Welcome to Weekly Guest Post 3 of the book tour The Door is Open by Andrew Court. Watch for a weekly guest post for the next several weeks on my site!
A NEW LOOK AT ADAM &
EVE: Part 1 – “The Rib”
The story of Adam and Eve
is the foundational story of western civilization, and I believe it has been
terribly misinterpreted with devastating results for us all. Let’s take a fresh
look:
The Hebrew word that is
translated as ‘Adam’ is actually a gender-neutral word that means ‘a creature
of earth’. In other words, Adam was initially created neither Male nor Female.
The creature was placed in the Garden and given only one restriction – not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam lived a quiet, comfortable, and all but purposeless life in the Garden, tending the flora and distributing names to the animals. But God saw that Adam was alone with no emotional life, no tension, hardship or struggle. So God decided to put Adam to sleep and separate it into Male and Female in order to provide an emotionally meaningful life for humanity.
Here is an extremely important point: The Hebrew word tsela appears many times in the Bible. With one exception it is translated as ‘side’, typically referring to the side walls of important structures such as the Tabernacle. On one occasion only, here in Genesis, tsela is translated as ‘rib’.
This unique translation has had horrendous repercussions.
But if we give the word the same meaning that it has on every other occasion, the story makes more sense. God took one side of the creature and out of this he made Eve, the woman, and the other side became Adam, the man – where neither had existed before. The ‘One’ has become ‘Two’, and there is nothing in this description to indicate anything other than perfect equality.
The isolation of one human creature can now be replaced with a new form of wholeness that is attainable through love and erotic longing between two individuals.
One possible reason for the early translator’s choice of the word 'rib’ in this one place is that by taking a rib God revealed the Heart of the creature, analogous to opening Pandora’s Box, thus bringing emotions (which are universally symbolized by the Feminine) into the realm of human life. Like Pandora’s story, this is where pain and difficulty enter the world, but also happiness and meaning, and only then do mortal beings become moral beings with the ability to make choices and mistakes, and thus to evolve and grow.
Even if we retain the word ‘rib’ as the translation of tsela, we see that this rib did not come from a previously created male, thereby suggesting some sort of primacy for the ‘man’. On the contrary, the rib came from a previously created earth creature of no gender.
And in fact, the Woman, Eve, in the story, was created before the Man!
The creature was placed in the Garden and given only one restriction – not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam lived a quiet, comfortable, and all but purposeless life in the Garden, tending the flora and distributing names to the animals. But God saw that Adam was alone with no emotional life, no tension, hardship or struggle. So God decided to put Adam to sleep and separate it into Male and Female in order to provide an emotionally meaningful life for humanity.
Here is an extremely important point: The Hebrew word tsela appears many times in the Bible. With one exception it is translated as ‘side’, typically referring to the side walls of important structures such as the Tabernacle. On one occasion only, here in Genesis, tsela is translated as ‘rib’.
This unique translation has had horrendous repercussions.
But if we give the word the same meaning that it has on every other occasion, the story makes more sense. God took one side of the creature and out of this he made Eve, the woman, and the other side became Adam, the man – where neither had existed before. The ‘One’ has become ‘Two’, and there is nothing in this description to indicate anything other than perfect equality.
The isolation of one human creature can now be replaced with a new form of wholeness that is attainable through love and erotic longing between two individuals.
One possible reason for the early translator’s choice of the word 'rib’ in this one place is that by taking a rib God revealed the Heart of the creature, analogous to opening Pandora’s Box, thus bringing emotions (which are universally symbolized by the Feminine) into the realm of human life. Like Pandora’s story, this is where pain and difficulty enter the world, but also happiness and meaning, and only then do mortal beings become moral beings with the ability to make choices and mistakes, and thus to evolve and grow.
Even if we retain the word ‘rib’ as the translation of tsela, we see that this rib did not come from a previously created male, thereby suggesting some sort of primacy for the ‘man’. On the contrary, the rib came from a previously created earth creature of no gender.
And in fact, the Woman, Eve, in the story, was created before the Man!
Andrew Cort is an expert on
the inner message of Spiritual Awakening that is always ready to be found in the
wonderful stories of the Bible and Greek Mythology. To receive several FREE GIFTS from Dr. Cort (a copy of Chapter One, ‘Making the Decision’, form his new
book, THE DOOR IS OPEN; a copy of his article on RECONCILING SCIENCE AND
RELIGION; and a complete version of the Bible’s erotic masterpiece, SONG OF
SONGS , adapted as a Poetic Dialogue to be read out loud by lovers; as well as
a subscription to his SPIRITUAL GROWTH NEWSLETER) click here http://www.andrewcort.com/Gifts . You can also learn more on his blog, Spiritualityand Religion.
Amazon Paperback
Amazon Kindle
Twitter www.twitter.com/andrewcort
Be sure to check out the next stops in the tour:
9/26 My Cozie Corner Weekly Guest Post 3
9/27 Simply Infatuated Weekly Guest Post 3
9/27 Reading, Writing and More Weekly Guest Post 3
9/28 Simply Infatuated Spot light and Giveaway
9/28 Fighting Monkey Press Weekly Guest Post 3
9/28 The Bunnies Review Weekly Guest Post 3
9/27 Simply Infatuated Weekly Guest Post 3
9/27 Reading, Writing and More Weekly Guest Post 3
9/28 Simply Infatuated Spot light and Giveaway
9/28 Fighting Monkey Press Weekly Guest Post 3
9/28 The Bunnies Review Weekly Guest Post 3
To follow the entire tour, please click here.
Disclaimer: I don't usually post a disclaimer on a guest post, but I am today. Guest posts such as this do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the owner of this blog. This is guest post is for the sole purpose of promoting this book and creating a dialogue about various "religious" things.
There are several points that the author is trying to make, that I simply don't believe. I don't want to get into a debate about any of it, but feel that I must post my disagreement with his premise.
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