(urth) Original Sin and pagan gods

[James B. Jordan]

I don't have time to catch up on all this thread, but FWIW:

1. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is associated with 
rule. "Knowledge of Good and Evil" is a synonym for wisdom, and the 
phrase occurs repeatedly in connection with kings and with adults, as 
opposed to children. Adam and Eve, being newborn, did not have this. 
The serpent's job was to train them in wisdom, so that they could 
pass through a "good death" and enter the wider world as rulers. The 
serpent rejected his job, and Adam rejected God (Eve was innocently 
tricked says Paul, twice, the supposed woman-hater!). (Note the "good 
death" Adam passed through when Eve was made.) Similarly "opening of 
eyes" and "becoming like elohim" are both phrases having to do with 
elevation to kingly position.
         Now, whether Wolfe knows all that or not is a question. He 
may have any number of speculative notions about the story, notions 
not based in the Hebraic usage of the terms employed.

2. The sons of God who married the daughters of men because they were 
"good" (same word used of the fruit Eve plucked) were the Sethites 
who married with the daughters of the Cainites. This is clear from 
the context. In Genesis 4-5, men of the Sethite line worshipped 
Yahweh, and carried that worship down. By the time of Noah, however, 
only Noah was left "mature in his times." Nephilim simply means 
"powerful men" "great rulers," and may be the origin of some ancient 
myths about Herculean characters. The notion that the sons of God 
were angels or some such is simply without context, and leaves 
unexplained what happened to the Sethite line of priests. True "son 
of God" means "ruler" in the Hebrew, and is used for angels once or 
twice, but it also means "believer" and that is what it means here. 
True, a few Jewish myths hold that they were angels, but most Jewish 
writers of ancient times do not. The alternative is to believe that 
the final redactor of Genesis, who gives us the only text we have of 
the book, was so stupid as to leave big loose ends in his narrative.
         But, of course, Wolfe may be educated to believe either (a) 
sons of God are powerful Cainite kings (check out the meanings of the 
names in Genesis 4) who seized and raped helpless women, or (b) sons 
of God are angels who screwed human women and bred supermen, or (c) 
not believing b, Wolfe may find it a useful fantasy to employ in his writing.

3. Cain did not "find" a wife in Nod. "Nod" simply means "wandering." 
The murder of Abel happened when Cain was about 128, since Seth was 
born as Abel's replacement when Adam was 130. There were hundreds of 
descendents of Adam by that time, and Cain and his clan, and his 
wife, and his children, and his grandchildren, etc., moved away from 
the land near the garden to a place farther east. There is no 
justification for importing any notion of pre-Adam proto-humans into 
the text. The author of Genesis knows of no such thing.
         But who knows what Wolfe may think about it.

4. The Flood does destroy and purge the old world. The Bible presents 
it as global: water 22 feet over the highest mountains for 6 months 
is not some "local flood." But the Bible uses flood imagery later on 
many times, for invading armies usually. It is used later on for the 
final events of Jesus' coming: the destruction of Jerusalem, which is 
the navel of the old creation, and thereby symbolically ends the old world.
         Hence, I suggest that Wolfe's use of the Flood should not be 
pressed too far. And old, tired, fallen, and corrupt world is washed 
away to make way for a new one. Beyond that, I'd be careful.

5. The bottom line is that there are a number of fantasy 
interpretations of the early chapters of Genesis, and then there are 
readings that stick closely with text and context. Without 
interviewing him, there is really no way to know what Wolfe might be 
thinking about such things, hence no way to know what his allusions 
might be. Moreover, Wolfe may be alluding to fantastical readings of 
Genesis (e.g., Lilith) that he himself does not believe. So, be 
careful, and don't over-read.

FWIW

Patera Nutria


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