Episode 6: Memories of Eden, part 3
If the first two parts of the series were the setting and the crime, this part is the trial. It’s the story of the last evening in Eden, but it’s a tragedy with a twist.
This is the third part of a 4-episode series about the Garden of Eden. You can find part 1 here and part 2 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. If you still have questions, you can contact me with the link at the bottom of the page.
Show notes:
Details of James Ruse’s life were taken from this site and from pgs. 49-52 here. A map of the various places in Cornwall mentioned in the story can be seen here.
The town of Bodmin was named as a dwelling place of monks and was the most important religious center in Cornwall at one point. During the 1400s and 1500s it was the center of three rebellions, but became the headquarters for the royalist army during the English civil war. For more details about the town of Bodmin, see here.
The Act for the building of Bodmin jail was passed in 1778 but it’s unclear when the jail was completed. For more details about Bodmin jail, see here.
I say the sentence for James Ruse doesn’t seem to have been in question, but the details are scarce. All I could find was that Ruse was brought to jail, charged, and convicted. We don’t know if he was caught red-handed, plead guilty, plead not-guilty, or what evidence they had against him. All I can say is that the records I found don’t mention any protestations of innocence.
According to pg. 49 in this book, mentioned previously, James Ruse was accused of stealing 5 pounds and 10 shillings. For those (like me) unfamiliar with the British monetary system, you can find an article here showing 12 pence went into each shilling and 20 shillings made up a pound. At the time, the death penalty threshhold was 12 pence as mentioned on pg. 322 here. This means Ruse stole 5.5 pounds at a time when 1/20th of a pound (1/110th of the amount he stole) resulted in capital punshiment.
For the definition of a court of assizes, where Ruse was held, see here.
For the verb conjugation meaning that God was “walking for pleasure” in the garden of Eden, see comment here. That same site also mentions the “cool” of the day as referring to the “wind” of the day, along with this commentary which calls it a “breeze.”
For more on fight-or-flight response, see this article.
For the description of why Adam and Eve were ashamed at being naked, this commentary suggests it was a reaction to having lost communion with God. Perhaps it was physical reaction to feeling spiritually exposed because they no longer measured up to perfection and couldn’t face a perfect God.
For verses in the Bible supporting God’s all-knowing capacity, see Psalm 44:21 where David says that God knows the secrets of the heart. Add to that Hebrews 4:13 where Paul (probably, the authorship of Hebrews is debated) points out that no creature is hidden from God. Finally, in 1 John 3:20, John mentions that God knows everything. For commentaries claiming that God already knew what had happened, and didn’t need Adam and Eve to confess in order to find out, see here as well as Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 231). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For comments about Adam blaming both God and Eve, see here as well as Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 232). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the translation of “beguile” being “caused to forget” and for Eve not really being at fault, see commentary note here on Genesis 3:13. For Eve blaming God indirectly, see comment on commentary at end of Genesis 3:13, here.
For God starting judgment where the sin started, see comment on Genesis 3:14 here. For the serpent being cursed “among” animals instead of “above” them, see comment on Genesis 3:14 here.
For a synopsis of dragons and their different forms, see here. These dragons still show up today, including on the modern Welsh flag. For another style of dragon, see “wyverns,” a term used to describe dragons with wings and only 2 legs. From here it’s interesting to note that “wyvern” comes from the word “viper.”
For comments later in the Bible about animals bearing responsibility for their actions, see Genesis 9:5 and Exodus 21:28-29.
For more on John Chrysostom, see here. For his comment about breaking a sword, see here.
For the punishment of the snake as a symbol of the effects of sin for Adam and Eve’s benefit, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 232). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
It’s odd ot think of, but instantanous “withering” of the snake’s legs or wings wouldn’t be out of place given other stories in the Bible. In the Old Testament, a king’s hand withers after trying to arrest a prophet (1 Kings 13:4) and in the New Testament a fig tree whithers after Jesus pronounces a curse on it (Mark 11:13-21, Matthew 21:18-20). Given this, it’s possible the snake went through a sudden change right in front ot Adam and Eve’s eyes. For the meaning behind the fig tree story, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1980). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 5, p. 644). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the definition of ophidiophobia, see here.
For the common fear of spiders and snakes in both babies and university students, see here. A Biblical argument would suggest the fear of snakes stems from Adam and Eve’s experience early-on. Why people are likely to be afraid of spiders is unclear, but some Gallup polling data suggests a fear of snakes is considerably more significant. This particular poll only says that ophidiophobia is the most common fear among a sample of people in one geographic area. This may not be true of other places in the world or across cultures, but the fact remains that the fear of snakes is prevalent enough for people to feel a need to develop evolutionary arguments to explain the source of humanity’s ophidiophobia. One evolutionary argument is that humans were once monkeys, and snakes eat monkeys, so we have an ingrained fear of snakes, but that fails to explain why we aren’t equally paranoid about eagles or other monkey-munching predators.
When Genesis talks about “seed” the reference is singular suggesting that one child of Adam and Eve would crush the snake’s head, not that they’d all do it together. For specifics, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 233). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the timeline of Jesus’ birth, see Jones, F.N. (2015) Chronology of the Old Testament (pg. 280). Master Books as well as a discussion in Horn, S. H. (1979). In The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary (p. 588). Review and Herald Publishing Association. For Jesus being born in Bethlehem, see Luke 2:1-7.
This curse on the snake, and the promise that a man would crush the snake is the first reference in the Bible to the plan of Salvation. For the conclusion of it, in brief, see 1 John 3:8 where the Son of God comes to destroy the works of the devil, 1 Peter 1:16-17 where Jesus is declared to be the Son of God, 1 John 2:1-2 where Jesus is stated as the atoning sacrifice for the whole world, Hebrews 9:12 where Jesus entered into the holy places by His own blood to secure an eternal redemption, and Revelation 21:1-4 where the devil is destroyed and the Earth made new.
Support for the idea that the whole world was ruled by Lucifer can be found in his temptation of Christ in Luke 4:5-6.
In saying that God didn’t curse Adam and Eve (see commentaries here), I suggested His messages to them were about consequences. More aptly, one could see them as being about consequences and discipline. Elsewhere in the Bible it says that God is love (1 John 4:7-12), God wants good things for us (Jeremiah 29:11), God disciplines us for our good (Proverbs 6:23, Hebrews 12:10-11), and that God doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6). Using those statements as a guide, it seems unlikely God was punishing Adam and Eve for the sake of making them miserable. Instead, explaining natural consequences and discipline appear to be the reasons for God’s statements. Thorns and thistles might be a natural consequence of plants developing defense mechanisms for living in a dangerous world. Difficulty growing food is potentially a combination of an imperfect world and a form of discipline to keep Adam busy where he’d have less time to listen to Lucifer’s temptations. Eve’s pain in having children is harder to categorize. Given the texts listed above and the more obvious statements to Adam, it seems reasonable to suggest it was either a natural consequence (with some possibilities given in the episode in support of that idea) or a type of discipline that was somehow for humanity’s benefit.
In the Bible there are examples where it says God is doing something when He really might be allowing it to happen. One example is Exodus 4:21 where God hardens pharaoh’s heart. One commentary used the analogy of sunlight melting wax but drying out and hardening clay. God’s influence, the sunlight, was the same in both cases, but the nature of the substance it was working on was different. In another case, in 1 Kings 22:20-22, there’s a story about God sending a lying spirit to trick Ahab, but the story is a parable, Ahab was determined to follow the advice of false prophets and God allowed it to happen. For a further explanation on each story, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 516 and Vol. 2, p. 840). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For commentaries on Genesis 3:16 and why having children would be painful for Eve, see this page. In particular, “Barnes’ notes on the Bible” spells out the idea that child-raising as well as child-bearing would be painful. The idea that a woman in Eden might have felt sensation without it being painful is also suggested in this article.
For the word “pain” being translated as “sorrow” see the various different versions for that phrase in Genesis 3:16 listed here and here.
For more on Eve being created as Adam’s equal, see Episode 3: A Forgotten History, part 2 and the show notes for that episode.
God said that Eve’s desire would be for her husband, but he would rule over her. You can interpret this as either a punishment, that Eve would be subjugated, or as something to alleviate the the situation by making Eve desire a close relationship with Adam. For more, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 234). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
The symbiosis of Adam and Eve’s marriage in Eden was lost after their sin resulting in an unequal partnership. To the extent possible, Paul’s advice in Colossians 3:18-19 and Ephesians 5:22-32 tries to mitigate this, showing how to have a happy marriage even in an imperfect world. For the reasons Eve’s opinion came second as a consequence of sin, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 234). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For Adam and Eve’s original diet and how it changed after they sinned, compare Genesis 1:29-30 and Genesis 3:18 and see also Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 217 and 234). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For difficulty growing food and the effort required being a blessing in disguise, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pgs. 234-235). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
We don’t know how much Adam and Eve understood about the plan of Salvation or whether they recognized the idea of their own resurrection, but the concept of a second chance at life is embedded very early in the history of the Bible. Specifically, it comes up in a verse in the book of Job, another book that might’ve been written by Moses, where Job says he will see God again even after death (see Job 19:25-26). For more, see comments in Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 233) and (Vol. 3, pp. 490-493 and 549-550). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
You can find the suggestion that God was, in some form, explaining to Adam and Eve the idea of a stubstitute being sacrificed when He gave them the animal skin clothing in various commentaries here as well as Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 235). Review and Herald Publishing Association and Andrews Study Bible (2010) Genesis 3:21, note. Andrews University Press.
Cutting off access to the Tree of Life kept Adam and Eve from living for eternity in a state of pain and suffering and it gives us insight into God’s character. When the Earth is made new at the end of the Bible, the Tree of Life shows up again along with the people who died in faith that God would fix this world’s problems (Revelation 22:1-4, Revelation 14:1-5, and Revelation 21:27). In that sense, you can see death as God giving us a break from continual suffering. Those who believe in Christ sleep peacefully with the hope of a return to perfection when God ressurects them in the future. For more, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 236). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For more on Cherubim, see Horn, S. H. (1979). In The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary (p. 201). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For references to cherubim in the Bible, see Exodus 25:18, 1 Kings 6:23, Psalms 99:1, Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel 10, and Revelation 4:7. In every case, the beings are shown in proximity to God’s throne. The term “cherubim” isn’t used in Ezekiel 1, but it is used in Ezekiel 10. In the reference in Revelation, John describes something that might be cherubim, but in his version, each creature is a single animal rather than each having the face of a man along with three other animals and they have six wings instead of four. In short, in Revelation they are not called cherubim, but they bear significant similarity to the creatures Ezekiel describes. In either case, these might be symbolic imagery rather than strictly physical descriptions. For comments about what Ezekiel saw, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1977). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 4, p. 609). Review and Herald Publishing Association. For a discussion of John’s description of what might be cherubim, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1980). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 7, p. 768). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
For the actual translation of “a flaming sword” and “turned every way,” see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 236). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden, they were to “keep,” or guard, the garden. Later on in the Bible, both verbs show up again in the description of the duties the Levites had for the Israelites where the Tabernacle in the wilderness took over the role of meeting place that the Garden of Eden was originally meant to occupy. For more, see Andrews Study Bible (2010) Genesis 2:8, note and Genesis 2:15, note. Andrews University Press.
I referenced the meaning of “Eden” a couple of episodes ago, and the origin of the name depends on who you ask. It might be from a Mesopotamian word for “plain,” as in the “Great Plains,” or from a couple of Hebrew words that mean “bliss” or “delight.” For more on the etymology, see Barker, K. L. (2002) NIV Study Bible. Genesis 2:8, note. Zondervan.
For more on “transportation” as a punishment, see article here.
More accurately the prison ship Ruse went to was known as a “hulk.” Hulks were former ships that were no longer seaworthy and were used as backup prisons because of a shortage of prison space during the 1700s and 1800s. Hulks were anchored off-shore and the living conditions on them were… not great. For more you can see here. For a longer history, see this article.
For more on the history of the First Fleet, see here. For the history of New South Wales, the first British colony in Australia, see here.
For the climate and history of Cornwall, see this article. For the fauna of the United Kingdom, see here.
For details about the dryness of Australia, see here. For facts about the snakes of Australia, see here. For dangerous spiders of Australia, see this list. For saltwater crocodile information, see here. For a recent study on how many Great White sharks live off of Australia’s east coast, see here.
To any listeners in Australia, I’m sorry your continent got the short-end of the comparison in this episode. Using the sentence of transportation for convicts in England as a parallel for the eviction of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden is both good and bad. There is some truth to the analogy, Cornwall does have good plant growth and Australia does have lots of dangerous animals, but as with all examples, the system also breaks if you dig into the details. In this case, England came off lots nicer than it probably was. Specifically, regardiging just the legal system, the set of British laws under which James Ruse was convicted are known today as the Bloody Code (see here and here). During that period, crimes against property were considered as serious as assault or murder (see pgs. 49-52 as referenced earlier here). People could be sentenced to death for theft of items valued at as little as $7, in 2019 money (see pg. 322 here). In the case of at least one person on the First Fleet, children as young as 9 were sentenced to exile (see here). Given all of this and the opportunities offered by life on a new unexplored continent, even if they did have the funds to go home after their sentence was up, there were plenty of good reasons for an ex-convict to stay in Australia.
For some of the history of transporting convicts from England to the American colonies, see this article.
For the math of the ratio of convicts to the general population in 1776, see pg. 9 here for an estimate that the population in 1780 was 2.4 million and pg. 1 here for an estimate that 50,000 convicts were shipped to the American colonies.
Update: On 1/6/2020 I added some material to a show note supporting the understanding that God's comments to Adam and Eve were likely about natural consequences and discipline, not arbitrary punishment. On 1/12/2020 I modified a show note about humanity's fear of snakes.