Copyright 2019 by JWA

v. 10 “He [Adam] answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Explanation of Theophany (theophanies):

“I heard you in the garden. . .” The narrative is unfolded in the simplest terms so a child can understand, shorn of theological nomenclature that might bend the mind. Moses is telling us that by implication that in the garden the first couple enjoyed as God intended, familiar fellowship with their Maker, up so close and personal, that God would appear to them in theophanies, disguising His all-consuming glory, to converse with them as He did with Abraham (prior to the destruction of Sodom) and as the glorified Christ did in the vision His disciples witnessed on the sacred mount when Christ conversed with Moses and Elijah or with His disciples in His post-resurrection appearances.

v. 15 “He” () The masculine pronoun is first seminal hint of a coming Redeemer in God’s plan. “He” the Redeemer, will conquer the Serpent (capital S), while the serpent will do not more than strike His heel—damage but not kill (in the final sense of the term).

20 “And Adam named his wife, Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” Explanation of Eve, (Heb. chavvah = life).

In the wake of a curse involving the formal imposition of the promised penalty in case of disobedience to God’s command, here is a ray of hope for redemption. In the face of it, Adam is so bold as to give his wife (naming was an act signifying Adam’s authority over the woman) the hopeful name Eve (Heb. chavvah = life). Whereas Adam should have expected the extinction of his kind, based upon the curse, the Lord God allowed for the merciful survival (in temporal terms) of his race through Eve, his wife. And in faith in God’s mercy and grace, it appears Adam embraced God’s redemptive seeking of them rather than casting them to the wind after their disobedience and fall.