Thursday, January 1, 2015

Genesis 3

The Serpent tempts woman by telling her show won't die if she eats the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, but instead become like God, know the difference between good and evil.  She then gives the fruit to her husband, who also eats, and they see that they are naked and make aprons of fig leaves to cover themselves.

Gold walks through the garden and cannot find them.  Again, God does not appear to be omnipotent and omniscient, as He walks instead of appearing where He wishes and is unable to find those that hide.  Yet later, we are told he knows every thought of every person.

Upon finding man and woman and learning what they have done, God curses the Serpent to crawl upon its belly and eternal enmity between it and the offspring of the woman.  He then curses the woman to increases pain in childbirth and gives her to her husband to rule over her.

He then curses the ground, interestingly not Adam who is named in this chapter for the first time to toil the ground.  As Adam had already been laboring at tilling the garden in the last chapter, toil appears to be something different.  One type of labor is divine, tilling, but another, toiling, is a curse. The notes and Asimov do not posit on the difference.  Further, God curses Adam to no longer be able to eat of the Tree of Life, which eventual death and to return to the dust from which he came.

Finally, God gives Adam and Eve (who has also been named) clothes made of skins and banishes them from the garden.  The gate of the garden is guarded by a "cherubin" and a flaming sword so that man may never return.  There is another reference by God to Himself as "us", leading to the question of where the other gods are.

Asimov notes there is only one other talking animal in the Bible and there aren't many human like animals in other Jewish traditions.  Perhaps the story of temptation is also borrowed?

God's law:  Don't eat of the Tree of Knowledge

My ability to follow:  I don't know where the Tree of Knowledge is, but would probably grab a snack from it if I did.  It seems to me that God is playing a head game with his creations and eating of the Tree of Knowledge would be a way to refuse to play.  

No comments:

Post a Comment