5. But God knoweth, etc.] And therefore has falsely
threatened you with death. The gratuitous insinuation
reveals the main purpose of the tempter, to sow the seeds
of distrust towards God in the mind of the woman.—your eyes shall be opened] The expression denotes a sudden
acquisition of new powers of perception through supernatural
influence (2119, Nu. 2231, 2 Ki. 617).—as gods] or
'divine beings,' rather than 'as God': the rendering 'as
angels' (IEz.) expresses the idea with substantial accuracy.
The likeness to divinity actually acquired is not equality
with Yahwe (see Gu. on v.22).—knowing good and evil] See
p. 95 ff.—"The facts are all, in the view of the narrator,
correctly stated by the serpent; he has truly represented
the mysterious virtue of the tree; knowledge really confers
equality with God (322); and it is also true that death does
not immediately follow the act of eating. But at the same
time the serpent insinuates a certain construction of these
facts: God is envious, inasmuch as He grudges the highest
good to man:—(
Greek characters), an antique sentiment
familiar to us from the Greeks" (Gu.).—6. The spiritual
part of the temptation is now accomplished, and the serpent
is silent, leaving the fascination of sense to do the rest.
The woman looks on the tree with new eyes; she observes
how attractive to taste and sight its fruit seems, and how
desirable for obtaining insight (so most) or to contemplate
(GVS; so Tu. Ges. De. Gu. al.). The second translation
is the more suitable—for how could she tell by sight
that the fruit would impart wisdom?—although the vb. is
not elsewhere used in Heb. for mere looking (v.i.).—gave also to her husband] "The process in the man's case was
no doubt the same as that just described, the woman taking
the place of the serpent" (Ben.). That Adam sinned with
his eyes open in order not to be separated from his wife has
the verbal idea (cf. Am. 98, Ps. 498).—5. (Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters), TO (Hebrew characters).—6. (Hebrew characters)2] GV om.—(Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters), V adspectu, and S (Syriac characters)
all take the vb. as vb. of sight; TO (Hebrew characters) is indeterminate (see Levy,
Chald. Wb. 163 a). In OT the word is used of mental vision (insight, or
attentive consideration: Dt. 3229, Ps. 412, Pr. 2112 etc.); in NH and
