Discussion Questions

An Alternate Interpretation of the Garden of Eden Story

 

1. After Adam and Eve left the Garden, God stationed cherubim and the fiery ever-burning sword East of the Garden “to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gen 3:24). If God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, why didn’t He station cherubim adjacent to that Tree to prevent Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of that tree?

 

2. God asked Adam and Eve if they had eaten the forbidden fruit.

(a) If God knows everything that has happened, why did He have to ask Adam and Eve what happened? The essay provides one answer, do you have another? The same question can be asked about God during the Cain/Abel incident.

(b) If God did not know what Adam and Eve did, do you think this lack of total knowledge still be there today?

(c) What would this deficiency mean for today’s prayers (especially prayers of confession like Un Taneh Tokef) which assume that God knows what is in one’s heart and knows the real truth associated with the prayer? Repentance? Teshuvah? Our conception of afterlife?

(d) Could the deficiency mean that the concept of God’s omniscience was not held in biblical times and was a later development? If not, how do you explain God’s lack of knowledge in these two situations? If so, how does that change your view of God?

(e) If God does not know everything, might there be some things that we could hide from God and “get away with”?

(f) Why would God not know of some things but would know about all others? Why would the Bible portray such a God?

(g) What would the deficiency mean for our moral codes? Personal responsibility?

(h) If we believe that there may be things that God will not see, how would our actions change?

(i) Could we figure out which things God would not see?

(j) If you believed that there might be some acts that humans could hide from God, but you did not know which acts those were, would you be willing to try an act that you knew God did not want on the chance that He might not notice?

(k) How would the concept of God’s non-omniscience affect the concept of God always being on the side of right (especially in war time)?

(l) How would the concept of God’s non-omniscience affect the beliefs associated with bad things happening to good people and vice versa?

(m) If there are some things that God does not know about us, how are we to know what God wants from us?

(n) If there are things that God does not know, is He still “God”?

 

3. Do you think God has an imagination? If so, do you think it is the same as the one we have? If not, how is it different from ours?

 

4. What if Eve had eaten fruit from the Tree of Life instead of from the Tree of Knowledge?

 

5. What if Adam would have been the one conversing with the serpent instead of Eve? How do you think the story would change?

 

6. How would the story have changed if Adam had refused to eat the fruit?

 

7. How would the story have changed if Adam had been the first to eat the fruit? Would Eve have eaten the fruit as well? Or would she have refused? Do you think Eve would have stood by Adam if their roles would have been reversed?

 

8. How would the story have changed if Eve would have gone to Adam before she ate the fruit? If he had talked her out of it? Do you think he was capable of talking her out of eating the fruit? Do you think the two humans were capable of such discussion? If so, could the discussion itself have served as the signal to God that the imagination of the humans had evolved sufficiently for them to begin their journey of exercising dominion over the other entities created in Genesis? What do you think God would have done if Adam and Eve had discussed the matter and decided to obey the instruction and not to disobey?

 

9. Later, after the destruction of both temples, each time the Jewish nation was exiled from the promised land. The exile lasted two thousand years after the destruction of the second temple. Do you see a parallel between the exile of the Jewish nation from the promised land and this story where Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden? Is there a similar parallel between the Jewish nation exiting Egypt and the exit of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? Between the Jewish nation entering the Promised Land and Adam and Eve entering the world from the Garden of Eden? Is there a parallel between the Jews in Egypt before the Exodus and Adam and Eve before they left the Garden?

 

10. In the flood story, God “regretted that He had made man” (Gen 6:6) and so He blotted “out from earth men whom I have created – men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.” (6 Gen:7). Why didn’t God do the same when Adam and Eve disobeyed him in the Garden of Eden story? God wished to destroy the entire Jewish Nation after the Golden Calf episode because they were a stiffnecked people (Exodus 32:9-10). Why didn’t He feel the same about Adam and Eve?

 

11. In the first creation story, we are told that God created the heavens and the earth and all the things in the heavens and earth. The second creation story picks up in the Garden of Eden. Do you think the first creation story is strictly about God’s creation of the Garden of Eden and not about things outside the Garden? If so, what did Adam and Eve encounter outside the Garden? Could it have been that God cut out the Garden from the rest of the world? Where does such an assumption place our present universe?

 

12. Do you think Adam and Eve wanted to remain in the Garden? How would the entire story told by the Bible have changed if Adam and Eve had remained in the Garden and never left it?

 

13. Compare Eve’s act of defiance to Sarah’s act regarding Ishmael/Hagar. Switch the two women. Would Eve have acted like Sarah and vice versa?

 

14. Why didn’t Adam and Eve try to justify their action to God? They might have argued that God had not been clear to Adam and He never even spoke to Eve.

 

15. In other situations, such as exile of the nation, God permitted the people to return, even when the disobedience was greater than merely eating forbidden fruit. Why was God harsher on Adam and Eve than on the nation as a whole later?

 

16. God specifically forbad Adam from eating from the Tree of Knowledge (2 Gen 16), yet placed cherubim to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Apparently, both trees were forbidden, why do you think Eve chose the Tree of Knowledge? If God did not want Adam and Eve to gain access to the Tree of Life, why didn’t He forbid Adam from eating from that tree at the time He forbad Adam from eating from the Tree of Knowledge?

 

17. Presumably there were other entities in the Garden when Adam and Eve were there. Why didn’t one of the other entities eat the fruit and be banished? It can be assumed that such a banishment would have been noticed by Adam and Eve (the process could have been repeated until Adam and/or Eve noticed). If they would have learned from that action to avoid eating the fruit of that tree, would this have been the signal that their imaginations had developed sufficiently to leave the Garden? In this scenario, God needed only to inform Adam and Eve that they had made such great progress that they had now outgrown the Garden. It seems that this positive reinforcement is more desirable than the negative reinforcement of making the leaving appear as punishment, especially with regard to the way Eve’s role has been perceived. It could even have been the serpent who ate the fruit and was banished, which could be the basis of even further stories and lessons.
18. In a footnote, the series mentions the concept of eusociality which is associated with cooperation among members of a group and is attributed to the rise of humans above other species. The essay also mentions that some believe that the male/female cooperation in the nest served as the basis for eusociality and that eursociality was not possible before this cooperation. Recently there has been many articles and much discussion about the breakdown of the family as causing many of the social problems we have today, including crime, drugs, anti-social behavior, disdain for authority, etc. Do you see a connection between today’s problems and eusocial concepts? If the family is not restored, what do you think will happen to society?
19. In Gen 3:3, Eve relates what God had said regarding the Forbidden Fruit: “You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.” However, in Gen 3:4, the serpent says: “You are not going to die,”. The serpent goes on: “but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like divine beings who know ‘good and bad.” Which one is telling the truth? Ultimately, since Adam and Eve did not die, it appears that God actually lied to them about the consequences of eating the Forbidden Fruit and the serpent told them the truth. Perhaps Eve had misunderstood God’s command. If that was the case, is it not possible that she misunderstood even more of the instructions? If she misunderstood, is it proper that she be condemned for all time for this act rather than understood?
20. What do you think Adam and Eve’s first act should be after they leave the Garden? Understand what happened? Repent? Build shelter?
21. Do you think it ever occurred to either Adam or Eve to try to get back into the Garden (in spite of the guardian angels God stationed at the entrance in Gen 3:24)? On what basis could Adam and Eve argue that they should be allowed to return? God made a mistake? They have repented? They should be forgiven? Ignorance? Mistake (theirs)?
22. Do you think Adam and Eve ever despaired about their act and its consequences?
23. Do you think Adam and Eve ever regretted their act?
24. Do you think Adam and Eve ever feared the future? What do you think their outlook for the future was? Optimistic? Pessimistic? Do you think Adam and Eve were happy? Or at least satisfied? Or resigned? Put yourself in their place, how would you view the future or your present life?
25. Do you think Adam ever admonished Eve?
26. How do you think Adam learned to farm? How did they learn to prepare their food? How did they learn to prepare shelter? Raise children? For that matter, where did the farming and cooking tools come from?
27. Do you think Adam and Eve ever called out to God for help, or to relent on the consequences? Do you think Adam and Eve knew how to pray?
28. What do you think Eve’s reaction was to the first pains she suffered in childbirth? Do you think she understood what was happening? Do you think she accepted it?
29. How do you think Adam and Eve accepted the fratricide committed by Cain? They had to think that their lives had been in steady decline beginning with their exit from the Garden, to the pains of earning a living, to the pains of childbirth now to the pain of having one of their sons murder the other one. What do you think they were thinking?
30. Whichever of the two, Adam or Eve, died first, how do you think the surviving spouse reacted?
31. The essay has a section titled “The Garden of Eden Story as an illustration of evolution of human beings” in which it is suggested that the story illustrates the evolution of human beings per se from primitive to modern. However, some have suggested another analogy. These people suggest that the story is analogous to the growth of an individual: the individual is first a helpless infant who has everything done for him to keep him alive, then he moves on to adulthood where he must fend for himself. Do you think this last analogy fits the story, or does it skip over periods of development that are inherent in individual human development (childhood, early adulthood) but are not present in the Garden of Eden story?
32. In Genesis 4:8, it is reported “Cain said to his brother Abel…and when they were in the field, Cain set upon Abel and killed him.” What did Cain say to Abel?
33. The series discusses the situation regarding the oven of Akhnai in which the rabbis are arguing about liberal versus strict interpretation of the law. Do you believe that a law can be given, even by God, that envisions all possible situations (Maimonides spends a great deal of time in his Guide for the Perplexed discussing this issue and concludes in Chapter 34 that it is impossible for a law, even a divine law, to account for all possible situations), even those that might occur in the future? What problems might occur if a law is changed? If you believe that laws should be changed, how quickly should a law be changed?
34. What do you think Eve said to Adam to persuade him to eat the fruit that he knew was forbidden to him? Why do you think he did eat it?
35. Do you think Adam knew that Eve was about to eat the forbidden fruit before she did it? If so, why did he not stop her, or at least try to stop her? There was time since she did not eat the fruit until after her discussion with the serpent. This is especially so if Adam had overheard the conversation between Eve and the serpent.
36. If Adam’s sin was not stopping Eve, could it mean that if we know someone is about to sin, we are obligated to stop that person from sinning at the risk of being held as responsible as the sinner? This may be especially so in the case when the prospective sinner is one’s own spouse.