The Lineage of Sin and Death as Contained in Genesis

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(Or, the Adamic Fall Brings Mortality into a Perfect World):
- Christopher Stewart

In order to begin a proper discussion on the nature of sin and its proper, and
fitting, reward, death, we must first go back to the beginning when the Gods (a literal
translation of the Hebrew word, “Elohim”) created the heavens and the earth and all
things that in them are.
As I bespoke in the discussion in the Module Two forum, “the reason the Original
Sin is one of the foundational assumptions in the first two chapters of Genesis, is largely
because of the concept of duality that is presented. With the advent of Adam and Eve into
the story we are given a literal example of the use of opposition (God providing them two
trees and commanding them not to eat of the one). However throughout the first couple of
chapters in Genesis we are [supplied] with a brief prototype, of which Adam and Eve are
provided as archetypes - however literal their existence - of the nature of man and his
own inner duality. […]
“When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree they were given to know Good
from Evil, in other words, they were given a conscious and sentient existence. They were
no longer in their original state, but had fallen due to their transgression of the just and
righteous commandments of God. I spoke of Unity as being the ultimate message because
the Universe was complete and whole - in a perfect and undefiled state until Adam and
Eve ate of the fruit; at that point entropy comes into play and begins to take things apart
and away from the original intention. […] When Adam and Eve fell they disrupted the
Great Haqq of the Universe and breached the Creation of God; thereby allowing death
and sin to enter into their otherwise perfect existence. As H. Nibley puts it in his book
Abraham in Egypt, ‘The universe is so organized, according to this, that when man
revolts against God's plan of operations, to which all other creatures conform, he finds
himself in the position of one going the wrong way on a freeway during rush hour: the
very stars in their course fight against him.’ (Nibley, "Abraham...,” pg. 178)”
Gen. 3 opens with the serpent, a symbol for wisdom and rejuvenation, who comes
to Eve in the Garden and remarks that God had spoken to Eve and her husband and told
them that they were not allowed to eat of any of the fruit in the garden (thereby showing
that God allowed Adam and Eve opposition in order that they would be allowed to
choose for themselves whether to eat of the fruit or not). Eve refutes this by pointing out
that God has told them that they are allowed to eat of whatsoever food they want to so
long as it is not from the tree which is in the midst of the garden, that of the Tree of
Knowledge; for, if they ate of that fruit, in that day they would die. The serpent counters
this by saying that they will not die, but the real reason that they are not allowed to eat of
the fruit is because their eyes will be opened and they will be enabled to be even as God -
knowing good from evil. Here the serpent is proffering knowledge.
Margaret Barker, in her essay, “Paradise Lost” states thusly, “Side by side with the
story of the tree of knowledge and the serpent who seduced Eve with his promises, there
was the story of the fallen angels. Until the beginning of the Christian era, this was the
story used to explain the origin of evil and how the creation had been corrupted. Two
hundred angels, mighty beings who knew all the secrets of the creation, rebelled against
the Great Holy One and brought their knowledge to earth. They seduced human women
and revealed their knowledge as part of the rebellion. The similarities to the Eden story
are clear. Eve was seduced by the evil one with the offer of knowledge, and this was part
of a wider rebellion.”1
Robert Alter in his empirical work, “The Five Books of Moses,” states thus in
regards to Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit, “There is a long tradition of
rendering the first term here, ta'awah, according to English idiom and local biblical
context, as ‘delight’ or something similar. But ta'awah means ‘that which is intensely
desired,’ ‘appetite,’ and sometimes specifically ‘lust.’ Eyes have just been mentioned in
the serpents promise that they will be wondrously opened; now they are linked to intense
desire. In the event, they will be opened chiefly to see nakedness. Ta'awah is semantically
bracketed with the next term attached to the tree, ‘lovely,’ nehmad, which literally means
‘that which is desired.’” ” In the first couple of chapters of Genesis Adam and Eve are
described as being “naked and not ashamed,” when the serpent convinces Eve to partake
of the fruit, as Robert Alter has said, their eyes are opened and they know that they are
naked, covering themselves with the leaves from a fig tree (a very symbolic reference).
He goes on to say that the next phrase in conjunction with the tree, “to look at,” “A
correlation between verbs of seeing and verbs of knowledge or understanding in common
to many languages.”2
The idea that is proffered here-in is that of the serpent promising Eve if she eats of
the fruit she will not lose knowledge or her life, but, rather, she will become as God -
knowing good from evil. This idea is extant throughout the Biblical text, and, indeed, is
permeated throughout all of scripture, ancient and modern - the devil providing false
knowledge in exchange for servitude versus God providing Wisdom.3
From this point on the Biblical text vacillates between Israel/Man’s sin and
redemption, beginning with Cain killing Abel. In this story, relayed in Genesis 4, Cain
and Abel are required to bring forth sacrifice of their first fruits. Abel, being a keeper of
sheep, makes his sacrifice and God accepts it; Cain, however, bringing his sacrifice of the
first fruits of the soil, is rejected whereupon his countenance falls.
The Lord asks Cain why he is angry; telling him if he will do what is right before
Him then he would be accepted before the Lord. Cain is then told that sin lies outside of
his door and desires to have him (Gen. 4:6-7). However Cain does not accept this and lets
his heart harden as he begins to plot murder, saying to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go out to
the field.”
While they are out in the field Cain rises up against Abel and slays him. Some
time passes and the Lord asks Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?” Cain responds that he
has no idea, that “[he is] not [his] brother’s keeper.” (Vs. 8-9) To this response of Cain’s
the Lord replies that He already knows what Cain did and that Abel’s blood cries from the
ground for revenge; therefore the Lord provides a curse upon Cain along with a promise
that he will be marked that none else will attempt to slay him: he is afraid of one of his
other brothers or sisters coming after him in vengeance of his slaying Abel. R. Alter
(2004) also makes an interesting comment concerning Cain’s slaying of Abel; showing
how Cain and the Lord’s conversation are “verbal echoes of Adam’s interrogation.” He
then goes on to state how this is set up as a recurring theme in the scriptures - a “cycle of
approximate and significant recurrences.”4 For example we then see Lamech in Genesis
4:23-24 telling his wives that he has killed “a man to my wounding, and a young man to
my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”
As we move on through the text of the scriptures, moving in an outward pattern,
we come upon the story of Noah and his sons. This story begins in Genesis 6 with an
account of “the sons of God” seeing the daughters of men and seeking after them in lust -
R. Alter (2004) states that this is reminiscent of Eve looking at the Tree of Knowledge.5
Over time God witnesses the earth becoming corrupt and wicked, the people growing
vain in their imaginations, and the very earth cries out to God for redemption from this
wickedness and idolatry.6 Soon God has had enough of this and sends forth to warn the
world of the impending doom by signaling to his prophet Noah to build and ark and to
people it with animals of every kind. Noah is told to build this ark while, all the while,
warning the people of the world of the approaching flood.
And, again, this story is reminiscent of Adam and Eve’s creation; as a good friend
and scholar once said to me, “When God flooded the earth and destroyed all living people
he was returning it to the chaos from whence He had created all living things.”7 Whereas
in the first few verses of the Creationary account, God separated the waters from the
heavens and the earth, in the Flood account, He reverses the formation and lets all of the
water come back. Also, ancient Jewish tradition teaches that Eden was the first land to
come up out of the waters when God separated them, and Eden was located upon the top
of a mountain. This is fitting as mountains in scriptural symbolism are representatives of
temples (Sinai, Olives, Moriah, the Temple Mount, etc).8 In the case of Noah and his
sons, they come to rest upon the top of a mountain after the dove comes back with an
olive branch in its mouth. Taking all of this together: the Flood waters rising, the dove
and olive (both symbols of peace and the Holy Spirit), the mountain, etc. we can see how
this hearkens back to the story of the Creation; showing the Creation story to be a type
and shadow of things to come, both spiritual and temporal. This is the first major
example of Chiasmus in scripture - life coming out of chaotic element, death coming out
of life and returning to chaotic element. This, in and of itself, is interesting as it shows
how God, who has dominion over all, creates and generates life and light versus man
who, having dominion over the creatures of the earth and being told to subdue, or have
stewardship over, the soil from whence he had sprung, creating nothing but darkness and
death.
Another interesting matter which might be referenced is that of the usage of the
word “ground” in the story. The word here translated as “ground” or “soil” is the Hebrew
word ‘adamah. This is the same word that Adam’s name stems from, to which God
informs him (Adam) that he shall return, from which Adam was made, etc. Again
showing how the story of Noah hearkens back to the story told of the Creation. This is an
account which will recur again and again throughout scripture - the idea of man’s fall
from grace. This idea figures largely in the prophetic books such as Ezekiel (Ezek.
28:13).
Soon after the Flood story is accounted for we pass through a series of
genealogies and learn of a descendent of Ham (who had committed sin in his own right,
ending with a curse upon his son Canaan, when he “looks in upon his father’s nakedness”
- see Gen. 9) by the name of Nimrod. This Nimrod is credited by many authors, Biblical
and extra biblical, for being the founder of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 10:8-9; 11:1-9; also
consider Josephus’ statement that Nimrod was the one who built the Tower (see “Tower
and Abraham, Discussion Module One). This story, along with that of Noah, Ham’s sin,
and others, all follows the same basic pattern - demons/fallen angels revealing hidden
knowledge against the direct command of God’s.
Numerous authors, M. Barker, Josephus, and others have made mention that,
when this occurred, these angels were breaching the Covenant existence. For sinning,
effectually, is the unauthorized piercing of Veil and the breaking of the Covenant - the
Haqq of the element is thereby broken, and, thus, the Everlasting Covenant is also
breached. As M. Barker stated above, when the angels came to the earth and began to
teach the people heavenly knowledge which was not for them to know - at least in the
way that was being taught to them - they were in direct rebellion against the commands
of God. Margaret Baker (2006) also states in conjunction with this in her book “The
Great High Priest”, "[...] the song of the angels was the harmony of the creation, and
there was only one theme - Holy Holy Holy. It was sung in response to the praises of
Israel, the worship of the mortal creation being necessary to evoke the song of the angels.
This had been the song of the seraphim in Isaiah's vision, that the holiness of God filled
the earth with glory (Isa. 6:3). This is the earliest reference to the cosmic significance of
angel song, and evidence that it was known in the first temple [e.g. the first temple built
in Israel - Solomon's temple, Ed.] The temple musicians performed in unison, 'with the
voice of unity' when their music invoked the Glory of the LORD to fill the temple (2
Chron. 5:13-14).
"The biblical texts show that the song of the angels accompanied the establishing
of the creation, and so the renewal of the creation in the New Year rituals of Tabernacles
was accompanied by, or perhaps enabled by, the song of the angels. A recurring theme is
that the song is a 'new song', which should probably be understood to mean a 'renewing
song', since the cognate verb [and the Hebrew spelling here is not going to be exact due
the computers current inability to transmit such characters to the site, ed.] hds means to
renew. Psalm 33 describes the music of the 'new song', and then how the creation was
made by the word of the LORD.
"[...] the song in the holy of holies, the source of life, is the song which sustains
the creation."9 When an angel would sing out of tune, it would be cast out of heaven and
into a lake of fire and brimstone; thus becoming a fallen angel.
In conclusion we can see that there are many patterns throughout the basic text of
the scriptures which pertain to the cause and nature of sin. As Paul teaches, the wages of
sin is death (Rom. 6:23), for we cannot partake of the fruit of the tree of life as John
speaks about save we have been washed clean in the blood of Christ’s Atonement (Rev.
2-3). Throughout all of this we can see the need for unity amongst one another and with
God. For if we are not in tune with the Spirit of God we cannot begin to think that we can
be enabled to enter into His rest.
1 Margaret Barker, “Paradise Lost,” MargaretBarker.com

2 Robert Alter, “The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary,” pg. 24-25, 2004

3 See M. Barker, “Paradise Lost,” MargaretBarker.com. For example she provides this statement: “It is remarkable because
storytellers living in the Iron Age had recognized that the corruption of the creation, even as they had experienced it, was
caused by the abuse of knowledge. Those who chose the tree of life also acquired knowledge, but they acquired it as
Wisdom.”

4 R. Alter, “Five Books,” pg. 30, 2004

5 Ibid., pg 38, 2004

6 M. Barker, “Paradise Lost,” MargaretBarker.com

7 John Thompson, personal conversation, BA in Egyptology (finishing his theses for his MA)

8 Kent Hunter, personal conversation, MA in Middle Eastern History

9 M. Barker, "The Great High Priest: Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy", pp. 118-119, 2006; see also M. Barker, “Temple
Theology”