In John 8:44 Jesus is quoted as saying that the Devil is a "liar and the father of the lie." an obvious reference to the serpent story in Genesis chapter 3. (The Johannine community, responsible for the gospel of John, the epistles of 1, 2, 3 John and Revelation, was among the first to equate the serpent of Genesis with Satan, see Rev. 20:2)

However, before we accept Jesus' word for it, let's apply a little analysis to Genesis chapter 3. Let's start with v. 4 and 5:

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

OK, here we have what Jesus reckons was the first lie, because we know later in the narrative that the woman, Eve, and Adam as well, did die. But wait! Let's take a closer look. The serpent basically tells Eve that three things will happen if she eats the fruit:

She will not die

Her eyes will be opened

She will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Author Robert Heinlein once wrote that there are three ways to lie. One is by telling a baldface untruth, anyone can do that. The second way is to tell the truth-but leave out or add to it certain parts so that your listener is unclear as to what is really truthful. The third way is to tell the complete truth, but tell it in such a way that your listener is sure you are lying. The serpent at first look appears to be using the second way to lie, because some of what he says is true:

In verse 7 the Bible states that Eve and Adam's eyes were opened. In verse 22 God declares, " Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil..." So the serpent is two for three so far.

That leaves us with the, "You will not die" part. Did the serpent lie about this? A possible answer may lie in the rest of verse 22 and verses 23 and 24:

Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever _ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The question is: Would the serpent have known what God was going to do? According to the story, all Adam and Eve had to do was eat of the tree of life to not die, yet God has now blocked access to this tree. If the serpent knew that this was God's evil plan, then yes, he's a liar. However, there is no indication that the serpent knew of God's plans and for all we know the serpent only knew that eating of the tree of life would grant immortality and that eating of the tree of Good and Evil would open their eyes.

So the question is: Did the serpent lie?

DISCLAIMER: I do not in any way believe that any of this horsecrap is in any way true, I merely offer this as a literary analysis, much as one might offer up an analysis of Tom Sawyer's use of reverse psychology in manipulating his friends into whitewashing the fence in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".