The Passion of Eve: Remembering the Beginning, Revised Edition, condensed version

NOTES

Introduction

Maybe you’re curious about what science and religion have to say about the beginning of the universe, the beginning and development of life in all its forms, and in particular, the beginning of human beings. Or maybe you’re not – it’s just too complicated. You know that the debates concerning Creation vs. Evolution and Science vs. the Bible have been raging on for years. You understand that the arguments have moved from the academic intellectual arena into the educational, legal, and political arenas. But now, all of a sudden, you realize there is a concern. What will your kids be taught in school? What will be the worldview of the next generation? There’s a strange feeling that science, evolution, and atheistic (or agnostic) thinking are winning out. Is that right? Is that good? Is that how you see the future? You’re justifiably distraught and confused. Will the next generation end up believing something completely at odds with what you personally believe – the worldview that you and your family have always shared and held close? Will your kids become distanced or estranged from you? Will your friends and colleagues shun you? Is it possible that they might be right and you’ve just been deluded all these years? Or are they being brainwashed systematically by a ruthless societal power structure?

Or perhaps there is another way of looking at things? Could there be a perspective that accommodates both sides – some common overlap where they could both be right to some extent? Most parents and most young people are looking for a comfort factor – a measure that says I want to find common ground so that I don’t lose loving personal relationships that have intrinsic value to my happiness. This is true regardless of worldview – because it is written in the human heart.

So, what should you do? Endlessly debate it? Argue? Join an agenda-based constituency? Give up? Cave in? Pretend that it doesn’t exist? Ignore it all and hope that it will go away? What is one to do? You’re not a lawyer, an activist, a statesman, a philosopher, a scholar, or a theologian. How can you hope to hold your own in a meaningful debate or discussion? You could spend many years reading all the pertinent literature, editorials, and blogs, and still be a neophyte. What’s the answer?

The answer is to go back to the beginning. That is where the answers are (Jesus himself said to look to the beginning for answers – see Mark 10:2-9 and Hebrews 3:13-14). The account of the Beginning in Genesis can be harmonized with physical beginnings that we have discovered through science. One way that can be done is by meticulous analysis (of which there are many good examples), which is great for thinkers and scholars. For the rest of us, however, there is another way – the story. A good well-written story, fully appreciated, can reveal important truths far more effectively to more people than intellectual rigor. The ‘take-away’ from a good story can be life-changing.

THE GENESIS STORY

There is a great controversy today that rages around the authenticity of the Bible, and the scientific theories of how human life began on this planet. Viewpoints range from extremely divergent to differing only slightly in the details. The issue is philosophical, but the debates employ modern techniques of all kinds (often resulting in acrimony). To that end, it is suggested that both sides pause for a moment, and consider the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. Why? Because it embodies the basic essence of personal reality and existence – the struggle of human nature between Good and Bad. And this essence, if it truly is real, must be common to both sides.

The familiar version found in the Genesis story is not the ultimate source of this fundamental legend. It is not an account that sprang perfectly inviolate from Heaven directly into the Old Testament pages. It is simply a version (a very good one, to be sure) of a myth, belief, or explanation handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation of humankind – through the incoherent unrecorded ages – like an inextinguishable ray of light that ties the time when human life began, to the time when the human mind developed sentience, consciousness, and awareness, could finally express itself in language, and eventually record its expressions in writing which other human beings could see, read, and understand. This is the most ancient story in the world.

That the Adam and Eve story pervaded the thoughts of ancient writers is seen in the large number of versions that exist, or whose existence can be traced, through the writings of Greeks, Hebrews, Syrians, Egyptians, Abyssinians, Africans, and other ancient peoples. The versions differ in the details but the overall theme is the same. Anyone who examines so much apparently unrelated evidence will probably reach the same conclusion – there must be something to it!!

The book in your hand right now is a story; a story based on multiple versions of accounts handed down by word of mouth, from generation to generation, linking the time that the first human life was created to the time when somebody finally decided to write it down. It is a story that revolves around two primordial characters, Adam and Eve, and their experiences both in and outside of the Garden of Eden. The Biblical account has been with us for centuries. But worthy stories that interpret and expand the Genesis account are indispensable for clearing the mind and broadening our understanding. The most famous exemplary work in this regard, is the monumental epic by John Milton, Paradise Lost. But times have changed, culture has changed, and even religion has changed since then.

In this book, the emphasis is not on event detail, as in Paradise Lost, but on Adam and Eve’s perception, consideration, and assessment of the events – particularly that of Eve; the rational thought processes that preceded her decisions, her reasoning that tried to explain why things are as they are, and the prophetic insights she had that tried to predict how things might be in the future. All speculative, of course, but all based on priceless ancient writings in addition to the Bible.

The result is a plausible story thread that is logically and literally sound, but naturally is interpretive. Here is what Eve may have been thinking – here is what she may have believed – and here is how she may have coped with the trials and tribulations surrounding her. Without family, peers, anyone to relate to besides God and Adam, or anything that could work as a reference, Eve must live out a human life that has meaning. Sound familiar? Are there lessons to be learned here – pearls of wisdom that can help us all cope with our lot in life? I think so. But let the reader decide!

Generally, it becomes easier for a person to achieve the internal balance of faith, good works, and wisdom that will lead to salvation and everlasting life, if he/she has a grasp of what happened at the Beginning, how it happened, and why it happened. Christian beliefs are not incompatible with modern secular and naturalistic beliefs, and a clear understanding of our beginnings is fundamental to helping the curious, skeptical, or fallen-away person, to re-unite with Christian core values.

allegory

BEFORE OUR BEGINNING

Before our beginning there was NOT nothing.

There was no time or space, no matter or energy, no data or information.

There was no song. No poem. No whisper of a story. There were no hues of blues and greens, no blends of color, no child’s laughter, no sensory aromas, no bright yellow flowers, no monarch butterflies; not even a red sky at dawn. There was no fire and there were no rhythms. There was no work, no ice-cold drink on a hot day, no flow to the center, no far and no near, for there was nothing to be measured. There was no structure, no system, no birth, no death, and no moonlight dancing by the evening tide. There was no bitter and no sweet, and there was no gentle breeze on the cheek. There was no texture, no form, and no early morning fog. The darkness was not even black for there was no such thing as color.

But there was something – a perfect, unbounded, and timeless Love. A Love that permeated and enveloped all. Hovering there in the silent abyss of all existence, was The One, the essence of agape Love.

The One was pure Spirit. It was the Uncreated; the Infinite First; the Uncaused Cause. It was existent not for a day or for a trillion years, for it was outside of space and time as we know it. The Uncreated Spirit simply WAS. It necessarily existed in the silence of the endless deep. It was genderless, but incorporated an essence of ‘Light’ that we understand as male and female. It was triune in nature, because it also contained an essence of ‘Truth’ and an essence of ‘Wisdom’. In our limited realm of experience, it was like a father figure to us – and so we called it ‘Father’.

The Great Invisible Uncreated Spirit was wise and understood His own unbounded Love. He knew there was a passion in that Love – a passion that, somehow, challenged Him for more. But what? What more could there be?

OUR BEGINNING

Suddenly, the eternities of contemplation paused, and it was as if He had raised an ‘eyebrow.’ He was without another to listen to the thoughts of His ‘mind’ and the feelings of His ‘heart!’ He was without a mirror to reflect His passion back into His ‘eyes.’ He was without a Beloved to passionately love and be loved by. His unrequited passion drifted into eternity. There were no echoes for there was no other spirit to empathize with His magnificent passion. The Spirit ‘wept,’ for He knew that His Love was an unending and unquenchable Love.

But Hark! An epiphany was manifest at the moment of the first ‘tear.’ The essence of all existence suddenly became more focused. Everything impinged on His fervent longing to love more, and to be loved back. The Spirit passionately longed for a Beloved. He longed to ‘embrace’ someone, and be ‘embraced’ by that someone. He felt the irresistible urge to change reality. Yet the silence overwhelmed His passion. The empty silence was unbearable.

The Uncreated Spirit ‘looked’ around and saw the emptiness. He longed to set fire to the silence. He felt the urge to unleash His ‘breath’ of life into the darkness. Within the ‘heart’ of the Spirit, the passion of the Artist to paint the empty canvas around Him exploded into readiness. The urgency to design was stimulated. The will to shape was launched. A tune was heard in the composer’s heart. The poetic impulse emerged. The resolve to blaze the colors of light into the darkness was furthered. It was a determination to carve something new out of the void; to blend shapes and colors, to replace formlessness with form and beauty.

THE DESIGN INTENT

The Uncreated Spirit lifted His ‘head,’ and though His ‘eyes’ only saw darkness, His ‘heart’ and His ‘mind’ imagined what could be. He ‘shouted’ with elation! His ‘heart’ saw beauty and His ‘mind’ embraced form. Imagination was ignited, and His unbridled dreams gave way to ideas as they swirled around and danced through His entire being. And then He transformed those ideas into design concepts as they churned around in His ‘mind.’ Forces, energies, things, and beings emerged in these concepts; and He knew them, reflected on them, and loved them all. He stretched out space and time. He fashioned matter and energy. He formulated data and information. He designed it all. He saw it teeming with the creative expressions of His ‘heart.’ And He knew that it was good.

The Uncreated Spirit ‘smiled,’ and then He ‘laughed’ with a thunderous roar. His laughter was mixed with moist shining ‘eyes,’ and crescendoed like a waterfall of joy. The Spirit opened His ‘mouth’ and began to create. He parted His ‘lips’ and bluntly unleashed a mighty primal ‘shout!’ His ‘Words’ poured out from within. They advanced into the waiting emptiness like a mighty consuming fire. Let there be Light! He said.  The command that shook into existence our universe had been issued forthright!

The Uncreated Spirit glowed with triumph as He watched this consuming fire, this brilliant Light, this expression of His passion. Other commands followed. He rejoiced, for He saw that the ‘Words’ that were emerging from Him were overpowering – completely changing the landscape – a new essence of reality was commencing!

For a moment He was silent. He blinked His ‘eyes,’ took a deep ‘breath,’ and watched contentedly as the unfolding of the new essence of reality continued on unabated. He listened to the music, and watched the swirling energy around Him erupt with fresh and enchanting exuberance. He basked in the radiance of the extraordinary happenings surrounding His creation. He reveled in the glory of the cosmos. And then He ‘wept’ again, this time with pure delight, for He saw that all He had formed was good. He briefly closed His ‘eyes’ in reverence, and contemplated the magnificence of it all.

THE HUMAN DESIGN

And then, before the blink of a supernatural ‘eye,’ a new reality had been expressed. A new universe and a new world had been formed per His magnificent design! And a genesis of life from non-life had begun! He immersed Himself in the new reality. He ‘knelt’ down and ‘caressed’ one of the dazzling sprays of yellow tulips on a mountain pass. He ‘smelled’ the tantalizing aroma and beamed. He ‘waded’ into a pool of sparkling spring water, for an instant catching ‘sight’ of His own reflection. He ‘tasted’ the delicious fruit from a fig tree and was well pleased. Then He reached His ‘hands’ down into the deep, rich, life giving black mud. He grasped a handful of it, lifted it to His ‘face,’ and ‘sighed’ the biggest of all sighs. In utter exhilaration He paused to ponder the moment. The moment for fully realizing His passion had now come. From this dirt He would create another being! A being something like Him – a human being!  In His own image He had designed it, and He would create it by bringing it into existence.

The Uncreated Spirit continued His ‘handiwork’ with the mud, carefully ‘manipulating’ it according to His will and design. He ‘smiled’ because He was now embarking on the loftiest and most dizzying adventure within all the aspects of creation – and He embraced it wholeheartedly. Two of these novel human beings would He create – such that He could love them, they could love Him, and they could love each other! His ‘heart’ leapt for joy!

IMPLEMENTATION AND INTERVENTION

And then He ‘called’ forth the dust, the water, and the lightning. He ‘formed’ the bodies in His own image, and summoned fire and blood to course through the innards of the newly framed beings. He freely gave them the attributes of mind, vision, and sensory awareness. He freely gave them the gifts of a sentient soul and a divine spirit. From His own ‘breath’ He ignited life within this crowning masterpiece of His creation. Man and woman, He created them, His Beloved.

They lifted up their wondrous newborn eyes. The Spirit extended His strong ‘hands,’ wrapped His ‘arms’ around them, and lifted them up. He placed them in a beautiful garden and gave them stewardship over everything as another free gift. His ‘voice’ was warm and tender. "Come with me, my Beloved. Walk with me. Create with me. Take my ‘hands’ and share existence with me. Know that my passion