Thursday, March 15, 2012

Death enters


Both are guilty
Details from the Gent altarpiece

In the story of the Garden of Eden God creates man. The same root is used in Hebrew for Adam adamah the fertile reddish soil of the Holy Land.

Adam is not only made of soil but also has a living soul!

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7

Adam the Man called his newly made partner for life a Wo-man.

This is probably the first mention of anaesthesia.

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.

And the rib which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman and brought her unto the man.

And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:21-25


Sin and Death
Things did not go well for the Man and his Wo-man.

There was only one law in that Garden of Eden, a simple ruling concerning a single forbidden tree among all those wonderful trees with tasty allowed fruits. And of course, they had to eat from that tree...

Adam is guilty as charged and God judges for him heavy farmer's life and death with no hope for more.

And unto Adam He said, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, `Thou shalt not eat of it,' cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
   
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Genesis 3:17-19   

Nasty.

By the way, this is also a truly materialistic description of death as elements of the soil return back to the soil when man made from dust becomes again dust. Modern Atheists see death similarly as return of elements, atoms and molecules, to the universe that temporarily gave them for a living organism. (more about this later).


Woman was deceived
And the LORD God said unto the woman, "What is this that thou hast done?" And the woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate." Genesis 3:13

The writer of the First Timothy was perhaps a bit misogynist and commented

For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived; but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression. 1 Tim 2:13-14

I agree to this full-heartedly - Adam was not deceived, he knew exactly what he did!
(more on this later)

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