RE: Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis
October 19, 2018 at 12:33 am
(This post was last modified: October 19, 2018 at 12:38 am by GrandizerII.)
My simple thoughts on Genesis 3 (I'm going to do a bit of both literal and allegorical here):
In the last chapter, we found out how both man and woman came to be (sort of like an introduction to the story of humankind). Genesis 2 was basically a happy chapter, of youth and innocence and companionship and such, reflecting some of our heavenly fantasies and desires. Genesis 3 continues on from Genesis 2 but has a dark theme to it, whereby we are reminded of the suffering and cruelty of this world and how we are to be held accountable for the acts we commit. In this passage, there's a reminder of such things as temptations, betrayal, blaming, deception, fear, pain, punishment, and exclusion. These are things that happen in the real world all the time, and they lead to negative and severe consequences. We blame some of all this on the actions of our species, but others we attribute to the cruel impartiality of nature. The serpent, later to be seen as the devil himself by Jews and especially Christians, seems to represent the influential forces of nature that eventually led us to finally "open our eyes" and realize the harshness and evils observed in this world. At the start, you could say we were innocently "naked", we'd do things without realizing how bad they may be and without thinking of such things as the consequences of these actions, like the other animals. But as if to highlight the marked differences in cognitive capacities between humans and other animals, the passage seems to symbolically describe how we have awakened/evolved to become such cognitively advanced beings. Belaqua and Vulcan already made several of these points, so I won't restate them here.
Nevertheless, we should also look at this whole passage as an attempt to explain/justify more specific/literal things as the traditional patriarchical structure of marriage (whereby the man is deemed the head of the woman and their offspring), slavery and mandatory hard work, how we have traditionally viewed women as the ones with the tendency to cause troubles (very unfortunate but a reality of life), the killings of other animals, the human enmity towards snakes, the pains of pregnancy and giving birth, and the limits of our lifespans.
Other thoughts (and questions to ponder):
I want to go back to the first verse in this chapter, where a distinction is made between the serpent and the other animals. I find this rather curious, because what did the ancients see that was so special about a serpent? Why was the serpent considered craftier than the other animals? I think it may have something to do with how we've often subconsciously viewed these creatures. To us, they seem so sinister and devilish that they may as well have been remnants/descendants of some evil entity in the distant past.
Another thing about the serpent in the passage is that it seems like it initially had legs or something, and then it was doomed later to be without limbs because of what it did. But it's not completely clear that this was the implied meaning of Genesis 3:14.
Christians also tend to point to a Messianic passage in this very chapter, specifically: Genesis 3:15. But, in this case, it really feels like this is indeed simply a post hoc interpretation after the Christian church was established, especially as you have to disconnect this specific verse from the surrounding verses to "see" some Messianic interpretation in it. I could be wrong, though. And perhaps the Jews also saw this as a Messianic verse, can't remember. Will have to google this later on.
Genesis 3:21 I find interesting. It gives you one specific example of what happened as a result of what Adam and Eve did. Animals can now be slaughtered for the benefit of man and woman. Note that they previously covered themselves with fig leaves (and in an earlier passage, it was noted that all living beings were basically vegetarians), but now they get to be covered with the skins of lions and God helps them with that (even with the Fall happening). And we see later that God indeed grants permission to slaughter animals for food and clothing.
Another thing that I find interesting: it seems like, literally speaking, man and woman had to continually eat from the tree of life in order to live forever. I guess this could be interpreted as immortality being intrinsically a property of the divine only, but that the divine can reward mortals with conditional mortality.
We also see, once again, reference to God as a plural being. Now there are many speculations on that one, and you can read all about that in your favorite scholarly article or book or whatever. I'm not going to dwell on this here.
From a very literal perspective:
Yes, that serpent sure talked. Yes, God is just a very super version of man who likes to walk in the cool of the day and doesn't seem to know everything that can be known. Yes, it mentions cherubims and a revolving(?) flame sword. No, the fruit wasn't necessarily an apple or a pomegranate.
All in all, another chapter that I enjoy reading. After all, this is where it all started to fall.
In the last chapter, we found out how both man and woman came to be (sort of like an introduction to the story of humankind). Genesis 2 was basically a happy chapter, of youth and innocence and companionship and such, reflecting some of our heavenly fantasies and desires. Genesis 3 continues on from Genesis 2 but has a dark theme to it, whereby we are reminded of the suffering and cruelty of this world and how we are to be held accountable for the acts we commit. In this passage, there's a reminder of such things as temptations, betrayal, blaming, deception, fear, pain, punishment, and exclusion. These are things that happen in the real world all the time, and they lead to negative and severe consequences. We blame some of all this on the actions of our species, but others we attribute to the cruel impartiality of nature. The serpent, later to be seen as the devil himself by Jews and especially Christians, seems to represent the influential forces of nature that eventually led us to finally "open our eyes" and realize the harshness and evils observed in this world. At the start, you could say we were innocently "naked", we'd do things without realizing how bad they may be and without thinking of such things as the consequences of these actions, like the other animals. But as if to highlight the marked differences in cognitive capacities between humans and other animals, the passage seems to symbolically describe how we have awakened/evolved to become such cognitively advanced beings. Belaqua and Vulcan already made several of these points, so I won't restate them here.
Nevertheless, we should also look at this whole passage as an attempt to explain/justify more specific/literal things as the traditional patriarchical structure of marriage (whereby the man is deemed the head of the woman and their offspring), slavery and mandatory hard work, how we have traditionally viewed women as the ones with the tendency to cause troubles (very unfortunate but a reality of life), the killings of other animals, the human enmity towards snakes, the pains of pregnancy and giving birth, and the limits of our lifespans.
Other thoughts (and questions to ponder):
I want to go back to the first verse in this chapter, where a distinction is made between the serpent and the other animals. I find this rather curious, because what did the ancients see that was so special about a serpent? Why was the serpent considered craftier than the other animals? I think it may have something to do with how we've often subconsciously viewed these creatures. To us, they seem so sinister and devilish that they may as well have been remnants/descendants of some evil entity in the distant past.
Another thing about the serpent in the passage is that it seems like it initially had legs or something, and then it was doomed later to be without limbs because of what it did. But it's not completely clear that this was the implied meaning of Genesis 3:14.
Christians also tend to point to a Messianic passage in this very chapter, specifically: Genesis 3:15. But, in this case, it really feels like this is indeed simply a post hoc interpretation after the Christian church was established, especially as you have to disconnect this specific verse from the surrounding verses to "see" some Messianic interpretation in it. I could be wrong, though. And perhaps the Jews also saw this as a Messianic verse, can't remember. Will have to google this later on.
Genesis 3:21 I find interesting. It gives you one specific example of what happened as a result of what Adam and Eve did. Animals can now be slaughtered for the benefit of man and woman. Note that they previously covered themselves with fig leaves (and in an earlier passage, it was noted that all living beings were basically vegetarians), but now they get to be covered with the skins of lions and God helps them with that (even with the Fall happening). And we see later that God indeed grants permission to slaughter animals for food and clothing.
Another thing that I find interesting: it seems like, literally speaking, man and woman had to continually eat from the tree of life in order to live forever. I guess this could be interpreted as immortality being intrinsically a property of the divine only, but that the divine can reward mortals with conditional mortality.
We also see, once again, reference to God as a plural being. Now there are many speculations on that one, and you can read all about that in your favorite scholarly article or book or whatever. I'm not going to dwell on this here.
From a very literal perspective:
Yes, that serpent sure talked. Yes, God is just a very super version of man who likes to walk in the cool of the day and doesn't seem to know everything that can be known. Yes, it mentions cherubims and a revolving(?) flame sword. No, the fruit wasn't necessarily an apple or a pomegranate.
All in all, another chapter that I enjoy reading. After all, this is where it all started to fall.
