Who caused human suffering – Adam and Eve — or God?
Part Two: Resurrecting God – A New Creation Story
Finding the Intimate Face of God Beside Us in Genesis
Looked at more deeply, we may not be able to see a more beautiful Face of God Beside Us than the story of Adam and Eve found in Genesis. Understood metaphorically and symbolically, while needing deconstruction, it may not be quite the story we remember. It just needs a little rescuing from the way church history has understood it.
First, it will help us to understand that people in ancient times told stories, not to reveal what actually happened, but that could help them experience the divine in life, give them meaning and purpose as they went about their daily lives, and make sense of the things beyond their ability to know. These stories can do the same for us, especially if they are updated into our contemporary meanings and metaphors.
Because of the focus on “sin” and “fall, we often miss that this is the first “thin place” recorded in the Bible. Here God walked and talked in an originally beautiful relationship with the symbolic human, Adam. God, in a working partnership with Adam, brought the animals to him to “see what he would call them. “Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name” (Gen 2:19). We were empowered by God from the beginning!
The Garden of Earthly Delights — Hieronymus Bosch 1490 -1510
Then God graciously provided a companion for Adam and personally created plants and animals for food for the emerging humankind. Finally, God gave them guidance about how to live.
Then, when Adam and Eve hid from God, rather than angrily punishing writing them off as too immature to be the kind of humanity God had in mind, God went looking for them (Gen 3:9). God has always desired to be with us.
Why is there so much suffering in the world?
The story of Adam and Eve is an attempt to answer the question of what causes human suffering. Adam and Eve began in an early-stage lack of awareness of anything but their immediate cocooned surroundings of idyllic Eden. God said they could eat of all the trees except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or what was later called “wisdom.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it (Gen 3:6). Nearly everywhere in the Bible, wisdom is described as something to pursue and celebrate (Prov 8).
God making clothes for Adam and Eve — Russian Orthodox Byzantine Icon
Fortunately for us, Adam and Eve choose to defy what appeared to be God’s orders not to eat and awaken to wisdom. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, becoming, as both the serpent and God commented, wise like God! (Gen. 3:5, 22)
But did they “sin”?
Traditional interpretations speak about “original sin, “The Fall,” and a world tainted by human sin as consequences of the garden. Were they punished by God? The result of their waking up was awareness of death and hardship in life, not death itself. Their eyes were opened!
But notice that the words “sin” or “Fall” are not used in this story. The idea of sin and the “fall of humankind” is not found in Genesis but was forced on it by later Christian interpreters. In Genesis, there is a tale of going against the rules by giving in to the desire for wisdom. Eating of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil is the evidence of Eve’s divine choice to seek out wisdom. Later Jesus himself was to be called the wisdom of God (I Cor 1:24).
Is it possible that, upon opening their eyes and growing up to the complexities of good and evil, they made a judgment about themselves? Being new at making judgments, they made a disastrous one. It was that they were no longer good — but disastrously flawed. They realized they were naked, and naked was now shamefully bad! Could it be that God understood their devastating call and comforted them by lovingly crafting their very first clothes! (Gen 2:21)
Adam and Eve did what God really wanted – eat the apple and start to grow up!
Here is how I understand this story. God warned Adam and Eve about the pain of waking up to wisdom and the experience of the pain and suffering of the world. Remember that pain and suffering were already part of the world outside of Eden. It was a real warning! However, I believe that God wanted us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that we could begin the journey of growing up. Can you imagine that God wanted us to stay ignorant of real life, to go on forever lacking wisdom and with eyes closed to reality? Or did God desire we grow up to the more profound wisdom that comes from eye-opening pain and suffering? If we had decided to keep the “rules” and not have our eyes opened to reality, what a blindly ignorant, superficial life we would have.
In the beginning, humanity is given exceptional permission to partake of everything except the wisdom that comes from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam and Eve Hide from God by Herbert Mandel
The serpent said, “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” . . . So when the woman saw that . . . the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Gen 3:5-8).
The first thing that happened when they ate from the forbidden tree was they realized they were naked. The question now is, “What’s wrong with being naked?” Remember that there was nobody else around except God. Naked is the way we came into this world. That’s the way we make love. And, most importantly, that’s the way God always sees us. But suddenly, they didn’t want God to see them naked! God had already declared naked Adam and naked Eve “very good” (Gen 1:31), and now abruptly, being naked around God did not seem so good to our symbolic first couple. What happened?
Professor of Old Testament scholar at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, an interdenominational Evangelical Seminary, Douglas Stuart, writes, “God laid a temporary prohibition on his children. The first thing to say is that “knowing good and evil” does not refer to the possession of information. It is an active phrase and refers to discernment between good and evil, or more simply, making judgments. The fruit of the tree was to be food for Adam along with the rest of the trees if he were to grow in wisdom and maturity and demonstrate the capacity to truly discern and judge between good and evil. Adam and Eve realized that, in their immaturity, they had reached for a godlikeness that they were not ready for. The idea is that we now have more knowledge than we can morally handle.” (italics mine)
They hid themselves
They previously had no need or desire to hide their personhood behind clothing. Now they needed something to hide behind, fig leaves at that time. Later on, we devised various other ways to hide from God and one another to cover our false shame. This is the shame that comes from the Big Lie — our false self–judgment that we are sinners who need to be ashamed. Remember, God did not declare us to be sinners or shame us. The act of hiding was and is an act of running from our true self, our naked, divine, authentic self.
Yes, the writers say that it was God who now made life hard for both of them. The suffering that already existed in the world was now a part of their lives. This is phrased as a punishment from God. At this stage of evolutionary understanding, God was seen to cause everything that happened, including evil. Jesus came and tossed that idea aside as incongruent with a loving God.
Although “very good,” we also have struggles, generations of traumatic conditioning, and make poor choices that harm us and others. However, these realities do not change the greater reality that we are divine beings, created in the image of God and the light of the world. It does mean that we continue to have some significant waking and growing up to do.
God presented us with a brilliant choice – stay unenlightened and blissfully ignorant like children in the spiritual bypass zone of Eden. Or choose to wake up to the real world and grow up in understanding, embracing, and overcoming that world. Let’s give this metaphoric first couple credit for listening to the inner call to wake up and grow up! They choose, albeit somewhat unconsciously, and perhaps before they were ready (when are we ever “ready” to grow up!?), the difficult path of learning wisdom with its attendant struggles and hardships. Their choice led to transformed awareness and consequences by having to live in the real adult world. Bravo!
This story of meaning for Christians and Jews revolves around the idea of growing up in wisdom. It’s a good thing!
So, who caused human suffering and hardship?
It seems like it was everyone! God’s part was not because God got mad and punished us. Instead, divine wisdom, beyond our understanding, devised the absolute best possible plan for humankind to grow up and wake up. The “very good” of God’s creation included animals and humanity with feelings affected by suffering and disasters. These are a normal, natural part of God’s earthly creation. Suffering and disasters also seem to be neutral, coming upon animals and humans without distinction as to who is being helpful and who is being harmful. Adam and Eve, importantly, decided to move for wisdom – which meant suffering and hardship. The generative process of divine evolution itself involves destruction and stress. This challenge is increased by humans who hurt one another. So we all have our part in the challenge of human suffering.
On the other hand, it is also everyone that can make a difference. The human community can make a difference with compassion and care. The spiritual community can provide meaning and courage to those overcome with suffering and hardship. And God journeys with us, encouraging us to see that the mystery of suffering and death is a necessary part of the passage in one’s infinite cosmic journey toward growing up and waking up.
This gives us meaning and hope, expressed by the writer of Hebrews in the ancient metaphors of royal glory:
“Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
So we, with our eyes on Jesus, our companion through life, grow up in a life of increasing wisdom, compassion, love, joy, and, yes, suffering.
There is no need to wait until life isn’t hard anymore before deciding to be happy and peaceful. We can have that now!
Reflection Practice
Take time to reflect on the heart of integrating our pain and challenges in life with our spirituality lies with meaning, purpose, and identity. This article emphasizes all three of these, as does much of what we do at ICN. The more we identify with our inherent divine essence, the more we can find meaning in life. From that emerges our purpose in our spiritual development, both for ourselves and the sake of the loving evolution of Christianity and the world.