Commentary On Genesis 1 - 3: Food And Sin

I was searching for the first mentioning of death and poverty in the Bible, and I found myself wandering into Genesis 2 & 3. An interesting thing that caught my attention was the fact that a couple of things were food related: God cursed the soil and the food aspect of our lives; and our first sin was eating. Is it possible that there is symbollism in eating? Please read the rest of my post and then give feedback.

I believe that food, in and of itself is not a serious issue. It is just a physical object, and the same goes for eating. In and of itself, eating is just a physical activity. That is all fine.

The interesting aspect comes when, you think about Eve getting Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit. This reminded me of the priests and priestesses, who would use sex in religious ceremonies. In and of itself, sex is just a physical movement. Yet, when it is combined with religious ceremonies and beliefs, it takes us away from worshiping God. This is very true of eating, as well.

Let us look at it from when God first mentions eating in Genesis 2.

In the garden of Eden, God said that we are allowed to eat of all trees except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating was closely tied to living, and eating incorrectly [i.e. eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] resulted in death. However, we had to avoid only 1 tree and its fruit.

When Satan tempted Eve, he had to convince her that it would make her life better. He had to prey on her memory, emotions, and concerns. After he convinced her, she convinced Adam to eat, as well. An interesting thing is that she did not convince him that eating it was okay. She convinced him that he should do it.

From a psychological perspective, Adam might have been giving into fear. Maybe he was afraid of losing his wife. In his moment of temptation, he prioritized this kind of living and eating over eating the way that God had ordained.

1 very telling statement, is when God says, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree. He did not just condemn the eating. He condemned the eating and hearkening to voice of the wife. This implies that it really is more than just obeying a dietary law.

There are at least a few times in the Bible, when God takes on false gods and topples them and demolishes them. I think that when God cursed the soil, he indirectly and symbolically challenged Adam, saying, You think that you can depend on this false kind of worship? Let's see how well you do, after I curse the ground..

I am just guessing, but it seems like the most logical way of tying everything together is to say that Eve created a new religion. What do you think?

The end. Thank you for reading!