Introductory Question / Discussion
Did you grow up thinking that there was an apple tree in the Garden of Eden? Well, if you’ve read the story, you know that there is no mention of an apple tree. If you google “apple tree and the garden of Eden” you can learn the history of how we began to associate the apple tree with the garden. As we study these early stories we might find more than just the apple tree are in our imagination but not in the story. It takes discipline to read the words as they are; the starting point of any adult study is attention to the words.
I would invite you then to reread our passage, again paying attention to the notes for this chapter. http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3. If you have your own bible [hard copy] notice whether there is a heading to the chapter and compare the heading in your bible with that of the online version, our version has the heading, The Fall of Man, while the online version has Expulsion from Eden. Which of these two heading is a more accurate account of the story itself? Which one is more an interpretation of the meaning of the story from a Christian perspective? See if you can determine what is the copy right date on you bible, the online version is the New American Bible with a copy right date of 11/11/2002. Now you are in a position to have an educated guess at which heading was written earlier. At least in our version, they are both “Catholic;” yet quite different. What do you think about the change? How do you feel about it? Why was the heading changed? Hint: Biblical Scholarship. To Rise to the Level of our Times is to be informed by the best opinions of the day, even if the change makes us feel uncomfortable.
More questions / Discussions
Jody observed that there are two trees in the garden but the Lord God forbade them to eat from only the tree of good and bad. The story doesn’t say anything about not eating of the tree of life. Yet at the end of the story we read, “He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Obviously the woman is expelled too but the story just assumes that without saying it. What is the meaning of these two trees? How do they relate to one another? What different roles do they play in the story?
To move from a literal interpretation, identify meaningful symbols in your life, times when you were moved are clues to symbols; a song, a poem, a gift, a view, a movie, etc. The two trees are not literal, to imagine them in that way is to rob them of their symbolic value, they mean so much more and the more depends upon your own inner life. And they have something to say about that inner life.
Our group saw in the tree of good and bad a symbol for right and wrong, a symbol of our moral landscape. We talked about the fact that much of our moral discernment is culturally influenced. This lead us to ask, for Catholics at least, are there moral rights and wrongs, period, absolutes. Without giving away our discussion, how would you respond? Why does the scripture tells us not judge? What would be a moral choice between God and country [USA]? What role does “being naked” and shame play in the story?
Does “the middle of the garden” have a meaning, does “East of Eden” have a meaning or are they simply directional pointers?
What would happen to the story if there was no commandment? Only after you try to answer that question, should you move to this, what is the role of the commandment in the story? What does the man and woman’s failure mean to us today? Can we blame them for what is wrong with us, our community, our society, our history? Or are they simply representative of us? Are we, in our core, good or bad? Is bad manifested in our “unwillingness.” If you were to identify the areas of life in which you are simply “unwilling” where would those areas be? How do you respond to the “unwillingness” in the other?
As we struggled with these questions, Sean remarked … in the catechism it says to look at the scripture either in a literal sense or a spiritual sense and then it subdivides into a moral, anagogical, and analogical. And … so I’m seating there running those things through my head, trying to see what fits.
Your questions, comments, responses to any or all of the questions posed are welcomed.