Sex, Sin, Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve naked and innocent in the Garden of Eden are tempted by a snake to eat an apple, first Eve tempted by the snake and then Adam tempted by Eve. Thus they learned not only that they were “neked” but they learned about sin by having sex.
Wrong. The only part of that description of the beginning of Genesis Chapter three that is accurate is that they began naked.
Eve is not given her name until the next chapter. The man, adam, which means undifferentiated human, is not called Adam until the next chapter. Here they are still ish and isha. It was not a snake but a servant; it was not an apple but a fruit. While the woman took and ate the fruit first, the man was with her all the time, Genesis 3:6. They had already had sex with each other, Genesis 2: 24.
Note that they were tempted as we all are to something good, Genesis 3:6.
Genesis chapter three is not about the origin of sin. If there was no sin before the serpent- woman conversation, how could either the man or the woman have been tempted and succumbed to disobedience? No. This is a story that says human beings have always been tempted from the very beginning and have always given in to temptation.
There was no “Fall” in the sense that there was a time in human existence when people were “perfect” and one human being started the sinning for all the rest of us. The fall is not a past tense verb; it is a continuing event in the relationship between humans and God.
Human sinfulness is not, despite St. Augustine, tied to sex. There is no inherent connection between sexual intercourse and disobedience to God. Indeed, the act of love between two people is a sacrament which embodies the love of God for creation. Like all good things we can and do pervert it. Augustine and much of the church have perverted sex by linking it with sin.
Finally, the story of “Adam and Eve, the snake and the apple in the Garden of Eden” is a story. It is a made up, true, fictional, myth which tells us much of great value about ourselves and our continuing relationship to the loving creator.
The story ends with a very domestic YHWH designing and making clothing for the couple. Genesis 3:21.
Wrong. The only part of that description of the beginning of Genesis Chapter three that is accurate is that they began naked.
Eve is not given her name until the next chapter. The man, adam, which means undifferentiated human, is not called Adam until the next chapter. Here they are still ish and isha. It was not a snake but a servant; it was not an apple but a fruit. While the woman took and ate the fruit first, the man was with her all the time, Genesis 3:6. They had already had sex with each other, Genesis 2: 24.
Note that they were tempted as we all are to something good, Genesis 3:6.
Genesis chapter three is not about the origin of sin. If there was no sin before the serpent- woman conversation, how could either the man or the woman have been tempted and succumbed to disobedience? No. This is a story that says human beings have always been tempted from the very beginning and have always given in to temptation.
There was no “Fall” in the sense that there was a time in human existence when people were “perfect” and one human being started the sinning for all the rest of us. The fall is not a past tense verb; it is a continuing event in the relationship between humans and God.
Human sinfulness is not, despite St. Augustine, tied to sex. There is no inherent connection between sexual intercourse and disobedience to God. Indeed, the act of love between two people is a sacrament which embodies the love of God for creation. Like all good things we can and do pervert it. Augustine and much of the church have perverted sex by linking it with sin.
Finally, the story of “Adam and Eve, the snake and the apple in the Garden of Eden” is a story. It is a made up, true, fictional, myth which tells us much of great value about ourselves and our continuing relationship to the loving creator.
The story ends with a very domestic YHWH designing and making clothing for the couple. Genesis 3:21.
posted by Thomas Van Brunt | 11:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home