And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
What does Genesis 3:10 mean?
Notice the startling question, Adam, where art you?
Key themes
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Keep this verse inside Genesis 3:9-10 and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on Genesis 3:10
Adam confesses that he was afraid of God, because he was naked. There is an instinctive hiding of his thoughts from God in this very speech. The nakedness is mentioned, but not the disobedience from which the sense of it arose. To the direct interrogatory of the Almighty, he confesses who made him acquainted with his nakedness and the fact of his having eaten of the forbidden fruit: "The woman" gave me of the tree, and "I did eat.
Key words
- said
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And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden,.
- heard
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And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden,.
- voice
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And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden,.
Context in Genesis 3
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Genesis 3 belongs to the early movement of the book, especially the section often described as primeval history from creation to Babel. Genesis opens the whole Bible with creation, fall, flood, Babel, and the long patriarchal story that carries the reader from Eden to Egypt. Read this chapter with the wider themes of creation, fall, and covenant in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
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