Genesis 3

 Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

Read Genesis 3 from the translation of your choice. I'm using Young's Literal Translation.

One thing I'm getting from Chapter 3 is better context for Chapters 1 and 2. In Chapter 1, humans - male and female - were created in God's "image and likeness," but presumably created through natural processes. Chapter 1 seems to say the physical, external, material world was manifested by God. 

In Chapter 2, however, the Garden of Eden, planted by Jehovah God, seems like a magical, fantastical place… or an allegorical place. Might it be that Chapter 1 is an account of physical creation, and Chapter 2 is an account of spiritual creation? The Man in the Garden wasn't born from a natural, physical process, but molded from dust and Jehovah God "breatheth into the man's nostrils the breath of life." That Woman was made from a Man's "rib."

Perhaps we are born in the manner of animals, but also born of spirit, and both the Man and the Woman of the Garden dwell in each of us. 

The magic (or allegory) continues in Chapter 3, with a serpent communicating with the woman. As one of the most "grounded" of animals, a serpent might be an appropriate figure to represent the wisdom of the physical or natural world. This idea isn’t original with me.

Whenever I've read this chapter before, or heard it discussed, it was with the perspective that Eden was a place where everything the Man and Woman wanted was provided, and due to pride they demanded more, so they went after the one thing they weren't allowed to have: the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

I'm not getting that interpretation this time. In Chapter 2, it's clear that something was "missing" for Adam, so Jehovah God brought him companions: animals. But the Man wasn't satisfied, so Jehovah God created the Woman, but still they weren't satisfied. 

Whatever problem they had, or felt they had, they had the choice of following Jehovah God or "reason." I wonder how Jehovah God communicated with them, and it makes the most sense to me that it was by their intuition.

The woman looked at the tree and intuition said, "Not that! Wait for another answer." Reason, however, looked at the tree and concluded that eating its fruit seemed to make a lot of sense, that its "fruit" was the solution to their problem.

In the Zurau Aphorisms, Franz Kafka wrote, "Perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return."

Let's say you're looking for a job. You're offered one that checks all the boxes for your ideal position. But, it doesn't feel right. You accept the offer anyway because you think you need the money and you think there are no other options. The job brings stress which affects your health and strains family relationships.

You ate from the Tree of Knowledge. You chose what, by all appearances, seemed like the right thing. The "punishment" that follows isn't really a punishment (although  your intuition - God? -  warned you). It's more like a consequence. Cause-and-effect is at play.

The Man and Woman chose worldly wisdom instead of relying on Jehovah God, who had provided for them up to that point. Then they got a lot of silly ideas. Instead of naked and unashamed (or innocent), they covered their bodies from the light. That is, they covered themselves in darkness. 

Because of Jehovah God, they also went from picking fruit from trees to toiling the ground for bread. Well, there's a good "reason" for it. There's no fruit in wintertime, but you can store up grain.

I would be remiss if I didn't admit something. While I want to interpret the decrees of Jehovah God as the voice of intuition which we ignore at our peril, a plain reading suggests that Jehovah God feels threatened by the Man and Woman, as if Jehovah God has its own ego.

As much as I want to say the consequences of the decision to eat from the Tree of Knowledge were entirely created by the Man and Woman (named Eve near the end of the chapter; the man's name isn't mentioned), it does appear that Jehovah God is doling out severe punishments to them. The biggest is preventing them from returning to the Garden which has the Tree of Life.

Apparently, this Jehovah God character doesn't want the Man and Woman to be both wise and immortal. 

James Leroy Wilson writes Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, JL Cells, and The MVP Chase. Thanks for your subscriptions and support!

(Photo credit: TyshkunVictor)