-1The Lineage of Sin and Death as Contained in Genesis (Or, the Adamic Fall Brings Mortality into a Perfect World):

- Christopher Stewart

In order to begin a proper discussion on the nature of sin and its proper, and fitting, reward, death, we must first go back to the beginning when the Gods (a literal translation of the Hebrew word, “Elohim”) created the heavens and the earth and all things that in them are.

As I bespoke in the discussion in the Module Two forum, “the reason the Original Sin is one of the foundational assumptions in the first two chapters of Genesis, is largely because of the concept of duality that is presented. With the advent of Adam and Eve into the story we are given a literal example of the use of opposition (God providing them two trees and commanding them not to eat of the one). However throughout the first couple of chapters in Genesis we are [supplied] with a brief prototype, of which Adam and Eve are provided as archetypes - however literal their existence - of the nature of man and his own inner duality. […]

“When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree they were given to know Good from Evil, in other words, they were given a conscious and sentient existence. They were no longer in their original state, but had fallen due to their transgression of the just and righteous commandments of God. I spoke of Unity as being the ultimate message because the Universe was complete and whole - in a perfect and undefiled state until Adam and Eve ate of the fruit; at that point entropy comes into play and begins to take things apart and away from the original intention. […] When Adam and Eve fell they disrupted the Great Haqq of the Universe and breached the Creation of God; thereby allowing death and sin to enter into their otherwise perfect existence. As H. Nibley puts it in his book Abraham in Egypt, ‘The universe is so organized, according to this, that when man revolts against God's plan of operations, to which all other creatures conform, he finds himself in the position of one going the wrong way on a freeway during rush hour: the very stars in their course fight against him.’ (Nibley, "Abraham...,” pg. 178)”

Gen. 3 opens with the serpent, a symbol for wisdom and rejuvenation, who comes to Eve in the Garden and remarks that God had spoken to Eve and her husband and told them that they were not allowed to eat of any of the fruit in the garden (thereby showing that God allowed Adam and Eve opposition in order that they would be allowed to choose for themselves whether to eat of the fruit or not). Eve refutes this by pointing out that God has told them that they are allowed to eat of whatsoever food they want to so long as it is not from the tree which is in the midst of the garden, that of the Tree of Knowledge; for, if they ate of that fruit, in that day they would die. The serpent counters this by saying that they will not die, but the real reason that they are not allowed to eat of the fruit is because their eyes will be opened and they will be enabled to be even as God - knowing good from evil. Here the serpent is proffering knowledge.

Margaret Barker, in her essay, “Paradise Lost” states thusly, “Side by side with the story of the tree of knowledge and the serpent who seduced Eve with his promises, there was the story of the fallen angels. Until the beginning of the Christian era, this was the story used to explain the origin of evil and how the creation had been corrupted. Two

hundred angels, mighty beings who knew all the secrets of the creation, rebelled against the Great Holy One and brought their knowledge to earth. They seduced human women and revealed their knowledge as part of the rebellion. The similarities to the Eden story are clear. Eve was seduced by the evil one with the offer of knowledge, and this was part of a wider rebellion.”1

Robert Alter in his empirical work, “The Five Books of Moses,” states thus in regards to Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit, “There is a long tradition of rendering the first term here, ta'awah, according to English idiom and local biblical context, as ‘delight’ or something similar. But ta'awah means ‘that which is intensely desired,’ ‘appetite,’ and sometimes specifically ‘lust.’ Eyes have just been mentioned in the serpents promise that they will be wondrously opened; now they are linked to intense desire. In the event, they will be opened chiefly to see nakedness. Ta'awah is semantically bracketed with the next term attached to the tree, ‘lovely,’ nehmad, which literally means ‘that which is desired.’” ” In the first couple of chapters of Genesis Adam and Eve are described as being “naked and not ashamed,” when the serpent convinces Eve to partake of the fruit, as Robert Alter has said, their eyes are opened and they know that they are naked, covering themselves with the leaves from a fig tree (a very symbolic reference). He goes on to say that the next phrase in conjunction with the tree, “to look at,” “A correlation between verbs of seeing and verbs of knowledge or understanding in common to many languages.”2

The idea that is proffered here-in is that of the serpent promising Eve if she eats of the fruit she will not lose knowledge or her life, but, rather, she will become as God - knowing good from evil. This idea is extant throughout the Biblical text, and, indeed, is permeated throughout all of scripture, ancient and modern - the devil providing false knowledge in exchange for servitude versus God providing Wisdom.3

From this point on the Biblical text vacillates between Israel/Man’s sin and redemption, beginning with Cain killing Abel. In this story, relayed in Genesis 4, Cain and Abel are required to bring forth sacrifice of their first fruits. Abel, being a keeper of sheep, makes his sacrifice and God accepts it; Cain, however, bringing his sacrifice of the first fruits of the soil, is rejected whereupon his countenance falls.

The Lord asks Cain why he is angry; telling him if he will do what is right before Him then he would be accepted before the Lord. Cain is then told that sin lies outside of his door and desires to have him (Gen. 4:6-7). However Cain does not accept this and lets his heart harden as he begins to plot murder, saying to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go out to the field.”

While they are out in the field Cain rises up against Abel and slays him. Some time passes and the Lord asks Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?” Cain responds that he has no idea, that “[he is] not [his] brother’s keeper.” (Vs. 8-9) To this response of Cain’s the Lord replies that He already knows what Cain did and that Abel’s blood cries from the ground for revenge; therefore the Lord provides a curse upon Cain along with a promise that he will be marked that none else will attempt to slay him: he is afraid of one of his other brothers or sisters coming after him in vengeance of his slaying Abel. R. Alter (2004) also makes an interesting comment concerning Cain’s slaying of Abel; showing how Cain and the Lord’s conversation are “verbal echoes of Adam’s interrogation.” He then goes on to state how this is set up as a recurring theme in the scriptures - a “cycle of approximate and significant recurrences.”4 For example we then see Lamech in Genesis

4:23-24 telling his wives that he has killed “a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”

As we move on through the text of the scriptures, moving in an outward pattern, we come upon the story of Noah and his sons. This story begins in Genesis 6 with an account of “the sons of God” seeing the daughters of men and seeking after them in lust - R. Alter (2004) states that this is reminiscent of Eve looking at the Tree of Knowledge.5 Over time God witnesses the earth becoming corrupt and wicked, the people growing vain in their imaginations, and the very earth cries out to God for redemption from this wickedness and idolatry.6 Soon God has had enough of this and sends forth to warn the world of the impending doom by signaling to his prophet Noah to build and ark and to people it with animals of every kind. Noah is told to build this ark while, all the while, warning the people of the world of the approaching flood.

And, again, this story is reminiscent of Adam and Eve’s creation; as a good friend and scholar once said to me, “When God flooded the earth and destroyed all living people he was returning it to the chaos from whence He had created all living things.”7 Whereas in the first few verses of the Creationary account, God separated the waters from the heavens and the earth, in the Flood account, He reverses the formation and lets all of the water come back. Also, ancient Jewish tradition teaches that Eden was the first land to come up out of the waters when God separated them, and Eden was located upon the top of a mountain. This is fitting as mountains in scriptural symbolism are representatives of temples (Sinai, Olives, Moriah, the Temple Mount, etc).8 In the case of Noah and his sons, they come to rest upon the top of a mountain after the dove comes back with an olive branch in its mouth. Taking all of this together: the Flood waters rising, the dove and olive (both symbols of peace and the Holy Spirit), the mountain, etc. we can see how this hearkens back to the story of the Creation; showing the Creation story to be a type and shadow of things to come, both spiritual and temporal. This is the first major example of Chiasmus in scripture - life coming out of chaotic element, death coming out of life and returning to chaotic element. This, in and of itself, is interesting as it shows how God, who has dominion over all, creates and generates life and light versus man who, having dominion over the creatures of the earth and being told to subdue, or have stewardship over, the soil from whence he had sprung, creating nothing but darkness and death.

Another interesting matter which might be referenced is that of the usage of the word “ground” in the story. The word here translated as “ground” or “soil” is the Hebrew word ‘adamah. This is the same word that Adam’s name stems from, to which God informs him (Adam) that he shall return, from which Adam was made, etc. Again showing how the story of Noah hearkens back to the story told of the Creation. This is an account which will recur again and again throughout scripture - the idea of man’s fall from grace. This idea figures largely in the prophetic books such as Ezekiel (Ezek. 28:13).

Soon after the Flood story is accounted for we pass through a series of genealogies and learn of a descendent of Ham (who had committed sin in his own right, ending with a curse upon his son Canaan, when he “looks in upon his father’s nakedness” - see Gen. 9) by the name of Nimrod. This Nimrod is credited by many authors, Biblical and extra biblical, for being the founder of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 10:8-9; 11:1-9; also consider Josephus’ statement that Nimrod was the one who built the Tower (see “Tower

and Abraham, Discussion Module One). This story, along with that of Noah, Ham’s sin, and others, all follows the same basic pattern - demons/fallen angels revealing hidden knowledge against the direct command of God’s.

Numerous authors, M. Barker, Josephus, and others have made mention that, when this occurred, these angels were breaching the Covenant existence. For sinning, effectually, is the unauthorized piercing of Veil and the breaking of the Covenant - the Haqq of the element is thereby broken, and, thus, the Everlasting Covenant is also breached. As M. Barker stated above, when the angels came to the earth and began to teach the people heavenly knowledge which was not for them to know - at least in the way that was being taught to them - they were in direct rebellion against the commands of God. Margaret Baker (2006) also states in conjunction with this in her book “The Great High Priest”, "[...] the song of the angels was the harmony of the creation, and there was only one theme - Holy Holy Holy. It was sung in response to the praises of Israel, the worship of the mortal creation being necessary to evoke the song of the angels. This had been the song of the seraphim in Isaiah's vision, that the holiness of God filled the earth with glory (Isa. 6:3). This is the earliest reference to the cosmic significance of angel song, and evidence that it was known in the first temple [e.g. the first temple built in Israel - Solomon's temple, Ed.] The temple musicians performed in unison, 'with the voice of unity' when their music invoked the Glory of the LORD to fill the temple (2 Chron. 5:13-14).

"The biblical texts show that the song of the angels accompanied the establishing of the creation, and so the renewal of the creation in the New Year rituals of Tabernacles was accompanied by, or perhaps enabled by, the song of the angels. A recurring theme is that the song is a 'new song', which should probably be understood to mean a 'renewing song', since the cognate verb [and the Hebrew spelling here is not going to be exact due the computers current inability to transmit such characters to the site, ed.] hds means to renew. Psalm 33 describes the music of the 'new song', and then how the creation was made by the word of the LORD.

"[...] the song in the holy of holies, the source of life, is the song which sustains the creation."9 When an angel would sing out of tune, it would be cast out of heaven and into a lake of fire and brimstone; thus becoming a fallen angel.

In conclusion we can see that there are many patterns throughout the basic text of the scriptures which pertain to the cause and nature of sin. As Paul teaches, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), for we cannot partake of the fruit of the tree of life as John speaks about save we have been washed clean in the blood of Christ’s Atonement (Rev. 2-3). Throughout all of this we can see the need for unity amongst one another and with God. For if we are not in tune with the Spirit of God we cannot begin to think that we can be enabled to enter into His rest.

1 Margaret Barker, “Paradise Lost,” MargaretBarker.com

2 Robert Alter, “The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary,” pg. 24-25, 2004

3 See M. Barker, “Paradise Lost,” MargaretBarker.com. For example she provides this statement: “It is remarkable because storytellers living in the Iron Age had recognized that the corruption of the creation, even as they had experienced it, was caused by the abuse of knowledge. Those who chose the tree of life also acquired knowledge, but they acquired it as Wisdom.”

4 R. Alter, “Five Books,” pg. 30, 2004

5 Ibid., pg 38, 2004

6 M. Barker, “Paradise Lost,” MargaretBarker.com

7 John Thompson, personal conversation, BA in Egyptology (finishing his theses for his MA)

8 Kent Hunter, personal conversation, MA in Middle Eastern History

9 M. Barker, "The Great High Priest: Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy", pp. 118-119, 2006; see also M. Barker, “Temple Theology”