Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  Eve at first nobly resisted the Tempter. For as yet she was guided by the illumination of that Holy Spirit, of whom we have spoken, and by whom she knew that man was created perfect and in the likeness of God. At length however she suffered herself to be persuaded and overcome.

  With respect to the fall of the angels, it is uncertain on which day the fall took place; whether on the second or on the third day. This only can be proved, and that is known from the Gospel, namely, that Satan fell from Heaven, for Christ himself testifies of the manner of the fall, where he says, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven,” Luke 10:18. But whether the heavens were then “finished” or yet in their rude unformed state, we know not. The discussion of this point however belongs not to our present exposition of the passage before us. Our present duty is to contemplate the extreme malice here disclosed, joined with the most horrible unconcern. For this spirit trembles not to call the commandment of the divine majesty into doubt; though he fully knew all the time, what an awful calamity must thereby fall upon the whole human race.

  In the second place the wonderful subtlety here exercised is especially to be considered, which is discovered first in this: that Satan attacks the highest powers of man and assails the very image of God in him; namely, his will, which as yet thought and judged aright concerning God. “Now the serpent was more subtle,” says our text, “than any beast of the field, which Jehovah God had made.” But the subtlety manifested in this instance far exceeded all the natural subtlety of the serpent. For Satan here disputes with man concerning the Word and the will of God. This the serpent in his natural state and condition could not do; for in that, he was subject to the “dominion” of man. But the spirit which spoke in the serpent is so subtle that he overcomes man and persuades him to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree. It is not therefore a creature of God, in his created good state, that here speaks; but it is a spirit, who is the bitterest enemy of God and of men; a spirit, who is indeed a creature of God, but not created thus evil by God. It is a creature, who abode not in the truth; as Christ says, John 8:44. These facts are consequences, plainly resulting from the Gospel and from the text of Moses before us.

  The subtlety which we are contemplating is seen also from the stratagem of Satan in attacking the weak part of human nature; namely Eve, the woman; and not Adam, the man. For although both of them were created equally righteous, yet Adam excelled Eve. For as in all the endowments of nature, the male strength exceeds that of the female sex, so in the state of the innocency and perfection of human nature, the male in some degree excelled the female. Hence Satan, seeing that Adam was the more excellent creature, dared not attack him; for he had fears lest his attempts should fail. And my belief is that if he had attempted Adam first, Adam would have had the victory. He would more likely have crushed the serpent with his foot, and would have said to him, “Hold your tongue. The Lord hath commanded otherwise.” Satan therefore attacks Eve as the weaker part, and tries her strength. For he sees that she has so much trust in, and dependence on, her husband, that she will not think it possible that she should be persuaded to do wrong after what her husband had told her.

  By this portion of the sacred record we are also instructed concerning the divine permission; that God sometimes permits the devil to enter into beasts, as he here entered into the serpent. For there can be no doubt that the serpent, in the assumption of whose form Satan talked with Eve was a real and natural serpent. But when men enter into discussions whether this serpent assumed on that occasion a human countenance, etc., all such discussions are absurd. The creature was doubtless a most beautiful serpent in its natural state; otherwise Eve would not have conversed with it so securely. After the sin of the fall however that beauty of the serpent was changed. For God’s rebuke to him declares that hereafter “he should go upon his belly on the ground.” Whereas before, he walked upright, as the male fowl. God also declares “that he should eat dust,” whereas before, he fed upon better food, even upon the productions of the earth. Nay, even the original security of man with the serpent is lost. We flee from serpents at the sight of them, as they also flee from us.

  These are all wounds, which have been inflicted on nature on account of sin; just in the same way we have lost the glory of our nakedness, the rectitude of our will and the soundness of our intellect and understanding. I believe also, that the serpent lost much of his subtlety, which Moses here lauds, as a distinguishing gift of God. Moreover, I believe that in the same proportion as the serpent is now an evil creature amidst the beasts, so it was then a good creature; and a blessed and lovely creature; a creature with which not man only, but all the other beasts also, lived in perfect freedom and with great pleasure. The serpent therefore was a creature, the best adapted of all the other living creatures for the purpose of Satan. By it he could secure the most easy access to Eve, and could the most effectually converse with her so as to draw her into sin.

  Such is my opinion concerning the natural serpent, the beautiful nature of which Satan planned thus to abuse. I believe it was originally a most beautiful creature, without any poison in its tail and without those filthy scales with which it is now covered. For these grew upon it after the sin of the fall. Hence we find it a precept given by Moses that any beast, which should kill any person, should itself immediately be killed, Exod. 21:28; and for no other reason than because Satan sinned by using a beast when he murdered man. Hence also a serpent is killed wherever found, as a lasting memorial of this diabolical malice and this fall of man, wrought by his means.

  With reference to the grammatical expression here used, the Latin interpreter renders the Hebrew APHKI by cur. Though this rendering is not very wide of the real sense of the passage, yet it does not convey the true and proper meaning. For it is the highest and greatest of all temptations, when a dispute is entered upon, concerning the counsel of God, why God did this or that. But my judgment is, that the weight of the matter does not rest on this particle of expression why? or wherefore? But rather on the name God, ELOHIM. It is this that constitutes the greatness and awfulness of the temptation.

  It is as if Satan had said, “Ye must be foolish indeed if ye suppose that God could possibly be unwilling that ye should eat of this tree when he had himself given you ‘dominion’ over all the trees of paradise; nay, when he had positively created all the trees for your sakes. How can he, who bestowed as a free favor all things upon you, possibly envy you these particular fruits, which are so sweet and so pleasant!” For Satan’s whole aim is to devise a means of drawing them away from the Word and from the knowledge of God, and to bring them to conclude that what they had stated was not really the will of God, and that such was not really what God had commanded them. That this is the true sense of the whole divine passage, that which follows tends to prove; when Satan says, “Ye shall not surely die.” For all the stratagems of Satan centre in this one: — to draw men away from the Word, and from faith unto a new and false god.

  And this same plan of Satan all fanatical spirits follow. Hence, Arius reasons and inquires, Do you really think that Christ is God, when he himself says, “My Father is greater than I?” In the same manner also the Sacramentarians ask, Do you really think that the bread is the body and the wine the blood of Christ? Christ most certainly had no thoughts so absurd. When men begin thus to indulge their own cogitations, they by degrees depart from the Word and fall into error.

  Since therefore, the whole force of the temptation was in leading Eve to doubt whether God really did say so; it is a more correct rendering to leave the emphasis resting on the name of God. The leaving it to rest on the interrogative particle, why? takes away from the peculiar force of the meaning. In my judgment therefore the passage will be best rendered by making the emphasis to rest on the not. Hath God said that ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? For Satan’s real aim is, not to set up an inquiry why God said this. His object is to bring Eve to conclude that God had positively not so commanded, in order that by bringing her to th
is conclusion he might wrest from her the Word. Satan saw that the reasoning power of Eve might in this way be the most effectually deceived, if he drew away from her sight and judgment the Word of God, under the very name of God. And he thinks the same still.

  This question of Satan is full of insidious deception. He does not speak particularly, but generally; he includes in his interrogation, all the trees of the garden together. As if he had said, “You have committed unto you an universal ‘dominion’ over all the beasts of the earth; and do you really suppose that God, who has thus given you ‘dominion’ over all the beasts of the earth, has not given you the same dominion over all the trees of the earth? Why, you ought rather to think that as God has put under you the whole earth and all the beasts of the earth; so he has also granted you the use of all things which grow upon the earth.” This is indeed the very height and depth of temptation. Satan here endeavors to gain over the mind of Eve to his purpose, by artfully drawing her into the conclusion that God is never unlike himself; and that therefore if God had given them universal dominion over all the other creatures, he had given them universal dominion over all the trees also. From this therefore it would naturally follow that the commandment not to eat of the tree of life, was not the commandment of God; or that if it were his commandment, it was not so to be understood that he really wished them not to eat of that tree.

  Wherefore this temptation was a double temptation, by which as a twofold means Satan aimed at the same end. The one part of the temptation is, “God hath not said this, therefore ye may eat of this tree.” The second branch of this awful temptation is, “God hath given unto you all things; therefore all things are yours; and therefore this tree is not forbidden you, etc., etc.” Now, both branches of this temptation are directed to the same object; to draw Eve away from the Word and from faith. For this commandment concerning not eating of this tree of knowledge, which God gave to Adam and to Eve, proves that Adam with his posterity, had they continued in their original innocency, would have lived in that perfection of nature by faith, until he and they had been translated from this corporeal life unto the life spiritual and eternal. For wherever the Word is, there of necessity is faith also. For the Word was this, “Of the tree of the knowledge, etc., thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam and Eve must therefore have believed that this tree involved in it something perilous to their salvation. Therefore in this very Word of commandment, faith also is included.

  We, who are designed to be transferred from this state of sin to a state of eternal righteousness, also live by faith. But we have a Word, different from that which Adam had in his state of nature’s innocence and perfection. For he was designed to be transferred simply from a state of animal life to that of a spiritual and eternal life. Wherefore this tree, as I have before observed, was intended of God to be a temple as it were in the midst of paradise, in which the Word God spoke to Adam might be preached. The substance of this Word was, that all the other trees of paradise were healthful and to be eaten; but that this tree of knowledge, involved in it the danger of destruction; and that therefore they should learn to obey God and his Word, and to render unto God his worship, by not eating of this tree, seeing that God had forbidden them to eat of this particular tree.

  In this manner therefore nature, in its uncorrupt and perfect state, even while it possessed the knowledge of God, had yet a Word or precept of God, above the comprehension of Adam, which he was called upon to believe. And this Word or precept was delivered to man in his state of innocency, that Adam might have a sign or form of worshipping God, of giving him thanks, and of instructing his children in this knowledge of God. Now the devil, beholding this and knowing that this Word or precept of God was above the understanding of man, plies Eve with his temptation and draws her into thinking, whether this really was the commandment and will of God. And this is the very origin of all temptation; when the reason of man attempts to judge concerning the Word and God without the Word.

  Now the will of God was that this his precept should be unto man an occasion of his obedience and of his external worship of God; and that this tree should be a sign, by means of which man should testify that he did obey God. But Satan by setting on foot the doubtful disputation, whether God really did give such a commandment, endeavors to draw man away from this obedience into sin. Here the salvation of Eve consisted solely in her determinately urging the commandment of God, and not suffering herself to be drawn aside into other disputations, whether God really had given such a commandment. And whether as God had created all things for man’s sake, it could be possible that this one tree only was created, containing something incomprehensible and dangerous to man’s salvation. It seems indeed unto men, to be a show of wisdom, to inquire into these things more curiously than is lawful. But as soon as the mind begins to indulge in such disputations, man is lost. But now let us hear the answer Eve makes to Satan:

  Vs. 2, 3. And the woman said unto the serpent: Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 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 perchance ye die.

  Eve’s beginnings are successful enough. She makes a distinction between all the other trees of the garden and this tree. She rehearses the commandment of God. But when she comes to relate also the punishment, she fails. She does not relate the punishment, as it had been declared by the Lord. The Lord had said, absolutely, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” Gen. 2:17. Out of this absolute declaration, Eve makes an expression, not absolute, “Lest perchance ye should die.”

  This defect in the statement of Eve is very remarkable, and demands particular observation; for it proves that she had turned aside from faith to unbelief. For as the promise of God demands faith, so the threatening of God demands faith also. Eve ought to have made her statement as a fact, and a certainty. “If I eat, I shall surely die.” This faith however Satan so assails, with his insidious speech, as to induce Eve to add the expression, “perchance.” For the devil had effectually persuaded her to think that God surely was not so cruel as to kill her for merely tasting a fruit. Hence the heart of Eve was now filled with the poison of Satan.

  This text therefore is also by no means properly translated in our version. The meaning of the original Hebrew is that Eve speaks her own words; whereas she is ostensibly reciting the Word of God; and that she adds to the Word of God her own expression, “perchance.” Wherefore the artifice of the lying spirit has completely succeeded. For the object which he especially had in view; namely, to draw Eve away from the Word and from faith; he has now so far accomplished, as to cause Eve to corrupt the Word of God; or, to use the expression of Paul, “he has turned her aside from the will of God, and caused her to go after Satan”, 1 Tim. 5:15. And the beginning of certain ruin is to be turned aside from God, and to be turned after Satan; that is, not to stand firmly in the Word and in faith. When Satan therefore sees this beginning in Eve, he plies against her his whole power as against a bowing wall, until she falls prostrate on the ground.

  Vs. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

  This is the satanic rhetoric adopted by the tempter to prostrate utterly a poor weak woman; when he sees her turning away from God and inclined to listen to another teacher. Before, when he said in his satanic insidiousness, “Hath God, indeed, thus commanded you?” he did not positively deny the Word. He only attempted by speaking in the form of a question to draw Eve aside into doubting. But now, having fully accomplished his first point, he begins with daring presumption to deny the Word of God altogether, and to charge God himself with falsehood and cruelty. He is not now content with having caused Eve to add her expression, “perchance.” Out of the “perchance,” he now makes a plain and positive denial: “Ye shall not surely
die.”

  We here witness therefore what a horrible thing it is when Satan once begins to tempt a man. For then ruin causes ruin and that which was at first apparently a trifling offense against God, ends eventually in a mighty destruction. It was an awful step into sin for Eve to turn from God and his Word and to lend her ears to Satan. But this her next step is more awful; for she now agrees with Satan, while he charges God with falsehood, and as it were smites him in the face. Eve therefore now is no longer the woman merely turned away from God, as in the first stage of her temptation. She now begins to join Satan in his contempt of God and in his denial of the truth of his Word. She now believes the father of lies, directly contrary to the Word of God.

  Let these things therefore be to us a solemn lesson and a terrible proof, to teach us what man is! For if these things occurred in nature, while it was yet in its state of perfection, what shall we think may become of us! We have proofs, even now, before our eyes. Many, who at the commencement of our course gave thanks with us unto God for his revealed Word, are not only fallen away from it, but are become our bitterest adversaries!

  Thus it was also with the Arians. No sooner had they begun to fall away from faith in the divinity of the Son, than they quickly grew into a violent enmity against him. So that they became the bitter enemies of the true Church and persecuted her with the greatest cruelty. Precisely the same examples of ultimate rage against the truth have we witnessed also in the Anabaptists. They were all led away from the Word, and tempted to use the doubtful expression, “perchance.” Shortly after Satan drove them to turn the doubting “perchance” into a positive “not,” “God hath not said,” etc. Then from forsakers of God, they became the open persecutors of God, imitating in this their father, Satan; who after he had fallen from heaven by sin became the most bitter enemy of Christ and his church. Nor are examples of the very same description few in our day. For we have no enemies more bitter against us than those who have fallen away from the doctrine they once professed with us. And from this very sin that awful description which David has given us of the “fool” arose, Ps. 14:1: “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” For those thus fallen are not satisfied with having turned away from God, unless they have become the assailants also of God himself and of his Word.