TRV
Translation
King James Version
¶ And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Complete Jewish Bible
He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I ordered you not to eat?”
Berean Standard Bible
“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
American Standard Version
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
World English Bible Messianic
God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Geneva Bible (1599)
And he saide, Who tolde thee, that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eate?
Young's Literal Translation
And He saith, `Who hath declared to thee that thou art naked? of the tree of which I have commanded thee not to eat, hast thou eaten?'
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In the KJVVerse 67 of 31,102
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Commentary on Genesis 3 verses 11–13
11 ¶ And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
We have here the offenders found guilty by their own confession, and yet endeavouring to excuse and extenuate their fault. They could not confess and justify what they had done, but they confess and palliate it. Observe,
I. How their confession was extorted from them. God put it to the man: Who told thee that thou wast naked? Gen 3:11. "How camest thou to be sensible of thy nakedness as thy shame?" Hast thou eaten of the forbidden tree? Note, Though God knows all our sins, yet he will know them from us, and requires from us an ingenuous confession of them; not that he may be informed, but that we may be humbled. In this examination, God reminds him of the command he had given him: "I commanded thee not to eat of it, I thy Maker, I thy Master, I thy benefactor; I commanded thee to the contrary." Sin appears most plain and most sinful in the glass of the commandment, therefore God here sets it before Adam; and in it we should see our faces. The question put to the woman was, What is this that thou hast done? Gen 3:13. "Wilt thou also own thy fault, and make confession of it? And wilt thou see what an evil thing it was?" Note, It concerns those who have eaten forbidden fruit themselves, and especially those who have enticed others to eat it likewise, seriously to consider what they have done. In eating forbidden fruit, we have offended a great and gracious God, broken a just and righteous law, violated a sacred and most solemn covenant, and wronged our own precious souls by forfeiting God's favour and exposing ourselves to his wrath and curse: in enticing others to eat of it, we do the devil's work, make ourselves guilty of other men's sins, and accessory to their ruin. What is this that we have done?
II. How their crime was extenuated by them in their confession. It was to no purpose to plead not guilty. The show of their countenances testified against them; therefore they become their own accusers: "I did eat," says the man, "And so did I," says the woman; for when God judges he will overcome. But these do not look like penitent confessions; for instead of aggravating the sin, and taking shame to themselves, they excuse the sin, and lay the shame and blame on others. 1. Adam lays all the blame upon his wife. "She gave me of the tree, and pressed me to eat of it, which I did, only to oblige her" - a frivolous excuse. He ought to have taught her, not to have been taught by her; and it was no hard matter to determine which of the two he must be ruled by, his God or his wife. Learn, hence, never to be brought to sin by that which will not bring us off in the judgment; let not that bear us up in the commission which will not bear us out in the trial; let us therefore never be overcome by importunity to act against our consciences, nor ever displease God, to please the best friend we have in the world. But this is not the worst of it. He not only lays the blame upon his wife, but expresses it so as tacitly to reflect on God himself: "It is the woman whom thou gavest me, and gavest to be with me as my companion, my guide, and my acquaintance; she gave me of the tree, else I had not eaten of it." Thus he insinuates that God was accessory to his sin: he gave him the woman, and she gave him the fruit; so that he seemed to have it at but one remove from God's own hand. Note, There is a strange proneness in those that are tempted to say that they are tempted of God, as if our abusing God's gifts would excuse our violation of God's laws. God gives us riches, honours, and relations, that we may serve him cheerfully in the enjoyment of them; but, if we take occasion from them to sin against him, instead of blaming Providence for putting us into such a condition, we must blame ourselves for perverting the gracious designs of Providence therein. 2. Eve lays all the blame upon the serpent: The serpent beguiled me. Sin is a brat that nobody is willing to own, a sign that it is a scandalous thing. Those that are willing enough to take the pleasure and profit of sin are backward enough to take the blame and shame of it. "The serpent, that subtle creature of thy making, which thou didst permit to come into paradise to us, he beguiled me," or made me to err; for our sins are our errors. Learn hence, (1.) That Satan's temptations are all beguilings, his arguments are all fallacies, his allurements are all cheats; when he speaks fair, believe him not. Sin deceives us, and, by deceiving, cheats us. It is by the deceitfulness of sin that the heart is hardened. See Rom 7:11; Heb 3:13. (2.) That though Satan's subtlety drew us into sin, yet it will not justify us in sin: though he is the tempter, we are the sinners; and indeed it is our own lust that draws us aside and entices us, Jam 1:14. Let it not therefore lessen our sorrow and humiliation for sin that we are beguiled into it; but rather let it increase our self-indignation that we should suffer ourselves to be beguiled by a known cheat and a sworn enemy. Well, this is all the prisoners at the bar have to say why sentence should not be passed and execution awarded, according to law; and this all is next to nothing, in some respects worse than nothing.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 11–13. Public domain.
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Ephrem the SyrianAD 373
COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 2.27.1-2
Instead of confessing what he had done, which would have helped him, he related what had been done to him, which did not help him at all.… Adam again failed to confess his folly and blamed the woman.
Ephrem the SyrianAD 373
COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 2.23.2
If Adam and Eve had sought to repent after they had transgressed the commandment, even though they would not have regained that which they had possessed before their transgression of the commandment, they would have escaped from the curses that were decreed on the earth and upon them.
John ChrysostomAD 407
HOMILIES ON GENESIS 17.22
You see, since he was not unaware of the truth when he asked them but rather knew, and knew very well, he shows consideration for their limitations so as to demonstrate his own loving kindness, and he invites them to make admission of their faults.
John ChrysostomAD 407
Where could you have got the knowledge of this, he says, and be covered in such confusion, unless you have been so intemperate as to despise my command?
Notice, dearly beloved, the excess of God's goodness, how, in this manner of one friend communing with another and remonstrating with him over transgression of his instructions, he enters into dialog with Adam. "'Who told you that you are naked unless you have eaten from that one tree I told you not to eat from?'" Even the phrase, "that one tree," bears a slight nuance: Surely I didn't inhibit your enjoyment? it is saying. Did I not relieve you of every need, give you authority over everything in the garden, and only instruct you to keep away from that one thing so that you might be in a position to know that you are subject to direction and required to show some obedience? So what kind of terrible in difference is this that, despite your having such great enjoyment, you could not bear to keep away from that one thing but rather hastened in that manner to violate the command given you by me and envelop yourself in so many excesses?
What good was that to you? Hadn't I warned you of that in advance? Wasn't it my intention to check you be forehand with fear of punishment and so make you more cautious? Didn't I tell you what would be likely to happen? Didn't I for that reason forbid your eating that fruit so that you wouldn't fall victim to those faults? Who could consider you deserving of excuse now that you've proved to be so unresponsive despite so many directions? (138d) didn't I thus instruct you in every detail, like a father to his own dear son, and teach you to keep away from this tree while being free to taste all the others lest it wreak havoc with all your endowments?
Perhaps, however, you have thought advice from an other quarter acceptable and to be preferred to my command, and followed it in the expectation of gaining greater advantages, and out of scorn for my command you were bold enough to eat from the tree. See what you suffered through that experiment: you discovered the disastrous effect of that advice. Do you see the loving kindness of the judge? Do you see his mildness and longsuffering? Do you see his considerateness stretching beyond all thought and imagination? Do you see how through his question and the words, "Who told you that you are naked unless you have eaten from that one tree I told you not to eat from?" he wanted to open to you the doors to excuse so that even in regard to such a sinful person he might show his characteristic love? So let us listen to the accused as well, and hear what he has to say in reply to this question.
"Adam said," the text goes on, "The woman you gave me as my companion gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it." [ Gen 3:12 ] Pitiable words and full of much pity, and capable of moving the Lord to clemency, He who is so gentle, overcoming our sins by his goodness. For when he had shaken his disposition by a great display of tolerance and had shown him the magnitude of his sin, Adam all but preparing his own defense, said to Him, "the woman you gave me as my companion." In other words, how could I have ever expected that I would have been so covered in confusion through the one you created with the very purpose of bringing me consolation from her person? You gave her to me, you led her to meet me. She I know not under what impulse in her turn gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.
While this explanation seems to offer some excuse, it is in fact devoid of all defense. I mean, what defense can you lay claim to, he says, for forgetting my commands and judging the bauble given by your wife more important than words spoken by me? After all, even if your wife did give it to you, still my command and the fear of punishment were sufficient to dispose you to avoid tasting. I mean, surely you were not ignorant? Surely you weren't unaware? With this in mind, out of care for you, I spoke up with the aim of preventing your falling victim to these faults; and so, even if your wife prepared the way for your transgressing my command, nevertheless you were not without guilt: you should have regarded my command as more worthy of trust, and, beyond dissuading yourself alone from eating, you should have demonstrated the gravity of the sin to your wife as well. After all, you are head of your wife, [ I Cor 11:3 ] and she has been created for your sake; but you have inverted the proper order: not only have you failed to keep her on the straight and narrow but you have been dragged down with her, and whereas the rest of the body should follow the head, the contrary has in fact occurred, the head following the rest of the body, turning things upside down. Hence, since you have reversed the proper order completely, you now find yourself in that desperate situation after being clad previously in such wonderful splendor. So who could adequately lament the loss you have sustained of such great benefits?
But, all the same, even if all these things have befallen you, put the blame on no one else but yourself and your own neglect; after all, if you had not been willing, your wife would have been unable to bring you to this disastrous state. I mean, surely she didn't urge you? Surely she didn't inveigle you? Surely she didn't deceive you? She merely gave you the fruit, and in an instant with such ease you were prevailed upon to taste it, without a thought to my command; instead, you thought you had been taken in by me and had not been permitted this food for this reason, lest you happen upon greater blessings. What grounds would you have for thinking you were deceived by me, the donor of such acts of kindness to you? What great kindness did this indicate, to take early precautions and clearly outline what you must abstain from so as not to fall into the excesses in which you have now immersed yourself? All these warnings, however, you gave no heed to, and so, behold, you have found out for yourself by experience the seriousness of these sins; so at this point don't lay the blame on your wife alone, but on your own indifference as well
Augustine of HippoAD 430
TWO BOOKS ON GENESIS AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 2.16.24
When Adam heard God's voice, he answered that he hid because he was naked. His answer was a wretched error, as if a man naked, as God had made him, could be displeasing to him. It is a distinguishing mark of error that whatever anyone finds personally displeasing he imagines is displeasing to God as well. We should understand in a lofty sense the words of the Lord, "Who told you that you were naked, unless because you have eaten from that tree about which I told you that from it alone you should not eat?" Before he was naked of any dissimulation and clothed with the divine light. From this light he turned away and turned toward himself. This is the meaning of his having eaten from that tree. He saw his nakedness, and it was displeasing to himself because he did not have anything of his own.
BedeAD 735
Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)
Therefore, the Lord willing now to punish sinners asked according to the manner of justice more than that penalty, from which they were already compelled to be ashamed, For he says, Who told you that you were naked, unless you have eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? For from here indeed death was conceived because of God's sentence, who had thus threatened, made the members be noticed with concupiscence: where their eyes are said to be opened, and followed what would cause shame.
Symeon the New TheologianAD 1022
DISCOURSES 5.5
Do you see, dear friend, how patient God is? For when he said, “Adam, where are you?” and when Adam did not at once confess his sin but said, “I heard your voice, O Lord, and realized that I am naked and hid myself,” God was not angered, nor did he immediately turn away. Rather, he gave him the opportunity of a second reply and said, “Who told you that you are naked? Unless you ate of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat.” Consider how profound are the words of God’s wisdom. He says, “Why do you say that you are naked but hide your sin? Do you really think that I see only your body but do not see your heart and your thoughts?” Since Adam was deceived he hoped that God would not know his sin. He said something like this to himself, “If I say that I am naked, God in his ignorance will say, ‘Why are you naked?’ Then I shall have to deny and say, ‘I do not know,’ and so I shall not be caught by him and he will give me back the garment that I had at first. If not, as long as he does not cast me out, he will not exile me!” While he was thinking these thoughts … God, unwilling to multiply his guilt, says, “How did you realize that you are naked? Unless you ate of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat.” It is as though he said, “Do you really think that you can hide from me? Do you imagine that I do not know what you have done? Will you not say, ‘I have sinned?’ Say, O scoundrel, ‘Yes, it is true, Master, I have transgressed your command. I have fallen by listening to the woman’s counsel, I am greatly at fault for doing what she said and disobeying your word. Have mercy on me!’ ” But he does not humble himself, he does not bend. The neck of his heart is like a sinew of iron! For had he said this he might have stayed in paradise. By this one word he might have spared himself that whole cycle of evils without number that he endured by his expulsion and in spending so many centuries in hell.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Genesis 3:11 captures the Lord God's direct and piercing interrogation of Adam following humanity's first sin. This pivotal verse reveals the immediate consequence of disobedience—profound shame and a broken relationship—as God's questions expose the depth of their fall and the origin of their newfound self-awareness, setting the stage for divine judgment and the unfolding of His redemptive plan.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The Lord God's interrogation in Genesis 3:11 employs several powerful literary devices. The most prominent is the Rhetorical Question. God's questions, "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" and "Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?", are not asked out of ignorance but are designed to provoke self-reflection, confession, and to expose the truth of Adam's transgression. They serve a pedagogical and judicial purpose, guiding Adam towards an acknowledgment of his sin. There is also a profound Irony at play: humanity, seeking greater knowledge by disobeying God, gains a knowledge (of good and evil) that immediately brings shame and fear, rather than the promised enlightenment. The very act meant to elevate them instead diminishes them. Furthermore, Symbolism is central, particularly with "nakedness." What was previously a state of innocent transparency (Genesis 2:25) now symbolizes guilt, vulnerability, and a severed relationship with God. The "tree" itself functions as a symbol of divine authority and the boundary of human freedom, making the act of eating from it a symbolic act of rebellion against God's sovereignty.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Genesis 3:11 is a foundational text for understanding the nature of sin and its immediate consequences. It reveals that sin is fundamentally an act of rebellion against God's explicit command, leading not only to external consequences but also to profound internal shifts, such as shame, guilt, and a distorted self-perception. God's questioning, though seemingly simple, highlights His omniscience and His desire for humanity to acknowledge their fallen state. This divine interrogation is a precursor to judgment but also implicitly a call to repentance, demonstrating God's continued engagement with His creation even in their sin. The verse sets the stage for the entire biblical narrative of redemption, emphasizing humanity's need for a covering and restoration that only God can provide.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Genesis 3:11 serves as a timeless mirror, reflecting the human condition after the fall. It powerfully illustrates how sin immediately impacts our internal state, leading to a profound sense of shame, vulnerability, and a desire to hide from God. This passage challenges us to honestly confront our own "nakedness"—those areas of our lives where we have disobeyed God, experienced guilt, and attempted to conceal our true spiritual state. God's questions to Adam are not accusatory in a way that seeks to destroy, but rather diagnostic, aiming to bring about a recognition of sin and a pathway to restoration. For us, this means understanding that God's awareness of our sin is not for His information, but for our conviction and ultimate healing. It calls us to abandon self-covering and embrace the divine covering offered through grace, recognizing that true peace comes from open confession and reliance on God's provision rather than human effort.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does God ask questions if He already knows the answer?
Answer: God's questions are not born of ignorance, but of divine pedagogy and justice. They serve to draw out confession, to lead the individual to acknowledge their sin, and to reveal the state of their heart. This is a consistent pattern in Scripture, where God engages humanity in dialogue to foster accountability and lead towards repentance, rather than merely imposing judgment without interaction. It's a demonstration of His relational nature, even in the context of confronting sin.
What is the significance of "nakedness" in this context?
Answer: Beyond mere physical unclothedness, "nakedness" in Genesis 3:11 symbolizes a profound spiritual and psychological state. It represents the immediate consequence of sin: a loss of innocence, a shattered communion with God and each other, and a newfound vulnerability, shame, and guilt. Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed, indicating perfect transparency and harmony. Their sudden awareness of nakedness signifies the rupture of this ideal state and the entry of sin's corrupting influence.
How does this verse relate to the concept of guilt?
Answer: The awareness of nakedness and the subsequent attempt to hide from God's presence are direct manifestations of guilt. Adam and Eve's actions betray their internal conviction of having violated a divine command. Their fear and desire to evade accountability stem from their recognition of wrongdoing. Genesis 3:11 thus marks the initial stage of the human experience of guilt before a holy God, demonstrating how sin immediately brings a burden of conscience and a sense of separation.
What does "the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat" emphasize?
Answer: This specific phrasing emphasizes the clarity, specificity, and authority of God's original prohibition. It underscores that Adam's sin was not an accident, a misunderstanding, or an act of ignorance, but a deliberate and conscious act of disobedience against a known divine command. This highlights the gravity of their rebellion against their Creator's explicit will, making their transgression inexcusable and underscoring the justness of the ensuing judgment.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
This verse, with its stark portrayal of humanity's immediate shame and spiritual nakedness after the fall, profoundly underscores the desperate need for a divine covering and a Mediator. Adam's futile attempt to hide and cover himself with fig leaves foreshadows the ultimate inadequacy of human effort to atone for sin or to conceal one's shame before a holy God. This broken state points forward to Christ, the second Adam, who perfectly fulfills the need for a sinless substitute. Through His obedient life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection, Christ fully covers our spiritual nakedness by imputing His perfect righteousness to all who believe (Philippians 3:9). His sacrifice on the cross provides the true and lasting covering, transforming our shame into glory and restoring our fellowship with God, a reality first hinted at by God's gracious provision of animal skins for Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:21. This divine act of clothing, necessitating the death of an innocent creature, prefigures the ultimate Lamb of God whose sacrifice provides the only sufficient covering for the sin of the world (John 1:29).