At some point I need to pick up the pace but these chapters are so jam packed, I can only fit one chapter per post so far.
In Chapter 3, the serpent encourages the woman to go ahead and eat from the tree of knowledge. She doesn't take much convincing. She shares with Adam, and Boom! Now they know they're naked. Fruit can do that to you. So they get to sewing aprons out of fig leaves.
God shows up to learn his new creations have disobeyed the one simple rule he gave them. Adam points the finger at Eve. She made me do it!
And now for some consequences. The serpent's punishment is to slither on its belly and eat dust. OK then. The serpent and the woman will no longer coexist peacefully; they and their descendants will now have enmity between them. If Eve's descendant is Jesus and the serpent is Satan, you could read this as the forever battle of good and evil, right and wrong, love and hate. But I digress. Back to the punishments.
For her role in this whole mess, the woman's sorrow will be multiplied and the husband will rule over her. Childbirth will be painful. For every woman. Forever. Pretty extreme sentence.
Adam too is cursed. He shall feel sorrow, toil for his food, and "unto dust shalt thou return" (hey! I recognize that phrase from Ash Wednesday Mass). God provides some clothing, so that's something positive I guess. But otherwise he is a total a-hole about this situation. He created them and told them just the one time about the tree of knowledge, and their goof-up changes everything for all humans for all eternity? Geez. Then he sends them out of Eden to fend for themselves.
P.S. We see Eve's name for the first time in this chapter.
This brings back memories of Paradise Lost, which I was supposed to read in college. I totally get how this can be read as an allegory and it's a beautiful little story in that regard. Loss of innocence, fall from grace, and so on. I do not understand, however, how anyone can read this chapter literally... a talking snake, folks.
Showing posts with label creation myth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creation myth. Show all posts
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Genesis 2
On day 7, we rest.
God then plants a garden in Eden and puts the man there (the female we heard about in Chapter 1 is nowhere to be found). Eden is of course home to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's an odd role for a tree to have, isn't it?
Eden is also home to a river that has four tributaries. We learn where each goeth, including Ethopia, Assyria, Havilah. Very good.
God informs the man he can eat whatever he wants from the garden except from the tree of knowledge. Do that and you're toast. That makes as much sense as anything I guess.
We see Adam's name for the first time in the verse where God has Adam name all the animals. What language does Adam speak? And at this point how would he have any clue what he's doing or even what he's being asked?
I was wondering in Chapter 1 about this rib business but I didn't have to wait long. God fashions a "help meet" for the man from his rib. Get this, while Adam was asleep God took one of his ribs. Now if you created the earth and everything on it, why not just go ahead and create a woman too? Why the rib thing? Also, how in the hell do you take a rib and make a person from it? As luck would have it, God can do this and stitch Adam right back up so he's magically healed when he awakes.
A man leaves his father and mother (which don't exist at this point in the story, mind you) and "shall cleave unto his wife" and they shall be one flesh.
Adam and his wife are naked but not ashamed. How would they have any notion of clothes at this point?
God then plants a garden in Eden and puts the man there (the female we heard about in Chapter 1 is nowhere to be found). Eden is of course home to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's an odd role for a tree to have, isn't it?
Eden is also home to a river that has four tributaries. We learn where each goeth, including Ethopia, Assyria, Havilah. Very good.
God informs the man he can eat whatever he wants from the garden except from the tree of knowledge. Do that and you're toast. That makes as much sense as anything I guess.
We see Adam's name for the first time in the verse where God has Adam name all the animals. What language does Adam speak? And at this point how would he have any clue what he's doing or even what he's being asked?
I was wondering in Chapter 1 about this rib business but I didn't have to wait long. God fashions a "help meet" for the man from his rib. Get this, while Adam was asleep God took one of his ribs. Now if you created the earth and everything on it, why not just go ahead and create a woman too? Why the rib thing? Also, how in the hell do you take a rib and make a person from it? As luck would have it, God can do this and stitch Adam right back up so he's magically healed when he awakes.
A man leaves his father and mother (which don't exist at this point in the story, mind you) and "shall cleave unto his wife" and they shall be one flesh.
Adam and his wife are naked but not ashamed. How would they have any notion of clothes at this point?
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Genesis 1
Wow, Genesis Chapter 1 gets right down to business in line one. In the span of a few short days, God creates heaven and earth, day and night, land and seas, sun and moon, plants and, uh, more plants. All that and we're just now getting to the fourth day. Then he creates fish and fowl and every living creature that moveth. And God saw that it was good. Very good, I'd say.
Day five brings the cattle and "every thing that creepeth" which includes man. God creates man "in his own image." I thought the female was fashioned out of the male's rib, but that's not happening here in Genesis Chapter 1. That version must appear later on? Here, we have "male and female created he them" and God instructs them to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, have dominion over fish, fowl and every living thing. Just eat the plants though. Adam and Eve were the original vegetarians.
Chapter 1 ends with day six. Pretty speedy work there, God
Day five brings the cattle and "every thing that creepeth" which includes man. God creates man "in his own image." I thought the female was fashioned out of the male's rib, but that's not happening here in Genesis Chapter 1. That version must appear later on? Here, we have "male and female created he them" and God instructs them to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, have dominion over fish, fowl and every living thing. Just eat the plants though. Adam and Eve were the original vegetarians.
Chapter 1 ends with day six. Pretty speedy work there, God
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