◄ Genesis 3:22 ►
Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..."
Study Bible
Then the LORD God said,

This phrase introduces a divine declaration, emphasizing the authority and sovereignty of God. The use of "LORD God" combines the covenant name Yahweh with Elohim, highlighting both His personal relationship with humanity and His supreme power. This moment follows the fall of man, where God addresses the consequences of Adam and Eve's disobedience.

1Sa 3:11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, “I am about to do something…
Jer 1:7 But the LORD told me: “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’…
1Ki 3:5 One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream,…

“Behold, the man has become like one of Us,

The plural "Us" suggests a divine council or the Trinity, indicating a complex unity within the Godhead. This reflects the earlier creation narrative where God said, "Let Us make man in Our image." The phrase underscores the tragic irony that humanity sought to be like God through disobedience, achieving a distorted likeness by knowing good and evil.

Gen 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image,…
Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying…
Gen 11:7 Come, let Us go down and confuse their language,…

knowing good and evil.

This knowledge was not merely intellectual but experiential, marking a loss of innocence and the beginning of moral responsibility. It contrasts with the innocence of Adam and Eve before the fall and highlights the shift in their relationship with God and creation. This knowledge brought shame and separation from God, as seen in their hiding and covering themselves.

Deu 1:39 And the little ones you said would become captives…
1Ki 3:9 Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart…
2Sa 14:17 And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king…

And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life,

The tree of life represents eternal life and ongoing fellowship with God. In the Garden of Eden, it was accessible to Adam and Eve, symbolizing the potential for eternal life in obedience. After the fall, access to this tree is restricted to prevent humanity from living eternally in a fallen state, indicating God's mercy in not allowing eternal separation from Him.

Rev 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…
Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes,…
Pro 3:18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her,…

and eat, and live forever...”

This phrase implies that eating from the tree of life would grant eternal life, a state now undesirable due to sin. The prevention of access to the tree is an act of divine grace, ensuring that redemption and restoration would come through God's plan, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Revelation 22:2 references the tree of life in the New Jerusalem, symbolizing restored access through Christ's redemptive work.

Jhn 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven…
Jhn 6:58 This is the bread that came down from heaven…
Jhn 11:26 And everyone who lives and believes in Me will…

Persons / Places / Events
1. The LORD God
The Creator and sovereign ruler of the universe, who is speaking in this passage.

2. Man (Adam and Eve)
The first humans created by God, who have disobeyed Him by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

3. The Tree of Life
A tree in the Garden of Eden that grants eternal life to those who eat its fruit.

4. The Garden of Eden
The perfect paradise where Adam and Eve lived before their disobedience.

5. The Divine Council
The phrase "like one of Us" suggests a conversation within the Trinity or a heavenly council, indicating a plurality in the Godhead.
Teaching Points
The Consequence of Sin
Sin leads to separation from God and the loss of eternal life. Adam and Eve's disobedience resulted in their expulsion from Eden and the tree of life.

The Nature of God
The use of "Us" reflects the complexity and unity of the Godhead, hinting at the Trinity. It shows God's relational nature and His deliberative process.

The Hope of Redemption
Though access to the tree of life was lost, God's plan for redemption through Jesus Christ restores the hope of eternal life.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil
The knowledge gained by Adam and Eve was not merely intellectual but experiential, leading to a moral awareness that brought guilt and shame.

Guarding Against Temptation
Just as Adam and Eve were tempted to overstep God's boundaries, believers must remain vigilant and obedient to God's Word.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the phrase "like one of Us" in Genesis 3:22 enhance our understanding of the nature of God?

2. In what ways does the loss of access to the tree of life in Genesis 3:22 foreshadow the need for Christ's redemptive work?

3. How can the knowledge of good and evil, as experienced by Adam and Eve, inform our understanding of moral responsibility today?

4. What parallels can be drawn between the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin and the teachings of Romans 5:12-21?

5. How does the promise of access to the tree of life in Revelation 22:14 encourage believers in their walk with Christ?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Genesis 1:26
This verse also uses the plural "Us," indicating the divine council or the Trinity in the creation of man.

Revelation 22:14
This verse speaks of the tree of life in the New Jerusalem, showing the restoration of access to eternal life through Christ.

Romans 5:12-21
This passage discusses the entrance of sin and death through Adam and the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22
These verses contrast the death brought by Adam with the resurrection life brought by Christ.
Sermons
Ignorance of EvilJohn Henry NewmanGenesis 3:22
Man's Gain Through LossL. D. Bevan, D. D.Genesis 3:22
The Fall Considered as a DevelopmentJ. B. Brown, B. A.Genesis 3:22
The Word of God in the Moral ChaosR.A. Redford Genesis 3:9-24
People
Adam, Eve
Places
Eden
Topics
Age, Allowed, Behold, Eat, Eaten, Elohim, Evil, Forever, Forth, Fruit, Lest, Puts, Reach, Stretch, Takes, Tree
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Genesis 3:22

     1511   Trinity, relationships in
     4438   eating
     5031   knowledge, of sin
     5033   knowledge, of good and evil
     5156   hand
     5971   uniqueness
     6183   ignorance, of God
     8138   monotheism
     8227   discernment, nature of

Genesis 3:1-24

     6023   sin, universality

Genesis 3:6-22

     5290   defeat

Genesis 3:16-24

     6026   sin, judgment on

Genesis 3:21-24

     4241   Garden of Eden

Genesis 3:22-23

     6155   fall, of Adam and Eve
     9136   immortality, OT

Genesis 3:22-24

     4526   tree of life
     5004   human race, and sin
     5028   knowledge, God source of human
     6112   banishment
     6512   salvation, necessity and basis

Library
Eden Lost and Restored
'So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.' --GENESIS iii. 24. 'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.' REVELATION xxii. 14. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.' Eden was fair, but the heavenly city shall be fairer. The Paradise regained is an advance on the Paradise …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

How Sin came In
'Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know, that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Ignorance of Evil.
"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil."--Gen. iii. 22. It is plain that the temptation under which man fell in paradise was this, an ambitious curiosity after knowledge which was not allowed him: next came the desire of the eyes and the flesh, but the forbidden tree was called the tree of knowledge; the Tempter promised knowledge; and after the fall Almighty God pronounced, as in the text, that man had gained it. "Behold, the man is become as …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

God Willing that all Men Should be Saved.
"Who will have all Men to be saved,--." In verse first, the apostle directs "prayers and thanksgivings to be made for all men;"--which he declares to "be good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved." Had salvation been provided for only a part of the human race, prayer and thanksgivings could have been, consistently made only for a part. Those for whom no provision was made, would be in like state with persons who have committed the sin unto death, for …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

Christ the Conqueror of Satan
Is it not remarkable that this great gospel promise should have been delivered so soon after the transgression? As yet no sentence had been pronounced upon either of the two human offenders, but the promise was given under the form of a sentence pronounced upon the serpent Not yet had the woman been condemned to painful travail, or the man to exhausting labour, or even the soil to the curse of thorn and thistle. Truly "mercy rejoiceth against judgment." Before the Lord had said "dust thou art and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 22: 1876

On the Fall
(Sexagesima Sunday.) GENESIS iii. 12. And the man said, The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. This morning we read the history of Adam's fall in the first Lesson. Now does this story seem strange to you, my friends? Do you say to yourselves, If I had been in Adam's place, I should never have been so foolish as Adam was? If you do say so, you cannot have looked at the story carefully enough. For if you do look at it carefully, I believe you will find …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Voice of the Lord God
(Preached also at the Chapel Royal, St. James, Sexagesima Sunday.) GENESIS iii. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. These words would startle us, if we heard them for the first time. I do not know but that they may startle us now, often as we have heard them, if we think seriously over them. That God should appear to mortal man, and speak with mortal man. It is most wonderful. It is utterly unlike anything that we have ever seen, or that any …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch

The God of Nature (Preached During a Wet Harvest. )
PSALM cxlvii. 7-9. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. There is no reason why those who wrote this Psalm, and the one which follows it, should have looked more cheerfully on the world about them than we have a right to do. The country and climate of Judea is not much superior …
Charles Kingsley—The Water of Life and Other Sermons

The Protevangelium.
As the mission of Christ was rendered necessary by the fall of man, so the first dark intimation of Him was given immediately after the fall. It is found in the sentence of punishment which was passed upon the tempter. Gen. iii. 14, 15. A correct understanding of it, however, can be obtained only after we have ascertained who the tempter was. It is, in the first place, unquestionable that a real serpent was engaged in the temptation; so that the opinion of those who maintain that the serpent is only …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

His Past Work.
His past work was accomplished by Him when he became incarnate. It was finished when He died on Calvary's cross. We have therefore to consider first of all these fundamentals of our faith. I. The Work of the Son of God is foreshadowed and predicted in the Old Testament Scriptures. II. The incarnation of the Son of God. III. His Work on the cross and what has been accomplished by it. I. Through the Old Testament Scriptures, God announced beforehand the work of His Son. This is a great theme and one …
A. C. Gaebelein—The Work Of Christ

Adam's Sin
Q-15: WHAT WAS THE SIN WHEREBY OUR FIRST PARENTS FELL FROM THE ESTATE WHEREIN THEY WERE CREATED? A: That sin was eating the forbidden fruit. 'She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband.' Gen 3:3. Here is implied, 1. That our first parents fell from their estate of innocence. 2. The sin by which they fell, was eating the forbidden fruit. I. Our first parents fell from their glorious state of innocence. God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.' Eccl …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The First Lie.
"Ye shall not surely die."--GENESIS iii. 4. I.--WHO WAS THE FIRST LIAR? The old serpent, the devil, called elsewhere "the father of lies." But he had not always been a liar; he had fallen from a position very eminent, teaching us not to measure our safety by our condition. The higher we are elevated, the more dreadful the fall. Some of the most degraded vagrants were cradled in comfort, and have wandered from homes of splendour. Perhaps the vilest of the vile once were ministers of the Gospel. …
Thomas Champness—Broken Bread

Adam. Gen 3:09
John Newton 8,6,8,6 ADAM. Gen 3:9 On man, in his own image made, How much did GOD bestow? The whole creation homage paid, And owned him LORD, below! He dwelt in Eden's garden, stored With sweets for every sense; And there with his descending LORD He walked in confidence. But O! by sin how quickly changed! His honor forfeited, His heart, from God and truth, estranged, His conscience filled with dread! Now from his Maker's voice he flees, Which was before his joy: And thinks to hide, amidst the …
John Newton—Olney Hymns

Elucidations.
I. (We here behold only shadows, etc., p. 335.) Schleiermacher, [2821] in commenting on Plato's Symposium, remarks: "Even natural birth (i.e., in Plato's system) was nothing but a reproduction of the same eternal form and idea....The whole discussion displays the gradation, not only from that pleasure which arises from the contemplation of personal beauty through that which every larger object, whether single or manifold, may occasion, to that immediate pleasure of which the source is in the Eternal …
Methodius—The Banquet of the Ten Virgins, or Concerning Chastity

Man's Responsibility for his Acts.
THE STORY OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN.--Gen. 3. Parallel Readings. Hist. Bible, Vol. I, 37-42. Drummond, Ideal Life, Chaps. on Sin. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eye, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened and they beard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the …
Charles Foster Kent—The Making of a Nation

Job's Faith and Expectation
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. C hristianity, that is, the religion of which MESSIAH is the author and object, the foundation, life, and glory, though not altogether as old as creation, is nearly so. It is coeval [contemporary] with the first promise and intimation of mercy given to fallen man. When Adam, by transgression, had violated the order and law of …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Curiosity a Temptation to Sin.
"Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away."--Proverbs iv. 14, 15. The chief cause of the wickedness which is every where seen in the world, and in which, alas! each of us has more or less his share, is our curiosity to have some fellowship with darkness, some experience of sin, to know what the pleasures of sin are like. I believe it is even thought unmanly by many persons (though they may not like to say …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Plan for the Coming of Jesus.
God's Darling, Psalms 8:5-8.--the plan for the new man--the Hebrew picture by itself--difference between God's plan and actual events--one purpose through breaking plans--the original plan--a starting point--getting inside. Fastening a Tether inside: the longest way around--the pedigree--the start. First Touches on the Canvas: the first touch, Genesis 3:15.--three groups of prediction--first group: to Abraham, Genesis 12:1-3; to Isaac, Genesis 26:1-5; to Jacob, Genesis 28:10-15; through Jacob, …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

"And the Life. " How Christ is the Life.
This, as the former, being spoken indefinitely, may be universally taken, as relating both to such as are yet in the state of nature, and to such as are in the state of grace, and so may be considered in reference to both, and ground three points of truth, both in reference to the one, and in reference to the other; to wit, 1. That our case is such as we stand in need of his help, as being the Life. 2. That no other way but by him, can we get that supply of life, which we stand in need of, for he …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

The Fulfilled Prophecies of the Bible Bespeak the Omniscience of Its Author
In Isaiah 41:21-23 we have what is probably the most remarkable challenge to be found in the Bible. "Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." This Scripture has both a negative …
Arthur W. Pink—The Divine Inspiration of the Bible

On Earthly Things
The earth is man himself; in the gospel: another has fallen into the good earth. The same in a bad part about the sinner: you devour the earth all the days of your life. [Mark 4:18; Genesis 3:14] The dry lands are the flesh of a fruitless man; in Ecclesiastes, to work in a dry land with evil and sorrow. [Ecclesiastes 37:3] The dust is a sinner or the vanity of the flesh; in the psalm: like the dust, which the wind blows about. [Ps. 1:4 Vulgate] The mud is the gluttony of sinners; in the psalm: tear …
St. Eucherius of Lyons—The Formulae of St. Eucherius of Lyons

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