The Second Tale of Creation, the Original Sin and God’s Sentence

The Second Tale of Creation, the Original Sin and God’s Sentence 

The second tale of creation starts with Adam’s creation. He was made in God’s image and likeness. God then created the Garden of Eden for him. In there, God housed the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. Again, we see two binaries. It seems that life and knowledge are mutually exclusive. Anyhow, Adam was feeling lonely so God made Eve from his ribs.

The ribs was a bad translation. In the Hebrew version, Eve was born from Adam’s side. You know, kinda like how two cells splitting. While they were splitting Eve got more chests and Adam got his member. Needless to say, men and women together are the true image of God on Earth.

In the Catholic interpretation, the fact that women was born from Adam does not make her his inferior. Adam must respect and love women like himself. After all, she is flesh of his flesh. It is interesting that God felt bad for men because he was alone. He made women for men to cure his loneliness. It is interesting that the commentator mentions that God does not know solitude. He claims that God separated the genders not for procreation purposes, but to promote love. Humans are a social creature. As such, they hate to be alone. In the same way, God created something different than himself in order to be social.

The Protestant interpretation uses these passages to justify priestly marriage. They say that God commanded humans to love and multiply. It is unreasonable to demand celibacy of their priests. They see it as defiance to God’s will.

The Kabbalist have an interesting interpretation of this tale. Originally, Adam had a bride named Lilith. Adam hated her because she was his equal. One day, he asked God for a new bride. God thus made Eve. She was inferior to Adam. From Eve, mankind came into being. From Lilith, there emerge races of beings considered demons. They are always ought to get the children of Adam. This was Lilith’s punishment for saying the name of God in vain. She gained her divorce from Adam, but it came with a price.

In the Gnostic interpretation, the first man and women were Sophia and the Messiah. The second creation story focused on Adam and Eve. They were created by the blind God Sameal. They call him the blind god because he was blinded by his ignorance, power and arrogance. He thinks himself the only God because he does not know that there are other beings above him.

The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge are a different problem in it of itself. In the second story, God forbids Adam from eating the fruits. Later, Adam transmits that commandment to Eve. Interesting enough, he did not forbid Adam from eating from the Tree of Life. He only warned him that if he ate from the Tree of Knowledge he would die.

The Kabalistic writers did a lot of Emphasis on these trees. Apparently, they were the machine that God used to create the world. They were in harmony until Adam took a fruit from the Tree of Life. In order versions, Lilith gave the Forbidden fruit to Eve. Eve then shared it with Adam. Since Eve ate the fruit first she matured sooner than Adam. Biologically speaking, this explains why women reach puberty before men.

The Catholic interpretation states that Adam’s sin was his disobedience of God. It had nothing to do with procreation. After all, in the first creation story God had ordered men and women to multiply and populate the world. In the early days, God provided everything for Adam. He only asked for one thing in return. When he ate the forbidden fruit, Adam was punished for being a thankless brat.

The whole thing about men dominating woman is a punishment for disobedience. It is interesting how the New Testament redeemed women. In Genesis, women doomed mankind. Via the Virgin Mary, mankind was redeemed. According to the writer, this passage refers to the strong dominating the weak. In a savage world, ruled by Sin men dominates and oppresses women. This ill treatment of women was not part of God’s original design. Mankind’s disobedience brought this imbalance in the world.

The Kabalistic interpretation of this passage is rather odd. Apparently, Adam was kicked out of paradise for breaking God’s creation machine. The fruit he took created an imbalance in God’s feminine side. The fruit he took balanced out God’s Justice Side. It kept in check his infinite selfishness. When the fruit of knowledge was taken, this created an imbalance that brought evil upon the world. God perpetrating Justice is the source of all evil in the world. The Muslim too sees evil as the work of God. Everything is part of God’s plan. What we perceive as Evil is part of god’s master plan.  

The Gnostic interpretation blames the fall of man on Samael. The Blind God raped Eve and later abandoned her. From his many abuses, came evil into the world. He introduced death into women. He tainted her and now all her off springs will die. Her descendant Norea was later comforted by Sophia. She told her that her body may be tainted, but her spirit comes from the Father. As such, her descendants will never die.

Lastly, there is the expulsion passage. In this section, God spoke to other beings like himself. He did not want Adam to eat the fruit of Life. If he ate it, he would become like God. Considering all that occurred, it makes sense that God would not want a disobedient brat to become God like. As such, he kicked the pair out of the Garden of Eden.

According to the Catholics, in Judgment Day the just will finally eat of the fruit of life. Once again, they will be welcomed into the Garden of Eden. The Gnostics did not make a big deal about that passage. They simply used it as a metaphor for Sophia’s mistake. The Kabalists also saw this passage in a Sefirot tree mindset. God kicked Adam out of the Garden of Eden out of fear that he might screw up his machine even worst. The Sefirot machine was the means that God used to interact with the world. When Adam broke it, he created an infinite Gulf that Separated God and Man. Since then, their relationships have been strained. As for the Angels, it is the Gnostics, the Kabalistic and the Muslims opinions that they have no free will of their own. Humans are superior to the angels because we have freewill, for better or for worse.