Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

The Torah is short and concise. Only seventeen pages separate  
creation from Abraham. Not to mince words it uses this literary  
device of delivering the most profound ideas ensconced within an  
apparently childish, almost incoherent, short story. So, one should  
not quibble with such stories but rather concentrate on looking for  
their implied meaning, grand objectives and cosmological implications.

I see two monumental ideas implied in the story of the tree of  
knowledge:

1. Man was not perfectly created but continued, after being given the  
gift of life, to evolve mentally and emotionally, an idea that  
precedes Darwin by at least 2500 years.

2.  Knowledge (science) will never solve the riddle of life and find  
a way to prevent death. Death is part of the divine order and will be  
with us forever.
Isaac Fried