised that they would be “like gods” (Gen. 3:5), he deprived them of this, and so that the promised tree of life would not enlighten their eyes, he promised that the tree of knowledge would open their eyes. If the forefathers had wanted and repented after breaking the commandment, then although they would not have regained what they had before breaking the commandment, they would at least have gotten rid of the curses that were pronounced on the earth and on them. Of course, God delayed coming to them so that they would realize their mutual guilt, and when He, the Merciful Judge, came to them, they would begin to beg him. The coming of the serpent was not delayed, so that the beautiful appearance of the tree would not increase the temptation. The judge delayed coming to give the ancestors the opportunity to prepare for prayer. But the haste of the tempter did not help them, although this haste could have served to their advantage; They did not take advantage of the slowness of the Judge, although this slowness had the same purpose. “And she heard the voice of the Lord God going into paradise at noon: and she hid herself... from the presence of the Lord God in the midst of the tree of paradise” (Gen. 3:8). Not only by the long-suffering shown to the first parents, God wanted to help them, but also by the sound of His feet He wanted to help them; His quiet feet made a voice (sound) for this purpose, so that they would prepare to beg Him who sent this voice. When neither His slowness nor the voice that preceded Him caused them to come and appear to Him in silence, then God added the voice of His mouth to the voice of His feet and said: “Adam, where are you?” (Gen.3:9). But Adam, instead of confessing his guilt and begging the Merciful before He pronounces judgment on him, says: “I heard Your voice... in paradise, and I was afraid, for I saw that I was naked, and hid myself” (Gen. 3:10). The voice of the feet, which preceded God and announced the condemnation of Adam, depicted the voice of John, which must precede the Son of God: “And the spade is in His hand, and He will cut off His threshing floor... He will burn the chaff with fire... The wheat... He will cleanse it to put it in His barn” ** (Matthew 3:12). “I heard Your voice... and I was afraid.” When did you hear His voice, as you heard it now? For when He created you, brought you into paradise, brought a dream upon you, took your rib, created and brought a wife to you, you did not hear His voice. If hearing His voice is something completely new for you, then understand at least now that the voice of the Divine feet was so that your lips would bring prayer. Tell God, before he asks you, about the coming of the serpent, about your crime and Eve. The confession of your lips, perhaps, will cleanse you from the sin that your hands committed when they plucked the fruit. But the ancestors did not confess what they themselves had done, but told the Omniscient One what was happening in them. “Adam, where are you?” Have you become God, as the serpent promised you, or have you fallen under the power of death, as I threatened you, if you eat the fruit of the tree? Consider, Adam: if instead of the serpent who passed to you, this most despicable creature, an Angel or another higher being came to you, would it be fair for you to despise the commandment of the One who gave you everything, and to heed the promise of the one who has hitherto not shown you any good? Would it be fair for you to regard as unkind the One who created you from nothing and made you the second god over the universe, but to consider as good the One who only promised you good in words? If, in a manifestation of power, some higher being came to you and offered its promises, then even then you would not have to do so. It was all the more wrong when the serpent came to you without showing any signs or wonders. But you, according to one empty word he said, lied to your God and believed the liar, considered the One who gave you all the blessings and made you ruler over everything to be false; recognized as faithful the liar who acted maliciously towards you in order to deprive you of all power. If the serpent had been forbidden to come and tempt Adam, then those who now complain that the serpent had come would then complain that the serpent was forbidden to come. They would argue that the serpent was forbidden to come to Adam out of envy, so that Adam, after a short-term temptation, would not acquire eternal life; and those same ones who now say that if the serpent had not come, then Adam would not have sinned, would argue that if the serpent had come, then Adam would not have sinned. Just as they are now confident in the justice of what they affirm (that if the serpent had not come, then Adam and Eve would not have sinned), so they would begin to assure themselves even more of the justice of the fact that if the serpent (after God’s prohibition) had come, they would not have sinned. And which of this would be more probable if the fact itself did not show that Adam obeyed the serpent, and Eve obeyed the reptile? “I heard Your voice... and was afraid... and hid myself” because he kept silent about what should have been said, and instead spoke about what was not necessary. Instead of admitting what he himself did, which would have been much more useful for him, Adam retells what happened in him, that is, he talks about what was useless for him. God says to him: “Who can tell you that you are naked, except from the tree that commanded you... from which you came” (Gen. 3:11). You saw your nakedness with the sight that was given to you by the tree, which promised you divine sight. But Adam does not confess his guilt, but accuses a wife similar to himself: “Woman, even as you gave with me, you gave from the tree, and it died” (Gen. 3:12) - it was not I who approached the tree, but my hand stretched out to the forbidden fruit. That is why the apostle says that it was not Adam who sinned, but Eve who transgressed the commandment (1 Tim. 2:14). But if God gave you, Adam, a wife, he gave it so that she would help you and not harm you, would be subordinate to you, and would not command you. When Adam did not want to confess his guilt, then God turns to Eve with a question and says: “Why have you done these things” (Gen. 3:13). And Eve, instead of begging with tears and taking the blame upon herself, as if not wanting to seek forgiveness for herself and her husband, does not say what promise the serpent gave her and how he convinced her, but says simply: “The serpent deceived me, and poisoned me” (Gen. 3:13). When both were questioned, and it was revealed that they had neither repentance nor true justification, then God turned to the serpent, but not with a question, but with a definition of punishment. For where there was a place for repentance, the question was raised, and whoever is alien to repentance, the verdict of the court was directly pronounced to him. And that the serpent could not bring repentance, we understand from the words of God: “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle” (Gen. 3:14), - and here the serpent does not say that he did not do this (temptation), for he is afraid to lie, but he also does not say that he did, because repentance is alien to him. “Cursed are you from all the cattle,” because you deceived those who were appointed rulers over all the cattle. And since you are more cunning than all the beasts, you will be cursed “and from all the beasts of the earth... and on your belly you will walk” (Gen. 3:14) - for you subjected your wife to the diseases of birth. “Take away the earth all the days of your life,” because Adam and Eve were deprived of the fruit of the tree of life. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed” (Gen. 3:15), because you deceived the woman and those born by her and enslaved them to death with your insidious love. Explaining the enmity that lies between the serpent and the woman, between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman, God says: “He will erase your head” *** (Gen. 3:15), - that head that you wanted to free from the slavery of her Seed, and you will bruise him (the serpent) not on the ear, but on the heel. Although, by the very justice, the ruling of the judgment should first have been spoken to the serpent, for where the crime begins, there the punishment must begin, but God began with this despicable one, of course, so that while the wrath of justice was directed at him alone, Adam and Eve would come to fear and repent, and thus the possibility of His goodness would open up to free them from the curses of justice. When the serpent was cursed, and Adam and Eve did not resort to prayer, then God pronounces punishment on them. He turns to Eve, because by her hand sin was given to Adam, and pronounces a sentence of judgment on her, saying: “I will multiply your sorrows and your conception, and in pain you will give birth to children” (Gen. 3:16). Although Eve would have given birth with the blessing of childbearing, which was given to her along with all living creatures, she would have given birth to few, because those born to her would have been immortal. Moreover, she would become free from the diseases of birth, from worries during the upbringing of those born and from sorrows about their death. “And your appeal is to your husband” - so that you will be under his authority, and not to rule yourself - “and he will rule over you” (Gen. 3:16), because you hoped, after eating the fruit of the tree, to dominate him yourself. When God spoke the decree to Eve, no repentance was found in Adam; then he imposes punishment on him and says: “Because you listened to the voice of your wife, and agreed to eat of the tree, which alone you were commanded not to eat... the ground is cursed for your sake” (Gen. 3:17). Although the innocent earth is punished for the guilty Adam, yet Adam, who could suffer, was subjected to the curse of the earth, which cannot suffer. Since the earth became cursed, the one who was not cursed also fell under the curse. God did not say that man would be punished by the curse to which the earth falls, for he himself pronounced the sentence, saying: “Bear this in sorrow all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:17), for breaking the commandment. Just as if you had kept the commandment you would have eaten its fruits without worry, so now, after sin, the land will “grow thorns and thistles for you,” which it would not have grown if you had not sinned. “Take down the grass,” because, having heeded the empty seduction of your wife, you despised the coveted fruits of paradise: “in the sweat of your brow, take away your bread,” because you did not want to enjoy the consolations of the Garden of Eden without any labor. And so it will continue for you, “until you return to the land from which you were taken,” because you despised the commandment, which would soon have given you eternal life, until you were allowed to taste the fruits of the tree of life. And since you are from the earth, but have forgotten this, then “return to the earth” (Gen. 3:18–19), and through this humiliation you will know what you are. And Satan, created on the same six days when the serpent into whom he entered was created, was as beautiful until that sixth day as Adam and Eve were before they transgressed the commandment. But Satan, who on the same day had already secretly become Satan, was accused and condemned then secretly, because God did not want to reveal His judgment against him to the ancestors, so that they could not foreknow his temptations. That is why the wife said: “The serpent has deceived me” (Gen. 3:13), and not Satan. So Satan was condemned secretly, and with him all his armies were condemned. The sin is great, but the punishment would seem small if it befell only one or some. However, now, just as Eve and all her daughters were destined for the pains of birth, just as Adam and all his children were destined for sorrow and death, just as the serpent and all his seed were destined to be trampled upon, so he who was in the serpent with all his armies was destined to go into the fire. But this is hidden in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament by our Lord, Who says: “As for the judgment, because the prince of this world was condemned” (John 16:11), that is, he (Satan) was then accused. Having spoken about the punishment that the tempter and the tempted suffered, Moses writes about how “the Lord God made Adam and his wife garments of leather, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). Those vestments were either made from animal skins or created again, because, according to Moses, the Lord created these vestments and clothed Adam and Eve with them. One might think that the ancestors, touching their girdles with their hands, found that they were clothed in vestments made of the skins of animals, killed, perhaps, before their own eyes, so that they would eat their meat, cover their nakedness with the skins, and in the very death of the animals they saw the death of their own body. After this, “God said: Behold, Adam was one of Us, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:22). In the words: “to be one of Us,” God reveals the secret of the Holy Trinity, but at the same time he laughs at Adam, recalling what the serpent said: “you will be like a god, knowing good and evil.” Of course, Adam and Eve, after eating the fruit of the tree, knew good and evil, but even before eating they knew good from experience, they only heard about evil; after eating, the opposite happened: they only began to hear about good things, but to experience bad things in practice, for God took away from them the glory with which they were invested, but they were overcome by sorrows that had not previously touched them. “And now, lest he stretch out his hand and take from the tree of life and cut it down, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22). If Adam dared to eat the fruits of a tree from which it was forbidden to eat, then how much more will he rush to the tree whose fruits were not forbidden to eat? But since God had already determined for the first parents to spend their lives in work and sweat, in sorrows and illnesses, so that having eaten the fruit from the tree of life and receiving eternal life, they would not suffer forever in this life, God did not allow those who had fallen under the curse to taste the fruits of the tree that He had prepared (for their immortality) to give them to them when they were free from curses and clothed with glory. He did this so that the life-giving gift would not lead to their misfortune, and what they received from the tree of life would not bring them greater misfortune than what the tree of knowledge brought them. From one they received temporary illnesses, and the other would make temporary illnesses eternal; from one they acquired death, which frees them from the bonds of disease, and the other would have made them buried while still alive, because it would have preserved their life for eternal torment in disease. Therefore God took away the tree of life from them. Moreover, it was incongruous to have a blessed life on a land of curses, and to find eternal life in a transitory world. If the first parents had eaten the fruit of the tree of life, then one of two things would have happened: either the death sentence of the court would have remained unfulfilled, or the tree of life would no longer be life-giving. Therefore, in order not to violate the death sentence of the court, and the tree of life would not turn out to be invalid and non-life-giving, God expelled Adam from paradise, so that he would not suffer harm from the tree of life, as he suffered from the tree of knowledge; He sent him “to work the land from which it was taken” (Gen. 3:23), so that by cultivating the land, he who was harmed by the peace of paradise would gain benefit for himself. After the expulsion of the first parents from paradise, God, as it is written, on the eastern side of “paradise of sweetness... set Cherubim and... we turn the edge of the sword, keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). The stronghold of paradise had life because it could rotate on its own to protect the path to the tree of life from anyone who might desire its fruit and dare to pluck it. But the edge of the sword would have struck that mortal who came to delight in immortal life. The words are rearranged: “He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.” – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” In the Church Slavonic Bible, instead of the words “he will erase the chapter” it is written “he will watch over” - translation from Hebrew. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: