The Fall

3 Now the serpent^(A) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?^(B)”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,^{(C) 3} but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”^(D)

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.^{(E) 5} “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,^(F) knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable^(G) for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband,^(H) who was with her, and he ate it.^{(I) 7} Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked;^(J) so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.^(K)

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking^(L) in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid^(M) from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”^(N)

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid^(O) because I was naked;^(P) so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?^(Q) Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?^(R)”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me^(S)—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me,^(T) and I ate.”

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’^(AB)

²⁰ Adam^[c] named his wife Eve,^[d](AL) because she would become the mother of all the living.

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.^{(AM) 22} And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us,^(AN) knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life^(AO) and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden^(AP) to work the ground^(AQ) from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side^[e] of the Garden of Eden^(AR) cherubim^(AS) and a flaming sword^(AT) flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.^(AU)

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”^(A)

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it^(A) is the Lord of heaven and earth^(B) and does not live in temples built by human hands.^{(C) 25} And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.^{(D) 26} From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.^{(E) 27} God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.^{(F) 28} ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’^[a](G) As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’^[b]

²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.^{(H) 30} In the past God overlooked^(I) such ignorance,^(J) but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.^{(K) 31} For he has set a day when he will judge^(L) the world with justice^(M) by the man he has appointed.^(N) He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”^(O)

³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead,^(P) some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” ³³ At that, Paul left the Council. ³⁴ Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus,^(Q) also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

⁸ All inhabitants of the earth^(A) will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life,^(B) the Lamb^(C) who was slain from the creation of the world.^[a](D)