In the story of the first rebellion (Genesis 3) there is a rather significant Enochian hint that traditional translators seem to get accidentally correct—that is—they get the translation right, but perhaps not for a greater part of the right reasons. Let's take a look at the stark dichotomy of the landscape of Genesis 3:5 and its helper companion in Genesis 3:22.
You can quickly scan the various translations below, looking for the bolded text of either "as God" or (mostly) "like God". Perhaps your 21st century mind's takeaway will be that the underlaying Hebrew, Greek (LXX), or Aramaic text is communicating that the Nechash is promising Eve that she will be like God (Elohim) in "knowing good and evil" (i.e., discerning between). That you would automatically and trustingly assume this is understandable. I certainly did for forty years. And then came along January of 2023 for me. Now, it's not so automatic. I start asking questions and seeking answers. Nevertheless—here's the list:
New International Version
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
New Living Translation
“God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
English Standard Version
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Berean Standard Bible
“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
New King James Version
For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
New American Standard Bible
For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
NASB 1995
“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
NASB 1977
“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Legacy Standard Bible
For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Amplified Bible
For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened [that is, you will have greater awareness], and you will be like God, knowing [the difference between] good and evil.”
Christian Standard Bible
“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Holman Christian Standard Bible
In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
American Standard Version
for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.
Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Because God knew that in the day that you eat from it, your eyes are opened and you are like God, knowing the good and the evil.”
On its face, the list above seems pretty impressive. A lot of translators are coming up with and arriving at the same conclusion: "as God" or "like God". These translators are not slouches either. They are experts in their field. So, why am I making any kind of ado about the matter? Well, for two reasons:
1. My worldview has changed in the last 11 months. The Enochian backstory now lives large and comfortable on my ancient near eastern mental landscape. It has become both companion and friend whereby scripture has taken on epic scale in my heart. God is huge in my mind and heart.
2. Whenever I see the word "God" or "gods", my mind skids to a stop. My strange-and-weird-O-meter starts banging away in my head and I stop to take a close and careful look. Such is the case of Genesis 3:5 (and companion 3:22).
Let's see a smaller list of translations that disagree with the expansive list above. It starts with the venerable King James!
King James Bible
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
New American Bible
God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.”
Webster's Bible Translation
For God doth know, that in the day ye eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened: and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Brenton Septuagint (LXX) Translation
For God knew that in whatever day ye should eat of it your eyes would be opened, and ye would be as gods, knowing good and evil.
That's a very small list in relative comparison. Don't let the smallness of it lead you into a shear numbers horserace mentality, as though bible text translation is won by raw numbers like a popularity contest. The majority can be wrong. In this case, I think they are and the purpose from here forward will be to lay out the evidence and see what you think, but before doing that, let's bring in Genesis 3:22 for some context.
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:
For a little more context, let's add in Genesis 1:26:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Our first question to address is: What is the plural language of both Genesis 1:26 and 3:22 about? Just who is "us" pointing at? For faster answers, I will turn to the analysis of the late Dr. Michael Heiser.
We saw in an earlier chapter that imaging status is something shared by human and nonhuman, divine beings. This fact is reflected in the plural language of Genesis 1:26, when God said, “Let us make humankind.” The ensuing singular forms guided us to conclude that the passage has humankind created by a single creator, the God of Israel, who creates humans as his imagers. The prior plural language was a clue that God’s other family, the divine sons of God created sometime earlier, were also imagers of their creator.
The "sometime earlier" language is a reference to Job ...
Yet—there is more to this pluralistic language in the OT scripture. To see this, we can add in Genesis 11:1-9.
1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
You’ll notice right away that there’s the same sort of “plural exhortation” going on in verse 7 as we saw in Genesis 1:26. The verse has Yahweh proclaiming, “Let us go down and confuse their language.” As was the case in Genesis 1:26, the plural announcement is followed by the actions of only one being, Yahweh: “So Yahweh scattered them” (11:8).
What we need to put our close and careful reading attention on is the KJV use of the term LORD and Heiser's call-out of this term in Hebrew as Yahweh. In both cases, the language is synonymous. What's needful for us to see is that Yahweh (LORD) is not "us". The term "us" is pointing at a wider group of which Yahweh is supreme and above, but like (i.e., Elohim vs. elohim - God vs. gods).
All of this can now lead us back to Genesis 3:22, where we read, "... man is become as one of us ..." and the "us" is the elohim, which includes the presiding Elohim (Yahweh, God) among the gods (us or elohim). This language and use of it in Genesis is consistent from Genesis 1:26 to Genesis 11:7 without failure or differential.
It is from this sameness of language in context that we can now turn our attention to Genesis 3:5 and the Nechash using the same term where he flatly states that Eve will become like himself and the other elohim.
POINTS FROM HERE:
1. The entire story of the fallen sons of God is that they are narcissistic frauds that don't want people to be like God, they want them to be like gods (elohim) and worship the elohim like they do the Elohim (God or Yahweh). Thus, the more coherent alignment is for the Nechash to pointing at his group of gods and not God.
2. The interpretive landscape of gods as a group where God (Yahweh or Elohim) is the unique uncreated Elohim God continues in other places like Psalm 82:1 and Deuteronomy 32:8, which is a reference to Genesis 11, especially linked to verse 7. That the LXX has "sons of God" instead of "sons of Israel" is in keeping with the overall story and structure of Genesis and Psalms.
3. What does all of this have to do with Enoch? Can we not simply rely on the OT alone? Yes—we could stop here, but what it interesting is to note that 1 Enoch is also in compatible compliance with the parameters of the story where elohim (gods) are the "sons of God" mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4 and Deuteronomy 32:8. The strength of the congruent details cannot be understated, which implies that the writer of Genesis through Deuteronomy (Moses) has the Enochic story in full view. And why shouldn't he?
4. Moses is a Hebrew, but is raised as a son of Pharoah. This makes him a part of the Egyptian pantheon as a progeny of the gods. This would be his Egyptian training. However, he is also taught the juxtaposed truth of his Hebrew heritage by his mother (operating as his wet nurse), which means Moses is raised clear-headed about God versus the gods. And just where is young Moses getting this story from? Oral history! Does that oral history include Genesis to Deuteronomy? Not at all because Moses the child hasn't grown up yet to have the experiences from which to write those books—yet. So, he must be getting the story orally from an older source.