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Expanded Explanation of the Answer:
Genesis Chapter 2 Would Have Been a Good Place to Stop. As
you recall, Adam and Eve were living blissfully in Genesis 2. Traffic was
not a problem and they always got the closest parking space.
If we projected what might happen in Genesis 3 based on what we knew
from chapter 2 (inductive reasoning), we could never imagine what happened
in chapter 3. For example, you would think that Adam and Eve would
have figured out they had it made. Just check out their To-Do List
on the refrigerator: "1) See if there are any more animals to name,
2) Eat from the tree of life, 3) Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil."
A Clue that Thinking Matters: Genesis 3:1 begins by
telling us that the serpent was "more subtle" (KJV), "more
crafty" (NIV, NASB), "sneakier" (CEV) than all the other
animals. The NLT states the serpent "was the shrewdest."
It's the serpent's intellectual cunning leading off Genesis 3. Of
course there are other important lessons we can learn from chapter 3, but
this note is about thinking errors.
Invitation for Eve to apply the "Either-Or" Fallacy. In
Genesis 3:1, the serpent says, ""Indeed, has God said, 'You
shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
In addition to being just plain wrong factually, the serpent's craftiness
is shown by his attempt to have Eve think about God's commands in an
either/or fashion when God's statements were not either: "eat
all" or "eat nothing." Instead, they could eat from
all trees except one.
The Serpent's Reality is Not Reality. The serpent sought to
create a false understanding of reality regarding mankind’s relation to
the trees and eating. For example, some people conceive of dieting
and food in the same way as the serpent’s implication regarding eating
from the trees: Some people see food in terms of either "Eat all you
want whenever you want and get fat" or "Don’t eat any food and
lose weight." The reality for a proper diet is somewhere in the
middle. As you know, Eve chose the wrong diet plan. Here is how it
happened.
Eve Strides the First Hurtle, But Falls on the Second. Genesis
3:2-3: Eve says, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden
we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the
garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will
die."
Eve starts off OK, she recognizes that they may eat from all the trees
with an exception.
But Genesis 2:9 describes two trees in the middle of the Garden, not
one as Eve focuses on. She seems to miss the distinction and seems
to lump both trees in the middle of the Garden under the same command.
She has fallen for the serpent's deception. As to the middle of the
Garden, it's an either/or proposition for Eve.
Eve does not think clearly enough to make the distinctions God made --
two trees in the middle: eat from one OK - gives eternal life, not OK to
eat from the other - gives death. This one location (middle of the
Garden) and two trees, and two commands, and two outcomes is never
mentioned by Eve. She failed to think clearly, and her failure was
helped along by the serpent's use of a logical fallacy still used against
God's word today.
At Genesis 3:3, after Eve makes her fateful statement, we feel like
yelling to Adam and Eve, "Run back and check the refrigerator, it's
all written on your list."
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