41. The Curse of the Creators


41. The Curse of the Creators



In our last post, we looked at the possibility that Adam and Eve bought into Satan's lie (belief?) that the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil could bestow the ex nihilo power, the power to create out of nothing.

So what was the result...other than their realizing they were naked? God curses them, right?

Actually, no.

God doesn't curse them.

He curses the serpent. And he curses the ground as part of the man's punishment. A curse isn't even involved in the women's punishment.

So what was their punishment?

To the man, he says:
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you..."
To the woman, He says:
"I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children."
Man is a co-creator with God in bringing forth plants from the ground. Man plants and harvests, but the process is God’s (water and sun leading to germination).

Woman is a co-creator with God in bringing forth children from the womb. The woman’s body produces and delivers the child, but the process is God’s (implantation and embryo developing into fetus).

Eve even says as much in Genesis 4:1.

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.”

Some translators say "with the help of the LORD" or "with the LORD's help." But note the use of italics. Anytime you see words in italics in your Bible, that word did not exist in the original Hebrew and Greek, and are included for readability or what a translator feels is needed clarity.

Thus, as Young's Literal Translation points out, the verse technically reads,
And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceiveth and beareth Cain, and saith, "I have gotten a man by Jehovah."
In the quest to overthrow him and become sole creators by seeking ex nihilo power from the fruit of the tree of Moral Conscience (Knowledge of Good and Evil), their gift of being a co-creator was wrought with pain.

The ground from which Adam would create life with God would work against him.

Pregnancy from which Eve would create life with God would culminate in pain.

The very thing mankind sought—creating without God—would taint with pain their joy of being creators with God.

Swordcraft Tip: Write the references Romans 5:12 and 8:20 (and if your Bible** has it, Wisdom 1:13-14 and 2:23) in the margin of Gen 3:15. If your bible does not have the book of Wisdom, write a brief note that 2nd Temple Judaism explicitly states that God did not create death.

Not many of us are farmers these days, and not all of us are biological parents, but even so, have you ever thought of yourself as a co-creator with God? 
Share your thoughts on the

*Catholic and Orthodox Bibles (as well as the Bibles of the Bereans & early church, and the first Protestants, including the original King James) have the Book of Wisdom.

Photo Credit: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve by Howard David Johnson. Used with Permission.

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