From: RFaussette@aol.com
Date: Fri Feb 14 2003 - 17:52:49 EST
In a message dated 2/14/03 1:28:36 PM Eastern Standard Time,
sheila-mcginty@geotec.net writes:
> Does desire lead to sin? Does desire for a woman lead to sin? Did Adam not
> have any desires before Eve was presented to him? I think he did. For
> example, Adam desired God (Don's theory aside). He desired the same
> intimate
> relationship that we desire today. He must have gotten hungry so he
> desired
> food. Adam was human so he must have desired different foods on different
> days. Adam would get tired and he would have energy so he must have
> desired
> sleep as well as walking and running. Most importantly, he desired to
> please
> God. I do not believe that any of these desires, including the one for Eve
> and sex were wrong. God says He gives us the desires of our hearts.
>
>
I wish I were the original thinker like some others, but that concept is
right out of Adolphe Franke's The Kabbalah. It is from the Zohar. It has a
counterpoint in the Nag Hammadi text, the gospel of thomas which means the
concept was maintained but lost currency when the gnostics were drummed out
of the early Christian church. The discovery of the nag hammadi coptic texts
in 1945 (?) revealed this ancient idea. It says nothing bad about sex. It
simply says when all of nature is embodied in one entity, that entity is
complete in itself. when entities differentiate, they are no longer whole
and desire what they have lost. That's all it is. It has nothing to do with
sexual prudery. I don't believe Jesus' celibacy was an act of prudery either.
Jesus as God is not differentiated and ontologically contains everything in
Himself with no desire for anything other - because as God, there is no
subject/object dichotomy - Jesus is all that is.
It is a theological concept and I can't be certain I have to check but I
believe somehting like it is also in the rg veda, the oldest religious
writings we have.
I have posted these very references on this list.
Adam before the fall was pleasing to God without doing anything. He was God's
obedient creation and pleasing to God in his obedient selfhood.
rich
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