Episode 5: Memories of Eden, part 2
Part 2 brings heaven’s civil war to the Earth. So far, Lucifer’s rebellion hadn’t gone how he had hoped. Now it was time for a back-up plan.
This is part 2 of the story of Eden. You can find part 1 here. Quotes from the Bible were were taken from the English Standard Version (see ESV copyright here) or the New King James Version. For the other sources, including commentaries, websites, or articles, you can find links and references in the show notes below in the order they appeared. You can read through them while you listen or come back and check them out later. There are a lot of interesting details that got left in the notes. If something doesn’t make sense, or you have questions, you can also contact me with the link at the bottom of the page.
Show notes:
Details on the life of Benedict Arnold come from here and here.
For the Battles of Saratoga being a turning point in the American Revolutionary war, see here. The surrendering general, Burgoyne, gave Arnold the credit of victory for the patriots as stated in UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography found here.
For an overview of John Andre, see here.
For God’s commands to Adam and Eve about being in charge of the Earth and care takers in the Garden of Eden, see Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 2:15.
The instruction God gave humans to “subdue” the planet may be less about conquering the dangers of nature and more about learning and using its resources. This probably includes farming, but might also refer to making tools, constructing buildings, and harnessing water or other sources of energy. See Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 217). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
God’s command regarding the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” is taken from Genesis 2:16-17.
For a more complete account of the the story of Lucifer, see the first piece of this series at Memories of Eden, part 1 and the show notes for that episode.
For the meaning of “to keep” in Genesis 2:15, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 224–225). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
We don’t know when the story in Genesis 3 took place. In his chronology, Ussher thought it was probably the same day that Adam and Eve were first placed in the Garden of Eden, though there isn’t any clear support for that idea. Ussher also assumed this happened on the 10th day of the world, probably becaues he believed the Day of Atonement was a memorial of that event and it occurred on the 10th day of the month according to Leviticus 16:29. Even if Adam and Eve were forced to leave on the 10th day of history, which is speculation at best, it isn’t clear why Ussher thought that was their first day in the garden. Genesis 1:27-31 says that man and woman were made on the 6th day, and in the detailed description in Genesis 2, Adam and was put in the garden in Genesis 2:15 before the description of Eve’s creation. As best I can tell, this makes it seem like Adam and Eve were in the garden by the 6th day of history, or the 7th at the latest. For Ussher’s dates, see Pierce, L., Pierce, M. (2012) The Annals of the World. (pgs. 17-18). For the concept that Genesis 2 is a more detailed version of the story of creation in Genesis 1 (rather than a different version of the story as some might argue) see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 221–222). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
I did eventually find the combination and get the safe open. There was nothing exciting inside.
For the length of the story in the ESV translation of Genesis, I used the words in Genesis 2:15-17 and Genesis 3:1-9.
We often think of the temptation of Eve as occurring by the tree with the snake in the tree or near to it and at least one commentary pictures it that way, but Genesis doesn’t say. Even so, while the Bible doesn’t note whether or not Lucifer was restricted to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, there are a couple of reasons to think he might have been. First, the warning God gave Adam and Eve focused on a location not a person. Second, it’s hard to see the rest of the garden being much of a paradise if Lucifer could follow Adam and Eve around as a traveling forbidden-fruit salesman. In any case, given that Eve later saw that the tree itself was nice looking (Genesis 3:6), it seems likely that the final temptation and decision happened close to the tree itself.
As evidence that this snake and the devil are one and the same, see Revelation 4:7-9.
For Genesis’ introduction of the snake, see Genesis 3:1. The description of the snake as “crafty” comes from a word that can mean a couple of different things in the Bible. Sometimes it refers to a negative trait of character, but it can also mean things like “prudent.” For more, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 229). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For details on the Titanoboa fossils, see here. For the Smithsonian model, see here. Sometimes anacondas get over 30 ft long, (about 75% of the average titanoboa length) but most aren’t any longer than 16 feet as mentioned in the show. For details on anacondas, see here.
For the Olmec rattlesnake with a feathered covering, see pg. 180 here.
The Maya referred to the feathered snake god as “Kukulkan,” the Aztecs referred to “Quetzacoatl,” and there are even more names from other tribes. For more about Quetzalcoatl, see here and here. See this article for a picture of the Quetzal bird.
For the codice written by a Spanish friar around 1550, see here. There are also scans with the drawing of the feathered serpent (eating a person) here.
For more on the Creek Indian story about the Horned serpent or the Tie snake, see pgs. 24-30 here.
For Joel Martin’s description of the Tie snake, see pg. 26, here. In the article referenced earlier, on pgs. 24-25, it mentions that Joel Martin doesn’t distinguish between the “Tie snake” and the “Horned serpent,” but then goes on to say that other scholars do see a difference between them, and that Martin’s description might fit the Horned serpent better. Horned Serpent symbolism is, by no means, cut-and-dried. Mythology and iconograpy is complicated and unclear. For instance, people also link the Horned serpent to a lion-like being they called a “Water Cougar” with the head of a mountain lion replacing the head and antlers of a deer. In that depiction, the animal has four legs, no feet, long hair, and a long, fishlike tail. For more, see pgs. 24-30 here. A brief bio of Joel Martin can be found here.
For an overview of James Mooney, see here. For more on the Cherokee in general, see here. For details about the mythology of the Cherokee, and the quote by Mooney, search “Uktena” here.
For more information on “nagas,” the snakes in the Hindu religion, see here. For the jewel they supposedly carry in their heads, see here.
For the historic use of “dragon” to mean “huge serpent,” see here.
For reference to the Hittites writing stories about dragons in 1500 BC, see here.
For more on the ancient Babylonian dragon, see here. For “Chaldean” becoming synonymmous with “Babylonian” see comment in this article.
For the Garden of the Hesperides and Ladon, the dragon guarding the apples, see here. Whether the tree of golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides was guarded by a snake or a dragon might be semantics given that “dragon” refers to a large snake as mentioned earlier. This article refers to a dragon. Pausanias, a Greek geographer who lived during the Roman Empire, talks about a a snake coiled in the tree. For more, see this article about Pausanias and here for what Pausanias wrote.
For the Chinese description of a dragon, something they considered benevolent despite its terrifying appearance, see here.
For evidence of dragon stories all around the world, see here and pg. 97, here.
For birds with fluorescent feathers, see here and here. For what makes a highlighter seem so bright, see here.
For the definition of iridescence, see here, and for a further discussion, see here.
For a description of boa constrictor’s skull shape, see here.
For Luther’s comments on Eve’s lack of fear, see here starting with the paragraph that begins “But we further reply”
For the comment about Lucifer being “perfect in wisdom” see Ezekiel 28:12. For a full discussion of Lucifer in heaven and further show notes about it, see the last episode here as mentioned earlier.
For the ancient Babylonian image of a snake whispering in a woman’s ear as she and a man sit under a tree full of dates, see here, and for a description, see here. The cylinder shows Adam in the scene too, though, for reasons I get to later, Adam was probably somewhere else in the garden when Eve talked to the snake.
Quotes of of the conversation between Eve and the snake are from Genesis 3.
For more on how the snake’s question to Eve tried to confuse the command God had given, see here as well as Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 229–230). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the significance of Eve referring to the tree by a generic label rather than it’s name, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 230). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the idea that there was more to the conversation between Eve and the snake than what fits in the story in Genesis, see here.
Some translations say that the snake told Eve she would be as “gods,” but as “God” is probably the better translation. For more, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 230). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the idea that Lucifer was trying to get Eve to wonder why God had held back this one fruit, see comment on Genesis 3:1, here.
For the background of what the forbidden fruit might be, and how it became the apple we think of today, see this article.
For the etymology of the word, “apple” see here.
For the idea that the Chinese might record a Mulberry tree as the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” and the reasoning behind it, see Nelson, E.R., Broadberry, R.E. (1997) God’s Promise to the Chinese. (pg. 36).
For the discovery of unexploded bombs in various World War II locations in recent years, see this article. Even in 2016, more than 2,000 tons of unexploded munitions were discovered in Germany every year as mentioned here.
Supporting the idea that Lucifer was speaking through a real animal, is Genesis 3:1 which refers to the serpent and compares to the the “other” beasts of the field that God had made. This seems to suggest the serpent was one of those beasts. Later on in the story, the serpent is punished, further supporting the concept that it was a real animal, and not just the way Lucifer “appeared.”
For the suggestion that the snake learned to speak by eating the fruit, see here.
Eve’s desire for the forbidden fruit uses the same Hebrew term that describes coveteousness in the 10th commandment. In that sense, it is interesting to note that the 10th commandment tripped up Eve, and it was also the one that made Paul realize his own flaws based upon Romans 7:7-9. For more, see Andrews Study Bible (2010) Genesis 3:6-8, note. Andrews University Press and Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 230 and Vol. 6, p. 549). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the history of the phrase, “crossing the Rubicon,” see this explanation.
For more about Durian, the fruit so pungent there are laws about it, see here.
Depending on how you read the story in Genesis, There’s a debate about whether Adam and Eve were standing together while the snake talked to Eve or if Adam was actually off somewhere else. Specifically, the language says that “Eve gave to Adam, who was with her.” but this leaves a lot of ambiguity. You can interpret that statement to mean Adam was standing there silently the whole time Eve was being tempted, or it could mean that Adam was “with her” in the garden somewhere. Thre might be some support for this second suggestion since Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the snake. If Adam was standing next to Eve the whole time, she might’ve accused him of being deceived by the snake too, but no such intimation is made. Moreover, when God pronounces judgment in Genesis 3:17, He says, “because you have listened to the voice of your wife,” and refers to Eve, rather than the snake. From this it seems reasonable to think that Eve was on her own when she talked to the serpent and first ate the fruit. For more, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 231). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
Supporting the idea that Adam’s choice was worse than Eve’s are comments from Paul in the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul talks about Eve being deceived. He states the same thing again in 1 Timothy 2:14 but adds that Adam was not decieved. Elsewhere, in Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:21, he talks about sin entering the world through a man. Now, it’s possible that this was a generic term used to refer to a human, or because Paul wanted to draw a clear parallel between Adam’s sin and Christ’s salvation, but it could also be pointing out the seriousness of Adam’s choice compared to Eve being tricked. For more about Adam and Eve’s different choices, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 231). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the background of Stalin, see his bio here.
Notes on the history of the Berlin wall came from here. For the percentage of people crossing from East Germany to West Germany, see pg. 122 here. If you read further in that source, it also mentions the US doing a less obvious wall on their own citizens by restricting international travel to certain people by refusal to provide a passport during the 1950s and 1960s. That system was ultimately struck down by the courts (see pgs. 127-129).
For details on the Cuban election system, see here.
For a variety of statistics about rigged elections, see this article.
For more on why Adam and Eve were allowed to sin, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 225). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For evidence that God wanted humans to live while other societies believed the gods wanted humans to be mortal, see Barker, K. L. (2002) NIV Study Bible. Genesis 2:9, note. Zondervan.
For the making of linen see here.
For cotton as a textile, see the article here.
For more on figs and fig leaves, see this article.
For more on Vidkun Quisling, a traitor to Norway during World War II, see here. His name has also made it into the dictionary as a synonym for traitor, a rather unfortunate legacy.
For an overview of Kim Philby, see here.