Once, while not in the company of her husband, she heard a voice. It was not that of her husband nor that of God, but the voice of a serpent. Eve did not run away in fright, as God had earlier given her and her husband dominion over the animal creation, including serpents. (Gen. 1:28) So she listened. The serpent asked: “Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?”

Seemingly two things led Eve to think that the serpent was telling the truth: (1) To her senses it was apparent that the tree’s fruit was good for food, and (2) the extreme cautiousness of the serpent made it appear that this creature could not be the source of wrong information.