This is the first biblical...
Illustration
This is the first biblical version of the human penchant for passing the buck. Martin Luther describes the reactions of Adam and Eve to God's questions.
Therefore the statement, "The woman whom Thou didst give to me" is full of resentment and anger against God, as if Adam were saying: "Thou hast burdened me with this trouble. If Thou hadst given the woman some garden of her own and hadst not burdened me by making me live with her, I would have remained without sin. Therefore, the guilt for my having sinned is Thine, since Thou didst give me a wife ..." Eve also tries to excuse herself and accuses the serpent, which was also a creature of God. Indeed, she confesses that she ate the fruit. "But the serpent," says she, "which Thou hast created and which Thou hast permitted to move about in Paradise, deceived me ..." So we see that sin is and acts the same everywhere. It does not want to be sin; it does not want to be punished because of sin. It wants to be righteousness.
(From Luther's Works, volume i, Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 1-5, Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958, pp. 178-179.)
-- Hedahl
Therefore the statement, "The woman whom Thou didst give to me" is full of resentment and anger against God, as if Adam were saying: "Thou hast burdened me with this trouble. If Thou hadst given the woman some garden of her own and hadst not burdened me by making me live with her, I would have remained without sin. Therefore, the guilt for my having sinned is Thine, since Thou didst give me a wife ..." Eve also tries to excuse herself and accuses the serpent, which was also a creature of God. Indeed, she confesses that she ate the fruit. "But the serpent," says she, "which Thou hast created and which Thou hast permitted to move about in Paradise, deceived me ..." So we see that sin is and acts the same everywhere. It does not want to be sin; it does not want to be punished because of sin. It wants to be righteousness.
(From Luther's Works, volume i, Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 1-5, Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958, pp. 178-179.)
-- Hedahl
