And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
All Commentaries on Genesis 3:10 Go To Genesis 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Whence comes the knowledge of your nakedness? Tell me: what is new and surprising? Who could ever have told you of this, unless you have become the guilty cause of your own shame, unless you have eaten from that one tree I told you not to eat from?
See the Lord's loving kindness and the surpassing degree of his longsuffering. I mean, though being in a position to begrudge such a great sinner the right of reply and rather than to consign him at once to the punishment he had deter mined on in anticipation of his transgressing, he shows patience and withholds action: he asks a question, receives a reply, and questions him further as if inviting him to excuse himself so that he might seize the opportunity to display his characteristic love in regard to the sinner even despite his fall. He thus teaches us through this instance as well when we judge the guilty not to berate them harshly or display the savagery of wild beasts in their regard, but rather employ much longsuffering and mercy inasmuch as we are dispensing justice to our Own members, and out of a sense of kinship we should temper justice with love. After all, it is not with out purpose that Sacred Scripture employs such great considerateness; instead, through the concreteness of the expressions it both teaches us God's loving kindness and promotes our emotions so that we may imitate as far as human capacity allows the goodness of the Lord.
