The first couple is warned they will surely die if they eat of the forbidden fruit. How can they obey this order when they don't have a concept for the consequence of disobeying it?
I really love this, and agree we so often miss talking about these points about the nature of evil and sin. A good example i heard (and use often) is that cold and hot aren’t opposites. Cold is simply the absence of heat. Evil is the absence of God, a separation for all that is life! Great essay!
Thank you! I wonder how we might be able to expand the cold/hot metaphor into something with more personification. I believe the personal nature of Satan to be essential to a theology of evil: a fallen, rebellious *being* and not an immaterial force or “element” so to speak….much to consider thank you for the comment.
Well, it falls apart since I think primarily in context of relationships. But relationships take energy/heat and quickly grow cold in this chaotic/entropy filled world. Satan too, while personal, is not the opposite of God. He just happens to be a spokesperson per se of evil. As are all evil people and entities in this life. I look forward to reading more of you stuff! I appreciate the gracious thoughtfulness of your theology!
Chris—you should read that part of my book. There was a choice between two trees, as you well know. There is a long history in mythologies of mortality, demigods and humans. The choice is of knowledge, an explanation of reflective thought. There was an order not to touch either tree. Imagine that the choice was to eat from the tree of Life. It would not account for reflective thought, (DeCartes, “I think, therefore I am”). And, in fact, it is set up to blame the woman. It also explains, of course, pain in childbirth. If this seems extraordinarily irritating, please delete.
Not irritating…just not sure I understand. Interesting to note that the New Testament claims sin entered the world through Adam (Romans 5:12). Which section of your book?
The title is the argument—“Knowledge and Mortality” ….. The point I wanted to make is that the Bible explicates (or introduces) the relationship between knowledge and death. The knowledge “of” death is itself a punishment. Knowledge also separates humans from the divine — that is why the tree of life is never actualized by a human. In Christianity, there is a Fall. In the Hebrew Bible and tradition there is no fall. A difference in how to characterize the meaning of knowledge. My point is to think about the Knowledge as introducing a punishment of Death. And…..other things.
Thank you, yes…I seem to remember some of this from a Jewish lit course I took with you. In your view, if there is no “fall,” is sin present at creation, instantiated in the world at its beginning? Then Genesis 3 is simply an awareness/consciousness of it?
I completely agree with Pastor Ward that evil is the absence of God. John speaks to this when he says “God is light and in Him is no darkness.” Light is a recurring attribution to God… Jesus is the light of the world. And in reference to humankind, people prefer darkness to light for their dead’s are evil. So, and my analogy is that when we are in physical darkness we stumble, trip and run into things. We break things, hurt ourselves and others because we can’t see well. We “miss the mark”… actually and figuratively.
I really love this, and agree we so often miss talking about these points about the nature of evil and sin. A good example i heard (and use often) is that cold and hot aren’t opposites. Cold is simply the absence of heat. Evil is the absence of God, a separation for all that is life! Great essay!
Thank you! I wonder how we might be able to expand the cold/hot metaphor into something with more personification. I believe the personal nature of Satan to be essential to a theology of evil: a fallen, rebellious *being* and not an immaterial force or “element” so to speak….much to consider thank you for the comment.
Well, it falls apart since I think primarily in context of relationships. But relationships take energy/heat and quickly grow cold in this chaotic/entropy filled world. Satan too, while personal, is not the opposite of God. He just happens to be a spokesperson per se of evil. As are all evil people and entities in this life. I look forward to reading more of you stuff! I appreciate the gracious thoughtfulness of your theology!
Chris—you should read that part of my book. There was a choice between two trees, as you well know. There is a long history in mythologies of mortality, demigods and humans. The choice is of knowledge, an explanation of reflective thought. There was an order not to touch either tree. Imagine that the choice was to eat from the tree of Life. It would not account for reflective thought, (DeCartes, “I think, therefore I am”). And, in fact, it is set up to blame the woman. It also explains, of course, pain in childbirth. If this seems extraordinarily irritating, please delete.
Not irritating…just not sure I understand. Interesting to note that the New Testament claims sin entered the world through Adam (Romans 5:12). Which section of your book?
The title is the argument—“Knowledge and Mortality” ….. The point I wanted to make is that the Bible explicates (or introduces) the relationship between knowledge and death. The knowledge “of” death is itself a punishment. Knowledge also separates humans from the divine — that is why the tree of life is never actualized by a human. In Christianity, there is a Fall. In the Hebrew Bible and tradition there is no fall. A difference in how to characterize the meaning of knowledge. My point is to think about the Knowledge as introducing a punishment of Death. And…..other things.
Thank you, yes…I seem to remember some of this from a Jewish lit course I took with you. In your view, if there is no “fall,” is sin present at creation, instantiated in the world at its beginning? Then Genesis 3 is simply an awareness/consciousness of it?
I completely agree with Pastor Ward that evil is the absence of God. John speaks to this when he says “God is light and in Him is no darkness.” Light is a recurring attribution to God… Jesus is the light of the world. And in reference to humankind, people prefer darkness to light for their dead’s are evil. So, and my analogy is that when we are in physical darkness we stumble, trip and run into things. We break things, hurt ourselves and others because we can’t see well. We “miss the mark”… actually and figuratively.