In which an alternative view is offered regarding the exit of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the action of women and the relationship of men and women are explored and the story of Cain and Abel is reinterpreted in light of the actions taken during the Garden of Eden Story.

 

In order to fully appreciate this discussion, it is recommended that the posts comprising the series “In God’s Image” and “Imagination and the Mind of Man” be read before reading the posts in this series.

 

Another Interpretation of the Garden of Eden Story

 

Review of the previous post.

 

The previous post, post number 8 of 19, discussed the Tree of Knowledge.

 

Preview of this post.

 

This post, post number 9 of 19, proposes that the story of the Garden of Eden is actually a story of evolution and the evolution of humans.

 

The Garden of Eden Story as an illustration of evolution of human beings

This situation of Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden raises another question: why now? Supposedly, Adam and Eve had existed in the Garden for some time prior to this time…with the Tree of Knowledge. What happened or what changed to cause them to partake of the fruit of that tree now?

God placed man in the Garden for a purpose. Why? And as stated above, why did the situation with the Tree of Knowledge arise now? While there have been several theories regarding why the serpent approached Eve rather than Adam, the question of why now has not been answered. It is the answer to the question of “why now” that changes the meaning of the Garden of Eden story.

The answer is twofold: Adam and Eve are allegories for man as a species; and evolution^[1]. First, man (species) may have existed in a world where they simply hunted and ate what they found around them (in the manner of animals, and primitive man) and thus were provided for. Second, humans have proven to be excellent in evolving from one state to another. It seems logical to assume that this evolution process began with the first human and continues, even accelerates, today with our adaptation to environments, diseases, and society of today^[2]. Perhaps, Adam and Eve (humans) were “evolving^[3] while they existed in the place the Bible calls the Garden of Eden, and they finally evolved and developed sufficiently to demonstrate to God that their imaginations were developing as He desired and had developed sufficiently so they would be able to exercise their imagination and free will in a manner sufficient to sustain them. At that time, they left the Garden of Eden and set forth on their journey to exercising dominion over the world because they now had the capacity to do so. Before this time, they did not have sufficient prerequisites to exercise their imagination to continue this work of creating a world; at the moment they did have this capacity, they left the Garden of Eden. They were not “cast out,” but they left on their own volition, that is, of their own free will. Adam and Eve were not “cast” out of the Garden of Eden, they “grew” out of the Garden of Eden, i.e., they outgrew the Garden of Eden. The key that was used to determine that Adam and Eve had evolved sufficiently to leave the Garden and go into the world and fulfill their destiny of exercising dominion over the earth was the demonstration of the ability to imagine, to communicate and to reason through complex thoughts. This is why Adam and Eve did not express regret or plead for leniency once it was clearly established that they had, indeed, eaten the forbidden fruit – they wanted to leave the Garden. The episode with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge occurred right after Eve conducted the first conversation involving man recorded in Genesis.

Prior to the conversation of between Eve and the serpent, man had demonstrated mere rudimentary skills, of being able to differentiate between animals and name them, skills possessed by lower animals. This is the first recording of conversation, however, it might be possible to assume that the serpent had attempted to communicate with the woman many times before this, but this is the first time she responded and participated in the conversation and actually answered him thereby demonstrating a degree of evolution that would be sufficient to allow her to fulfill her destiny. During the conversation of interest between the serpent and the woman, the serpent posed and Eve answered a question, and that question was phrased in a fairly complex manner (“Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” Genesis 3:1). There are multiple parts to this question: what did God say?; what do you remember God saying?; Do you believe God?; Was it any tree or was it a specific tree?; identify the specific tree; Is “say” equal to a command? It was not a question that could be answered by a simple “yes” or “no.” A lower animal could probably answer a yes/no question; but it will require reasoning powers to answer a complex question such as this. The serpent could easily have posed the question simply as” “Did God forbid you to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge?” This could have been simply answered “yes” or “no.” Instead, it was a complex question requiring complex reasoning to answer.

Another observation: the serpent posed the question to the woman and not to the man^[4]. God had made the prohibition to the man, and had not spoken it to the woman. By posing the question to the woman^[5], the serpent was further testing the mental development of the humans by testing whether they had sufficient mental ability to conduct complex communication whereby the prohibition could have been communicated between the man and the woman. Still further, the cognitive abilities of the humans was being further tested by testing whether the woman’s imagination had developed sufficiently so she could translate the verbal instructions into spatial locations for the Tree. This was indeed a many-faceted question. In answering this question, Eve had to understand the various elements of the question, identify which ones were pertinent, remember specific information relevant to the answer, translate verbal instructions into a form that would answer the question, and make a choice as to which replies to provide. In doing all of this, the woman clearly demonstrated that she (and hence, humans) had evolved sufficiently to imagine, to remember, to reason and think and to communicate. Until this time, no such demonstration was recorded. With a developed and developing ability to remember, think and communicate, human beings was ready to exercise their imagination, and hence their free will.

Still further, the question seems to play into the curiosity of the listener. Was Eve curious about the fruit of this tree? Curiosity is closely associated with imagination. Until now, Eve’s imagination had not developed sufficiently to excite her curiosity. Now it had. The serpent may have always been in the Garden, but until this time, Adam and Eve were not sufficiently developed for the serpent to be able to communicate with them and for them to respond to his inquiries. It could be viewed as God placing the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a device to alert Him that Adam and Eve had developed sufficiently to move out of the Garden. The serpent was always there and may have continually tested Adam and Eve, but received no response, hence God would have known that they were not ready to leave the Garden. The serpent could be viewed as a type of “early warning alert^[6]” for God to know when Adam and Eve were ready to fulfill their destiny^[7]. It was right after this conversation that Adam and Eve ate from the Tree, and it was right after that that God appeared in the Garden seeking Adam and Eve. Was God alerted that Adam and Eve had demonstrated an ability to exercise their imaginations and free wills? Did the serpent report back to God that Adam and Eve are now ready to begin their journey and God set out to start them on their journey after receiving the report? Further, it should be noted that after Adam and Eve ate the apple, God questioned Adam in Gen 3:9-13^[8]. God could have been checking the early warning of the serpent regarding the development of Adam and Eve to a point where their imaginations were sufficiently developed to carry on a conversation, especially a conversation that involved questions and answers^[9]. Having satisfied Himself that their imaginations were sufficiently developed to manage on their own outside the garden, God allowed them to leave so they could begin their journey (as partners with God) in developing the earth.

It is also noted that at the beginning of the Garden of Eden story, the humans are simply referred to as “the man” and “the woman” and then, later, they are named Adam and Eve. Does this indicate that they evolved from being male and female forms of a species into humans and thus received names? Again, it appears that evolution is involved in the Garden of Eden story.

 

Preview of the next post.

The next post, post number 10 of 19, continues the discussion of how the Garden of Eden story is the story of human evolution by discussing the anthropologic theory of the sapient paradox .

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^[1] See also Introduction to the Bible by Christine Hayes (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2012) pages 49-50: “At its base lie certain observable features of the human condition: As humans grow, they emerge from innocent childhood to self-conscious adulthood;” While this is not the evolution suggested in the instant post, it seems to conform to it.

[2] See, Scientific American, Special Evolution Issue, September 2014, Volume 311, No. 3.

^[3] See L.M. Bechtel “Genesis 2,4b-3.24: A Myth About Human Maturation,” JSOT 67 (1995) 3-26; see also H. Gunkel, Genesis (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecth, 1910); and U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Jerusalem: Magnes/Hebrew University Press, 1961); Meyers, Discovering Eve; van Wolde, A Semiotic Analysis of Genesis 2-3; S. Dragga, ‘Genesis 2-3: A Story of Liberation’, JSOT 55 (1992), pp 3-13.

^[4] This episode could be viewed as the first time women took the lead as it appears that Eve was the motivating factor in this episode. See the series“Women are Equal to Men”. It seems clear that the role of women in the Bible has been overlooked or at least downgraded below their importance….as is clearly evident in this the very first story. There are several Midrashic views on this as well: the serpent was interested in Eve as a sexual object and thus approached her; that women are more naïve than men so the serpent chose the woman (but this conflicts with the stories of the Golden Calf where women did not fall into the trap as well as the story of the spies where the women did not believe the false reports); that women are more approachable than men, so the serpent approached the woman.

^[5] A reading of Genesis 3:1 might imply that both the man and the woman were present when the serpent posed the question. Yet only the woman answered. This might imply that the woman had evolved sufficiently to comprehend and respond to the question, whereas the man had not yet reached that stage of evolution. This seems to fit the general view that women evolve and mature faster than men.

^[6] Further to this thought, it is interesting to note that the term “serpent” as used in Genesis 3 can mean “crafty” or “shrewd” or “cunning” – all of which are neutral with regard to good and evil – which fits the explanation being discussed in this post, but which can be countered with examples of negative connotations (see, for example, Job 5:12 and 15:5 as well as in Exodus 21:14 where a murderer acts in a shrewd manner to snare his victim). The word can even be seen as a remedy for naiveté which better fits the explanation being discussed in this post. There does not seem to be any discussion in this episode that would lead one to connect the serpent with an evil Satan. In fact, as discussed in “Introduction to the Bible” by Christine Hayes (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2012) at page 47, “…although much later Hellenistic Jewish texts and the New Testament will identify him as Satan, there is clearly no such creature in this earthly fable or, indeed, in the Hebrew Bible. The snake of Eden is simply a talking animal, a standard literary device of myths and fables such as the stories of Aesop.”

^[7] Perhaps the serpent could be viewed as an early warning system to alert God if any of the creations existing in the Garden had reached a stage of development that would permit that creation to leave the Garden and fulfill the destiny of dominion over all the land. That is, the serpent, and hence God, was waiting for any of the creations to self-select and then that self-selected entity would be deemed “human”. This was done by renaming that creation. The “man” and the “woman” could have been any of the creations, but the human male became “Adam” and the human female became “Eve”. Thus, it might be seen that what we term Adam and Eve as human beings really was nothing more than a self-selected creation that developed faster than the other creations so it could trip the alarm and alert God that one of the creations was ready to leave the incubator. Many were called, but only one answered and the one that answered was deemed to be human beings.

^[8] Note that God questioned Adam and not Eve. This seems to imply that God was directly communicating with Adam and not Eve. As is discussed in this post, due to this line of communication, it is difficult to hold Eve responsible for the transgression of disobedience since she never received a direct order, only a hearsay repetition by a doubtful source, Adam, from an entity she knew nothing about. This episode in Gen 3:9 seems to support this theory.

^[9] Along these lines, it might be observed that God asked Adam and Eve why they acted, yet He did not ask the serpent why he acted. This seems to imply that God already knew why the serpent acted: the serpent was placed in the Garden by God to alert God when the humans had evolved sufficiently to fulfill their destiny.

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