Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.””
Genesis 3:13

The male did TERRIBLE. Sinned and then denied his responsibility. He passed it – and his authority – to the female. The female was given the SAME CHANCE to repent. She ALSO did not take it. She passed off the authority to the snake. We have authority within restriction (boundaries) and it is powered by our responsibility to that restriction. The male said he did what he did because he listened to the woman. He put authority in her hands. She hot potatoed it to the snake, saying it was the snake who spoke with authority. Like she had no choice. Like the will of the snake was greater than her own. Instead of inquiring of either the male, her equal partner, or the Lord, her creator, she chose to listen to the snake, believe his words, and do what he told her to. Humanity had now completely given up all authority on this world to the snake and the power behind the snake (since the snake was only doing what HE had been told, listening and submitting to the will of the devil). She didn’t make excuses – she knew once she ate of the fruit that she had been deceived – she just passed responsibility. The snake shut its mouth, said nothing, and took the responsibility – thereby gaining the authority, which was the devil’s goal.

Notice that the woman at no point tried to blame God like the male had.

The sage Ramban said it this way: ‘[WHAT IS THIS THOU HAST DONE to transgress My commandment? For the woman was included in the admonition given to Adam since at that time she was yet bone of his bones, and similarly she was included in his punishment. The reason why G-d did not say to the woman, “and thou hast eaten of the tree,” is that she was punished for both her eating and her advice, just as the serpent was punished for the advice. This is why she said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat, as the punishment for the beguiling was greater than that for the eating. [Hence as soon as she mentioned that the serpent beguiled her, G-d meted out his punishment immediately, as is stated in the following two verses.] Thus we may derive from here the principle of punishment for those that cause people to sin in any matter, just as our Rabbis have derived it from the verse, Thou shalt not put a stumbling-block before the blind.’