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Saturday, November 27, 2021
Deep Thoughts: Eve, the serpent, and the apple
How did I give her the apple?? I have no hands....
Primitive languages, different nuances. The serpent could have easily been a dragon. Or a monitor lizzard.
Or, alternatively, the serpent could have simply led Eve to the apple tree. There might not have even been any conversation. She could have followed the mysteriously beautiful and fascinating animal to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, creating an allure for the fruit, the "conversation" being the inner processing ongoing in her own mind! Hey, doesn't that happen with all of us as we wrestle with temptation?
Or, it was pure allegory, metaphor, or some such literary license. One wonders who the witness might have been to record all of this, unless Eve, as she learned to read and write, and to create a primitive crayon, penned her autobiography. Ah, what an interesting book that would have been if only it had survived antiquity!
The only problem I see with this is what the literalists do with it! It's a good thing they don't take Aesop or Grimm literally!
Trying to call God the Creator a liar again eh satan, you may have lied to people to say that God said you gave Eve the fruit. But God did not say the fruit was an apple, and neither did He say you gave it to Eve. This is what God said. "Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, ((she took)) of the fruit thereof.
Err this a joke? Or departing that much from basic scripture you forget the physical state of a snake was changed as a curse by God?
Well in real life you forget God expects men who preach and have positions of power in the Church to NOT be living in sin with their long time girlfriend.
The important thing to understand from this episode is that at some threshold in history, humanity chose to reject revealed knowledge in favor of personal self-determination. And this happened under the influence of a force of evil.
Whether or not the snake had legs with prehensile feet and could pick a piece of fruit is like questioning if Superman's cape is made of linen or a synthetic. This is also an early alert, at the outset, that the Bible must be read in a certain way. And that way is not purely literalist but, rather, with foremost attention to principle.
The ancient Semites who contributed the fragment to the Bible known as Genesis I probably read this account as realism. But their narrative realism is our allegory. Where modern readers can agree with the ancient Semites is on the principle.
This looks more like a Dennis post. Remember all those 2 trees sermons from HWA? He treated it figuratively. And it prominently featured being ashamed of sex.
Garner Ted continually harped upon that the only indication of a snake was that the sound from the tree was a "hissing sound."
Anyway the poor Yezidi's victims of the Iraqi/Syrian genocide were destroyed because of their "perceived worship of the devil" which supposedly was a snake.
I believe these people are the descendents of the guardians of what was the original garden of eden.
Hardly. Think about the observable universe and its size and energy - we can't even imagine it. Think about the human mind. God created all of this. Making a snake talk or do whatever is nanoscale in comparison. Seeing the snake as allegory detracts little. Along with the talking snake is leviathan, behemoth and a fish that could swallow a man. While God can create anything he wants, after all he developed a sentient hominid, I think these creatures do nicely as metaphor.
Possibly, but it could just as easily have been innovated without contact with the Nehushtan story. Snakes have been climbing trees and posts since well before Moses. Go check em out in Guam.
Primitive languages, different nuances. The serpent could have easily been a dragon. Or a monitor lizzard.
ReplyDeleteOr, alternatively, the serpent could have simply led Eve to the apple tree. There might not have even been any conversation. She could have followed the mysteriously beautiful and fascinating animal to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, creating an allure for the fruit, the "conversation" being the inner processing ongoing in her own mind! Hey, doesn't that happen with all of us as we wrestle with temptation?
Or, it was pure allegory, metaphor, or some such literary license. One wonders who the witness might have been to record all of this, unless Eve, as she learned to read and write, and to create a primitive crayon, penned her autobiography. Ah, what an interesting book that would have been if only it had survived antiquity!
The only problem I see with this is what the literalists do with it! It's a good thing they don't take Aesop or Grimm literally!
Trying to call God the Creator a liar again eh satan, you may have lied to people to say that God said you gave Eve the fruit. But God did not say the fruit was an apple, and neither did He say you gave it to Eve. This is what God said. "Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, ((she took)) of the fruit thereof.
ReplyDeleteI think this is just humor, folks.
ReplyDeleteErr this a joke? Or departing that much from basic scripture you forget the physical state of a snake was changed as a curse by God?
ReplyDeleteWell in real life you forget God expects men who preach and have positions of power in the Church to NOT be living in sin with their long time girlfriend.
The important thing to understand from this episode is that at some threshold in history, humanity chose to reject revealed knowledge in favor of personal self-determination. And this happened under the influence of a force of evil.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not the snake had legs with prehensile feet and could pick a piece of fruit is like questioning if Superman's cape is made of linen or a synthetic. This is also an early alert, at the outset, that the Bible must be read in a certain way. And that way is not purely literalist but, rather, with foremost attention to principle.
The ancient Semites who contributed the fragment to the Bible known as Genesis I probably read this account as realism. But their narrative realism is our allegory. Where modern readers can agree with the ancient Semites is on the principle.
Otherwise, the post was funny.
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Limiting God's power NEO.
DeleteThis looks more like a Dennis post.
ReplyDeleteRemember all those 2 trees sermons from HWA? He treated it figuratively.
And it prominently featured being ashamed of sex.
Garner Ted continually harped upon that the only indication of a snake was that the sound from the tree was a "hissing sound."
ReplyDeleteAnyway the poor Yezidi's victims of the Iraqi/Syrian genocide were destroyed because of their "perceived worship of the devil" which supposedly was a snake.
I believe these people are the descendents of the guardians of what was the original garden of eden.
nck
Anonymous 9:27 wrote, "Limiting God's power NEO."
ReplyDeleteHardly. Think about the observable universe and its size and energy - we can't even imagine it. Think about the human mind. God created all of this. Making a snake talk or do whatever is nanoscale in comparison. Seeing the snake as allegory detracts little. Along with the talking snake is leviathan, behemoth and a fish that could swallow a man. While God can create anything he wants, after all he developed a sentient hominid, I think these creatures do nicely as metaphor.
******** Click on my icon for Disclaimer
Hey Nck, The Asclepius or Caduceus actually comes from the time of Moses! Read up in Moses and the snakes, buddy.
ReplyDeletePossibly, but it could just as easily have been innovated without contact with the Nehushtan story. Snakes have been climbing trees and posts since well before Moses. Go check em out in Guam.
DeleteOh no! Now I know the depths of Satan! 🤪
ReplyDelete