44. See 18,24. note 19, above.
452 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis
(Gn 3:6), and not believing that she could die from it, she assumed, in my opinion, that God's words, ifyou take a bite ofityou shall die the death, were not to be taken literally, but had some other meaning. And that is why she took some of its fruit and had a bite, and also gave it to her husband with her, maybe with a word ofencouragement which scripture does not mention, leaving it to be under stood; or did the man perhaps not need any encouragement now, when he observed that she had not died of that food?
Their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked
3 1 , 40. And so they ate, and the eyes of them both were opened (Gn 3:7)—for what, if not for lusting after each other, as a punishment for the sin, a punishment conceived by the death of the flesh itself? So now the body would no longer be simply "ensouled" or animal, capable in due course ofbeing changed, ifthey had remained obedient, into a better and more "enspirited" condition44 without death intervening; but from now on it would be a body ofdeath, in which the law in the membersfights back against the law of the mind (Rom 7:24.23).
After all, they had not been made with closed eyes, and left to wander about blind in the paradise of delights, feeling their way, and so to reach and touch all unawares the forbidden tree too, and on feeling the prohibited fruits to pick some without knowing it. Again, how were the animals and birds brought to Adam to see what he would call them, if he could not see them? And how was the woman herself brought to her husband when she was made, for him to say about her, though unable to see her, "This now bone out of my bones and flesh from my flesh," etc.? Lastly, how did the woman see "that the tree was good for eating and a pleasure for the eyes to see and fine for gaining knowledge," if their eyes were closed?
4 1 . All the same, just because one word is employed metaphorically, it does not mean that the whole passage is to be taken in a figurative sense. She will have seen, after all, in what sense the serpent said, Your eyes shall be opened. This l mean is what the writer of the book tells us it said; but what precisely it meant to signify he allowed readers to decide for themselves. The sentence, though, And their eyes were opened, and they realized that they were naked, is written just like all the rest of the narrative of actual events, nor is that any reason why the expression should lead us to treat the whole story as allegorical.
The evangelist, after all, in telling his story, was not introducing someone else's figurative words, instead of telling the story of what actually happened in his own words, when he said about those two, one of them Cleopas, that when the Lord had broken bread for them, their eyes were opened, and they recognized
44. See 18,24. note 19, above.