The Exile from the Garden of Eden

Gen. 3:1-19

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. 2 And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

3 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of all the trees of the garden:

4 But of that which hangs from the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God hath said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest you die.

5 And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die.

6 For God  knows that on the day you eat from it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing evil and good.

7 And when the woman saw that which hung from the tree was good for food, and that her eyes did crave it, and that she could consume the source of wisdom (a), she took of it, and did eat, 8 and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

9 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they saw their naked flesh begin to rot.

10 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

11 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, (b) What are you?

12 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am undead; and I hid myself.

13 And he said, Who told you that you were undead? Have thou eaten from the tree, that which I commanded you that thou should not eat?

14 And the man screamed, The woman whom you have made to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I… did… eat!

15 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that you have done? 16 And the woman yelled, The serpent tricked me, and I… did… eat!

17 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is coming to be as one of us, knowing evil and good: and now, if he puts forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, he will live undead forever:

18 Therefore the LORD God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to crave and walk the earth.

19 He drove out the zombies out; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way of the tree of life.

Rashi

Gen. 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning- Heb. Arum- naked.  The serpent possessed knowledge acquired without the sanction of God. “Naked” because it is acquired without interference.  Every other beast’s understanding is given from the Holy One Blessed Be God.

Gen. 3:2 You shall not eat of every tree- The serpent entered into conversation with the woman in order to confuse her, knowing that there were corpses hanging from the tree, he allowed her room to say “we may not eat of the fruit…”

Gen. 3:4 hangs – The instruction referred to both the fruit and to the bodies that hung from the tree, forbidden to the man and woman.

Gen. 3:4 lest you die- God said to the man and woman that they would die, knowing that they would not understand the undead state of being.  They had experienced the birth and death of the animals in the garden, however, and would understand the undesirable state of death.

Gen. 3:5 You shall not surely die- He knew that the consumption of brains would turn them undead, not dead.

Gen. 3:6 on the day you eat from it- The transformation to become a zombie begins immediately.  Your eyes shall be opened- The skin of the eyes begins to recede and the balls engorge.  Knowing evil and good- the man and woman already knew good from their experience with light, the trees, the fish, etc.  However the snake knew that if he only said “evil” the man and the woman would be afraid of it and not eat from the tree.

Gen. 3:7 that which hung from the tree- She saw the corpses with their open skulls. Brains fell out like gourds.  Good for food- unlike other gourds, these were edible.  Her eyes did crave it- the dried blood encased the brains, preserving their freshness, but tinting them the color of figs.

Gen. 3:8 with her- Also attracted by the tree, he was there by her side.

Gen. 3:11 What are you- doing?

Gen. 3:12 Who told you that you were undead?-  Their transformation had not yet been complete and so God was unaware of what had happened.  God thought that they had been tricked into believing that they were zombies.  The second half of the verse reveals God waking up to the truth.

Gen. 3:17 and now, if he puts forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life- Prior to becoming zombies and knowing evil, the man and the woman did not desire to eat of the Tree of Life.  Only once they became undead and no longer alive did the Tree of Life capture of their attention.  However, God knew that their eating of the tree would not return them to their original state, but cause them to be unstoppable zombies.

Rashbam

Gen. 3:5 Ye shall not surely die- Rashi alludes to the fact that the man and the woman would not be able to understand the state of undeadness and that is why the Holy One Blessed Be God chose to forbid them from eating of the tree which was in the middle of the garden with a threat of death.  His reasoning derives from the fact that prior to the man and the woman, no zombies had yet been formed.  However, you must wonder how it was that the serpent knew that they would become zombies if no other zombies had been formed prior to the change in the man and the woman?  The answer is that the corpses on the tree from which the man and the woman ate brains had been God’s prior attempts at creating human beings.  These unsuccessful beings who were not fully brought into life neither ever achieved full undeadness.  They walked the earth only for moments, but then expired like a chicken without a head and were promptly lifted to the tree as a record God’s past attempts.  The snake had observed these attempts without God’s approval.

Gen. 3:6 Your eyes shall be opened- The serpent erred and informed the woman of the ocular wide condition of being a zombie. Surely the woman was not going about with closed eyes.  It was because of this that he added “You shall be as gods” so as to distract her from his mistake.  If you believe that the serpent delivered to the woman a metaphor for wisdom, you should dedicate yourself to learning, for how could a woman who could not distinguish between fruit and brains understand metaphor.  You shall be as gods, knowing evil and good-  It was not the state of knowing evil and good that would make the zombies be as gods.  Rather he knew that once in the state of zombieness they would wander towards the tree of life, which he had seen the others do before falling to the ground.  This is what it means in vs. 17 “behold the man is coming to be as one of us” he was headed towards the tree of life.

Gen. 3:6 Knowing evil and good- What Rashi says here lacks sense.  Above he suggested that the man and the woman would be confused if God had told them eating from the tree in the middle of the garden would make them undead because they had not experienced undeadness yet.  However, here, he says they would be afraid of “evil” even though they had not experienced “bad.”  Rather, it must be understood this way:  The serpent did not only say “evil” because the statement would have caused confusion and they would have beseeched  God for clarification.  By adding “and Good” the woman assumed that “evil” was a synonym of good as in “holy and true” rather than “black and white.”

Gen. 3:12 What are you….And I hid myself- The man had thought that God had interrupted himself, meaning to ask, “What are you doing?” but in fact, God had not anticipated the man and the woman becoming Zombies and was therefore asking in truth, “What are you?”

Ramban-

Gen. 3:11 What are you?  Rashi’s interpretation is correct, for God saw that the man and the woman were rooting about in the ground in search of cool mud with which to relieve their skin, and their knees had begun to lock so they stumbled as they walked.

Editors Commentary-

(a)    that she could consume the source of wisdom- it is likely that this is a later gloss.  For how could the first woman know that the brain was the organ responsible for wisdom acquisition.  Furthermore, the length of the verse suggests a later addition.
(b)    Heb. “Ayehka” In other biblical additions, this has been translated as “where are you?” but we have chosen the translation “what are you?” both from the sense of the rabbinic commentary and other ancient Near Eastern linguistic parallels that suggest ayeka could have originated as either as ma-itha (similar to our colloquial “what’s with you”), the t lost as the orthography accommodated clarification, or the more likely mah’cha, i.e. “What yours?” i.e “What do you have that causes this behavior?” leading to our preference “What are you?”  The phraseology of “And God called to Adam and said to him” is awkward- “What did God call?”  What need is there for the “and said to him?” It should read “And God called to Adam mah-cha” the doubling of the m had been lost and then its original existence obscured by the later addition of “And God called to the man and said to him” added to make the unknown “aykea” appear intentional.

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