This is part three of a series that discusses what Adam & Eve ‘consumed’ in the Garden of Eden that caused them to be banished from the Garden and introduced death to mankind.
The first two are short and should be read before this one:
I like to keep my blogs short, because I know I get intimidated by lengthy pieces of work. I promise to set as time to read them and I seldom do . . . eventually forgetting I was going to. By keeping these short, I hope to trick you into giving me a little of your time and if what I write interests you, you will bookmark my page.
The word “fruit” can literally mean a piece of food, but most often, fruit is the result of doing or having something. We have heard the idiom, “the fruits of one’s labor”, meaning the profit derived from producing something by your handiwork. This concept comes from the Word:
1 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. 2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. (Psalms 128:1-2)
18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. 19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19)
Having the Spirit of Yahweh “in” us (a concept exclusive to the NT, people had a portion of the Spirit of Yahweh “on” them in the OT) also produces fruit, if we allow it:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Conversely, the works of the flesh also produces fruit:
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
‘Not inheriting the Kingdom of God’ means being cast into the “lake of fire”. There are only two destinations after judgment, the kingdom or the lake. One is life and the other is death (it is not eternal punishment – read, The Fire that Consumes by Edward Fudge).
Adam and Eve ‘consumed’ something (‘fruit”) from something (a “tree”) or someone (a “race” of beings) which gave them the ‘knowledge of good and evil’.
Jeremiah “ate” the Word of Yahweh (Jeremiah 15:16). He did not literally (at least I hope not) cut up a scroll digested the manuscript with a nice white wine and a side of sweet potatoes.
When we eat literal food, it literally become a part of us. The food is broken down in our stomachs and the nutrients are transported to our cells to nourish them. We become one with the food.
Jeremiah ‘eating’ the Word is him becoming one with the Scripture. Ezekiel did not literally eat a scroll in Ezekiel 3 – context is Ezekiel 1 where he has a vision.
So if “eating” the Word of Yahweh is a good thing, what did the “snake” give them that was a bad thing (you thought I forgot that I promised to talk about who or what the snake was)? Let us return to Genesis 3:
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Were all the animals in the Garden capable of speech . . . or just the snakes and presumably the parrots? Eve is not bewildered by a talking snake?
When Yahweh has his line-up in verses 9-19, the snake is told, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:”
Yahweh did not take away the snake’s power of speech. Do they not talk anymore because they always have dust in their mouth? Despite all the ‘photographic’ evidence from scores of paintings, I think we can agree that the “snake” was not a snake.
Giving animal characteristics to a human or deity is the figure of speech “zoomorphism” – defined as:
1 : the representation of deity in the form or with the attributes of the lower animals,
2 : the use of animal forms in art or symbolism
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Many believe the snake is Lucifer and he is called a snake because of the conniving and dangerous attributes we attribute to a snake. It would be like someone saying, “Lucifer is like a snake” (which is a simile), only removing the comparative language and calling the thing a snake.
The snake is never identified, so it could or could not be Lucifer. Many heavenly beings probably occupied the Garden and other parts of the Earth. If they were not allowed in the Garden, why wasn’t SnakeDude punished for that infraction, also?
The 200 angels that descended to Mount Hermon in Genesis 6 (a much more detailed narrative can be found in the First Book of Enoch – I gave links to download in my last blog) taught humans all forms of knowledge, both good (metal-working, etc) and evil (astrology, magic, etc).
Because of their co-habitating with human women and creating a race of giants, plus their introduction of charms, idols, and abhorrent sexual practices, these angels were cast into “chains of darkness” where they are exiled until Judgment Day (Enoch Chapter 10).
Lucifer has not been banished (he was in the desert tempting Yeshua) So we can assume he was not the one teaching Eve good and evil. Or he was the one and Yahweh was furious at him, but when 200 angels subsequently did the same thing, He felt the need to mete out an especially heinous punishment to stop others from doing it again.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to end this teaching and my brain is beginning to hurt (it’s not a big brain or a big pain . . . so fear not). No, I don’t have all the answers.
To sum up my thinking:
1. The tree was a metaphor for one of the angelic beings with ‘special’ knowledge that frequented the Garden.
2. The fruit was a metaphor for what that being produced with its knowledge (i.e., astrology, magic, etc.)
3. The snake could have been Lucifer (or not) who acted as a slick and slimy salesman to get Eve to partake of what the “tree” was offering.
4. Disobeying Yahweh is sin and Eve disobeyed knowingly, or was tricked (was she confused by the “snake” because Adam failed to instruct her sufficiently?). Adam followed Eve into sin knowingly.
I still owe you an examination on why the flood was necessary because of the sin of Adam and Eve. I also owe you a definition of good fruit and bad fruit and how to tell them apart.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog.
I didn’t do a shameless plug for my book, Grafted: Embracing Torah.
There, I did it.
It is available at Amazon, but I have made some revisions, so if you don’t see it there, try again in a few days. This book (or something similar) will be helpful in discerning good works from bad.
Thanks for your time and interest.
