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Grammar Analysis: Genesis 3:22

Text

Hebrew: וַיֹּ֣אמֶר׀ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֗ים הֵ֤ן הָֽאָדָם֙ הָיָה֙ כְּאַחַ֣ד מִמֶּ֔נּוּ לָדַ֖עַת טֹ֣וב וָרָ֑ע וְעַתָּ֣ה׀ פֶּן־יִשְׁלַ֣ח יָדֹ֗ו וְלָקַח֙ גַּ֚ם מֵעֵ֣ץ הַֽחַיִּ֔ים וְאָכַ֖ל וָחַ֥י לְעֹלָֽם׃

KJV: And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Word-by-Word Parsing

# Hebrew Lemma Parsing Gloss
1 וַ ו Conj and
2 יֹּ֣אמֶר אמר Verb.Qal.Wayq.3ms say
3 יְהוָ֣ה יהוה PropN.ms.Abs YHWH
4 אֱלֹהִ֗ים אלהים Noun.mp.Abs god(s)
5 הֵ֤ן הן Interj behold
6 הָֽ ה Art the
7 אָדָם֙ אדם Noun.ms.Abs human, mankind
8 הָיָה֙ היה Verb.Qal.Perf.3ms be / become
9 כְּ כ Prep as, like
10 אַחַ֣ד אחד Noun.s.Cst one (construct)
11 מִמֶּ֔נּוּ מן Prep.+1cp from us / of us
12 לָ ל Prep to
13 דַ֖עַת ידע Verb.Qal.InfCon.Cst to know
14 טֹ֣וב טוב Adj.ms.Abs good
15 וָ ו Conj and
16 רָ֑ע רע Adj.ms.Abs evil
17 וְ ו Conj and
18 עַתָּ֣ה עתה Adv now
19 פֶּן פן Conj lest
20 יִשְׁלַ֣ח שׁלח Verb.Qal.Impf.3ms send/put forth
21 יָדֹ֗ו יד Noun.s.Abs.+3ms his hand
22 וְ ו Conj and
23 לָקַח֙ לקח Verb.Qal.Perf.3ms (weqatal) take
24 גַּ֚ם גם Adv also/even
25 מֵ מן Prep from
26 עֵ֣ץ עץ Noun.ms.Cst tree (construct)
27 הַֽ ה Art the
28 חַיִּ֔ים חיים Noun.mp.Abs life
29 וְ ו Conj and
30 אָכַ֖ל אכל Verb.Qal.Perf.3ms (weqatal) eat
31 וָ ו Conj and
32 חַ֥י חיה Verb.Qal.Perf.3ms (weqatal) live
33 לְ ל Prep to / for
34 עֹלָֽם עולם Noun.ms.Abs eternity

Note on parser code Prep.+1up for מִמֶּ֔נּוּ: ETCBC renders the 1st-person common plural pronominal suffix on min here. Morphologically identical forms occur for 3ms ("from him") and 1cp ("from us"); context distinguishes them. In Gen 3:22 the plural reference of the speaker (k'achad "as one" + divine speech) forces the 1cp reading, corroborated by the LXX (ἐξ ἡμῶν) and every ancient version (see GKC §103c; Joüon-Muraoka §103f).

Clause Structure

# Type Domain Role Text
1 WayX Narrative Speech frame וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים — "and YHWH God said"
2 XQtl Quotation Main assertion הֵן הָאָדָם הָיָה כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ — "Behold, the man has become as one of us"
3 InfC Quotation Purpose/result לָדַעַת טוֹב וָרָע — "to know good and evil"
4 MSyn Quotation Temporal pivot וְעַתָּה — "and now"
5 xYq0 Quotation Negative purpose פֶּן יִשְׁלַח יָדוֹ — "lest he put forth his hand"
6 WQt0 Quotation Sequenced result וְלָקַח גַּם מֵעֵץ הַחַיִּים — "and take also from the tree of life"
7 WQt0 Quotation Sequenced result וְאָכַל — "and eat"
8 WQt0 Quotation Sequenced result וָחַי לְעֹלָם — "and live forever"

The clause is structured as: narrative speech frame → divine assertion (XQtl) → purpose infinitive → pivot (w'attah) → apprehension clause (pen + yiqtol) → three weqatal consequences. The weqatal chain after pen extends the negative-purpose force across the whole sequence ("lest he... and... and..."). See syntax-waw-conjunction.md.

Key Grammatical Features

1. כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ — "as one of us" (Prep + noun in construct + Prep with 1cp suffix)

  • Form: אַחַד is Noun.s.Cst — the cardinal number "one" in the construct state, governed by the preposition k' ("as, like"). מִמֶּנּוּ is the preposition min with a 1st-person common plural pronominal suffix ("from us / of us").
  • Morphological note: min fuses with pronominal suffixes through gemination of nun: מִמֶּנִּי "from me" (1cs), מִמֶּנּוּ (either 1cp "from us" or 3ms "from him"), מִמֶּנָּה "from her." The 3ms and 1cp forms are consonantally identical (מִמֶּנּוּ), distinguished only by context. See GKC §103c, §103f n. 4; Joüon-Muraoka §103f.
  • Construct + partitive min: The phrase אַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ is a partitive construction — "one of / one from among us." Both the construct state of echad and the prepositional min signal partitivity (IBHS §15.2.1d on partitive min; §9.6 on the partitive construct). Compare Gen 42:13 אַחַד אֵינֶנּוּ "one [of us] is not," Judges 17:11, 1 Sam 26:15 — idiomatic "one of N" formula.
  • Significance: The grammar unambiguously locates the divine speaker within a group that includes more than one referent. The man has become "like one (member) of us." The question is not whether plurality is in view (it is), but which plurality.

2. הָיָה כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ — Qal perfect + comparative kaph (stative/resultative)

  • Form: הָיָה is Qal perfect 3ms of היה "to be/become." With the comparative כְּ, the construction hayah k- means "he has become like / he is now like" (stative resultative). See IBHS §30.5.3; Williams §255.
  • Significance: The perfect is not describing a potential or hypothetical state — it asserts an accomplished fact: the man has become like one of us. Whatever "like one of us" means theologically, the grammar presents it as a present reality after the fall, not a boast, wish, or fear. This grounds the divine council / Trinity / angelic-address debate in an actual post-fall condition, not a rhetorical exaggeration.
  • Word study: See WG-becoming.md for hayah as existential/resultative "become."

3. First-person plural divine self-reference (morphology + concord)

Four data points from the verse establish the plural self-reference:

  1. מִמֶּנּוּ — preposition min + 1cp suffix ("from us / of us") — carries the plural number morphologically.
  2. אֱלֹהִים — formally masculine plural noun (Noun.mp.Abs) but construed here with singular verb (יֹּאמֶר 3ms) and singular proper name יְהוָה. This is the standard "plural of majesty / intensive plural" pattern for the one true God (GKC §124g; Joüon-Muraoka §136d; IBHS §7.4.3).
  3. יֹּאמֶר — Qal wayyiqtol 3ms singular. YHWH-Elohim is grammatically singular as subject.
  4. כְּאַחַד — "as one" presupposes a group of at least two from which one can be chosen.

The tension is real and structural: a grammatically singular speaker (singular verb + proper name YHWH) who refers to himself with a plural partitive ("one of us"). This is the same pattern found in Gen 1:26 (נַעֲשֶׂה "let us make"), Gen 11:7 (נֵרְדָה "let us go down"), and Isa 6:8 (מִי יֵלֶךְ־לָנוּ "who will go for us"). Gen 3:22 is the only one of these four that uses a pronominal suffix rather than a plural verb form, so it is the least ambiguous morphologically — min + 1cp suffix cannot be explained by cohortative hortatory self-address.

4. Interpretive Options for the 1cp Reference

Standard grammars and commentators survey four options. The grammar rules out the weakest; the others remain exegetically open.

(a) Plural of majesty / pluralis majestatis. Applied to Elohim (the noun) this works (GKC §124g; Joüon-Muraoka §136d-e). Applied to the pronominal suffix it does not — Gesenius explicitly notes that the pluralis majestatis "has been almost universally given up" as an explanation for divine plural verbs and pronouns, because Hebrew has no genuine parallels: kings in the Hebrew Bible use 1cs, not 1cp, of themselves (cf. GKC §124g n. 2; Joüon-Muraoka §114e n. 2). The royal "we" is a Latin / medieval European convention, not a Hebrew one. IBHS §7.4.3f treats the divine plural of Elohim as "honorific" but does not extend this to 1cp verbs/suffixes.

(b) Address to the divine/heavenly council. God speaks to the assembled bene Elohim (cf. 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1:6; Ps 82:1; Isa 6:8). This is the dominant option in critical scholarship (so Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 161; Gunkel; von Rad). Strength: Isa 6:8 pairs singular and plural self-reference in an explicit throne-room setting — "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Weakness for Gen 3:22: the text does not narrate any council; and the "one of us" in knowing good and evil places the council members on the knowledge-level the man has just attained — which is theologically awkward if the referents are creaturely angels.

(c) Address to angels. Essentially a softened version of (b). Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and some Jewish commentators take this route (so Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, 29). Same grammatical strength as (b); same theological difficulty about angels' knowledge of good and evil.

(d) Intra-Trinitarian / plurality-within-God reference. The speaker is YHWH-Elohim (one singular God) who refers to himself using a plural that reflects genuine internal plurality. Defended as grammatically coherent by Keil-Delitzsch (Pentateuch, 1:105), Hengstenberg, and modern evangelical commentators (Hamilton, Genesis 1-17, NICOT, 208; Wenham, Genesis 1-15, WBC, 84-85, surveys options). Strength: explains the tight binding of singular verbs/names to plural suffixes without positing unmentioned bystanders; coincides with Christian reading of Gen 1:26 and Isa 48:16. Weakness: no pre-Christian Jewish text reads Gen 3:22 Trinitarianly; the explicit doctrine is anachronistic for the author's context (though many hold the text is compatible with progressive revelation).

Grammar's verdict (what the morphology alone settles): The plural reference is real (ruling out pure pluralis majestatis of the pronoun); the speaker is singular at the verb-concord level (ruling out pure polytheism); and the speaker includes himself in the group ("of us"), so the "council" must somehow include YHWH. Everything else is exegetical/theological judgment.

5. לָדַעַת טוֹב וָרָע — Infinitive construct with lamed (purpose / result)

  • Form: לָדַעַת is lamed + Qal infinitive construct of ידע "to know." Followed by two absolute adjectives functioning as objects (טוֹב וָרָע "good and evil"). See word-studies/H3045-yada.md.
  • Function: The lamed + infinitive construct is typically purpose ("in order to know") or result ("so as to know"); here it defines the content of what being "like one of us" consists in — "like one of us with respect to / in terms of knowing good and evil." See Joüon-Muraoka §124l (infinitive construct with le of specification); Williams §277.
  • Significance: The divine likeness the man has seized is specifically the moral-discriminating kind (see the word study on yada). It is not ontological deification, not general omniscience, but the experiential/evaluative knowledge of good and evil — which Gen 2:17 had forbidden. The grammar thus focuses the "like us" claim narrowly: not "humans are now gods," but "humans now presume to judge moral categories on their own authority."

6. פֶּן + Qal imperfect followed by weqatal chain (negative purpose / apprehension)

  • Form: פֶּן־יִשְׁלַח יָדוֹ וְלָקַח... וְאָכַל וָחַי — pen + yiqtol (apprehension clause) governing a chain of three weqatal consequential perfects.
  • Function: Pen introduces negative purpose / apprehension clauses ("lest," "in order that... not"). The initial yiqtol carries the apprehension; subsequent weqatals extend the same modal force — "lest he stretch out, and take, and eat, and live forever." See GKC §152w; IBHS §38.4a; Joüon-Muraoka §168g. The weqatal chain after yiqtol is the normal way Hebrew sustains modal / future / volitional force across successive actions.
  • Significance: The verse ends not with a statement but with divine self-deliberation. The expulsion of v. 23-24 is presented as preventive action motivated by the pen clause. Eternal life in a fallen moral state is the danger — and God acts to prevent it. The grammar turns the expulsion from Eden into an act of mercy (blocking sinful immortality), not merely of punishment. See weqatal-apodosis-vow.md for weqatal chain dynamics (here after pen).

Discourse Flow

Narrative frame   :  wayyiqtol  (WayX)         — "YHWH Elohim said"
  │
  ├─ Assertion    :  XQtl / stative perfect    — "the man has become as one of us"
  │     └─ purpose infinitive — "to know good and evil"
  │
  ├─ Pivot        :  w'attah                   — "and now"
  │
  └─ Apprehension :  pen + yiqtol
        │          — "lest he stretch out his hand"
        ├─ weqatal — "and take from the tree of life"
        ├─ weqatal — "and eat"
        └─ weqatal — "and live forever"

The w'attah ("and now") is a classical discourse-pragmatic pivot: the first half diagnoses the condition (man's new state); the second half announces the response (preventive expulsion). See Joüon-Muraoka §177n on we'attah as a rhetorical hinge.

Cross-References

Grammar library

Word studies

Parallel plural self-reference passages

  • Gen 1:26 — נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ (1cp cohortative + 1cp suffix)
  • Gen 11:7 — נֵרְדָה וְנָבְלָה (1cp cohortative pair, Babel)
  • Isa 6:8 — מִי יֵלֶךְ־לָנוּ (sg + 1cp suffix, throne-room vision)

Grammars cited

  • GKC = Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley, Hebrew Grammar (2nd Eng. ed., 1910): §103c, §103f n. 4, §124g, §124g n. 2, §152w
  • Joüon-Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (rev. ed. 2006): §103f, §114e n. 2, §124l, §136d-e, §168g, §177n
  • IBHS = Waltke-O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (1990): §7.4.3, §9.6, §15.2.1d, §30.5.3, §38.4a
  • Williams, Hebrew Syntax (3rd ed., 2007): §255, §277

Commentaries cited

  • Keil-Delitzsch, The Pentateuch (Eerdmans repr.), 1:105
  • Hamilton, Genesis 1-17 (NICOT, 1990), 208
  • Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (WBC, 1987), 84-85
  • Westermann, Genesis 1-11 (Continental, 1984), 161
  • Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis (1989), 29