The Garden and Wisdom

October 10, 2021

Quite often I come across an idea that reshapes the way I understand a story in the Bible. I was under the impression I had already had my understanding of the Garden of Eden upended, so I could just go through life with this new and improved understanding of it, only to have that understanding reshaped into something different still! I guess what Jesus said was true—“every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old,” (Mt. 13.52). But we’re talking about Genesis 3.

First things first—“the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal.” Notice here that the serpent is crafty, or wise. The serpent is going to be the villain in the story, but this first characterization is very positive. Wisdom is a good thing! Being wise is a good thing! But the villain is wise.

And what does the wise serpent say? “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” There’s hardly a lie here. God didn’t say they couldn’t eat from the trees in the garden (except for one). God did say that “in the day that you eat of it you shall die,” (Gen. 2.17), and Genesis 3 makes it clear that they don’t die “in the day that you eat of it,” (even if they do die hundreds of years later). 

When they ate of the fruit, what happened? “Then the eyes of both were opened,” (3.7), and “the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,” (3.22) just like the wise serpent said.

We get caught up in the search for truth, the defense of truth, the idea of objective truth. Here in Genesis 2 and 3, the truth really isn’t all that helpful. What the serpent said was true. The serpent was wise. But the serpent was not good or helpful. The pursuit of truth and wisdom was neither good nor helpful.

Truth and wisdom are not good in and of themselves. They are only good insofar as they are a part of our pursuit of godliness. Beneficial truth, true wisdom, cannot be had apart from God. The serpent has truth and wisdom, but guides us down a path of destruction. God calls us to reject that truth and that wisdom, to follow him so that he can reveal truth and wisdom to us in his time and his way, so that we will not die, but might truly have life. 

We need to pay attention to, not only the content of truth or wisdom, but to the effect of it. This can usually be seen in the life of who we are listening to and learning from. Is this wise person a serpent, a wild animal? Or are they someone who reflects the wisdom of God in their character? Do they call us to turn away from God, subverting God’s rule, or are they constantly calling us to “follow me as I follow Christ,” (1Cor. 11.1), constantly turning us toward God?

—John Coffey