ONE of the most poignant stories to emerge from West Asia is the tale of humanity’s advent and fall contained in an old Hebrew scripture called the To...
Conflicts remain never-ending and are exacerbated by the rising threat of climate change arising from conflict with nature. – REUTERSpixof the most poignant stories to emerge from West Asia is the tale of humanity’s advent and fall contained in an old Hebrew scripture called the Torah. Known as the Adam and Eve story, it has captured public imagination since it circulated throughout the world.
Our science-based elucidation of the story’s intricate meaning resonates with the thinking of primitive hunter-gatherer folks who have long pinpointed this malaise to us. She was also held to be of inferior intelligence, and hence the serpent approaches her knowing that it can deceive her with its crafty talk. The story writer avoids upsetting firmly embedded sociocultural beliefs.
But translating the Hebrew word ra as “evil” throws the meaning offkey. Hebrew linguists know that the phrase da’at vav tov wa ra broadly means the “experiential knowing of serendipity and calamity” or good fortune and misfortune. How did evil emerge? Ra becomes evil when there is “a breach of harmony” and “a breaking up of what is good” . It is our mental bifurcation that creates evil by dividing relationships into the combative spheres of “I” versus “you” and “we” versus “them”. Instead of humanity in nature, life becomes humanity versus nature.
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” . To be naked is the condition of all lifeforms in nature from the amoeba to the ape. Being naked is a figure of speech for living in nature. After the fallout, humanity adopted lifestyles that covered up the way of nature as depicted by the word “coverings” used as a metaphor.
The story climaxes with the birth of two sons, elder Cain and the younger Abel. Cain becomes a planter and Abel takes to herding. This metaphorical pair is based on historical facts, as crop planting was first invented 12,000 years ago. Livestock rearing was invented 2,000 years later.
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