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 14 of 19, discussed the interaction between imagination and free will.

Preview of this post.

This post, post number 15 of 19, discusses the interaction between imagination and other human skills.

1. The Garden of Eden Story demonstrates a connection between imagination and other skills

The Garden of Eden Story can be interpreted as an example of the connection between free will, imagination and memory. In the Garden, since everything was provided for him, man’s experience was so limited that he could not use, and certainly not develop, his imagination to visualize consequences. In fact, it could be said that Adam and Eve had not experienced any consequences at all, and thus, as far as they were concerned, there were no consequences for actions. Thus, man and woman had not built up a data bank of consequences for actions taken, and had nothing to visualize regarding any action. Thus, they had no idea regarding any consequences associated with disobedience. In fact, there does not appear to be any teaching in the Garden of Eden Story where God expressly told man what the consequences for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge will be;  just a prohibition. Man may have been aware of the prohibition against eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, but he could not understand the prohibition because he could not visualize consequences that were not immediately evident to his senses. Thus, man acted instinctively – eating what was available. It is noted that the serpent did not challenge Eve to eat the fruit, he only questioned her about whether there was any food in the Garden which she could not eat thereby making her aware of the fruit as food. After the conversation with the serpent, Eve could not imagine any consequences for her action other than fulfilling her desire to taste a food and thus could not discern any reason not to eat all the food available (God had not spoken directly to Eve, plus Eve had no reason to believe that the entity that Adam claimed to have spoken to him was, indeed, God, and no reason to believe that Adam had correctly interpreted and relayed the instructions to her^[1]).

Because at this time, Adam and Eve did not have any memories on which to apply their imagination to imagine consequences for their actions, their imagination was so limited that they, in essence, had no imagination. They only demonstrated that they had imagination, but without any memory of effects associated with actions, imagination is stunted. Thus, it might be said that while Adam and Eve did have imagination, since they had no basis on which to apply that imagination, it was imagination in name only and was waiting to be completed by experiencing consequences for actions. It might be said that Adam and Eve had an “incipient imagination”. Thus, since they did not have the tools with which to use their imagination and thus had only an incipient imagination, it might be said that Eve and Adam exercised their free will without the exercise of imagination, which is, as discussed above, merely the exercise of instinct and self preservation – the eating of food. This could be the first instance of man exercising free will and that may be why it ended in an error because man did not have the imagination or experience to visualize the consequences and thus avoid making a mistake.

Preview of the next post.

The next post, post number 16 of 19, discusses the role of women in the Garden of Eden story.

^[1] See the series “Eve”.