genesis 3 - the fall

The “Fall” is mostly contained within Genesis 3, but, to properly address it, we must begin with Genesis 2. Genesis 2 blends together the second creation myth with the setup for the Fall, and provides a description of the garden of Eden.

In Genesis 2:9, Yahweh plants two magic trees in Eden: the “tree of life”, and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. It is of the latter that Adam and (the yet-to-be-named) Eve will eat in Genesis 3. Yahweh forbids eating only of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and, later, scolds his creations for eating from that tree; at the end of Genesis 3, he places a cherubim in the garden to guard the tree of life, apparently having decided to extend his prohibition.

The Fall itself is a passable myth, but neither as elegant nor as inspiring as the Greek Prometheus delivering fire to humans against the wishes of the gods. In both mythologies, human knowledge is the product of rebellion against the wishes of the gods. In Greek mythology, it is made clear that the gods are upset because this offends their vanity; they wish to have knowledge (in this case, technology, in the form of fire) all to themselves. In Genesis, knowledge is regarded as a bad thing; to be knowledgeable or wise is to be mortal and condemned to suffering. As we will see on many occasions later on, Yahweh is no less vain than the Greek gods; here, he demands obedience over the best interests of his creations. The issue that he might consider humans to be competitors to him is not explored until later in the Babel myth.

Here also we see the inversion of the ancient symbolism of the serpent. Serpents shed their skins in order to grow; this led to them being used as symbols of rebirth and life in general in the majority of ancient cultures. It is intriguing that here, a symbol of life is inverted into a symbol of death (mortality).

We encounter more evidence of the personal nature of Yahweh, as contrasted with the impersonal El. Yahweh “walks” in Eden (and apparently talks to himself), and “makes” coats of skins for Adam and Eve, who has finally been named. We also encounter more evidence of his lack of omniscience, as, when Adam and Eve hide from him, he calls out, “Where art thou?” He is also unaware of what has just transpired with the serpent and the tree, as he demands an explanation for their covering their nakedness. The apologist would surely state that these are merely rhetorical devices, yet that same apologist would also likely claim that every word in the Bible is literally true and divinely inspired; regardless, there is no evidence that these are rhetorical questions.

Also interesting is Genesis 3:22, in which Yahweh states, “Behold, the man is become as one of us.” This recalls Genesis 1:26, where El states, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The “royal we” did not exist when these lines were composed; these are definite references to the first-person plural. These are vestigial traces of the polytheism of early Judaism, as derived from the ancient Semitic religion.

And that about wraps it up for the Fall.