Leaving the Garden

November 15, 2008, 5:05 am by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 3:20-24

I will continue in the third chapter of Genesis with the 20^th verse.  The sheer arrogance of these next 5 verses requires that I deal with them individually.  First, Adam names Eve.  Notice that she does not pick a name for herself.  YHWH did not name Adam, and it is not recorded in the Word how Adam gets his name.  The first occurrence of the name Adam is in Genesis 2:20.  For some reason Eve is named by Adam, yet remember that in Genesis 1:27 YHWH created both man and woman on the same day!  Misogyny starting from the 3^rd chapter of the first Book of the Word, great!  The Word continues with the meaning of Eve.  Adam gives her the name Eve because she will be the mother of all the living.  I am sure glad she did not become the mother of all the Dead!  Two things strike me as I read this.  Before, when Adam was naming things he had dominion over everything he named, but the study notes in the NIV claim that this “naming” was not with dominion, but instead to memorialize Eve!  One of these days I would love to see the original Hebrew translation to verify that the word used for “naming” could have two different meaning.  The other thing that strikes me is that Eve will be the mother of all the living…what?  She is not the mother of all the living animals, only of the living humans.  It seems just a little arrogant to name someone for being the mother of all the living when humankind is such a small percent of the living organisms on the plant. 

We also know that Adam only had three sons, who birthed the wife’s of Seth and Cain?  Or was this incest?  Don’t you think that we would see this in our genetic make-up?  Only having one source of the X chromosome would be remarkable, but instead we find at least 3.

In the next verse YHWH makes better clothes for Adam and Eve.  Why?  They have already made clothes in Genesis 3:7.  True, the skins are better than the fig leaves, but it seems odd that YHWH helps Adam and Eve, right after he curses them.  Is this like the abusive father, apologizing after beating his family?

YHWH certainly talks to himself a lot (Gen 3:22).  I guess when you are an all-powerful and all alone, one might tend towards babbling to oneself.  He also uses that royal “us” more than an all-loving creator should, he definitely seems hooked on himself.

YHWH banishes Adam and Eve ends this chapter of Genesis.  To insure that mankind does not live forever, YHWH kicks mankind out of the garden and then places a cherubim and a flaming sword at the gates to guard the tree of life.  Does this seem excessive, the tree of life does not exist on this planet, at least not in this dimension!  We know this because there is no Garden of Eden on the planet, we would have found it by now.  Don’t you think that if we found a cherubim and a flaming sword it would increase our curiosity?  Would it not make us more determined to get into the garden?  So YHWH has removed the garden from this planet, yet he still set two guards on it to keep us out.  I wonder where it is.  Maybe one day we will be able to find it, searching all the planets and planetoids out there!

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