Re: [asa] Adam, Eve, Garden Myth

Hi, Dave,

I think to understand the significance of all the symbols in the account,
perhaps one would need to have a fuller grasp of the Hebrew. For example,
the name "Adam" means "Man", and so Adam is a representative of all of us.
But I also understand it's a play on words with Ad-mah, meaning mud, or dust
from which he was created. I am told that the whole account is richly
riddled with word-play in similar fashion to this, and that the word-play
isn't just there "for fun", or to make scintillating reading, like the way
gutter press journalists use alliteration to spice up a story. My
understanding is that the word-play and allusion has a rich symbolic and
theological meaning. However, I'm hoping that someone on the list who has
more knowledge on this might be able to enlighten us further.

At a rough guess, I suppose the clothing of Adam and Eve is to do with the
loss of innocence, and that in turn follows from eating from the fruit of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which again follows from the sin
of trying to make oneself equal with God (which essentially Satan tells
them will happen), rather than in the proper relationship of
Creator/Created.

But I'd be sure there must be much more in it than that.

Iain

On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Dave Wallace <wmdavid.wallace@gmail.com>wrote:

> Assuming a theology without a literal Adam and Eve, I have been wondering
> what the purpose of the Adam and Eve myth is? The Cosmos in the Light of
> the Cross does not deal with this issue. The whole account in Gen 2 and 3
> does not seem to serve much theological purpose. What are we to make of
> details like the garden, the rib, naming the animals, the snake, the apple,
> the tree of life, God clothing Adam and Eve and so on? Of course one
> possibility is to assume that these 2 chapters should not have been included
> in scripture and thus ignore them totally.
> Here I am using myth as:
>
> **" traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold
> part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural
> phenomenon"
>
> I am not saying that I accept a theology with Adam and Eve, just that I
> would like to understand.
>
> Dave W
>
>
>
>
>
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