3.1 Introduction

A masterful psychological portrayal of a temptation situation. The general  theme is: “eritis sicut Deus” (3, 5: you will be like God): the continuous  main sin of prehistory from the fall of man to the building of the tower  and until today. It is the refusal to submit to God’s word, to take a stand  above God instead. Then as now: the autonomy of man and modern  emancipation from religion. The later Christian interpretation of the fruit  as an apple was probably suggested by the association malus – malum. 

According to vRad, Comm. zSt., the serpent is not Satan (Apc. 12, 9) as  in the traditional church interpretation, but rather mentioned in passing  for illustration. The guilt should be attributed to man alone. However, this  is contradicted by the prominent role of the serpent in 3, 1-4. 14f and the  symbolic meaning of the serpent in the entire Orient as seen by vRad  himself as well as his own explanations of 2,14f. Of course, 3, 14 has  been interpreted messianically since earliest Christianity. 

Shame here is a sign of a serious disorder, fear and shame are the stigmata of the Fall. (vRad) 

However, shame can also be evaluated more positively: under the  conditions of existence, i.e. after the Fall, it protects man (wonderful:  God as tailor/furrier clothes Adam and Eve: 3:21). It is not merely  bourgeois enforced convention and morality. It preserves the distance to  the other. It does not only refer to the sexual sphere. For example,  shame also dictates that we should not pour out our own unresolved  problems on the other person without being asked. That is shameless or  impertinent. 

The following words are meant to explain as “etiologies” why some bad  things are the way they are: unvarnished realism of the Bible.

After the negative, 3.20 turns positive: the woman receives the honorary title חוה “Eve” (3, 20: the same root (live) as יהוה Yahweh! ), while the slightly pejorative root of man אדם “Adam” from 1:27 (with the  connotation ארמה: earth) then remains attached to man alone. 

The divine self-reflection 3:22, on the other hand, is to be understood as  biting irony, perhaps with a pitiful undertone (vRad).