I was just reading through my opening post again, and as I read this...
Is this punishment or simply consequence of action?
God essentially gave a choice.
The two of you can live here in the perfect lush paradise of the Garden I created for you for eternity if you so choose.
You will have no worries, no difficulty, I will take care of you in every way.
Or...
You can reject this protection, and leave the garden.
Out there the land is dry desert.
Out there you do not have the Tree of Life, so you will taste death.
Out there life is difficult, and you will have to endure.
It is your choice; live like a pet in my terrarium, or open your eyes and go it alone.
...a notion came to mind.
The Torah is the section of the Tanakh that is supposed to be a history of the Jews.
The creation story closely parallels and is likely based on the Sumerian Creation story.
The Sumerian civilization was one of the first in the world (as far as we know) - certainly one of the first on the African continent.
As far as anyone can tell, the first "man" came out of Ethiopia.
When did man become man?
When he could tell stories.
All primates live along Riparian habitats.
Bear with me, I promise I am getting somewhere...
Man's first environment would have been along a river in Ethiopia surrounded by dry land barren of any lush crops...
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Ethiopia is largely a desert climate, except for along the rivers - like say the convergence of four rivers...
NIV Genesis 2:10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
This very well could have been a story of moment of man's migration from the "safe" land along the river (possibly the point of convergence of the modern day Blue Nile, White Nile and Nile) and trek out to the unknown desert to seek his "destiny" and eventually settle Sumer.
Am I making sense at all?
I've often thought that the Torah resembles the life of man (both as an individual and as a collective) but I could never figure out which way it was meant to be taken.
Perhaps man is (I risk being booted to Pseudoscience for this word, but I can't think of a better analogy) fractal in that the development of a man is on parallel with the development of mankind, and that is the point.
As man grasps the gauntlet of self-determination (upon gaining wisdom and experience) he needs less and less guidance from a "superior" figure (God - the father) and can make decisions on his own.
600 BCE...
Around 600 BCE there was an awakening of man during which mankind started to collectively accept the notion of self determination, and reject the idea of being puppets to the "Gods" of nature.
Zarathustra (627-585 BCE) promulgated the Dualism of Good and Evil,
Lao-Tzu (604-531 BCE) wrote the Tao de Ching,
Confucius (580?-479 BCE) “flaunted his agnosticism”,
Buddha (565-483 BCE) taught a “godless wisdom”,
Xenophanes (550 BCE) criticized Greek polytheism,
Pythagoras (550 BCE) taught sacred geometry and mathematically based science,
Isaiah (550 BCE) taught “the first true monotheism in history”,
Theagenes (525 BCE) “rationalized Homer”, and
Hecataeus (500 BCE) “mocked the Greek myths”.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica says, “The prophets were first and foremost teachers of religion, not of ethics. Their supreme concern was the will of God, rather than the rule of righteousness.” However, in the 6th century, B.C.E. Jeremiah and Ezekiel began to emphasize “individual responsibility and sought to restore to the people a sense of personal relationship with God, which they had lost under the impact of pagan influence.” “This was a time of general national disintegration, when religious and social organizations were rapidly breaking up.”
It only progresses from there...
Thucydides (400), Trial of Socrates (399), Plato’s Academy (387), Aristotle (335), Indian Artha-sastra (politically rationalistic), Zhuangzi (mystical idealism), Shang Yang (legalism), Euclid (geometry)...
In Chinese History, 1000 B.C.E. marks the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, which emphasized very strongly the Emperor’s “mandate of heaven” and “obedience to Gods”. But beginning in 772 B.C.E. in Southern China (and extending until 481 B.C.E.), the so-called “Springs and Autumns Period” began. This consisted of eight lesser periods, when life and limb were cheap, barbaric, and toward the end, “philosophy became more important than war.” This is when Lao Tzu and Confucius had arrived on the scene.
The list goes on and on.
At around 600 BCE mankind had an awakening - people started to preach personal repsonsibility and and start taking an active role in determining their own fate.
OK I am rambling out of control now.
I feel like I am on to something, but there is someting that is keeping it from all falling into place.
I need to step away from it for a bit and let it ferment.
