Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 3:1-2

Genesis 3:1-2

 

א וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה אַף כִּי־אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹאכְלוּ מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן: ב וַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֶל־הַנָּחָשׁ מִפְּרִי עֵץ־הַגָּן נֹאכֵל:

 

Translation:    The serpent was wiser than all wild animals that **** Gd had made, and he said to the woman, even if Gd said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden.  The woman said to the serpent, we may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

נָּחָשׁ	Serpent
עָרוּם	Wise, wily

 

Notice that “wise, wily” has the same root letters as “naked” from the preceding verse, ayin resh mem.  But there is no rabbinic commentary on this.  One reason is that Torah was passed along orally during most of its  history.  Only when it was written down did the letters come out this way.  That was no later than the Babylonian Captivity as far as I can tell.  By then it was fixed in people’s minds that these were two different words, not a pun.

 

Notice that the serpent doesn’t finish what he’s saying.  There’s also no comment on that.

 

Finally, notice that the serpent has gotten the woman alone.  It’s a historical truth that when somebody is trying to talk you into something, the best way to do it is to get you alone, isolated from everybody who could identify what’s wrong with the claims being made.  If Adam had stuck with Chavvah as he was supposed to, this whole situation would never have come up.

 

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