minkymurph
thanks for the reply
I am sorry to admit, but its very possible that the mind set you speak of, came from my country. Your example is typical here in the U.S.
It’s typical of the Western world in general, but in my part of the world they do have a tendency to apportion blame the US - ‘It’s all the fault of the Americans, they started it.’ Totally overlooking that fact that we can choose not to follow certain trends Like I said, why accept personal responsibility if you can blame someone else for the way you are
On the part of your paraphrase of the Garden. if you notice the serpent wasn’t questioned by the Lord so the serpent had no opportunity to answer to the accusation. So who is to blame, and how can it be removed in the case of Adam and Eve?
Depends on how literally you read the account.
Serpents/snakes don’t talk. Little point in questioning a reptile that can’t actually speak.
Could a snake/serpent have the intellectual capacity to reason as it does? Highly unlikely.
Why does Eve blame the serpent/snake if it can’t speak? If a snake/serpent spoke to Eve, would she not think this strange, and why would she listen?
It is believed the voice belongs to the Devil who uses a snake/serpent to speak to Eve. This does not explain why the animal is cursed, or has to crawl on it’s belly and eat dust.
Did all snakes or serpents originally have legs, and God removed them as a punishment? Did they originally eat something other than dust? In other words, it’s a metaphor.
What the author is driving at is the character of human nature. When asked why he is hiding, Adam initially try’s to cover his tracks. Rather than admit the truth, that he ate from the tree, he tells God he was telling due to the fact he was afraid because he was naked. Is this not a feature of human nature? I like quotes, and one of my favorite quotes from Shakespeare is ‘what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.’ We get caught in a ‘web’ we ourselves have spun. We come up with excuses, or tell lies when challenged to justify our actions. In addition, is Adam appealing to God’s sympathy - ‘I was afraid of you?’ Is that a human characteristic? 'I did what I did because you such a scary, unapproachable person and because of you I can’t say what really happened. An appeal to the person we have wronged to feel sorry for us without admitting we were wrong? An attempt to make them feel they are being unreasonable? Then Adam is caught out, ‘Who told you you were naked?’ He’s stumped, he can’t answer that. God has outwitted him so he jumps to his own defense, and shifts responsibility to someone else. Ever watched ‘The Apprentice?’ Does anyone admit their mistakes in that situation? No, they blame other team members to save their own skin. Self preservation is another feature of human nature.
Now we come to the serpent or snake. Is this a way of telling us innocent parties can bear the consequences of our actions despite the fact they are not directly responsible? They are pawns in a ‘game and our actions have a direct bearing on them?’ What would have been the scenario if Adam had said, ‘I ate from the tree. I was curious and I let my curiosity get the better of me. I’m sorry?’ Being honest, admitting our faults and accepting personal responsibility comes at price in the world today. I often tell my children, ‘It doesn’t matter how bad it is, tell me the truth. If I know the truth, I can help and I’m going to find out what the truth is anyway.’ It’s still not easy because telling the truth isn’t easy, and there will still be consequences. I will help my children, and I will praise them for telling the truth, but they may still be grounded or not have treats which they won’t like, despite the fact they know it’s warranted. We humans don’t like being punished even if it’s justified and we know things will ultimately be put right. Of course that’s a hypothetical scenario. We don’t know what might have happened, and it didn’t.
The author of the second Genesis account goes to great lengths to describe the relationship between God and Adam and Eve as a very intimate one. From a theological perspective, is this what the author is driving at? Putting our trust in God and being willing to put ourselves in God’s hands? Being willing to accept the consequences because they are just but know God will come through for us? The author is also telling us how human nature changed as a consequence of Adam’s actions, in an attempt to explain how humans come to display the traits they do, and how these traits can be overcome - by God Himself. There’s a lot in this account. You could spend your life studying Genesis 2, never mind the rest of scripture.
