The Fall of Curses

The first three chapters of Genesis are dense with explanations of why and how, but they are not flushed out in much detail. I've found it to be challenging to withhold so many thought provoking questions that are generated each time I read them. I may eventually revisit them, but at this time I will stick to the major contrasts between tradition and Bible text so that we do not get bogged down.

Background
God creates Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God tells Adam in Genesis 2:16-17, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” NIV The majority of Christians believe what happens next is that Satan, disguised as a serpent, persuades Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, Eve shares the fruit with Adam, and for that error God curses all of mankind and the world in what is most often referred to as “The Fall”. Most Christians are quick to explain all of the hardships and devastation of this world as due to the fact that we live in a Fallen World.

The Fall of Curses
The Fall of mankind is wrapped with many traditional assumptions that simply do not stand up under scrutiny of the text. Those assumptions permeate the modern Christian teachings and culture to the point that the assumptions are considered fact. The majority of believers think Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden apple, and Eve shared the apple with Adam. The funny thing is that nowhere does an apple show up in the story text, and that is just the start of the popular misconception of the story.

Starting from the beginning we read in Genesis 3:1: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made...” NIV Notice that the serpent is associated and compared with the wild animals God made. This association is the first hint that the serpent is just some animal God made as opposed to being Satan.

While a rebellious angel would certainly fit the bill of being more crafty than wild animals, such a comparison would not likely be made to describe the reported mastermind of all Evil because the scale is so different. That would be a comparison between a spiritual, sentient being capable of abstract and complex thoughts that has dwelt with God compared to Earthbound physical beings that are considerably more limited in their thought capacity and are assumed not to have souls. Or in simple words, like saying I am smarter than a room full of chipmunks. Duh.

From there, the serpent does convince Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Some may claim that the serpent's ability to talk to Eve gives evidence that it is Satan. This does seem a bit strange. However, when put in other Biblical context, it seems that God controls the gift of language, such as how He makes all the languages of the world in Genesis 11, and how He makes a donkey able to speak its mind in Numbers 22. So it is not unreasonable to suggest that perhaps man could communicate with the animals at that point in the story, or that God had blessed the serpent with the ability of speech.

Eve shares the fruit with Adam. Suddenly they realize they are naked, so they make clothes out of fig leaves. (This is in and of itself odd, but we'll leave that topic alone for now.) God walks through the garden and eventually finds Adam and Eve. God confronts them. Eve blames the mistake on the serpent. God then curses them all starting with the serpent, followed by Eve, followed by Adam.

The devil is in the details of the curse. Or actually, the devil is not in the details of the curse. Genesis 3:14-15:

So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” NIV

First, we see the association again of the serpent with the wild animals. Second, we see that the serpent will crawl on its belly all the days of its life. (OK class: What animal crawls on its belly? Follow up: What lord of Evil does not crawl on his belly?) Third, we see that the serpent's offspring will strike the heel of the woman's offspring, like a snake does because it crawls on the ground. Anyone that attempts to equate the serpent to Satan, who is supposedly free in this world attacking our hearts and minds (both of which are very far from our heels) to win our eternal souls, is really liberal in his or her interpretation of the Bible.

In Genesis 3:16, God cursed the Eve with painful childbirth, desire for her husband and a subservient position relative to her husband. In Genesis 3:17-19, God cursed Adam with a cursed ground that will cause him to have to painfully work the Earth to provide food, and the Earth will now have thorns and thistles.

There are a few things missing here. There is nothing that explicitly says that any of the curses are applicable to all of mankind with the exception of man attacking snakes and visa versa, and possibly the thorns and thistles growing in the land. There is no curse of disease or genetic mutations that cause debilitating or painful conditions yet do not cause death. There is no curse of hurricanes, droughts, bacterial infections, viruses, volcanic eruptions, or any other natural event that we know today that causes massive loss of human life. There is not even a hint or vague expression that could be used to extrapolate these things. The idea that these are part of curses of The Fall is completely fabricated as a defense of why bad things happen to good people.

After the curses, God kicks Adam and Eve our of the Garden of Eden so that they can't eat of the Tree of Life and live forever. Adam goes on to live 930 years, which must have seemed like forever.

I'll close the study of The Fall with a final observation: God only told Adam that the punishment for eating the forbidden fruit was that he would die. However, after eating the fruit God ends up adding to that punishment by cursing Adam and Eve as well as kicking them out of the Garden. So it would appear that God is at liberty to add to punishments however He seems fit without fully disclosing them. This is odd when you consider that one of the cornerstones of justice is that both the crime and the punishment are explicitly defined.