Catholic Commentary on Genesis 3

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:15)

The Fall

The serpent, craftier than any other creature, approaches the woman with a question that introduces doubt about God's word: did God really say you must not eat from any tree? The first move of the tempter is always to distort what God has said. The woman corrects him - we may eat from the trees, we are forbidden only the one - but the serpent presses: you will not surely die; God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God. The temptation is not to become evil but to become divine on the creature's own terms, without reference to the Creator. She takes the fruit. She gives it to her husband. He eats. Their eyes are opened and they see that they are naked. The shame that follows is the rupture of the original transparency: they hide from one another with fig leaves and from God among the trees.

The Catechism identifies this as the original sin: the abuse of freedom freely exercised by the first human beings, a sin of pride and disobedience that damaged the human nature they would transmit to all their descendants (CCC 416). The consequences unfold through the conversation with God: alienation between man and woman, enmity between humanity and the ground, suffering in childbirth and labour, and death. The unity and harmony of the original creation is shattered along every axis.

The Protoevangelium

But before the expulsion from the garden, God speaks a word to the serpent that the Church calls the Protoevangelium, the first Gospel: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. This is the first promise of redemption, the first announcement of a battle that will end in the defeat of the serpent. The Catechism identifies the offspring of the woman as Christ, and the woman herself as pointing to Mary, whose offspring will crush the head of the ancient enemy (CCC 411). In the moment of judgment, grace is already at work.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, the pattern of Genesis 3 recurs in every human temptation: the distortion of God's word, the appeal to autonomy, the desire to be like God on one's own terms. The remedy is also in Genesis 3: return to God's word as it was actually spoken, not as the tempter has rephrased it, and trust the one who has already promised that the serpent's head will be crushed.

Prayer

Lord God, we have eaten the forbidden fruit and hidden among the trees. But you came looking for us: where are you? Come and find us again. Put enmity in us toward the serpent and toward every lie that distorts your word. And hasten the day when the offspring of the woman crushes the ancient enemy's head forever. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

3
The Serpent’s Deception
(Romans 5:12–21)
1 Now the serpent * 3:1 Hebrew nachash, translated in this chapter as serpent, is translated in most cases as snake. was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ ”
 
2 The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3 but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
 
4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent told her. 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
 
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
 
7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed together fig leaves and made coverings for themselves.
God Arraigns Adam and Eve
 
8 Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze † 3:8 Or at the breezy (time); Hebrew unto the Ruach of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
 
9 But the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?”
 
10 “I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
 
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
 
12 And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
 
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
 
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”
The Fate of the Serpent
 
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent:
 
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and every beast of the field!
On your belly will you go,
and dust you will eat,
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.‡ 3:15 Or He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel. The same Hebrew root for crush, bruise, or strike appears twice in this verse.”
The Punishment of Mankind
 
16 To the woman He said:
 
“I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth;
in pain you will bring forth children.
Your desire will be for your husband,§ 3:16 Or You will desire to control your husband
and he will rule over you.”
 
17 And to Adam He said:
 
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten from the tree
of which I commanded you not to eat,
cursed is the ground because of you;
through toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your bread,
until you return to the ground—
because out of it were you taken.
For dust you are,
and to dust you shall return.”
 
20 And Adam named his wife Eve,* 3:20 Eve sounds like the Hebrew for giving life or living. because she would be the mother of all the living.
The Expulsion from Paradise
 
21 And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.
 
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”
 
23 Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

*3:1 3:1 Hebrew nachash, translated in this chapter as serpent, is translated in most cases as snake.

†3:8 3:8 Or at the breezy (time); Hebrew unto the Ruach

‡3:15 3:15 Or He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel. The same Hebrew root for crush, bruise, or strike appears twice in this verse.

§3:16 3:16 Or You will desire to control your husband

*3:20 3:20 Eve sounds like the Hebrew for giving life or living.

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