Finding the Self in the Garden of Eden: The Cosmic and Psychological Dimensions of the Knowledge of Good and EvilArthur L. George SBL/AAR Annual

Meeting, San DiegoNovember 24, 2014

The Mythology of EdenArthur George

and Elena George

Hamilton Books, 2014Award-Winning Finalist, USA Best Book Awards 2014 (Religion- General category)

The Eden Story’s Genre as that of Myth

“A myth is the product of the unconscious mind…. When the symbolism of the myth is understood, meanings that were hidden become conscious. The story of Adam and Eve partakes of the genre of myth and so must be approached symbolically.”

Rev. John Sanford, The Man Who Wrestled with God“The archetypal symbols are the [Eden] story, not its embellishment.”

Prof. James Charlesworth (2010)

Summary of Presentation•The cosmogonic/cosmological ancient Near Eastern context of the Eden story as a creation story

•How such context applies to human nature and behavior, and is reflected in the Eden story

•The cosmic and psychic nature of evil and of the knowledge of good and evil, and how this understanding dovetails with Yahweh’s Law

•The psychic nature of Adam and Eve’s transgression

•Psychological postscripts for the modern world

The Nature of Creation in the Ancient Near East

In the ANE, creation was conceived of as the ordering of preexisting formless (chaotic) watery substance:•Mesopotamia – Sumerian myths and Babylonian Enuma Elish•Egypt – cosmos emerges from watery chaos (nun)•Genesis 1 (Priestly author, “P”): Preexisting formless, dark, watery void (tōhû wābōhû). The creation occurs when God brings into order the pre-existing substance.•Genesis 2:5 (Yahwist author, “J”): The preexisting chaos was a desert wasteland (Eden) rather than water.

ANE “Cosmic Geography”

SPACE-ATM O SPHERE

W ATERS ABO VE

W ATERS BELO W

Firm am ent

L A N D

Heavenly Bodies

Why this Common Motif of Creation as the Ordering of

Chaos?•The notion of chaos derives from our unconscious and indeed reflects and symbolizes the unconscious, where likewise there are no clear notions of time, space, cause and effect, etc.= no order or form.

•We see this in our own coming into ego consciousness, which is experienced as the world coming into being:•Waking up from sleep each morning•Psychic development of infants/young children•Likewise in the initial rise of ego consciousness in early humans

•Therefore, corresponding symbols are projected in creation myths.

Creation/Order is Inherently Unstable

•Chaos is never eliminated. It is always trying to infiltrate and disrupt the ordered cosmos. As a result, the cosmos is inherently unstable.

•Chaos is usually symbolized by a serpent/dragon, (e.g., Tiamat, Yam, Apep, Typhon), which must be vanquished for the cosmos to be created/restored.

•So when serpent appears in Garden, the audience knows that chaos has appeared and is threatening the orderly creation.

•The serpent and Eve’s dialogue with it as reflected in the imaginings of her mind are representative of the chaos that has erupted in her mind.

Teleological Nature of Creation, and Humans’ Purpose

in the World•In ANE creation stories, nothing is fully created until a deity has given it a name and a destiny/purpose. The created, named elements of the cosmos thus have a teleological nature.

•In Adam’s case, his name is a wordplay on the Hebrew word for arable ground/soil/land/earth, ͗ădāmâ. This indicates that Adam’s purpose and destiny (and hence that of humankind) is linked with the land and the earth itself.

•Specifically, Adam’s divinely decreed task is both to cultivate (͑ābad) and guard/preserve (šāmar) the garden (Gen. 2:15). This is an assignment and destiny to preserve and further develop the divinely created order in the originally perfect garden (Adam’s world).

Normative Nature of Order vs. Chaos

•Order is good, while chaos is bad/evil. This is why in Genesis 1 God pronounced his ordered creation “good,” and why similarly the garden of Eden is considered ideal.

•Whenever chaos erupts, there is to that extent “uncreation.” This is bad/evil because it negates God’s teleological purposes in the creation. Good/evil is a cosmic phenomenon.

•This has implications for human conduct/morality/ethics: To act against this divinely created order and purpose is wrongful (sin). It contradicts humanity’s own divinely decreed purpose/destiny to further order and regulate the cosmos.

•Adam and Eve failed in their task to preserve and further order in the garden. This was the underlying nature of the transgression in the garden of Eden.

Chaos Within Humans (1)•Since humans are part of the created cosmos, the cosmic dynamic featuring chaos vs. order also exists within humans.

•When Adam was being formed from the earth, order did not yet exist on earth. Adam was created from the substance of the chaotic Eden before the ideal garden existed. He was created as a combination of the chaotic desert wasteland soil and the chaotic waters from the tehôm below.

•Therefore, humans as elements of the cosmos naturally have an element of chaos within themselves.

Chaos Within Humans (2)•This is reflected in J’s Gen. 6:5 and 8:21:•6:5 – “every inclination/imagination [yēṣer] of the thoughts of their hearts” was evil

•8:21 – “the inclination/imagination [yēṣer] of the human heart is evil from youth”

•yēṣer is nominal form of the verb (yāṣar) that J uses in Gen. 2:7, 19 to describe Yahweh’s forming both Adam and the animals from the ground. Thus, yēṣer also means “that which is shaped or made.” It is thus a formation within the human psyche, which is why J can say (above) that presumably sinless youths who don’t even know good and evil have it.

•Hence the later rabbinical concept of the human natural “inclination/impulse of evil,” yēṣer hara, which became the rabbinical explanation for evil in the world.

The Primeval History Depicted Human Nature Taking its

Course•Since humans’ divine purpose is to further order, they must fight and suppress the chaos within themselves. This is what Yahweh counseled Cain about: “sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen. 4:7).

•Failure to control the chaos in oneself results in sin and increases chaos in the world. The sins of humans can actually infect nature/the world, causing further chaos.

•This is what happened between Cain’s sin and Noah’s flood. Chaos (sin, violence) snowballed, until Yahweh was fed up and decided to start over through the cleansing of the flood. But then the same thing started happening (Noah’s drunkenness and Canaan’s curse; Tower of Babel episode).

The Remedy? Twofold: Knowledge of Good and Evil +

the Law•First, humans need to have the knowledge of good and evil, and apply this knowledge in order to control chaos and avoid sin.

•But, as history showed, having knowledge of good and evil in itself is not sufficient. Humans on their own are incapable of the task.

•Therefore, a second element, from Yahweh, is needed: Create and impose the Law (Torah), requiring Hebrews to follow it. The rest of the Pentateuch is devoted to this process.

•But the knowledge of good and evil is necessary to understand and follow the Law. The two complimentary elements of the solution work together.

1. The Nature of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as Described in the

Eden Story•When Eve saw the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she recognized that it “was to be desired to make one wise” (Gen. 3:6), which was her principal interest in it.

•Then, once she and Adam ate the forbidden fruit, “the eyes of both were opened and they knew” certain things (Gen. 3:7).

•Observing this, Yahweh remarked, “Behold, the man has become like one of us [gods], knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:22).

•This means that such godlike knowledge included wisdom and an ability to perceive, discern, and distinguish.

2. The Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Hebrew Bible

•Age of maturity where know good and evil and can tell right from wrong, and can assume adult roles and responsibilities.

•Isaiah 7:14-16 describes a stage in the growth of a child before “he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.”

•Hebrew law sets age of 20 when men acquire certain rights and responsibilities (in essence, legal capacity ), such as performing military service, giving offerings to Yahweh, and obligations to pay taxes.

•Curse that Yahweh placed on the children of Israel in the wilderness as punishment was imposed only on people 20 years of age and older (Num. 14:29-30), presumably because only they were old enough to be deemed capable of and responsible for sin.

•Deuteronomy 1:39 and Qumran rules are likewise.

3. Kings Must Exercise this Knowledge

•David was able “like the angel of God to discern good and evil” (2 Sam. 14:17) and had “wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth” (2 Sam. 14:20).

•Solomon’s prayer: “Give thy servant therefore an understanding mind to govern thy people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:9). “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and largeness of mind …” (1 Kings 4:29-31).

•Story of 2 women claiming child: “the wisdom of God was in him, to render justice” (1 Kings 3:28).

•Proverbs (1:3), which claims to be from Solomon: written to provide young men (endeavoring to attain the knowledge of good and evil) such insight into wise behavior.

Conclusion: Meaning of Knowledge of Good and Evil

•The knowledge of good and evil is a merismic understanding of how the cosmic dynamic of the opposites of order (good) and chaos (evil) operates in the world, including in our psyche, and of the human role in this dynamic.

•This knowledge offers a godlike perspective, as it transcends the opposites and enables us to see and deal with the opposites within ourselves.

•Since the human evil imagination (yēṣer hara) is a psychic faculty, correspondingly it needs to be countered and controlled by an antithetical ordering faculty of our psyche: the knowledge of good and evil.

•This explains why Adam and Eve could not have understood Yahweh’s prohibition. Rather, in the garden the chaos in raw human nature took natural its course because there was no capacity yet in their psyche that could curb it.

The Second Element of the Remedy:

The Law as Imposed Order•The knowledge of good and evil is a necessary but not sufficient condition for reining in our chaotic/evil nature so that order and good will prevail.

•Therefore, divine help is needed: The Law. The Law is a form of cosmic order, such that when it is understood and followed, order can be brought to human affairs. The Law is therefore a creative principle because it helps bring order (good) to the part of the cosmos that is humankind. It is conceived of as a divine gift, not a burden.

•Humans must therefore apply their knowledge of good and evil so as to understand the Law and align themselves with it.

The Cosmic Nature of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and of the Role of the

Law

Since Knowledge of Good and Evil Is Necessary,

Why Was a Transgression Necessary to Gain It?•For the author it was important to depict to

the audience raw chaotic human nature and what happens when this nature takes its natural course: chaos at work.

•It was important that Adam and Eve learn their lesson the hard way, so they could experience first-hand both pure chaos within themselves (evil) and the coming of the corrective ordering knowledge (good). This enables the audience to feel the same dynamic within themselves. Thus, a transgression (transformation) was important for literary/rhetorical purposes.

The Nature of the TransgressionIt was an elevation of human consciousness to full ego consciousness, dramatized as a singular epiphany. It was disobedience, but not a full “sin,” which first occurred with Cain. Therefore, no “fall of man” or “original sin.” Bruce Naidoff: “Genesis 2-3 reflects a coming to a state of awareness that, as it were, precedes sin.”David Wright: “if there is a vertical movement in the story, it is not a ‘Fall’ but an ‘Ascension,’ toward the rank and species of deity.” Cyrus Gordon: “not so much an account of the ‘fall of man’ but rather of the rise of man halfway to divinity”Carl Jung: “cosmogonic myths are, at bottom, symbols for the coming of consciousness”Mythologically speaking, the garden is a metaphor for our mind.

Modern Psychological Takeaway #1

•The Eden story is just one of many myths of the late Bronze and early Iron ages focusing on the emergence of ego consciousness.

•Psychologically, this was a necessary step in human development, but it became overdone. Societies became over-patriarchalized and overly warlike, the feminine principle was devalued and suppressed, women too. Ego consciousness pushed the unconscious side of our psyche into the background, causing psychological imbalance.

•As Jung advocated, people must become aware of and understand the unconscious side of their psyche, so that it can be brought back into balance with the conscious side, resulting in a centered wholeness that constitutes one’s truest and highest Self.

Modern Psychological Takeaway #2

•J hit upon an important point in viewing sin as a manifestation of an underlying natural chaos, a formation that lies deep within the psyche (the yēṣer hara ͑).

•Today psychologists understand this as our Shadow, the unconscious dark side of our psyche in which resides our dark/evil qualities that we repress and suppress, project, or rationalize.

•Therefore, evil must be addressed most fundamentally by confronting and dealing with the Shadow (both in individuals and in collectives) and otherwise evolving our psyche and our Selves to a more integrated, higher level, rather than through prophylactic rules (the Law) that only establish external controls over the symptoms.

Thank you! Questions?Arthur L. George

artlgeorge@gmail.comThe Mythology of EdenHamilton Books, 2014