The difference between exegesis and eisegesis is monumental. The former leads people to understanding the intended meaning of a passage; the latter enables people to make the Scriptures teach anything they want them to teach.

A good example of this difference can be seen in the claim by some that Satan, not Adam, was the father of Cain. I address this issue in brief in an E-mail Exchange posted on the site (Satan the Father of Cain?). I have received a few emails about this exchange from others who believe this idea. So now would be a good time to address this claim in more detail. This doctrine itself is not that important as there are not that many who believe it. But addressing it will be a good demonstration of the difference between exegesis and eisegesis. And this difference is vitally important to understand.

Note: By "some" in this article is meant those who believe that Satan was the father of Cain. When I use "it is said" I am referring to what these "some" claim. These claims come from various emails to this writer.

Taking this story literally and reading it in a straightforward manner, one gets the impression it is about a garden, fruit trees, and the eating of the fruit of those trees. That is the basic exegesis of the passage. And in fact, I cite Genesis 2:15-17 in my book God-given Foods Eating Plan as evidence that fruit is a "God-given food"—meaning God intended for us to eat fruit. But I also say that Eve subsequently ate of the one tree that God said not to.

Eve then gave some of this "forbidden fruit" to Adam to eat. As a result, both were judged by God and cast out of the Garden (Gen 3:16-24). It should also be noted that it is generally agreed that the serpent here is Satan (see Revelation 12:9; 20:2).

But according to some, the text really is not talking about trees and fruit. What really happened is that Satan deceived Eve into having sex with him. She then in turn seduced Adam. So the sin of Adam and Eve was not simply the eating of some forbidden fruit, it was sex.

But where does this idea come from? First it is said that the word "tree" really is referring to a human body. This comes from the claim that the word means "body" and that a tree looks like a body.

In response, if the word means "human body" what are we to make of the fact that there were many "trees" in the garden? Does this mean that Adam and Eve were not in fact the only humans at this time but just two of many people? You cannot have it mean "body" in Genesis 3 and something else in Genesis 2:17.

Moreover, the Hebrew word translated "tree" means "tree, trees, wood" according to Brown, Driver and Briggs' lexicon (BDB). The Theological Workbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) gives the meanings of "tree, wood, timber, stock, plank, stalk, stick, gallows." In other words, anything made of wood. There is no indication whatsoever in either of these resources that the word has anything to do with the body of a human.

Second, it is said that when Eve told Satan, "nor shall you touch it" she was referring to having sex. This is because the word for "touch" can mean "sex."

In response, in BDB the word means "touch, reach, strike." The TWOT also has "touch, reach, strike" (see Gen 28:12; Joshua 8:15; 1Sam 6:9; 2Sam 5:8; 2Kings 15:5; Ps 73:5,14; Amos 9:5, etc.).

Now the word can have the connotation of "touching" in the sense of touching someone sexually (Gen 20:6; Prov 6:29; Ruth 2:9). But the most basic and common meanings are simply "to touch, reach, or strike."

But more importantly is that Adam and Eve were previously told by God to "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen 2:18). Human beings do this by having sex. Moreover, it is not a sin for a man to have sex with his wife (Gen 2:24), yet Eve was Adam's wife (Gen 2:25).

So in no sense can it be said that it was a sin for Adam to have sex with Eve. Yet Adam was condemned as much as Eve and the serpent were by the LORD (Genesis 3:17-19), and we are told elsewhere specifically that Adam sinned (Romans 5:14). So Adam's sin had to be something other than having sex with Eve.

Moreover, in the text, the "forbidden tree" and the serpent are two different things. And we are not told that Eve "touched" the serpent, just the tree. So even if by some stretch of the imagination, "tree" means "body" and "touch" means "having sex," it still would not follow that Eve had sex with the serpent.

But "stretch of the imagination" is what this whole interpretation of Eve having sex with the serpent entails. Or to put it another way, it is a perfect example of eisegesis.

Genesis 3:7, 14-19

After the sin of Adam and Eve, they realize they are naked and cover themselves. This is because they have partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (verse 17). The LORD then judges all three, the serpent, the woman, and the man, by pronouncing judgments appropriate to each.

The serpent is cursed to be unlike the cattle which walk on all fours, but it now must crawl. So apparently, previously the serpent had four legs. But the important point is that the serpent was to eat dust. Later Biblical writers refer to this aspect of the curse (Isaiah 65:25; Micah 7:17).

The woman, being the child-bearer, is cursed in her child-bearing. So she will now experience much pain in the fulfilling of the commandment to be fruitful and multiply (1:28).

The man, being previously told to cultivate and keep the garden (2:15), will now experience much toil in that work. This is the simple and obvious exegesis of the punishments.

But some say that the punishments all had to do with sex, since that was their sin. The man and woman cover their private parts since that is what they sinned with. The serpent will no longer be able to walk upright. This will keep it from having sex again with a human, and the woman is cursed in child-bearing since bearing child is the result of sex.

As for the first point, the text tells us Adam and Eve covered themselves because "the eyes of both of them were opened." That was from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is no mention of them doing so because these were the body parts they sinned with.

Second, the serpent's prior form is compared to cattle not humans. So it is unlikely it walked upright but rather on all fours. Moreover, the main punishment was that it would eat dust, not that it couldn't have sex with humans again. So this sounds more like the sin had to do with food, not sex. And again, later Biblical writers refer to the serpent eating dust, not to it not being able to have sex with humans.

The woman's punishment is somewhat related to sex. But the reason her punishment had to do with child-bearing is because this was her unique role in fulfilling the command to be fruitful.

Meanwhile, the interpretation of some always ignores Adam's punishment as his punishment has nothing even remotely to do with sex. It has to do with gardening and thus food. So two of the three punishments are food related. But most of all, Adam is condemned to eventually die and decay into dust. So death is the ultimate punishment for their sin (Rom 5:14; 1Cor 15:22).

But probably the most important verse here is verse 15, "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."

Christians have historically taken "seed' here to refer to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This is why it is capitalized in the NKJV and some other modern versions. This thus makes this verse the first promise of a coming Redeemer. Satan, through those who follow in his ways (his "seed") will "bruise the heel" of the Messiah at the cross, but by His death and resurrection, the Messiah will bruise Satan's head. A bruised heel is not fatal while a bruised head is. So this verse is teaching the Messiah will ultimately win over Satan and his followers.

But it is said by some that "your seed" refers to Satan's child now being carried by the woman (Cain), and "her seed" refers to the second child now being carried by her (Abel). Moreover, it is said that by Eve bearing Satan's child, Satan was able to inject his DNA into the human race.

The idea of Cain and Abel being twins will be addressed in the next section. But here, it will be said that it makes no sense for only Abel to be called "her seed" when both Cain and Abel were Eve's sons. It also makes no sense to say Abel bruised the head of Cain since it was Cain that killed Abel. So this interpretation does not fit the terminology used. As for Satan's DNA now being in the human race, that will be addressed at the close of this article.

Genesis 4:1,2

Adam has sex with Eve, she conceives, and then she gives birth. This is a very logical sequence that has occurred billions of times since then. Sex – conception – birth. She then gets pregnant a second time and gives birth to a second child. That is the most obvious exegesis.

But according to some, this is not what really happened here. Eve had already lost her virginity to the serpent in the garden. And it was by the serpent that she conceived Cain. But shortly thereafter, she had sex with Adam. So she was carrying two children by two different fathers. In other words, Cain and Abel, it is said, were twins.

The proof for the first point is that Eve says about Cain "I have acquired a man from the LORD." She does not say "I have acquired a man from my husband." So Eve thought she was having sex with God in the garden and that is how she got pregnant with Cain. But she was deceived in this regard and really had sex with Satan.

In response, first, this interpretation assumes that Eve and the serpent had sex. But the preceding section showed this was pure imagination.

Second, nowhere in Genesis 3 does it even hint at the idea that Eve thought that the serpent was the LORD. In fact, the serpent himself refers to God as someone other than himself (verses 1,5). And there is no mention in the text of the serpent "disguising" himself as anything other than a serpent. So even if Eve had sex with the serpent, there is no reason she would have thought she was having sex with the LORD. Instead, when she says "I have acquired a man from the LORD" she is simply recognizing that the LORD is the source of all life.

Third, the text presents the very logical sequence of a woman having sex with her husband, getting pregnant, and giving birth. There is no hint that the resulting child was not the son of the person the text just said the woman had sex with. As such, anyone reading this passage without any preconceived notions would take it as teaching that Adam was the father of Cain.

Fourth, there is no mention in this passage of Satan being Cain's father, no mention of Eve being deceived about who the father of her child was, and again, no hint that the father was not the man just mentioned. These ideas are again a perfect example of eisegesis.

As for the second point, it is said that Cain and Abel were twins since "she bore again" follows with no mention of time passage or of Eve having sex again.

In response, first, I did a little research, and somewhat to my surprise, it is possible for twins to have two different fathers.

In this case, it would have been obvious even without DNA testing that the twins had different fathers since one was black and the other white. But as for Cain and Abel, nothing is so obvious.

The text says they were brothers. That much is certain. But there is a separate Hebrew word for twins that would have been used if they were twins (Genesis 25:24; 38:27). Moreover, in Genesis 25:19-26 a rather big deal is made out of Esau and Jacob being twins. The same goes for Perez and Zerah in Genesis 38:27-30. So it would seem that Scripture recognizes that the birth of twins is rather unique and worth detailing. But in the case of Cain and Abel, at best there is the "omission" of mention of Eve having sex again. But that's it.

On the other hand, there nothing in the text precluding Cain and Abel from being twins. So I would not say this is a true case of eisegesis, but to make a big deal out of the idea that Cain and Abel were twins rather than just brothers is going beyond what is written (1Cor 4:6).

However, some need for Cain and Abel to be twins for their whole theory and their interpretation of Genesis 3:15 to work. Eve had to have sex with both Satan and Adam and to have conceived Cain and Abel before they were kicked out of the garden. But if Cain and Abel are just brothers, then Abel's conception would not have occurred until later and their theory and interpretation falls apart.