More about the Fall

In the previous post I talked about some of the sybolic words in the KJ version of the story of The Fall.  I would like to take a step back and do a four-fold interpretation of the story of the fall.  You can see an introduction to this kind of approach in an earlier post. As a recap, it is a method developed by Jewish scholars that follows an acronym for the word that means paradise. דספר

 פ= Peshat =פשט =literal

ר=Remez= רמז=symbolic

ד=Drash= דרש=context

ס=Sod =סוד =secret or sacred

1. Literal:  Where Adam and Eve historical characters?  Many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe so.  They believe that Adam  and Eve are the great patriarch and matriarch of the human race. They talk about how Eve must have felt when she had to decide whether or not to take the fruit and how Adam partook of the fruit out of love for Eve and an understanding that it was important that they stay together and produce offspring.  They see the story as the actual origan story of the existance of human beings on the earth and and explanation of how God set up this life to be a proving ground for his spirit children.

2. Symbolic:  There are a lot of Symbolic interpretations of The Fall.  Eve's decision to partake of the fruit so that she could gain wisdom and experience is symbolic of the decision all of God's spirit children made to leave the paradise of the pre-earth life in order to gain experience on the physical world.  It is also symbolic of the life cycle of faith.  Also, As children we are innocent in our faith, but as we age we experience trials that make us doubt and suffer. We can feel cut off from the presence of the Lord.  It takes effort and work to survive spiritually, but we grow and become better disciples through sacrifice and faith in our redemption. 

3. Context: Tradition suggests that this story was written by Moses to be part of the guiding scripture texts of the Children of Israel.  It gave them a cultural identity, established their relationship with God, but also explained why life is difficult.  The Isrealites in this time period had no clear doctrine or belief in "heaven," so when they thought of returning to live with God they pictured the Garden of Eden.  When Moses established the tabernacle it symbolized the Garden of Eden.  It had decorations that looked like the plants of the garden, the Menorah symbolized the Tree of Life, and, as I have already noted, Cheribim were painted on the veil guarding of the Holy of Holies. The Temple was a symbol of hope that one day Isrealites could return to live with God in a state of peace and happiness.

4. Sacred of Secret. The story of The Fall sets up the whole story of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.  The rest of the Old Testament is an account of Fallen Man. The Lord sends prophets and the Law to help guide people to live better lives, but people keep falling short, returning to sin
over and over again. The Law cannot save them and nothing the prophets say makes any permant improvement in human nature.  It is only when the one that is fortold in the story of The Fall, the offspring of the woman who is wounded by the Serpent, comes is there any hope for lasting salvation.  The final chapters of Revolation depict the great dragon, (the serpent from the Garden) being cast into Hell, never to return, not by a great warrior, but by a lamb that has been slain, the wounded son of Eve, as a sacrifice for all.