Pessimistic Politics: Lucifer's Gospel - First Sermon: The Forbidden Fruit Wasn’t an Apple, it Was a Cherry

The biblical story of Adam and Eve contained in the King James Bible between Genesis 2:15 and 3:24 is well known, yet rarely analyzed without regard for whether or not it really happened. The story itself contains many themes that echo man’s yearning for a return to Eden, in the most literal sense, that are in themselves significant without dwelling on the scientific value of Adam’s introduction in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

To be certain, Adam was not the first man, as popular culture would seem to suggest. Mankind had already been created in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” According to 5:2, “Male and female created He them: and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the Day when they were created.” The deliberate use of the plural is significant because God did not create Eve Himself, but rather “took one of [Adam’s] ribs, and… made he a woman” (2:21-22). This might also explain why God felt compelled to “[plant] a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed” (2:8).

One possible way to reconcile God’s creation of multiple men and women during the sixth Day and the popular belief that Adam was alone on the Earth at the time of his creation is to accept that one Day from God’s point of view is not necessarily one 24-hour period. This makes sense given that on the fourth day God said “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night”, before which there could be no day or night as we know them (1:14). It is therefore acceptable to suppose that the sixth Day during which God created the human race may encompass the story of Adam’s fall, and quite possibly the entire Old Testament.

If Adam is unique, it is because he is the first man with whom God chose to interact, taking enough interest that He used the rest of the book of Genesis to chronicle the lives of Adam’s direct descendants. Yet from the moment God creates Adam it is not clear that God intends for Adam to beget children because He had not yet introduced human sexual reproduction to the garden. In fact, God discourages Adam from becoming interested in sex by telling him “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (2:16-17). God’s metaphorical “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” in fact references Eve’s virginity, rather than a tree of the garden. Adam’s original sin was in fact his newfound knowledge of his own sexual desires, as evidenced by the strong use of metaphor in Eve’s story, the consequences God bestows as a result of Adam’s disobedience, and God’s treatment of Adam’s descendant, Noah, 1596 years later.

Upon Eve’s creation from Adam’s rib she is immediately married to Adam, yet it is not until Eve’s unfortunate meeting with a creature of obvious phallic symbolism that man’s fall becomes inevitable. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh,” is not a command from God to His creation, at least not at the time He created them, but rather a verse foreshadowing the eventual consequences of Eve’s creation, though they had not yet played out (2:24). A far more appropriate verse is 2:25, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed,” meaning that neither had yet discovered the purpose of their sexual organs and felt no need to cover themselves, in the same way that very young children today enjoy the experience of nudity. Whether God created Adam and Eve first as children and allowed them to grow naturally, or how many years passed between Adam’s creation and his exile from the garden, is entirely open to speculation.

The third chapter of Genesis is the first to begin with anything other than God’s process of creation, and it is with the introduction of this antagonist that conflict enters the story. “Now the serpent was more subtil that any beast of the field which the Lord God had made,” shows the complexity of this new character (3:1). Both bible.com and kingjamesbible.com agree that the serpent was “subtil”, frequently understood to mean “subtle”, or cunning and crafty. However, “subtle” also means “difficult to understand or perceive” (merriam-webster.com). The very fact that the serpent was greater in this regard than “any beast of the field” implies that the serpent was not a beast of the field, though God may have been indirectly involved in his creation. Many choose to interpret that the serpent was the devil or an agent thereof, though this conclusion is not implied in Genesis. Far more likely is the possibility that the serpent referred to in the Bible was not a beast of the field because it was a metaphorical reference to Adam’s penis, and that it was subtle because neither Eve nor Adam truly understood its purpose.

In response to the serpents query that Eve be allowed to eat of every tree in the garden, Eve replies “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (3:1-3). This is yet another proof that one biblical Day cannot equal one 24-hour period, else God would have lied when He said “for in the Day that thou eatest therof thou shalt surely die” (2:17). At that point, death also had yet to be introduced to the garden, and it was God’s safeguarding of the tree of life in Genesis 22-24 that ensured Adam’s eventual demise, though it would not happen until he had lived 930 years (5:5).

Ironically, the serpent is not necessarily lying either when he responds to Eve by saying “ye shall not surely die”, unless one accepts that Adam and Eve did indeed die within one Day of eating the fruit (3:4). Neither did the serpent lie when he said “that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” though the implication that they would be as mighty as the Lord confuses the wisdom gained by eating the fruit with power (3:5). Eve’s next realization “that the tree was good for food” is probably metaphorical, and meant to disguise that she found it “pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise” (3:6). This vaguely sexual appreciation for the tree, another phallic symbol, is heightened by the fact that “she took of the fruit thereof… and gave also unto her husband with her” (3:6).

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve were about to be the first couple to learn that introducing sex into a relationship has repercussions. The first and most obvious was most likely the way in which their eyes tended to wander toward the other’s naughty bits, and so “they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” in an effort to introduce modesty (3:7). It was this newfound modesty God first noticed when “Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden”, something which neither had ever felt necessary before their union, causing Him to call out to the disobedient pair (3:8-9).

Adam, naively, feels no need to hide his transgression, saying “I was afraid, because I was naked” and explaining his newfound awareness of his nudity by saying “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree” (3:10-12).

Eve, likewise, accepts her share of the responsibility, saying only “the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (3:13). Eve is here confessing her growing attraction and curiosity toward Adam’s sexual organ, which she found “pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired” (3:6). Her statement that “I did eat” possibly showcases that sex has always been an uncomfortable topic, and that she felt more at ease comparing the act of procreation to another, more familiar body process, that of digestion. However, neither Adam’s steadfastness nor Eve’s charming sense of discretion is enough to soften God’s disappointment.

As a consequence of eating the forbidden fruit, God bestows curses upon the serpent, the woman and Adam, all of which might also be explained by Eve’s pregnancy and ultimate delivery of Cain and Able, the natural consequence of Eve’s sexual union with Adam. Oddly enough, it is the serpent God chooses first to curse “above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, which is unsurprising to any man who has ever whipped his “serpent” out on a public subway (3:14). To Eve, God says He “will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception,” implying that a conception has already taken place (3:16). Finally, God turns to Adam and informs him that “because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree… in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (3:17).

The serpent’s punishment, “upon thy belly shalt thou go”, is generally understood to explain why a snake has no arms or legs, implying that snakes may have had arms and legs before the fall (3:14). Another possibility is that God was addressing Adam, instructing him that his penis now must go “upon thy belly” when it stands upright beneath his newly sewn undergarments. The second command that “dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” is confusing but applies no better to reptilian serpents that it does to reproductive appendages, unless “eat” is again a polite reference to “sex”, and possibly implies that the experience of sexual union may be less pleasurable after Eve delivers her first child (3:14).

The “enmity” which God puts between the serpent and the woman, which Merriam-webster.com defines as “positive, active, and typically mutual hatred or ill will”, is far easier to understand, as Eve had been previously unaware of the pain of conception and childbirth (3:15). Nevertheless, Adam and Eve continue to have children, including Cain (4:1), Abel (4:2), Seth (4:25) and “daughters” (5:4), meaning that Eve must have succumb to Adam’s advances at least three times, and probably a great deal more. Eve’s occasional rejection of Adam’s serpent may explain the reverse enmity, as well as the serpent’s need to “eat” dust.

This “enmity” continues to affect the relationships of men and women even today, as God predicted when He said it would exist “between thy seed and her seed” (3:15). The fact that “it shall bruise thy head” may reference either masturbation or venereal disease, while “thou shalt bruise his heel” is probably best understood as an intransitive verb “to move along at someone’s heels”, in the manner of a once-loyal dog who has discovered the pleasure of straying (merriam-webster.com).

God’s next words to Eve command that “in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children”, which would be the natural consequence of a physical union with Adam, which God had hoped to avoid (3:16). This “sorrow” may be due to the manner in which sex has affected her relationship with Adam, which is implied when God says “and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee”, or it may be sorrow over their eviction from the garden. This inequality between Adam and Eve is a new thing which was not implied in Adam’s original request for “an help meet” (2:20).

God then explains to Adam that “cursed is the ground for thy sake”, which possibly applies only to the garden of Eden from which they are soon to be expelled (3:17). The “thorns also and thistles [it shall] bring forth to three” may be another reference to venereal disease, or to the vastly more complicated lifestyle Adam must maintain now that he has children and may feel tempted to indulge his sexual desires (3:18). Adam is also commanded to eat both “the herb or the field” and “bread”, “til thou return unto the ground” (3:18-19). God’s continued use of the word “eat” may be intended for Eve’s ears, since she was the first to explain “I did eat” (3:13).

It is significant that, following these curses, Eve is named for the first time “because she was the mother of all living” (3:20). Motherhood, which can only have been introduced following Eve’s first sexual encounter, is not a curse God bestows upon her but rather a consequence of her own actions God refuses to correct. Indeed, none of the curses allegedly bestowed by the Lord necessarily require His direct action. God’s only active involvement before “[sending] him forth from the Garden of Eden”, presumably for their own well-being lest they take also of the tree of life, was to “make coats of skins, and [clothe] them” (3:21).

A further irony of God’s driving out the man and securing the Garden of Eden is that He had never expressly forbid either to take of the tree of life, but only from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God may have originally intended both Adam and Eve to have eternal life, when that life meant perfect happiness in the Garden of Eden. Now that Adam’s life meant he was condemned “to till the ground from whence he was taken”, Adam’s eviction from the garden was yet another small mercy God bestowed upon the pair of them (3:23).

The story of Adam’s first two sons is detailed in Genesis 4:1-24, and is a subject for chapter two, after which Genesis records the birth of Adam’s third son, Seth, almost disinterestedly (4:25). The next eight generations receive barely a mention, as detailed in Genesis 5:6-31, each living an average of 837 years including one (Enoch) who “walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (5:24). Each of these eight men from Seth to Lamech “…begat sons and daughters” (5:7,10,13,16,19,22,26,30). It is only when Noah begets Shem, Ham and Japheth, presumably to the same woman and after he was 500 years old, that this routine comes to a grinding halt (5:32).

At this time, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (6:5). Noah, however, “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (6:8), though his character is described only as “five hundred years old” and possessing three sons (5:32). Presumably, every other man on the planet was fulfilling “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart” upon animals, other men, female relatives and any other person who came close enough, which God rightly describes as “evil” (6:5).

The grace which God finds with Noah was predicted in Genesis 4:25 when God, addressing Eve, said “she hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew”, and whose son causes “men to call upon the name of the Lord” (4:26). However, it took 1596 years for any man to recognize the concept of monogamy. God’s approval of this concept is clear when He informs Noah “with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee” (6:18).

This reading of the first story in Genesis is important, as it affords a more detailed explanation of what “original sin” entails, as well as the proper way to manage it. It reduces any man’s guilt upon realizing that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” by presenting him with the timelessness of the problem (6:5). It also strongly suggests that marriage is the most proper way to deal with sexual desires, as God found Noah’s idea so impressive that He decided to preserve his family. From that time forth, all men have been called to do the same, and for very much the same reason.

Sources:

Holy Bible: King James Version. Thomas Nelson, Inc.: Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2001.

Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011. Web. 22 Jul 2011.