RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
Day 16
THE CURSE
Genesis 3:
16: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17: And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
22: And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24: So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Whew all that trouble and just because they wanted to know good AND evil whereas before Eve picked that apple they had been innocent and only knew good.
Although this allegory was written thousands of years ago it has shaped thought and attitudes through the ages, and we may be suffering from it (for instance, the belief that women are cursed to suffer pain and discomfort in all aspects related to childbearing) without even realising what is influencing us.
"Man" in the gender variety (and now too the working female sex) have often accepted that life is one long toil trying to make ends meet and feed mouths etc rather than seeing the infinite abundance of supply unfold as Jesus demonstrated with the loaves and fishes.
Worse still, old theology believes that because of Adam and Eves disobedience (sin), mankind has to suffer its dire consequence under their curse and for the remainder of history has to carry this burden of being born "into sin". This is the wording of the The Augsburg Confession. Just to make sure nobody thinks I include this in what I believe, I will put it into a quote box, along with some other comments I read in the same article that shocked me:
"Since the fall of Adam, all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with concupiscence, and this disease or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing eternal death upon those not born again through Baptism and the Holy Spirit" (A. C., Art I, Triglot, p. 43).
"This hereditary guilt and depravity is called original sin . God tells us through the apostle Paul, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Babies die every day. It therefore must follow that babies are sinful ."
Folks, Im not writing this to have a go at old theology. If people want to believe this, and they really do, in sincerity and earnestness, then it is their right to do so. Im writing this to hopefully help FREE you from its effect on your lives, even though you may not even been aware that it has influenced you.
Did you read that article yesterday - Afghanistan and the theological battle for women's rights? This is from it:
A revision of this attitude, and the consequent elevation of womanhood, is coincident with a more spiritual interpretation of Scripture, one that acknowledges the divine nature and infinite value of both men and women. Such a view does not have to be created. It is already plainly stated in the very first creation account in the Bible, though historically it largely has been ignored or itself made subservient to the "Fall" story: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he t
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
Dear Friends,
I have read everyone's posts, and IMHO, Judy expresses the CS interpretation of Genesis exceedingly well. Having looked through Judy's posts, it seems to me that the whole 'Adam and Eve' story in Genesis 1-4 is based on a spiritual occurrence, perhaps not a physical one. Christian Science pulls together the physical, the spiritual and the mental aspects of life, and certainly uses them to explain and interpret the original Bible teachings. I am not a Christian in the accepted sense, but I can understand from where the authors of the original Gospels were coming from. Mary Baker Eddy understood the relationship between God and man, especially from a scientific and spiritual point of view. It is only the later alterations of the original texts that we see today, and many of the earlier spiritual thoughts and teachings have been 'lost.'
Love, Patsy.
😉
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
Hello Patsy,
I'd hoped you were lurking there somewhere!
I was just musing about the stark difference between the two accounts of creation. They were written by different authors and actually, Genesis 1, the spiritual creation was written about 300 years later than the Adam and Eve allegory (which I have to admit, I don't find spiritual at all! ;))
Whoever the editor was when it was all compiled, he obviously had good reasons for just putting the two accounts side by side. To me, they represent the truth and the lie about it. It never ceases to amaze me how many Christians seem to ignore it the immense spiritual truth and power in Genesis 1. Perhaps they have just read it like a historical document, from a material standpoint, and, realising that the world couldn't possibly have been made in a literal 6 days, dismiss it and move on to Adam and Eve. (But there again, as you said in the post which prompted me to write this - the world couldn't have started with just two people - where did the wives for Cain and Abel come from etc) Some readers lump the chapters together so they end up with Adam and Eve in the image and likeness of God which makes God weak and human!
Hmm.
Anyway, I must get on as I'm back flying from Thursday for 6 days and would like to finish this sooner rather than later!
With love,
Judy
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
So, after this weak, punishing god has cursed the serpent, he turns his wrath on the woman.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
As I’ve said before, the belief in this curse is still very strong! The last bit – the subjugation of women, is, in the West at least, crumbling, but as you all know, it is still widespread elsewhere, especially in some Islamic countries.
So, we women are supposed to have painful periods, painful childbirth and then, if not painful, at least a distressing menopause, all because Eve listened to that serpent and ate the apple! Sigh. When you’re tempted to believe these lies, just remind yourself that "I’m not Eve."
Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vegetables, minerals, and many animals suffer no pain in multiplying; but human propagation has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Science reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the line of creation rises towards spiritual man,--towards enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, disease, and mortality, the better for him,--the less pain and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evaporates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." (S&H 557)
My sister’s experience illustrates what Mrs Eddy meant when she says above the less a mortal knows of sin, disease, and mortality, the better for him,--the less pain and sorrow are his.
She, (unlike me) went to a Christian Science school, joined the church at an early age, therefore most of her friends were C.S. and on top of that, when she worked both before her marriage and then after her children were grown, it was for Christian Scientists. She told me that one day she went to a W.I. meeting (Women’s Institute for the non-Brits, like in Calendar Girls) and hadn’t realised that the topic was going to be the menopause, or she wouldn’t have gone (we don’t tend to listen to or watch any medical programmes or read medical descriptions so as not to allow the images of disease to fix themselves in our thought).
Anyway, Chrys said that she sat there absolutely amazed listening to all these descriptions of the symptoms she should have suffered from (but hadn’t known about!). By this time she was well past it all and just rejoiced that she hadn’t been touched by fruit of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"!
As Eddy says:
That body is most harmonious in which the discharge of the natural functions is least noticeable. (S&H 478)
Those early readers of Science & Health often wrote of painless childbirth, here are a couple of examples:
"I now write of the wonderful demonstration of Truth over the birth of my baby boy, two weeks ago. Sunday, September 23, we went for a long drive of three hours; at night I retired at the usual hour; toward morning I was given a little warning; when I awoke at seven o'clock, the birth took place. Not more than ten minutes after, I ate a hearty breakfast, and then had a refreshing sleep;.............
If it had not been for the presence of my young hopeful, it would have been hard to believe that there had so recently been a belief of a birth in the house; but then, I was sustained by Love, and had no belief of suffering to take my strength away………..How grateful I am for the obstetrics of this grand Science! Mothers need no longer listen to the whispering lies of the old serpent, for the law of mortal mind is broken by Truth." MRS. DORA HOSSICK, Carrolton, Mo.
"I will mention a demonstration of painless childbirth which I have had since coming to Idaho………. I awoke my husband one morning at five o'clock, and at half past five baby was born, no one being pre
RE: A spiritual view of Genesis for Songstress
Well Judy I do respect CS's view of Genesis and I find your interpretation very detailed and clear and there are resonances with my views although I don't agree with all you say.
So I'd like to offer another view (with some copied CS texts for comparison) and I've chosen the Hebraic texts, which are the foundations to Genesis and I have to say at the outset I am no Scholar, for you certainly need to be that to understand Hebrew language in its root and grammatical form. And I'm only talking about the recent translations of ancient texts for original Hebrew was always transmitted orally and later when inscribed tablets were eventually found they contained only consonants.
Another problem of course was in subsequent and varied translations/transliterations which ultimately give us the current version(s) of Genesis that are in use now.
To add another dynamic, parallels have been made between Sumerian Creation Myth Enuma Elish and the creation depiction in Genesis 1, with sources stating that the Sumerian version is at least 1000 years older than Hebraic texts.
Anyway Genesis, as the first book of the Pentateuch, was transcribed in cipher, based on the 22 letters of the Hebrew language and only the Priests and Rabbis truly understood the inner meaning. So there are enormous problems to the accuracy of Genesis, as the source knowledge of Creation within English translation...but there does remain seeds of truth within the words that are written there and can truly Inspire
Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 describe two aspects of the creative process of the Creation then of the Formation. These processes are distinctly separate but never the less are connected to all the four worlds of the Kabbalah ( inner teachings)
The first being the Divine world and the last being this world, the world of Action, with Creation and Formation being the second and third worlds.
Genesis 1 is the unfolding of Creation from the already existing Divine world, which itself came into existence from the Ain Soph where the unmanifested Holy One Was; Is and Will Be.
The unfolding of Creation begins with the words of the first chapter and first verse of Genesis:
brashith bra alhim ath hshmim vath hartz
"In the beginning the Elohim created the substance of the heavens and the substance of the earth."
which is the seed plot to the whole of the Bible, according to the inner teachings.
Mary Baker Eddy: "The infinite has no beginning.This word beginning is employed to signify the only,-- that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe. The creative Principle--Life, Truth, and Love--is God..."
So yes, the infinite One lies within Ain Soph of no beginning/end and manifesting or emanating in the Divine world to begin the process of Creation,
Right away there is a problem with the word *god*. The Hebraic transliterated version of Alhim becomes Elohim, which is then translated into Deus of the Vulgate and then God of subsequent English translations.
The inner teachings say that the Elohim proceeded from the Three in One aspect of the Holy One and are the creator gods of Genesis 1 and are feminine in nature. They are six in number, and they create the six Days, resting within the Seventh, (always ready to begin the next Octave of Creation again)
The Days and all that is contained within belong to the world of Creation and are the archetypal blue print for the following worlds of Formation and Action.
And Adam (Kadmon) is created on Day six and is the prototype of future mankind, male and female both
"And the Elohim created Mankind: in the Likeness of the Elohim created they them: Male and Female created they them."
Genesis 2 describes the world of Formation in which the created androgynous Adam Kadmon forms and separates into Male and Female within the Gar