DID YOU KNOW?

After the fruit is eaten, God speaks to the serpent, the woman and the man in Genesis 3:14-19. Which two things does God call cursed?

The answer

The serpent and the ground. God tells the serpent, "cursed are you among all animals" (Genesis 3:14), and tells the man, "cursed is the ground because of you" (Genesis 3:17). In these verses the word cursed never lands on a person. The speech to the woman in Genesis 3:16 has no curse in it at all.

Why it’s interesting

The soil stays cursed long after Eden. Cain hears "you are cursed from the ground" (Genesis 4:11), and Noah's name comes with a hope for relief from "the ground that the Lord has cursed" (Genesis 5:29). Two Bible scholars, Michael Coogan and Cynthia Chapman, see the worsening bond between people and the soil as a theme that runs through the chapters after Eden.

Scholarly consensus

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