The Bible account reports that a lowly beast of the field, a serpent, spoke to Eve. Of course, an animal cannot speak of itself. Satan the Devil was actually the speaker, using the serpent. Because of this deception and the use of the serpent, God called him “the original serpent [deceiver].” (Revelation 12:9)

28. From the account in Genesis 3:1-5: (a) How did Satan’s question to Eve imply that God had held back something from her that she should have? (b) Was Eve ignorant of God’s law about not eating from the ‘tree of knowledge’?

²⁸ “Now the serpent proved to be the most cautious of all the wild beasts of the field that Jehovah God had made. So it began to say to the woman: ‘Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?’

Genesis 3:1

31. What may have been Eve’s reasoning as the serpent spoke to her?

³¹ Why was Eve not dumbfounded, and why did she not flee when the serpent, surprisingly, spoke to her? The Bible does not say. It is possible that she saw the serpent at the tree, and its actions may have attracted her attention. She knew that it was a most cautious animal. So the serpent may have appeared very wise, and when it spoke it seemed to have special wisdom.