Wednesday, November 28, 2007

How Did Adam Partake Of The Forbidden Fruit?
If eating the forbidden fruit was using cloaked language or double entendre to denote Eve having a scandalous affair with the devil, in what way did Adam partake? Was the devil bisexual? Did Satan have sex with both Eve and Adam? Although this is certainly a possibility, it seems dubious at best.

According to F.R. Tennant:

It is beyond question that various stories concerning the monstrous sexual intercourse of Adam and Eve with demons, and especially of Eve with the serpent or Satan, were both widespread and ancient among the Jews (F.R. Tennant, The Sources of the Doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin, Schocken, NY 1968, page 156).

So the belief was widespread among the early Jews that not only did Eve have sex with Satan, but somehow, demons were involved. Demons are fallen angels, just like Satan. This brings up a couple of questions. First, didn't they eat of The "Tree" of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, singular, NOT The "Trees" of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, plural? Second, are there female demons?

Was The "Tree" Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil Also The "Trees" of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?
There are occurrences in Scripture where something plural is represented by something singular. For example, when the Bible speaks of "the time of Jacob's trouble" in Jeremiah 30:7, it's not talking about the man Jacob. Jacob was long dead and buried when this was written. It's talking about a time of trouble for the descendents of Jacob. In Hosea 14:8, Ephraim says, "I am like a green cypress tree." Yet agian, Ephraim is long dead and buried. This is obviously referring to the descendents of Ephraim, plural. The point is, a tree, singular, is sometimes used in the Bible to refer to a group of persons. Therefore, it is possible that the term "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" could be used by the author to refer not only to Satan, but to his demons as well.