And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
It is probable, as Kennicott suggests, that God had called more than once, or that the sound of the voice, since it was borne on the breeze, became louder in His advance through the garden. It was upon hearing the first accents of the well-known voice that they fled in precipitate confusion, and hid themselves; so that it was not until summoned anew that they were dragged from the covert in which they endeavoured to conceal themselves and their guilt.
I was afraid for I was naked. The sense of nakedness could not produce fear, because it was only the effect of sin. But Adam tried to evade any reference to the cause, by attracting attention to the effect. There is here an appearance of prevarication-the weak subterfuge of guilt. But concealment of the transgression was impossible; because as the knowledge of his nakedness could only have been acquired by Adam himself, his discovery of that fact afforded a strong presumption of his transgression, and accordingly he was immediately interrogated whether he had eaten of the forbidden fruit.
The language is equivocating, because he had formerly been in the divine presence in the same state, without any conscious feeling of agitation or dread. But it was only a prelude to other statements which were still more reprehensible. When interrogated as to whether he had eaten of the forbidden fruit, he tries studiously to palliate his own conduct and diminish his own criminality, while he is forced to make a tardy and partial admission of his guilt. There is a confession, indeed, reluctantly extorted; but the sin itself which he had committed, and of which, if he had had the spirit of a genuine penitent, he would have made mention at first, as well as acknowledged in all its aggravations, is not hinted until the last; and then, whilst his manner betrays such evident unwillingness to confess his guilt, the circumstance alleged as having been the occasion of his fall still further detracts from the value of his confession. His words evince a cold, selfish consideration of his own individual safety. Provided he could escape with impunity, he was content to leave his wife to reap the fruit of her misdeeds-nay, to be made the scape-goat in bearing the whole guilt and penalties of the transgression. It might be-it was undeniably true, that she had offered the fruit to him, and urged him to partake of it along with her; but that was no excuse. He had been placed in no circumstances of strong temptation; his curiosity had not been stimulated, his passions had not been roused, his understanding was unclouded. He knew, and in spite of all the insinuating arts of the woman to seduce him to eat of the forbidden fruit, he should have acted on the knowledge that it was his duty to obey God rather than listen to his wife. The reference to female influence, then, was an attempt of Adam to palliate his own guilt, as weak and unmanly as it was ungenerous.
But this was not all; because, with daring impiety, he tries to throw the blame of his fall even upon God Himself! His language was virtually this: 'So long as I continued alone, I was steadfast and immovable in my integrity and allegiance. But Thou didst alter my condition; and from the moment I was allied to the wife whom thou didst provide for me, I found elements of temptation and moral danger in domestic and social intercourse from which I was wholly free in my state of solitude.' Without noticing the reply of Adam, which was too foolish and groundless to deserve a response, the Divine Judge turned to the woman to hear what she should advance in her own behalf.
Verse 13. The serpent beguiled me - literally, deceived, imposed on me. No attempt was made at denial; because although she had not been caught in the act of plucking the forbidden branch, the evidences of guilt were already too plain and cumulative to afford her the slightest hope of establishing the plea of innocence. She therefore tacitly admitted the charge, but followed the example of her husband, in endeavouring to screen herself from the heavy penalties of her transgression, by throwing the blame of the whole transaction upon the serpent.
Thus, these poor creatures, so recently united in the closest bonds of mutual affection, are now severed in their distress, and stand aloof as accusers in their weak and desperate attempts at evading the personal consequences of their guilt. If Eve was the first involved in guilt, Adam was the greater sinner of the two, inasmuch as, without the pretext of temptation, or being carried away by the force of excited feelings, but in the most cool, deliberate manner, he partook of the forbidden fruit, and had the impious audacity to charge God with having laid a snare to entangle him through the baneful influence of the woman that had been given to him. In this, as in other respects, he was the type of all mankind, who in every age, and in all circumstances, have discovered an extreme proneness to say, 'when they are tempted, that they are tempted of God,' as if their abusing God's gifts would excuse the violation of His laws (James 1:13-14).