The story of Adam and Eve. Original sin and expulsion from paradise. The Fall Who is the tempting serpent?

Lately, many of my friends have either been blown away by new films like “Noah”, “Maleficent”, etc., or they’ve simply become starstruck, but on blogs you only read about the creation of the world. It was as if they were present. I was especially pleased with the description of God’s creation of protons and electrons (after light, of course). He would still be doing this if there were no cyclic functions ;)
In general, “Noah” amazed me to the point that I kept it in my collection. There are a lot of mistakes there (take, for example, winding the skin of a snake on your hand... GYYY), but I’m not going to write reviews of films. I was interested in the very process of the creation of the world and the fall of man. I had to bring up various sources describing long-standing events, and now I can only say with confidence that if a pig is fed oranges for a long time, it will begin to understand them.
I don’t know what happened with the creation of light, the world and all things - there is too little information - but in the debate about the sin of Adam and Eve we can definitely put an end to it. Let me remind you. Adam and Eve were seduced by the tempting serpent; they tasted the forbidden fruit, for which they were expelled from paradise. Eve's first son was Cain, but there is still debate about paternity. Some say that this was Adam’s sin, others argue that Eve sinned with the serpent himself (then what does Adam have to do with it?), who in fact was the first angel - Lucifer the Light-Bearer. My findings suggest that both sides are right.
I’m not saying that in those days the laws of physics were the same :) but God is not a fraer, he created people in his own image and likeness, and insanity is a gain. Therefore, if we approach the issue from a practical side, the solution itself is striking: people were naked in the garden, Adam always carried the tempting snake with him and he tempted not only him, but also the only woman in the whole world. I think that everyone has already guessed what kind of juicy fruit the first people tasted with their snake (and who could resist? ;)
God kicked them out of paradise not for eating apples at night, but for the insolence of creation. Cain became the creation of people, not his will, and then he gave man the opportunity to prove that he, too, could create no worse. This is an ordinary dispute, a challenge to people from God. This is not a curse! So far we haven’t been able to do this very well, but we somehow survived the flood and maybe someday we’ll pull Him by the beard again.
This version does not contradict the generally accepted one, but there may be another. Was God such a sucker that he forgot to make Eve sterile? Can you believe it? Me not. That’s when God’s Plan comes to light - the continuation of one’s own family. He raised children in the garden until they were mature enough to reproduce independently and released them to populate a distant planet. Apparently something threatened Him, and so did we. But what if we survived, but he didn’t? Maybe it was not He who caused that flood, but His enemies?
You can write here for a long time, but it often happens that everything is not as it seems.

There is silence in paradise,
Smells like roses, leftover...
Eve came to the garden alone,
Enjoying peace...

The birds drink the dew from the bush,
The fish beats its tail in the dam,
Eve is dozing, on her lips
A sleepy smile wanders...

Suddenly the singing of the birds fell silent,
Eva hears a strange rustling...
The dream fled from her eyelashes,
My mind has become clouded...

He sees: A snake crawls in the grass,
Moves its sting lazily...
A thought flashed through my head:
“It’s a pity that I didn’t run away earlier...”

The snake crawled up the tree
And curled up in the warmth...
The snake was slippery, too thick,
A tenacious gaze froze on Eve...

“What breasts! What a person to become! -
The Serpent hissed, “Eve!” Diva!
You can become a queen...
You are so good, simply amazing!

To know good and evil,
To taste love and anger,
May you be lucky in life
Eat the forbidden fruit, Eve!

Eve is scared, but wonderful"
What the creeping Serpent said,
God forbids them
This fruit is fragrant to eat...

Only Eve wants to know
What kind of fruit is this on the tree?
Why can't you tear them?
Curious for the brave maiden...

Overcoming trepidation, fear,
Eva extended her hand,
She picked it from a bush
Forbidden fruit... Torment everyone...

She ate the fruit herself
She treated Adam to them,
And, very pleased,
I didn't notice all the drama...

The shining light has faded,
It became cold and gloomy...
God is angry and cast down
From heaven, depriving them of luck...

The dispute goes on from century to century,
Like a battle, holy and mortal:
Happy man would be
Without tasting the forbidden fruit?

02/19/2016

Reviews

The Serpent - he is the Serpent, in whatever guise he may be...))
The Bible does not say that the Serpent was a man, it says:
“The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made.”
And only Eve and God know what he looked like before...
With a smile.

Love, in the Bible the Serpent spoke with a human voice.
Actually, I have been an atheist since Soviet times. Although I know the contents of this book firsthand. It is in my home library.

At that time there were only two people: Adam and Eve...
“And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” And the devil hides in the image of the wise Serpent.
I also have a Bible at home. But I'm not an expert on it.

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Adam and Eve- the first people created by God on earth.

The name Adam means man, son of the Earth. The name Adam is often identified with the word man. The expression “sons of Adam” means “sons of men.” The name Eve is the giver of life. Adam and Eve are the progenitors of the human race.

A description of the life of Adam and Eve can be read in the first book of the Bible - in chapters 2 - 4 (audio recordings are also available on the pages).

Creation of Adam and Eve.

Alexander Sulimov. Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were created by God in His likeness on the sixth day of creation. Adam was created "from the dust of the ground." God gave him a soul. According to the Jewish calendar, Adam was created in 3760 BC. e.

God settled Adam in the Garden of Eden and allowed him to eat fruit from any tree except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam had to cultivate and maintain the Garden of Eden, and also give names to all the animals and birds created by God. Eve was created as Adam's helper.

The creation of Eve from Adam's rib emphasizes the idea of ​​the duality of man. The text of Genesis emphasizes that “it is not good for man to be alone.” The creation of a wife is one of God’s main plans - to ensure a person’s life in love, for “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”

The first man is the crown of the world created by God. He has royal dignity and is the ruler of the newly created world.

Where was the Garden of Eden?

We are already accustomed to the appearance of sensational reports that the place where the Garden of Eden was located has been found. Of course, the location of each “discovery” is different from the previous one. The Bible describes the area around the garden, and even uses recognizable place names, such as Ethiopia, and the names of four rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates. This led many, including Bible scholars, to conclude that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in the Middle East region known today as the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley.

Today, there are several versions of the location of the Garden of Eden, none of which has solid evidence.

Temptation.

It is unknown how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden (according to the Book of Jubilees, Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden for 7 years) and were in a state of purity and innocence.

The serpent, who “was more cunning than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had created,” used tricks and cunning to convince Eve to try the fruit of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve refuses, citing God, who forbade them to eat from this tree and promised death to anyone who tasted this fruit. The serpent tempts Eve, promising that, having tasted the fruit, people will not die, but will become Gods who know Good and Evil. It is known that Eve could not stand the temptation and committed the first sin.

Why does the snake act as a symbol of evil?

The serpent is an important image in ancient pagan religions. Because snakes shed their skin, they were often symbolized with rebirth, including nature's cycles of life and death. Therefore, the image of a snake was used in fertility rituals, especially those associated with seasonal cycles.

For the Jewish people, the snake was a symbol of polytheism and paganism, the natural enemy of Yahweh and monotheism.

Why did Sinless Eve allow herself to be deceived by the serpent?

Comparison, albeit indirect, between man and God led to the emergence of anti-God sentiments and curiosity in the soul of Eve. It is precisely these sentiments that push Eve to deliberately violate God’s commandment.

The co-cause of the Fall of Adam and Eve was their free will. Violation of God's commandment was only suggested to Adam and Eve, but not imposed. Both husband and wife participated in their fall of their own free will, for outside of free will there is no sin and no evil. The devil only incites sin, but does not force it.

The story of the Fall.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve, unable to withstand the temptation to which they were exposed by the devil (Snake), committed the first sin. Adam, carried away by his wife, violated the commandment of God and ate from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus Adam and Eve incurred the wrath of the Creator. The first sign of sin was a constant feeling of shame and futile attempts to hide from God. Called by the Creator, they laid the blame: Adam - on the wife, and the wife - on the serpent.

The fall of Adam and Eve is fateful for all humanity. By the fall, the Theanthropic order of life was broken and the devil-human order was adopted; people wanted to become Gods, bypassing God. By the Fall, Adam and Eve introduced themselves into sin and sin into themselves and all their descendants.

Original sin– a person’s rejection of the goal of life determined by God - becoming like God. Original sin contains in germ all the future sins of mankind. Original sin contains the essence of all sin - its beginning and nature.

The consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve affected all of humanity, which inherited from them human nature corrupted by sin.

Expulsion from paradise.

God expelled Adam and Eve from paradise so that they would cultivate the earth from which Adam was created and eat the fruits of their labors. Before the exile, God made clothes for people so that they could cover their shame. God placed a Cherub with a flaming sword in the east of the Garden of Eden to guard the path to the tree of life. It is sometimes believed that the cherub armed with a sword was the Archangel Michael, the guardian at the gates to heaven. According to the second version, it was the Archangel Uriel.

Two punishments awaited Eve and all her daughters after the Fall. First, God increased Eve's pain in childbirth. Second, God said that the relationship between a man and a woman will always be characterized by conflict (Genesis 3:15 - 3:16). These punishments happen again and again in the lives of every woman throughout history. Regardless of all our medical advances, childbirth is always a painful and stressful experience for a woman. And no matter how advanced and progressive our society is, in the relationship between a man and a woman there can be seen the struggle for power and the struggle of the sexes, full of discord.

Children of Adam and Eve.

It is known for certain that Adam and Eve had 3 sons and an unknown number of daughters. The names of the daughters of the forefathers are not recorded in the Bible, since, according to ancient tradition, the family was traced through the male line.

The fact that Adam and Eve had daughters is evidenced by the text of the Bible:

The days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters.

The first sons of Adam and Eve were. Cain, out of envy, kills Abel, for which he was expelled and settled separately with his wife. From the Bible it is known about six generations of the Tribe of Cain; further information is not traced; it is believed that the descendants of Cain died during the Great Flood.

He was the third son of Adam and Eve. Noah was a descendant of Seth.

According to the Bible, Adam lived 930 years. According to Jewish legend, Adam rests in Judea, next to the patriarchs; according to Christian legend, on Golgotha.

The fate of Eve is unknown, however, in the apocryphal “Life of Adam and Eve” it is said that Eve dies 6 days after the death of Adam, having bequeathed to her children to carve the life history of the first people in stone.

On the other hand, several places in the New Testament clearly indicate the reality of these two first men. Thus, in two books of the New Testament, in the Epistle to the Romans and in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, where St. The Apostle Paul speaks of the connection between human sinfulness and Adam; it is quite difficult to understand the word “Adam” as just a general term (Rom. 5: 12–14; 1 Cor. 15: 47). Moreover, in the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul speaks even more specifically several times about the sin of “one man.”

Mysterious serpent tempter

“The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God created. And the serpent said to the woman: Did God truly say: You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent: We can eat fruit from the trees,

Only from the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God said, do not eat it or touch it, lest you die.

And the serpent said to the woman: No, you will not die;

But God knows that on the day you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3: 1–5).

So, the cause of the Fall of man was the Serpent. But while the Bible places the responsibility for such a monumental event on the Serpent, the Bible nevertheless pays relatively little attention to this creature. Therefore, the nature of the Serpent remains quite mysterious. Although some features of this creation can still be established through logical reflection, as well as based on the interpretations of the Holy Fathers.

Thus, according to a number of external signs, for example, by its name, by belonging to the animal world, and also by the fact that it is punished by God by crawling on the ground, the Serpent is, of course, depicted in the Bible as an ordinary representative of reptiles. However, many of its other features, for example, such as the ability to speak, awareness of the prohibition of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, incredible cunning and cunning, indicate that the Serpent is an intelligent creature. Moreover, he is most likely a being of a higher order.

The words from the “Revelation” of St. are very important for understanding the essence of the Serpent. John the Theologian: “And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:9). Most likely, this “ancient serpent” persuaded Eve to taste the forbidden fruit. And since, before being on earth, the Serpent lived in heaven, he is a spiritual being.

The Fall. Capital of a Catalan monastery. End of the 12th century

Therefore, probably, the Snake should be represented as a creature in which all of its features mentioned above are combined into a single whole. Saint John Chrysostom says the following about this unity: “Always following Scripture, one must reason in such a way that the words belonged to the devil, who was excited by his envy for this deception, and used this animal as a convenient tool so that, covering his deception with bait, to seduce first the wife, who, as always, is more capable of seduction, and then through her the first-created One” (I. Chrysostom. Conversations on the book of Genesis. Conversation 16).

If you carefully read the third chapter of Genesis, you will notice that if you strictly follow the categories of modern zoological science, then the Serpent described in the Bible before the temptation of Eve does not have clear signs of a reptile and is classified in this class of animals solely in accordance with its name. Moreover, according to the “classification” of Genesis, the tempting Serpent belongs to the “beasts of the field”: “The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God created” (Gen. 3: 1); “Cursed are you above all livestock and... all wild beasts” (Gen. 3:14).

Indeed, if the Serpent is a reptile, then on what basis is it twice mentioned specifically with cattle and beasts, and besides, it is cursed before them?

Continuing to study the text of Shestodnev, we are again convinced that initially the Serpent had a different structure, not characteristic of snakes, and only at the command of God acquired external features characteristic of reptiles. “And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle and above all the beasts of the field; on your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:14).

Thus, all the above passages from Genesis regarding the Serpent make it very clear that he was originally closely related to “beasts and cattle.” It is quite difficult to imagine that the prophet Moses could confuse the “beast of the field” with a reptile. And St. John Chrysostom also says that the Serpent was originally a “beast,” and only after God cursed him did he become a reptile.

But what exactly was this animal? – it’s impossible to know. This is another secret of Shestodnev.

An equally curious question is: why did the Serpent deceive man? What motives prompted him to deprive man of the benefits that God provided him in the Garden of Eden? The Bible says nothing about this. Although, most likely, the Snake had reasons.

What are they? – it’s hard to say. After all, at first glance, he did not receive any benefit from his deception. On the contrary, this insidious act cost the Snake many losses. And above all, he was cursed by God.

Based on the foregoing, it is difficult to believe that the most cunning creature on earth changed the entire future life of the human race without any benefit for itself. Most likely, having provoked God’s expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, the Serpent subsequently took advantage of the very benefits that man had lost at his instigation. Why, for example, not assume that, having persuaded the first people to try the fruit from the tree of knowledge, he himself tasted the fruit from the tree of life and, thus, gained immortality. Some Bible interpreters suggest that it was not God himself who warned Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil, but sent the Serpent with this warning. The serpent distorted the words of the Most High, saying that Eve, on the contrary, should eat the fruits of the tree of knowledge. The stupid woman did just that: not only did she taste the fatal fruit, but she also persuaded her husband to do it...

But, in addition to the motives that pushed the Snake to deceive, there are other questions regarding this insidious creature. For example, how did he end up in Paradise? Or why did God allow the Serpent to seduce Eve?

As for the first question, answering it will not be very difficult if we remember that the Serpent, according to the classification of Genesis, belongs to the beasts of the field. And, as you know, only animals and birds were allowed into Paradise. And, like all these animals, the Serpent received its name in Paradise. On this occasion St. Ephraim the Syrian writes: “The Creator... allowed the slave to name the animals, so that he would remember... that he himself gave the name to the serpent.” Perhaps, as the most “intelligent” of all the creatures that lived in Eden, he was the first to be given a name?

The second question is also not difficult to answer. The fact is that God, having created man, gave him the right to choose one path or another. Therefore, he could not prevent Eve from picking fruit from the tree of knowledge. And she, succumbing to the persuasion of the Serpent-tempter, violated the Creator’s prohibition.

The Mystery of the Fall

The story of the Fall of Adam and Eve, told in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, at first glance is quite simple.

Having created man and settled him in Paradise, “...the Lord God commanded man, saying, You will eat from every tree in the garden; But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it, you will die” (Gen. 2: 16–17).

But the Serpent persuaded Eve to break God’s prohibition. And she “...took of its fruit and ate; and she gave it also to her husband, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves and made aprons for themselves” (Genesis 3: 6-7).

“The external eye,” according to the thoughtful remark of the Greek theologian Origen, “opened after the spiritual was closed.”

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Probably everyone knows about the role of the biblical Serpent in the history of the human fall. But there is a beautiful theological interpretation of the events of the book of Genesis, which cannot be considered either fiction or a simple metaphor for “evil incarnate.”

But why exactly does the Serpent become a symbol of temptation, the whispering of forbidden desires? Why is the Serpent opposed to God or, as we will see from other versions, to a higher spiritual principle? The explanation that immediately comes to mind is that the snake is considered the most resourceful and, as a result, cunning, “wiggling” creature among all animals. But if we remember the origins of this mythological attribution of cunning to the snake, we will understand that it comes from the same biblical legend (“the serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field”). In addition, in other countries of the world, for example, in China, the snake is associated not so much with cunning and skill, but with wisdom and some kind of hidden knowledge. By the way, the biblical Serpent is not without these traits - he really “knows”, in the biblical interpretation he is Satan, possessing enormous power.

The Chinese ancestors of mankind, brother and sister Fuxi and Nüwa, are often represented as snakes with a human body and intertwined tails. So, it is the snake in one form or another that gives birth to all of humanity in ancient legends, and a number of researchers believe that myths about the snake are among the most ancient on earth. This is supported by patterns and paintings on ancient clay and ceramic dishes.

A bizarre mixture of a multi-armed deity and a snake is the seven-headed snake, images of which can be found in different parts of the globe, but the most famous, of course, is the multi-headed snake Naga from Cambodia. Among the Mayans in Yucatan she was called Ahakchapat, in India she appears under the names Kaisha and Narayana. And if the connection between Indian and Cambodian multi-headed snakes can easily be traced through Buddhist influence, then strange parallels with the snake from Central America will make us think again about some common origin of this symbol.

Without a doubt, the seven-headed snake is some very important esoteric symbol. One way or another, such a snake symbolizes the Creator and the very act of his creation.

The image of a snake as a creative act can also be seen in amazing South Indian images of the 17th–18th centuries: a huge snake crawls out of the womb of a yogini (female tantric deity). What is this - symbolism of the act of birth and, as a consequence, creation in general, or... carnal sin, which will immediately remind us of the biblical story about Eve and the Serpent?

In India, the snake (more precisely, snakes) has always been associated with the symbolism of sexual energy, and this energy could manifest itself both in the global act of creation of the Cosmos, and in a very specific sexual intercourse. For example, images of two or more snakes writhing around a lingam (phallus) have become very common in southern India. It is noteworthy that in a number of images the phallus is absent, and only thanks to the intertwined snakes one can understand that they symbolize the lingam located between them.

Don't all these symbols remind us of some very famous story related to the serpent and gender relations? Naturally, we are talking about the biblical Serpent. Despite all the differences in legends and, moreover, their interpretations (in Asia, the Fall through sexual contact cannot be discussed at all), there are amazingly many common places between legends. First of all, both in the Old Testament story and in South Asian traditions, the snake symbolizes the woman, and not unions of the sexes in general. Please note: snakes entwined around the lingam cannot mean anything other than female sexual energy, as if supporting the energy of a man. In other images, it is from the woman’s womb that the snake crawls out. And it is Eve (a woman!) who becomes the embodiment of the tempting idea of ​​the Serpent. And is it even a Snake? We are accustomed to talking specifically about the “snake” - a creature that, in esoteric terms, although asexual, sounds masculine. But in the original version of the Bible we are still talking about the “snake” - the feminine principle. As we see, there are so many common places in the biblical classics and “pagan” Indian (as well as Central American, Chinese and other) traditions that they can hardly be attributed to a random coincidence.

There are entire nations whose image is associated with legends about the mystical snake, and above all the Naga people. Nagas are generally one of the most mysterious peoples on earth. They are a group of tribes that live along the border of India and Burma, speaking Tibeto-Burmese languages. Stories about them are associated either with the terrible “headhunt” of people from other tribes, or with the struggle of the Nagas against the British in the 60-80s. XIX century It was the British who made a lot of efforts to exterminate many of the terrible and bloody rituals of the Nagas, including “headhunting”, converting these people to Christianity. By the end of the 80s. The Naga population was approximately 1 million people, and this people is still making attempts to gain independence from India. It is noteworthy that the very name of the people is no different from the name of the sacred snake - Naga, which is considered not only some distant ancestor or symbol of this tribe, but is also no different from them at all.

Who is Naga? Most often this is a snake with a human head, which is the keeper of large pearls, the elixir of immortality. Nagas live in caves deep underwater. According to ancient legends, naga women have the ability to turn into ordinary people and in this form seduce ordinary mortal men, taking away their life-giving energy and forcing them to die in terrible agony. You can still hear stories about how a young man, having taken a beauty as his wife who brought him a son, once saw in the cradle not a beautiful baby, but a coiled snake that bit him.

True, naga snakes often acted as positive heroes, for example, according to Buddhist legend, nagas protected Buddha during a storm, after he received enlightenment, and even brought him a begging bowl as a gift.

What could be the hidden symbolism of the snake? First of all, let us pay attention to several functions that are attributed to it by different peoples, and even opposite features can painlessly coexist in the same legends.

So, the snake is the ancestor of people (among the Nagas), it is associated with the reproductive principle or simply gives life (in Tantrism). At the same time, it mystically lives in a person either in the form of temptation and evil (biblical legend), or as some kind of energetic substance - Indian yogis and tantrists have the practice of “awakening” the Kudalini snake, which initially lies curled up in the lower abdomen, and then along the spine it rises up into the head, opening the energy centers of the body - the chakras. One way or another, this is connected with the realization that the birth of a person, the transfer of great knowledge to him and some kind of misfortune (the fall) are mystically linked together. But there is another feature of such a snake - in many legends it is associated with the sea element - it either lives in water, or is born there, or suddenly disappears into the abyss, taking with it some value.

We find the symbolism of the snake as the embodiment of the sea element in Crete and Santorini, and it is connected in many ways with the same rituals as in Egypt and even in India, which in itself is quite remarkable. At the same time, the Quechua Indians in Central America claim that their ancestors from the disappeared land “were snakes” covered with hair (partially this coincides with the description of the ancient Atlanteans as long-haired people); we see the same cult of snakes as our ancestors in Africa, and the ancestral home of these people is also considered to have been “eaten by the sea.” It looks like we may be talking about the same source for this legend.

To summarize, we can say that all this again brings us back to the symbolism of a certain country that occupied a central cultural position on earth, and then disappeared into the depths of the sea.