Shame and Satan in the Garden of Eden

 Shame played a very powerful role in the ancient Jewish culture. It is something most American readers miss because it isn’t a major factor in our culture. But the relevance of shame is the focus of this account. Below are some key points Bible readers must understand about it.

 

● Shame must be understood in the context of group culture.

 

● Shame implies a failure to live up to internalized parental and larger societal goals, i.e. what a person "should be like".

 

● The shamed person experiences his/her failure as a lowering of personal dignity in the eyes of the group and fears ridicule, contempt or expulsion.

 

From the first chapters of Genesis on, we see humankind struggling to resolve interpersonal and intergroup conflict. The stories depict characters wrestling with powerful and sometimes contradictory impulses.

 

Personal and group destinies can only be truly fulfilled

through membership in the larger units of family, tribe, and nation.

 

We see similar conflicts in the story of Adam and Eve. Readers have the advantage of knowing about God’s blessing of humans in the first story. We know “what God created humans to be like.” We also know what Adam and Eve did.

 

● He was supposed to guard and protect her. He failed.

 

● They were supposed to work together. They failed.

 

● He was supposed to accurately communicate God’s commandment to her. He didn’t.

 

● He should have responded to the snake like a shepherd would have. He didn’t.

 

● She should not have given him the forbidden fruit. She did.

 

If they “had done what they should have,” according to God’s blessing, their destinies would have been very different.

 

In Jewish Scriptures, things like salvation, redemption and divine judgement take place in the context of the group.

 

● Christians generally say, “My sins have been forgiven and I have been saved.”

 

● Observant Jews say, “We must do TESHUVAH when we sin, and we will be redeemed in the future.”

 

Christians view sin in a “individual” context. Sin is something that affects the sinner’s life and destiny. Observant Jews view sin in the “group” context. Sin is something that affects the sinner’s life, other people’s lives, and the group’s destiny.

 

It is important to know that in the Garden of Eden story, the Hebrew word translated “shame” is in the hothpael verb form. This means that “the action is performed on or for oneself.”   An example of this is seen in Ezekiel 38:23:

 

Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself;

and I will be known in the eyes of many nations,

and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

 

With this in mind, below is an updated translation of Genesis 2:24:

 

And they were both subtle, shrewd, clever, crafty, and cunning,

the man and his woman;

and they had not shamed themselves.

 

The snake was more subtle, shrewd, clever, crafty, and cunning than Adam and Eve, but the snake didn’t shame them – they shamed themselves. Before I continue with the Garden of Eden story, I want to make sure your understand something that is extremely important about the snake (Genesis 3:1).

 

And the snake was more subtle, shrewd, clever, crafty, and cunning

than any beast of the field which Yahweh the god had made.

 

The snake is “a beast of the field” which God made. The snake exists because God wanted it to exist. It is there because God put it there. It is acting according to the “nature of beasts of the field.” The snake is not “Satan.”

 

Beginning in the 2^nd century CE, Gentile Christian leaders including Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Irenaeus begin to reinterpret the Garden of Eden story and replace the snake with Satan. However, it was Augustine in the 5^th century CE that completely changed the story to this.

__________________________________

 

Satan and God are involved in a cosmic battle over the souls of all humans. Adam's sin was transmitted by concupiscence, or "hurtful desire;" resulting in humanity becoming a massa damnata (mass of perdition, condemned crowd), with much enfeebled, though not destroyed, freedom of will. When Adam sinned, human nature was thenceforth transformed. Adam’s sin has been passed down to all of his descendants. They are “sinners” when they are born!

__________________________________

 

This belief is called “The Fall of Mankind” and “Original Sin.” It is the foundation of all modern Christian religions. However, most people are not aware of these facts.

 

● Original Sin is not found anywhere in the Bible.

 

● Christianity had no doctrine of Original Sin prior to the 4th century CE.

 

What would Christianity today be like without Original Sin?

 

I will return to the Garden in Eden story in my next email. Thanks for Exploring Biblical Heritages with us and please share our emails with others!

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

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Whose Image Will Adam and Eve Reflect: God or a Snake?

 My last email ended with Adam, Eve and the snake standing in the middle of the Garden in Eden looking at the forbidden tree. The snake’s words – “the day you eat of it ya’ll’s eyes will be opened, and ya’ll will be like God – had caught Eve’s attention. Genesis 3:6 reveals what she is thinking.

 

1. The woman saw that the tree was good for food.

 

2. She saw that it pleasant to the eyes.

 

3. She saw it was a tree desirable to make one wise.

 

The first two things she saw agree with what the Bible said about trees (Genesis 2:9).

 

God made every tree grow that is

pleasant to the sight and good for food.

 

The third thing she saw is very different from what God commanded. Until the moment the snake spoke, she saw that “tree as something so dangerous that if she even touched it she would die!” She wanted to avoid it at all costs.

 

The only thing that changed was a belief in her mind.

 

When she accepted the new belief, what she saw changed. Why did she desire the wisdom of God? In the ancient world “the wisdom of a god was the most valuable information of all. In the Israelite society, wisdom was extremely valuable to women (Proverbs 19:14):

 

Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers,
but a wise woman is from God.

 

The Hebrew word translated “wise” may also be translated “clever.” Once the woman’s beliefs changed, her actions changed too:

 

1. She took the fruit and didn’t die from touching it.

 

2. She ate it and didn’t die.

 

3. She gave it to Adam, who was standing next to her, and he touched it and didn’t die.

 

This is an amazing scene. Adam is standing next to Eve holding the forbidden fruit. He knew exactly what God commanded. He saw Eve eat it and she was still alive! Had she already become like God? Is she like God now? If he eats it will he be like God or dead? He must have felt the eyes of Eve and the snake looking directly at him, but that didn’t last very long!

 

He ate it!

The eyes of both Adam and Eve were opened.

They knew that they were AROM.

 

The author uses a wordplay to teach a powerful wisdom lesson – ARUM and AROM. ARUM was used twice in Genesis 2:25-3:1 to introduce the humans and the snake.

 

“The man and woman were both ARUMIYM and had not been shamed.

The snake was more ARUM than any beast of the field which Yahweh made.”

 

ARUMIYM (plural) and ARUM (singular) mean “subtle, shrewd, clever, crafty, and cunning.” The question the context raises is -- “Will the man and woman together be more “subtle, shrewd, clever, crafty, and cunning” than the snake?

 

To understand what comes next, we must recall two important things about humans revealed in the first story.

 

● The male and female acting together to do things like God (TOV/good) reflect the image of God.

 

● An individual acting alone may reflect the image of an animal through his or her actions. If an individual does acts that are RAH (evil), he or she reflects the image of a wild predator – an animal that preys on humans.

 

Now we are ready discuss the wordplay. The author simply changed one letter and ARUM became AROM, which means “naked.”

 

The eyes of both Adam and Eve were opened.

They knew they were naked (AROM).

 

The snake won! It was more subtle, shrewd, clever, crafty, and cunning than Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve did not work together. Now they knew they had been exposed. This was the first time they experienced “shame.” Something Adam didn’t know was – Did God know what he had done? However, before I answer that question, I need to tell you more about what “shame” meant to the ancient audience. I will do that in my next email.

 

Thanks for Exploring Biblical Heritages with us and please share our emails with others!

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

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What Are You Teaching Your Children and Grandchildren?

 

If Jesus dropped by your church or home, what do you think he would say? Based on what we have learned about the Jewish Jesus that founded the Kingdom of God Movement in first century CE Galilee, it would not be, “Are you saved?” Instead he would ask:

 

What are you teaching your children and grandchildren?

 

Why would that be the first thing Jesus would want to know? When God saw that the evil of the man was great in the earth, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day long, and that the earth was filled with violence – He wiped the entire human population (except for one family) off the earth with a flood. The path that led an entire generation to their deaths can be summed up in God’s words – “the inclinations of their heart were evil from their youth.”

 

In a previous email, Nations Will Guard the Way of Yahweh With Abraham’s Sons, I discussed why God chose Abraham:

 

Abraham will teach his children how to guard

the way of God by doing TZEDAQAH and MISHPAT.

 

A teacher, in the Hebrew culture, is like a potter who molds and shapes clay to make things. The teacher molds and shapes the hearts of children. It is important to understand that in the Jewish culture of Jesus, the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) includes laws, commandments, and instructions – it is a repository of insights from which wisdom for livings one’s life can be derived. It was the primary textbook for teaching people that wisdom in the time of Jesus.

 

Newly born children do not arrive with instruction manuals. And while hundreds of professions require that you become pre-certified, a new parent, with no experience at all, is expected to raise a healthy, productive child by what amounts to on-the-job training. This fact magnifies the value of shared wisdom among parents, all trying to do the best job they can. At times, the challenges to succeed can seem endless.[i]

 

A potter must have mental image of what kind of vessel he wants to make. He must also be able to identify the type of material he will be working with. A teacher must know the subject matter that he will be teaching. He must also know the natures of the students he will be teaching. Teaching a quiet shy child requires a different approach than teaching a charismatic outspoken child. One of the great revelations of teaching is that the intervention of a grownup in a child’s life carries almost as much risk in squashing their ambitions as it does in nurturing and inspiring them.

 

My son, hear the instructions and discipline of your father,

and do not forsake the instructions and directions of your mother;
for they will be a graceful ornament on your head,
and decorative chains about your neck.

 

This is from Proverbs 1:8-9. God wants every child to be welcomed into the world by it’s first two teachers – its father and mother. They must discover the nature of their child before they begin molding and shaping its heart. How important is this?

 

Remember how God described the generation that He destroyed by the Great Flood -- “the inclinations of their heart were evil from their youth.” God wants the inclinations of children’s hearts to be “good” from their youth. TOV is the Hebrew word translated “good” in our Bibles, but “good” does not convey the Hebrew meaning of TOV to English readers. 

 

For something to be TOV it must protect lives, preserve lives,

make lives more functional, and increase the quality of life.

 

Every Jewish person, from the time of Jesus until now, knows the verses below from Deuteronomy 6:4-6:

 

Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God. The Lord is one!

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your strength.

These words, which I command you today, are to be in your heart.

 

The teacher must have these words in their heart, so he or she will be able to teach them to the child. Teaching those words begins with teaching children the meaning of TOV and demonstrating how to do TOV.

 

This is the first line of defense in preventing

the destruction of an entire generation of people.

 

It is also the beginning of creating

a society of Peace and SHALOM for our generation!

 

Teaching our children and grandchildren insights from which wisdom for living their lives can be derived is essential for them and the community. I will continue this series in my next email.

 

Choosing Lives 1^st by Doing TOV,

Jim Myers

 

Helping People Examine Their Beliefs

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[i] Letters from an Astrophysicist By Neil DeGrasse Tyson © 2019; W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY; p. 60, 89.

Guard Justice: Do Acts of MISHPAT

 

In my email Nations Will Guard the Way of Yahweh With Abraham’s Sons I discussed Genesis 18:19:

 

For I have noticed and observed him,

in order that he may instruct his children and his house after him,

that they guard the way of Yahweh,

to do TZEDAQAH and MISHPAT;

in order that Yahweh may bring upon Abraham

that which He has spoken concerning him.”

 

God chose Abraham because of, and because he will, do this.

 

Abraham will teach his children how to guard the way of Yahweh

by doing acts of TZEDAQAH and MISHPAT (justice).

 

That is the first time the word MISHPAT (justice) appears in the Bible. From this point on, TZEDAQAH and MISHPAT will appear together many times. The “Way of God” requires learning and doing both TZEDAQAH and MISHPAT, not just one. The prophet Jeremiah delivers a very similar message (9:23-24):

 

Thus says Yahweh:

“Do not let the wise man boast in his wisdom,
Do not let not the mighty man boast in his might,
Do not let the rich man boast in his riches;
But let him who boast boast in this,

That he understands and knows Me,
That I am Yahweh doing

CHESED, MISHPAT, TZEDAQAH in the earth.
For in these I take pleasure in,” says Yahweh.

 

MISHPAT is one of the three core values in the Jewish Scriptures. Doing acts of MISHPAT is one of the ways humans imitate God and reveal His image to the world.

 

MISHPAT is a very ancient word, and it is one of those Hebrew words that using one English word to translate it doesn’t accurately reveal its meaning. Two English words, however, lay the foundation for understanding it – judge and govern. MISHPAT is used to describe “a justly ordered society,” which is also one of the foundational values of Judaism. The prophets railed against the absence of MISHPAT in the days of kings who abused their power.[1]

 

The rabbis repeatedly extol the society whose courts insist on justice and whose officials enforce justice to protect human rights. Imperfect justice was preferred to no justice at all. Jews were exhorted to accept the overly harsh laws of the Romans rather than to live under a government without laws.

 

And you have made men as the fishes of the sea,

as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.

(Habakkuk 1:14)

 

Why were people compared to the fishes of the sea?

Because in the case of the fishes of the sea,

the larger one swallows the smaller one;

so, too, in the case of men:

were it not for the fear of government,

the stronger would swallow the weaker.

(Avodah Zarah 46)

 

When a judge renders a decision in accordance with the law of the Torah he is imitating one of God’s attributes -- God is just. Therefore, the judge should not waver in his execution of justice, especially when two litigants come before him.

 

An act of mercy to one party may be an act of injustice to the other.

 

Those who come before the judge are expected to imitate the other attribute of God — His mercy. People are required to go beyond the line of strict justice and to live in accordance with those greater ideals that the court cannot enforce – CHESED and TZEDAQAH.

 

In his relations with his fellow man,

a person should be guided by compassion and trust

rather than by the literalness of justice.

 

Exodus 21:1-24:8 is called “Mishpatim” and it lays down basic civil law, including rules of damages, torts and ethical obligations to help the needy, and includes agricultural laws and rules about festivals. It represents the transition from the Tribes of Israel into the Nation of Israel in the Jewish Scriptures.  

 

Today, mishpat is the modern Hebrew word for law. A mishpatan is a lawyer. The Israeli civil courts are called batei mishpat lshalom – “courts for making peace between people.” Mishpat Ivri is the name for those areas of traditional Jewish law that can be applied to the areas usually covered by secular legal systems. Mishpat Ivri has standing in Israeli courts today.[2]

 

CHESED, TZEDAQAH and MISPHAT are the pillars of the message and movement of the Jewish Jesus. They are primary belief models and core values of our Biblical Heritages. I will discuss CHESED in the next email.

 

Choosing Lives 1^st by Doing TOV,

Jim Myers

 

Helping People Examine Their Beliefs

● Adopt Shared Morals & Values ● Network to Make SHALOM

● Donate ● Subscribe ● “Like” on Facebook ● Visit our Bookstore

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[1] https://www.thejc.com/judaism/jewish-words/mishpat-1.8055

[2] The Language of Judaism by Simon Glustrom © 1988; Jason Aronson, Inc. Northvale, NJ; p. 399.

How a Gentile Religion Emerged from a Jewish Sect

 

Jesus spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. I have written a lot about Hebrew in the past, but not much about Aramaic lately. Below are some things you need to know about three of the five dialects of Aramaic that are related to the Bible.[1]

 

● Ancient Aramaic is the language of the ancient Aramaic inscriptions up to 700 BCE (from Upper Mesopotamia, northern Syria, and northern Israel).

 

● Official Aramaic was in use from 700 to 300 BCE. This particular Aramaic dialect served not only as the official language of Persia but also as the lingua franca of the Near East. The Aramaic parts of the Bible are: Genesis 31:47 (two words); Jeremiah 10:11; Daniel 2:4–7:28; and Ezra 4:8–6:8; and 7:12–26.

 

● Middle Aramaic was used from 300 BCE to the early centuries CE. The Aramaic inscriptions in Jerusalem and the Aramaic words found in the New Testament, are all in Middle Aramaic. 

 

During the time of Jesus Middle Aramaic was the language of commerce and widely spoken in Judea and the Galilee. It was the language of schools and markets. In synagogues, the Hebrew Bible was orally translated into Aramaic, line by line, for the benefit of those who did not understand Hebrew. Later Aramaic became the language of the Talmud. This creates a very unusual and challenging situations in Christianity.

 

Jesus spoke and taught in Hebrew and Aramaic,

but every book in the New Testament was written in Greek.

 

We do not know whether Jesus spoke or understood Greek. It is likely that he knew a few words, the kind you might use at the market or on the street. But there is no evidence that Jesus thought, taught or prayed in Greek. What evidence we have is overwhelmingly against it. This creates a unique phenomenon in the histories of religions:

 

A religion whose sacred texts were written in a largely unintelligible

language its founder and original members would not have been able to read.

 

This brings us back to the history of Christianity. In the first decades after the Romans executed Jesus, his movement could have gone in either of two directions and become:  

 

● A Hebrew/Aramaic speaking Jewish sect under the leadership of Jacob (James) the brother of Jesus.

 

● A Greek speaking Hellenistic Jewish sect under the leadership of Saul a.k.a. Paul.

 

The Greek speaking movement of Paul rapidly increased in size because he attracted Hellenists Jews and God-Fearing Gentiles that adopted some aspects of Judaism, e.g., kept Shabbat, attended synagogues, etc. A critical component of Paul’s movement was the Septuagint -- the Greek translation of the Hebrew Jewish Scriptures made in Ptolemaic Egypt in the third century BCE. It was the first Bible Gentiles read, taught and memorized stories. Greek was the natural language of thought for Paul, the writers of the Gospels, the authors of the other books of the New Testament, the early Church Fathers and the first Christian theologians. It was their genius that shaped Gentile Christianity.

 

If Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic been closely related languages, this might have been of little consequence. But first-century Greek and Hebrew were not just different languages – they were different types of societies with realities that were diametrically opposed. Concrete acts were the pillars of Jewish societies. Reason and abstract thought produced beliefs that were the foundation of the Greek societies.

 

Later, for Gentile followers of Paul, the meanings of the Hebrew words ELOHIYM, YHVH, TZEDAQAH, SHALOM, AHAVAH, TESHUVAH, etc. were unknown. They were replaced by the meanings of the Greek that replaced them in the Septuagint. A good example of this is the verse that Paul’s gospel and movement are based on. It is Paul’s answer to a question he asked in Romans 4:3 – “For what does the Scripture say?” This was his answer:

 

“Abraham believed God,

and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

 

For Greek speakers, “believed God” was understood to mean “construct philosophical proofs of the existence of God.” But the verse in Romans is a direct quote of Genesis 15:6 -- which was written in Hebrew.

 

Abram trusted God, and He credited it to him as TZEDAQAH.

 

“Trusted God” in Hebrew meant “being faithful to God.” In Hebrew, “faithfulness is a matter of how people behave, not a matter of what people think.” Believing and doing are part of a single continuum -- both are a measure of a living relationship characterized by loyalty to God and to those created in His image.

 

Faithfulness to God is a relationship in which humans become

God’s partners in the work of doing acts of TZEDAQAH –

concrete acts that are TOV that restore SHALOM.

 

For Paul’s Greek speaking Gentile followers, believing God was demonstrated by the strength of their reasoned arguments about abstract notions – when Jesus became the Christ; whether God and Jesus are creatures of the same substance; how one changes his mind to repent; what one must believe to be saved from Hell; what the afterlife will be like; to name a few.

 

For Jesus and his Hebrew speaking Jewish followers, “faithfulness to God was observable” – everyone could see concrete acts of compassion, generosity, kindness, and understanding; i.e., feeding the hungry, healing the sick, housing the homeless, visiting prisoners, forgiving others, and fighting for justice.

 

After the Romans beheaded Paul (between 64 and 67 CE), and then destroyed the Jerusalem Temple (70 CE), Paul’s movement quickly lost any links it had to its Jewish roots. It rapidly spread through Gentile cultures which resulted in “new beliefs based on reasoned arguments, persecutions by Roman emperors and internal wars between Christians themselves.” From those things, the universal Gentile religion emerged that caught the attention of Constantine the Great, Emperor of the Roman Empire.

However, embedded in the Sacred Scriptures of this Gentile religion are “the stories of the Jewish Hebrew speaking Anointed One” – the one they call “The Christ.”

 

Today those original stories are being heard again!

 

Choose Life 1^st by Doing TOV,

Jim Myers

 

Helping People Examine Their Beliefs

● Adopt Shared Morals & Values ● Network to Make SHALOM

● Donate ● Subscribe ● “Like” on Facebook ● Visit our Bookstore

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[1] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aramaic