Lehi’s summary of Satan’s role in the Garden of Eden is brief. He sketches only enough details to explain Satan’s motive: “[he had become] miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind.” This statement should be seen in the context of Lehi’s discourse on opposition, in which “righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad… having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility” (2 Ne. 2:11).
Twice Lehi uses “misery” as the opposite, first of “holiness” and second of “happiness.” These terms are the extreme ends of a spectrum. Thus, holiness and happiness are transcendent, eternal states, not just temporary feelings. Similarly, misery is more than temporary unhappiness. Satan is miserable because he is contrary to righteousness and holiness. He represents the uttermost contrast with the happiness and righteousness promised the obedient.
Thus, in the context of Satan’s misery and desire for our misery, Satan tempts Eve. Lehi clearly understands the importance of Eve’s choice; Satan so misunderstood God’s plan that he did not comprehend that he was actually advancing it, rather than thwarting it.
Lehi presents Satan as the father of all lies, who tells Eve that she and Adam will not die but become as God, knowing good and evil. Lehi’s point is to show that Eve and Adam did, in fact, learn good and evil. On that point, Satan did not lie. His first promise, however, contains prevarication. While it is true that they did not die immediately, death was still one result of the fall. Satan deliberately glossed over the ramifications of partaking the fruit. Perhaps it is even more to Eve’s credit that she reasoned out the importance of her action on the basis of such veiled information.
History: In the garden, the serpent is the representation of Lucifer. The presence of the serpent as the symbol of Yahweh’s antagonist has its roots in the old Semitic religion. In one form, the serpent-antagonist of the Ugaritic mythology was a serpent-dragon with seven heads. In biblical texts, this multi-headed serpent is more commonly labeled a “dragon” (Ps. 74:13; Rev. 12:3, 13:1). The association between victorious deity and the serpent as his opponent is shown on a glyptic from Ugarit which shows the “anthropomorphic warrior-god with a snake in either hand.” It is most probable that the serpent in the garden appears because it was understood to be a representation of one of Yahweh’s antagonists.