+Z’ev

Today’s assigned readings:
Genesis 3:1-24, Hebrews 2:1-10, John 1:19-28

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Genesis 3:6-7

Picture it: Greenwich Village in 1984. I was sitting in my office at the NYU Student Centre, researching homoerotic references in mediaeval Hebrew poetry. An idea struck me and I reached for a Bible to find a reference… and, as I am prone to be, I became distracted. I was using my Jerusalem Bible, my favourite, to be honest: Footnote followed footnote until a question formed. To get an answer, I called a friend of mine who was, then, a Biblical Language professor at General Seminary uptown in Chelsea. Remember: there’s no internet and no online Bible References.

“The Serpent in the Garden is never identified as Satan in the Bible?!?!”
“No.”

This is a crucial point (and remember that “crucial” means “cross”). As John Wesley says

We have here an account of the temptation wherewith Satan assaulted our first parents, and which proved fatal to them. And here observe, The tempter, the devil in the shape of a serpent. Multitudes of them fell; but this that attacked our first parents, was surely the prince of the devils. Whether it was only the appearance of a serpent, or a real serpent, acted and possessed by the devil, is not certain. The devil chose to act his part in a serpent, because it is a subtle creature. It is not improbable, that reason and speech were then the known properties of the serpent. And therefore Eve was not surprised at his reasoning and speaking, which otherwise she must have been.

The Church Father’s had it in play rather early, along with the attendant doctrine of Original Sin (in one of several manifestations). This was Satan leading our First Parents into sin and, because they followed Satan rather than God, we are enslaved - all of us - to Satan and to sin.

Oddly enough the Hebrew Scriptures make no mention of this in the list of curses:

The Serpent: “cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The woman “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
The man he said, “cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
(verses 14-19)

It’s oddly missing “you and all your children will go to hell forever and be unable to make good choices any more.”

Such ideas are missing from the traditional Jewish commentary on this passage.

The Jewish tradition reads man’s dual nature differently. I’ve written before about the two yetzerim of human nature and how, even though we pray to not fall prey to the “bad yetzer” we also need it!

And here is Rabbi Tovia Singer’s comments on the Christian reading:

The Christian doctrine on original sin is profoundly hostile to the central teachings of the Jewish scriptures. Over and over again the Torah loudly dismisses the notion that man has lost his divinely endowed capacity to freely choose good over evil, life over death. This is not a hidden or ambiguous message in the Jewish scriptures. On the contrary, it is proclaimed in virtually every teaching that Moses directs to the children of Israel.

In fact, in an extraordinary sermon delivered by Moses in the last days of his life, the prophet stands before the entire nation and condemns the notion that man’s condition is utterly hopeless. Throughout this uplifting exhortation, Moses declares that it is man alone who can and must merit his own salvation. Moreover, as he unhesitatingly speaks in the name of God, the lawgiver thoroughly rejects the notion that obedience to the Almighty is “too difficult or far off” and declares to the children of Israel that righteousness has been placed within their reach.

The importance of this doctrine is exactly redemption: the issue is one of precedence. Traditionally Judaism taught that how we act in this world and for this words healing would decide how we would find the next one. But if we are all irrevocably damaged in some way, then nothing we do can fix it. If A then B. But what if A is not a given?

The question then returns to and goes beyond using Genesis as history. First you have to accept the story as a True Story. But then you have to assume that for 3 thousand years or so, no one understood the real meaning of the events.

You get some twisted theology if you read this the wrong way. One Orthodox priest explained to me that our modern culture is attempting to do away with all the curses God gave to women. Here’s the verse again with all of our modern culture’s replies:

I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing (drugs and surgery); in pain you shall bring forth children (abortion and birth control), yet your desire shall be for your husband (divorce and lesbianism), and he shall rule over you (feminism and even just jobs outside the home). I’m sorry that in reply I failed to point out I know no clergy at all who still eat by the sweat of their brow - Satan must be eliminating the curses there too…

Reading this tale as a Just So Story it explains - rather like so many other myths - why we might have certain features and experiences and why the snake has no feet. It’s a Just So story or an etiological myth (ooo, big words!) that simply explains why snakes slither and woman cry out in birth, why men work for food and why a man is in charge of the house.

And, of course, we’re free to change it if we need to!

Much love,

Huw