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<font size=3>I don't have time to catch up on all this thread, but
FWIW:<br><br>
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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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.<br><br>
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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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. <br><br>
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.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>But who
knows what Wolfe may think about it.<br><br>
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.
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
FWIW<br><br>
Patera Nutria<br><br>
<br>
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