The Fall as Allegorical Fiction.

[The Grand Nudger]

The Fall (NIV)

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3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”

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Now, firstly, this narrative takes the form of a just-so story. A piece that describes what we could safely assume to be the storytellers experience of life - and how it got to be that way. It's told in third person omniscient. Presumably, it is not a story that was told by adam or eve, or even god. All characters are external to the narrator. That's just as well in any case, because the narrative would be too sparse from any single characters POV to form a workable vehicle, to create intrigue.

So, let's dive in again, shall we?

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The scene as set in previous verses is one of an idyllic paradise, two naked people in a garden, not a care in the world, under the watch of a divine benefactor who has one simple rule. We can already see the fabric of a story about childhood and disobedience forming, which is fitting ( I think), in an origins narrative. That god is a parent and the humans are children is established in as few words as possible, and this is an impressive bit of authorship - an extremely judicious use of breath. Our first taste of whats to come concerns the two obedient children off alone without god (their father) there to supervise...and Eve's having a conversation with a serpent.

There's a snake in every garden, of course, and this snake is no different than any other. He's busy telling the impressionable young eve that what her father has told her is not, necessarily, true. That "eating the fruit" won't kill her at all, but will put her on par with god the father. It will give her knowledge that makes a difference, a seat at the adults table. Clearly desiring this she takes a bite. She finds that the forbidden fruit is actually very pleasant all around - nothing like what she had been taught to expect. Notice how passive adam is up to this point, who is apparently there with her. He's heard the rule the same as she, but he's not willing to pipe up just yet. He's content to sit back and watch, to be silently complicit.

Eve's a sharer, so she gives adam a taste of what was forbidden to them. Then something amazing happens. Their eyes were opened. I think it's important that the first thing we are told that their eyes were opened to was their own nakedness. The knowledge of good and evil, from the point of view of innocence, must have been a hell of a jolt...but what stands out to these two childlike characters; after availing themselves of some thing that was forbidden by their father figure - is nudity. The author doesn't seem to be trying to hide any metaphors for puberty here whatsoever. This is a sex story...and if we didn't have the audiences attention yet - we've got em now.

As quickly as possible they try to hide their misdeed. They hear god strolling through the garden, calling out to his children, and they hide themselves as well. Now, god is the sort of character with alot of unspoken assumptions wrapped around him. I doubt that the storyteller intended to convey the notion that god was actually looking for them, or that he didn't know where they were or what they had done - but nevertheless he approaches the situation in a decidedly familial way. "Where are you" he asks, already knowing. "What have you done" he asks, already knowing.

Again, the pains the storyteller goes through to liken adam and eve to children and god to a parent are exhaustive. Adam Blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent. God prpepares to announce his judgement against all. The narrative falls back into a just-so story for a moment, describing how snakes became snakes - common for this sort of fiction, before returning to the allegory. If we wondered what this story was about beforehand, where the storyteller drew his inspiration - gods judgement will leave no doubt.

The woman is cursed to childbirth, and it's going to hurt. She's cursed to desire for the man, and in her desire and dependence (we'll talk about this in a minute) she's cursed to subservience. The man is cursed to toil in the earth, a hard dusty existence where the ground rises up to strike him; the only release in this new life being death. Both characters have had the mantles of adulthood and gender role placed upon them where before they were innocent babes. Summarily, the father casts them out of his house to fulfill the roles placed upon them.

Now, there's a rabbinical tradition that asserts that the knowledge of good and evil was, in fact, knowledge of the law. The notion that the innocent of mind cannot be guilty, the consequences of knowledge. What's very clear here is that the narrative is about a loss of innocence any way you slice it. If we can reasonably infer that the storyteller wanted to suggest adulthood, puberty, sexual relations or a rite of passage as at least one of the things contained within knowledge of good and evil they couldn't have done a more thorough job. The value of this narrative (it's truth, if you will) doesn't hinge on whether or not god walked in a garden, or a woman talked to a snake, or a man ate an apple he shouldn't have.

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Now, for a few questions-

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How did you find yourself cast out of the garden of your father and forced to toil or bear? What effect does your desire for your partner have upon you, what is your experience of providing for your family? How profound was the change from adolescence, through puberty, and into adulthood - how pronounced was your shame during that period - especially with regards to being caught? How many of you had a serpent for a friend, telling you that your parents might be fibbing just a little bit with regards to your innocence and the consequences of it's loss? How relevant does this narrative seem to you, under a reading like this one? Is it surprising that a story like this would survive so long?

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If I get enough kudos.... I might be tempted to go through the bible line by line......show some fundies how it's done. /kudoswhorecapon