Wow Shotgun it all makes sense now. I guess i can put my mind at ease : [
Questions on Adam & Eve?
by kls 48 Replies latest watchtower bible
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willy_think
Willy, i understand that but it still does answer why they would be embarrassed of each other being naked . They were having sex and the only ones alive so why? They weren't worried of having sex but they couldn't see each other naked ? It just all seems made up.
The Bible does not say that they were "embarrassed" of each other being naked. (Gen 2.25) uses shame. (Gen 3.7) the story said that they, like animals, didn't know that they were naked and like animals they could not sin or do wrong. Adam became aware and ashamed of his own nakedness and eve hers. The end of innocence. I believe this story is a representation of the moment of human enlightenment. Of course it's made up. It's not teaching history it's teaching the nature of the relationships between man, the universe and God.
I think what conflicts you most about the story might be, that it was taught to you as a history of actual events. Teaching it now to your children you see that belief as absurd and you may be having difficulty separating what you were taught the bible said from what the bible said.
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willy_think
Sorry for the double bubble
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Farkel
Farkel
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kls
Willy it still makes no sense to me and as far as me telling my kids they are in their 20s and 30s. Thanks for trying to explain this but it does seem as a fairy-tale and not a very good one.
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blondie
I always wondered why Eve didn't wonder why a snake could talk. Here she was a perfect woman and she hadn't clue.
Blondie
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Narkissos
According to the Bible Adam & Eve ate the forbidden fruit and became embarrassed of their bodies so they covered up. This makes no sense since they had been naked and where having sex so why were they embarrassed?
Why did Adam & Eve need names it was only the two of them at first?
At what age is it said that they were when they were created?
Was it God himself who wrote of Adam & Eve because there was no one else alive at the beginning to tell the tale?That's a pretty good sampling of the questions you should not ask to a "primeval story" (of which Genesis 2--3 is just an example).
What is a primeval story? Not a "true story" in any sense, not something that happened somewhere sometime, just a wisdom fiction intended to give some kind of background to the only extant reality.
What is the reality about which, and from which, the story was made? Look at the conclusion of the story: man and woman know; man and woman die; man and woman wear clothes; man works hard to eat; woman is subordinated to man; woman suffers from giving birth; the crawling snake is dangerous and seems immortal (from its sloughing). This is just reality as perceived by anybody back then. How does this reality come about? Then comes the story, with all the ingredients of reality. Which does not mean the story really happened, or there was a different reality "before"...
Notice that the text doesn't say Adam and Eve "had sex before". It is just not part of the story. I think the popular reading which connects sexuality with the "sin" (a word that doesn't appear in the narrative either) is much more true to the text than the apologetic interpretation which disconnects sex and sin. Sex is part of reality, so it is to be found in the conclusion of the story with all the other components of reality...
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kls
Yes Farkel that is what i am talking about . There is to much that make no sense. Now every chapter in the Bible is to be taken literally some say and some say that the Bible is very clear ,No it is not clear and there are so many pieces missing. How can one say that this chapter makes sense more then another and that one should live by it when you really look at it there are way to many holes and not the whole story.
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willy_think
Willy,
According to the fairy tale, they were perfect, they didn't have any flaws
Recoveringjw,
I'm sorry, I missed your statement or I would have replayed before now.
The creation myth of genesis does not say they had no flaws nor does it say that they were perfect, the WT declares that. Good, evil and nakedness existed in the garden before Adam and eve could comprehend them. The mythology is one representing a new understanding of what already was.
kls,
It is the WT that says the bible is literal, not the bible and not me. It is what it is, old works compiled and canonized by the Catholic Church. But as in all mythology it express transcendental truths of the human experience.