What does Paul mean when he says “the woman was deceived?” And that Adam was “not deceived” and is the source? There is also the discrepancy, in Genesis, between what Eve told the serpent God had said, regarding the prohibitions of the fruit of the tree, and what God had actually said. Some embellishment had crept in. Where did she get this additional information? Who had told her this? How did the serpent know what question to ask, that would get her to doubting the veracity of the instruction God had actually given?
Eve was created as an individual, conscious being, some time after the original warning was issued. Since Adam was created first ( the source), and Eve came out of his body, it seems the Lord might have left the task to Adam, of passing on this crucial bit of information. Adding an additional restriction might have served to emphasize the imperative nature of the boundary, but it also might be revealing of the man’s actual desire regarding the forbidden object. (God was warning the man about the horror of being cut off from the SOURCE.)
It seems, from the story, that the serpent was familiar with the discussion between the man and his wife, and the man’s warnings to her about what God had said. It seems obvious that he overheard them talking. The scene at the tree (as the one at the cross, the second tree) did not occur in a vacuum, without context. This cunning deceiver was able to “read between the lines” and decipher Adam’s true desire (before there is sin, there is the desire with it’s decision: The want of understanding “wisdom” and the choosing of an action). The reason the serpent picked the woman to speak to, and also the reason why Adam was silent at the scene, was because what the serpent said naturally followed and added to what Adam had already said. The woman volunteered to be the “guinea pig” for the first human experiment.
Eve’s sin was placing her husband’s wishes above those of God, instead of inquiring of The Lord. What Adam said, and the twisting lies of the deceiver, are what dictated what she did. This was how she lost her personal relationship, with God as her friend. This is also why God’s pronouncement of her consequences was so precise and so very personal, when HE said, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (basically saying that if you want Adam as your authority, it’s done!) The first man’s reach for more authority had the result, of him losing what authority he already had, over the earth, with the woman becoming the recipient of his twisted desire for dominance.
The horror The Lord would have protected them from, had arrived, but God also left them with the promise of redemption. His graciousness allowed the woman to still be a helper, this time, of God, because of HIS promise that she would be a part of the redemptive process. By her submission to the pain of childbirth, God would redeem her, and all of humanity. The results of their sin was God stepping back for a time, so their education would be complete, and HE could bring them both to full understanding. Adam would get what he had so deeply desired, but God, himself, would bear the full burden of the horror that they had unleashed upon themselves.
