have no reason to doubt her in this—she really did allow herself to believe the serpent’s lies and deceptive partial truths, probably because she wanted as desperately as her husband to have an excuse to eat of the forbidden fruit. Moreover, her answer clearly was an attempt to evade responsibility for her own actions. No longer do we see the outwardly “friendly” scene of vv 1–3; the woman’s answer reveals the disruption of relationship not only between her and God but also between her and the serpent.