Rhetorical Considerations (Genesis 1-3; Jn. 1:1)

The collecting of words is important, and nothing makes this more evident than God's own son, Jesus, described as the Word present from the beginning (Jn. 1:1). Moses’ collection of words, the inspired writing of Genesis, is a rich historical and inspirational religious record for the Children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years occurs after God delivers them from Egypt. They struggle with trusting and obeying God and constantly choosing sin over God. Genesis serves to help the Israelites (and other generations to follow) know their origins, understand their relationship to God, and emphasize the importance of keeping His commandments. Genesis 3:1-6 reveals that rhetoric has been employed in our world from its infancy, first used by an envious serpent in the Garden of Eden speaking to Eve about God’ restrictions upon her in a well-designed plot to separate humans from their Creator. The serpent’s seemingly simple words and carefully crafted logic sow doubt in Eve and create in her a desire for forbidden knowledge that she chooses to act on, demonstrating that we should guard rhetoric’s power carefully, wield it faithfully and engage in its use judiciously; the way we use words matters.

In Genesis 3:1, the “crafty” serpent begins his calculated rhetorical attack to tempt Eve into questioning God’s word. Instead of attacking God directly, the serpent takes a circuitous route to undermine His authority, questioning both Eve’s ability to hear as well as God’s message itself. The serpent massages God’s original command, questioning whether He “actually” said not to eat from “any tree in the garden” (Genesis 3:1, ESV). This plants a seed of doubt, and when added to Eve’s recall (a very loose, nonfactual paraphrase God’s actual instructions about the garden’s tree of knowledge of good and evil), it shows her already biased distortion of God and His command. Eve defends God, informing the serpent they are allowed to eat “of the fruit” of the garden’s trees. This shows she is not yet sold on the idea of disobeying her creator. However, the distortion appears in her response telling him that they are not allowed to “eat” from or “touch” this one tree in the garden (v. 2-3). The seeds of discontent already present come to light, drawn out by the serpent’s use of rhetoric. Eve quickly shifts from her own as of yet unrecognized bias towards God (“He sets limits that I don’t like.”) and embraces the serpent’s more obvious yet unstated bias toward God. The serpent’s deadly but not directly stated message emerges in the midst of his rhetorical charms: “If God will not give you all you want, then He must not be good, and if He is not good, then why should you obey Him?”

The kernel of truth is present in both the serpent’s rhetoric and in Eve’s response to it, and it is this manipulation of truth that draws out Eve’s already present desire to sin by disobeying God’s command and eating of the forbidden tree. God does tell Adam that they are not to eat from the fruit that is in the center of the garden from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, yet the reader must doubt both the serpent’s truthfulness and Eve’s understanding at this point, for how can they tend a tree they cannot touch, as their job description requires in Genesis 2:15? The serpent sees Eve’s warped understanding of the full truth given by God to Adam, that he would “surely die” in the day he chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil located in the garden (2:17), and the wily serpent continues employing rhetoric as he further distorts Eve’s altered version of the truth. The serpent suggests that instead of death, Adam and Eve can expect to become like God with knowledge of good and evil, something God has warned them against seeking in His edict not to eat from that specific tree (v. 4-5). The serpent boldly speaks with seeming authority and credibility, engaging Eve’s emotions. Eve’s emotional response to the serpent’s version of the truth (the forbidden fruit is not so much dangerous as desirable and beneficial) reveals her unbelief of the truth of God’s command to them. She feels betrayed by her creator and in her childish frustration over being denied anything, she acts. Her emotional desire for both the tree’s fruit and its wisdom (v. 6) exposes Eve’s covetous nature already within her. 

The serpent does not force Eve eat from the tree and share the fruit with God’s gift to her of a covenant partner (who, by the way, is supposed to protect her from herself); he cannot. Instead, he makes her desire to do as he wishes, which reveals the dangerous power of rhetoric. Eve’s emotional reaction to the serpent’s persuasive and manipulative rhetoric pushes Eve beyond her previously unquestioned obedience to God’s command, and she reaches out and eats from the forbidden tree in the center of the Garden of Eden. All the serpent has to do is sow the doubt, tap what’s already there, and make her eat. Once she eats, his plan for introducing sin and humanity into the human race is successful. Adam sees her eat (not stopping her) and chooses oneness with her over God’s command not to eat, perhaps not wishing to lose the one companion fit for him as indicated in Genesis (2:18-25). His own inner doubt of God’s authority, goodness, and power seals the deal. 

The dangers of the power of language, the way words are used, enter the biblical narrative early, and the rhetorical hiss of the serpent’s tempting rhetoric and Eve’s responsive action echoes through time and affects us all, requiring Christ’s redemptive work in our lives that we may be reconciled to God. Otherwise, we were hopelessly lost from the serpent's first words to Eve, when he set in motion humanity's destruction through sin and suffering. The way we use our words, the way logic can be easily skewed, the manipulative power of strong, driving emotions that drive us to act on what we believe to be true should scare us much more than it does. The power of words should make us all consider what we say before anything comes out of our mouths.