Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jason Hare" <parousia_occ AT yahoo.com>]

Liz,

I have to say that I have never noticed that before (about YHWH kicking man
out with the express purpose of keeping him from becoming immortal).  That
is, however, what the text says.  It might be interesting just to throw
those couple of verses on this mail for reference sake.

"And the LORD God said, 'The man has become like one of us, knowing good and
evil.  He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the
tree of life and eat, and live forever.'  So the LORD God banished him from
the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken."  (Gen.
3:22 & 23, NIV)

Interestingly enough, the paradigm fits: God made man in his image, yet with
two seeming differences.  The first was that man was ignorant of good and
evil.  The second was that man was mortal.  So, if the ignorance of good and
evil were to be filled in with that knowledge, there would only be one
separating factor between God and man: immortality.  Therefore, in order to
keep the breach, God orders that man should be removed from access to that
tree and, therefore, man is locked in between where he was and who God is.

I find it interesting what you have said and the fact that you have taken
this issue as another indication of the non-literalness of the text.  I have
recently been doing study in the area of inerrancy and have come to the
point of NOT holding that doctrine any longer (mainly by comparing parallels
and theological contradictions [oops... I mean "paradoxes"], etc.).  I would
be interested in hearing some more from you offline as to your opinions on
the rest of the book of Genesis and, perhaps, for the rest of the
hagiographa.

Jason Hare (parousia_occ AT yahoo.com)


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