The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?” The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
God said, “Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?”
The Man said, “The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it.”
God said to the Woman, “What is this that you’ve done?”
“The serpent seduced me,” she said, “and I ate.”
God told the serpent:
“Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed,
cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,
Cursed to slink on your belly
and eat dirt all your life.
I’m declaring war between you and the Woman,
between your offspring and hers.
He’ll wound your head,
you’ll wound his heel.”
He told the Woman:
“I’ll multiply your pains in childbirth;
you’ll give birth to your babies in pain.
You’ll want to please your husband,
but he’ll lord it over you.”
He told the Man:
“Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree
That I commanded you not to eat from,
‘Don’t eat from this tree,’
The very ground is cursed because of you;
getting food from the ground
Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;
you’ll be working in pain all your life long.
The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,
you’ll get your food the hard way,
Planting and tilling and harvesting,
sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,
Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;
you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”
The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.
God said, “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!”
So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.
There were two aspect of this that spoke
(1)“You won’t die” – I always remember somebody once saying “actions have consequences”. In these few words there are consequences for everybody, the man, the woman , the serpent and even God all because of the actions taken upon a lie!
(2) I was struck new by “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil.” I know its obvious really but even entertaining the thought that God would have knowledge ranging from good to EVIL is challenging thought.
As Paul said – the thought that \’the Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything – was quite challenging – but it is challenging because of the way in which humanity does not think or reflect about God and others even though it was from God that the knowledge came. I know it was good AND evil, but….
Could comment on many parts of this passage – but will leave that for now.
The huge surprise was, that after re-reading over and over I realized that the availability of the fruit of the Tree-of-Life, the possibility that human beings could become immortal, was formulated by God as the reason to expel A&E from paradise.
This fall is not caused by their disobedience, not by the seduction, not by the \’wanting to know\’ and the loss of innocence and naivety – these acts will be punished with painful childbirth, female subordination, condemnation to an exhausting, frustrating life of work and starvation and the guarantee of going back to square one at the end – a futile cycle of life without any hope for progress. It is clearly God\’s rhetorical question “ What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!” after which the Garden Eden is lost for humanity.
But: Although God was angry, probably disappointed he cared for them both in their shamefully experienced vulnerability as being naked – and by caring God dressed them, in that acknowledging the newly reached plane of understanding and maturity and alleviating this very toxic feeling of shame.
that’s a fascinating comment!
makes me wonder if death is a mercy not a punishment in a society and on a planet that becomes corrupt and evil – certainly when we get glimpses of the intense suffering caused by evil it seems a releif both when victims are ‘released’ from their suffering and also obviously when perpetrators can’t go on forever.
In that line of thought if makes perfect sense that death will only come to an end when evil is dealt with too
The meaning of Death in the cycle of life … – my comment was simply coming from the idea, why God expelled A & E from paradise. He certainly did not want them to become godlike, being already in the process of maturation/transition by gaining knowledge as a consequence of Eve’s autarkic decision. How far would they go? What does eating from the Tree-of-Life really could mean?
I follow your idea of death as an event of mercy to a certain extent, as there are moments when the burden of suffering seems to be intolerable. But isn’t the perception of death as an event of mercy not much more an expression of the observer’s helplessness/powerlessness?
What would life be without death? Two examples came to mind: Count Dracula, who would rather die for a life with death or Seth in the ‘City of Angels’ who falls to become mortal – both wanting to find joy in life to the fullest/deepest.
In finity one sees the beauty of infinity? – and the other way round …
A quote which emerged, reflecting on your comment, Richard:
If to the moment I shall ever say:
“Ah, linger on, thou art so fair!”
Then may you fetters on me lay,
Then will I perish, then and there!
Then may the death-bell toll, recalling
Then from your service you are free;
The clock may stop, the pointer falling,
And time itself be past for me!
(JW Goethe)