Last week we studied Genesis chapters 3 and 4.
We studied an early painting depicting salvation history from the time of Adam and Eve to the beginning of the organized church. That painting appears below, in the last entry “In the Garden”.
The painting represents the essential experience of human beings and explains why we live in a state of separation from God and happiness. The serpent is depicted as a strange half-man/half-snake with horns, lurking in the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He definitely looks crafty, creepy, and evil even to my modern eye.
It is interesting to be aware that the serpent has been represented in different visual ways by various people. Interpreting the word rendered “crafty” in the beginning of Genesis chapter 3 as “beautiful” prompted some artists to visualize this entity as an angelic being. Others might picture the serpent more like a dragon. It is not clear, in context, that the serpent is the devil, or Satan, though this has been inferred by many.
Why this evil thing is in the garden raises theological questions, as a class member pointed out. If God is sovereign, why is there an evil entity in paradise? One would think God must be responsible. But then, if God is responsible, why are people accountable? We’ll certainly work on this apparent incongruency in the future.
We used Steig’s poem referring to the “crunch” Adam would love as an ironic reference to the grave consequences of the first couple’s and the serpent’s disobedience to God. The “crunch” for the serpent was to be consigned to life crawling on his belly, in the dust. This accounts for the existence and, somewhat, of the perceived meaning of snakes, which are often offensive to women (and a little creepy to certain pastors, too). Do you think these reptiles deserve their bad reputation?
The “crunch” for Eve gives meaning for the pain women experience in childbirth. We know in ancient times that having children was an even riskier business than now. Yet then as now human beings have a deep, primal urge to have children, despite the risk and pain. This account of how people continue to live and behave seems on the mark. Wouldn’t it be great if having kids didn’t hurt so much? And what is it in us that allows us to forget all that and jump back in if we’ve experienced that pain? How does this relate to how we understand God’s love for us -- children who cause our Creator pain?
Adam gets sent to work. ‘Nuff said. Ouch.
Both Adam and Eve are walking, forlornly, toward a grim-reaper figure (death) who sits at the mouth of a cave leading to a very hot place. In this the painter pretty clearly illustrates a belief that sin leads to death and eternal suffering. This is definitely a later Christian interpretation of death and it’s consequences and goes beyond the Genesis story. We did not get into concepts of hell this time, but probably will get back to this at some point.
At the same time, the painting depicts Adam and Eve stumbling away from Eden, while an angel with a flaming sword prods their backsides. I noted how this angel looks an awful lot like another one painted to represent the serpent. It’s also kind of interesting, from an archetypal point of view, that, but for the wings, the angel rather resembles a Jedi knight with a light sabre. I hadn’t thought of a relationship between our conceptions of angels and the heroes of Star Wars before, but there might be something implicit there. Speaking of Obi Wan Kenobi, who died at the hands of evil Darth Vader and came back . . .
The upper left corner of the painting shows the crucifixion of Christ, with two thieves on either side. We see this scene as through a window, and it is placed up in the branches of the tree of knowledge. I think the painter wanted to illustrate God’s eternal plan and provision -- as in Adam all would die, so in Christ all would live (Romans). One of our class members mentioned the possibility that Adam and Eve, dressed in skins of animals, first experienced the grace of innocent shed blood. The painter might appreciate that additional interpretation within his “picture” of salvation.
Finally, the small additional scene in the upper right of the painting reveals the painter’s understanding of what needs to be done in light of everything else pictured. It is a scene of the baptism of a baby. No doubt this painter believed that the consequence of Adam and Eve’s disobedience is the problem of original sin, that God’s provision for salvation is the sacrifice of Christ, and so babies born in original sin must, as soon as possible, receive the grace of Christ through baptism. This is not our doctrine in the United Methodist Church, as noted previously. What would you have painted up in that corner, as representing what we must now do, in light of Christ’s sacrifice?
I think this painting presents some very interesting images, and some interesting views about what the story of Adam and Eve means. I see this artwork, also, as an example of what we all do: see the meaning of Biblical texts through our own personal, culturally conditioned “lenses”.
A study of these chapters would not be complete until we ask our personal questions:
1. What does this story tell YOU about God?
2. What does this story tell You about YOU?
3. What does this story tell you about your relationship with God?
Harrell Guard will be your teacher this week, Sunday, October 14. Read Genesis chapters 6-9, the saga of Noah and the flood.
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