Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Gen. 2:16-17 :: idiom or clumsy lie
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:34:23 -0500
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
Re: [b-hebrew] Gen. 2:16-17 :: idiom or clumsy lie
, (continued)