Now the serpent: Now does not refer to time; it is the usual Hebrew connective used to introduce a new stage or episode in the sequence of story events. In some languages no marker is required here, while in others special particles indicate such a transition. In some languages the opening of a new episode or the introduction of a new participant in a narrative usually follows a particular pattern. This may require saying, for example, “This is the story that begins with a snake. The snake was…” or “Now the story goes on beginning with a snake. The snake was….” Some languages find it more natural to say, for example, “God made many animals and the most cunning one of all was the snake.” One example of following the usual pattern for introducing a new character into a story is “When God made all the animals, one of them was a really tricky one. He was more clever than all the other animals. That one was the snake.”

Serpent, which translates the usual word for “snake,” has had a long history of interpretation. Some commentators have held that the serpent refers to Satan in disguise. Others have taken the position that it is a symbol for curiosity. The serpent is found in the stories of many societies as the creature who brings good luck, knowledge, and wealth, and who is sometimes described as being able to speak. Translators should avoid giving the snake some kind of symbolic meaning, or of reading New Testament thoughts into the rendering of the term by saying, for example, “snake deceiver,” “devil snake,” or “Satan snake.” It should be referred to simply as a snake and nothing more.

More subtle …: subtle translates a word meaning “cunning, crafty, clever.” It is used in the same sense in Job 5.12. The word is also used in a positive way in Pro 12.16, where it is translated “prudent” (Revised Standard Version) and “smart” (Good News Translation). Here the word suggests guile or intent to deceive. Most languages do not lack for terms to express “deceitful cleverness”; however, some languages prefer to express the idea in figurative terms; for example, “The snake talked more sweet words than…” or “The snake’s mouth was full of honey, more than any other….”

Wild creature is literally “beast of the field” as in 2.19, 20 and means “wild animal” in contrast to domesticated animal. Good News Translation translates it as “animal,” but the text has a term that describes it as “wild.”

For LORD God see 2.4. Made is also as in 2.4.

He said to the woman: care must be taken that the pronoun He refers back to the snake and not to God. In some languages the pronoun form referring to the snake will be different than the one referring to God. In some cases it is preferable to repeat “snake” as the subject. Said is followed by a question, and so in English, as in many other languages, “asked” or “inquired” will be more natural. Woman is as in 2.22.

Did God say is introduced in Hebrew by an intensive particle that gives the sense “Is it really so that God said…?” The expression shows that the serpent sows a seed of doubt regarding what God has said. In languages that naturally use a question form to express this, we may render “Is it actually so that God said…?” “Did God really say…?” or “Is it true that God said…?” If Did God say…? is understood as a rhetorical question, some may find it natural to translate “God didn’t really say….”

God in the speech of the snake is ʾelohim, as in chapter 1, and not Yahweh ʾelohim. The writer clearly abstains from putting the sacred name Yahweh into the snake’s speech. Only here and in the woman’s reply is ʾelohim used. Elsewhere in this subdivision only Yahweh ʾelohim is used, and it is rendered “LORD God” in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. For discussion see 2.4.

You shall not eat of any tree of the garden: You is plural in Hebrew and so refers to the man and the woman, although only the woman is being addressed. If the translator’s language has dual pronominal forms, the appropriate dual pronoun should be used here and throughout the story. The snake is asking if the prohibition to eat applies to every tree, as the Revised Standard Version rendering indicates; the form of the question in Good News Translation can be taken to mean “one of the trees,” and this is not correct. This question may have to be restructured to say “Did God really say, ‘You both are to eat from no tree in the garden’?” or “… ‘You [dual or plural] are to avoid eating from every tree in the garden’?” Since the focus of the question is on the fruit, some translations restructure the question form to begin with a reference to it; for example, “What about the fruit on the trees in this garden? Is it true that God has put a taboo on them so that you-two can’t eat them?”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .