The Evil Eye and Genesis 4:7

These are the words of Yehovah to Kane. In the context they are a reminder and a teaching and a challenge to him.

His behaviour exemplifies one of the three non-verbal behaviours that Yehovah’s always on the lookout for in his children made from clay or soil mixed with a little water into which he has breathed the neshmat chaim. The three behaviours are awn or inherent selfish proclivities; or more simply what we are born with in the mix of the biological hardware and the wind energy which energises, elevates and animates it making it into a living conscious, fleshy breathing and digesting blood being. In other words some of us are born with inherent traits due to our biological make up. These will show themselves, and while not being in themselves covenant shredding or contract breaking they will make it more difficult to protect and defend any contract that this person desires to participate in. In other words each of us will have a personal challenge which we will have to wrestle and fight with in order to protect and defend the covenant or contract that we make with Yehovah. He is aware of this and is gracious regarding it, but he does not excuse it, rather he desires that you would work with him to overcome it. By this means he will perfect in you the character that he desires in all his children, demonstrating with evidence that you have fixed your life support reliance in him, and that you have risked your life and your breathing and digesting blood bring in him. 

Peshab: This is the action of not coordinating or aligning properly with Yehovah. The best concrete example is marching or dancing, and this is whether you are instep, putting your feet in the footprints of the person in front of you,  and staying in line and in pace with the person who is next to you and behind you. This coordinated behaviour can be learned, improved and perfected and this is one of the trainings that he decides to continually give to us, so that we can keep in step and at the same pace with him, and his son Yhosha, the good Shepherd.

Chattah: This is directly related to covenant shredding and contract breaking. The concrete idea is that of cutting up a piece of wood into chunks. The behaviour of not keeping to the whole contract but choosing, that is selecting from it, taking shortcuts, that is not fully doing what he instructs and changing, that is making it fit what you want rather than what you have been instructed to do. Now the instructions principally are relational voice delivered instructions, or experiences like a movie which give you a visual and auditory demonstration of the instruction, or training in classes where you are shown and taken through the steps of the instruction. Any of these forms of instruction are to be followed precisely. To do what you choose or to change what you want to change or to shorten a performance the way that you want to is breaking or shredding the contract that you have sworn to.

Bearing all these in mind we see that Kane has an inherent problem of rage, anger, anxiety panic and an uncontrolled rising up of the power of his wind energy! This is inherent to Kane and not ascribed to any external wind functionary which will certainly be in the environment but not where Yehovah is visiting and taking stock and inspecting.

These weaknesses are inherently still tools available to wind functionaries that are around us for them to “jerk our chain“ and use them to cause us to behave in one of the three ways that Yehovah is inspecting. However in this particular case during the inspection Kane is acting according to his true self.

So this issue is graphically described as one of erupting like a volcano! Followed by being in such a panic as to be frozen to the spot or to fall over onto the ground! If you have had children you know that if they have a temper tantrum, which is another way of explaining it they will often cry out and then throw themselves about the place and onto the floor. Sometimes we call this kicking and screaming. What is the cause? Usually something not going the way that they wanted it to go or happening the way they wanted it to happen. But sometimes it’s due to the fact that they are overtired, have no more ability to control their behaviour and simply need to rest and recuperate their energy to regain control.

So let us understand that in the context Kane is probably not very old in years! He is probably only a number of days old. The idea that because he was born as a baby and grew up and matured and became an adult is not necessarily the case. We are assuming that these humans were just like ourselves, but the indication is that they were much bigger, much stronger and more capable than we are.

In this context we can understand that he required parental training, but not from his parents Adam and Eve only, but also from the creator Yehovah. We also know that Adam and Eve were undergoing training and had failed to keep a direct instruction from Yehovah resulting in them living in dwelling outside of the garden of Eden, unable to return by themselves. But by all accounts they were not abandoned by Elohim and especially not by Yehovah. And from the greater context it looks like they were being trained in how to live in a relationship with him and how to clothe and house themselves, building dwelling places in which there was some kind of house or temple to Yehovah with an opening.

Around these dwellings were lands that were used for arable farming growing the different crops and seeds and flowers, plants and fruit trees which were found in the garden, but which because the land was cursed by their disobedience were intermingled with thorn bushes and weeds and other kinds of hurtful plants like thistles. This meant that a lot more preparation had to be done in order for a crop to grow, with more weeding and more protective clothing necessary against thorn bushes. So the agriculture was hard work.

Animal husbandry also took place around this dwelling place. And this meant that animals that herd or flock together were managed by someone who gazed over them, that is watched over them carefully and generally not only kept an eye on them but got to know them as individuals and as a herd or a flock and was able to protect and defend them if there were any predators at that time or rescue them out of difficulties with the thornbushes and thistles etc. The reason why animals were used as part of the economy is the same as it is today, except for possibly the meat. Their hides provided leather, their fleeces provided wool, their ability to chop down the vegetation, especially the more difficult ones and keep an area clear of thistles and weeds were all important parts of a farming economy. Also they provided enrichment of the soil through their droppings.

The slaughtering of animals was not something that the animal husbandry industry instituted. It seemed that Yehovah taught them how to slaughter an animal, how to pour away its blood, how to disembowel, how to remove its hide and many other things to do with the use of animals. Also from a live animal how to take its fur or its wool and spin threads to make clothing etc. What happened to the meat at this point is not clear but later on we find that some animals were declared tahar which usually is translated as clean but this hides the fact that this is a process which is involved burning. It is commonly related to the purification of metals from minerals by heating the minerals until the elements separate and pouring off the slag and keeping the metallic product. How this applies to animals is probably similar in that the animal flesh was probably burnt and as a consequence it would be turned into ashes. These would be fatty ashes if the fat of the animal was not completely rendered by the fire but in the most cases the animal would be reduced to the fundamental minerals from which it came, by the grace of Yehovah. In this process it was found that some animals when burnt gave off a pleasing smell and others presumably gave off a disgusting smell. The animals that gave us a pleasing smell were called “clean“ or in Hebrew tahar.

So it would seem that we have a functioning society in the presence of Yehovah consisting of Adam and Eve and all the children in a land outside of the garden of Eden, being trained in the best way to deal with the choice to learn from the tree of knowledge.

The tree of knowledge, but good knowledge and bad knowledge, is not an evil tree, but it is a tree in which the fruit will be either good or bad, and will not in anyway preserve you alive! So from one point of view what is the point of learning knowledge if at the end of it you are going to return back to the ashes and the water from which you were composed?

So it would seem that Yehovah was offering as he had done initially to train human beings up so that they would be able to become part of the Elohim, qualifying them enough to be given fruit from the tree of living things. This would mean that once they were qualified they would then be given eternal life.

So by making the choice that they did they made access to eternal life a whole lot harder. Whereas they could have eaten from the tree of living things at any time before being deluded by nacash, and both trees are in the centre of the garden so it’s not that the tree of living things was hidden from them, so it was simply a test to see what they would do. And the test was a simple one. It was a test to see if they would listen to the voice and the instructions and the guidance and the example of Yehovah. And not only listen to it and show and tell that they were listening to it but reject and avoid any other source of direction or alternative. At the end of the day if naturally Adam and especially Eve had been able to do this then naturally so would we all. But as it turned out Eve was deceived and deluded and Adam was conflicted and complicit, and when they awoke from their delusion they were horribly embarrassed and ashamed of each other and unable to face Yehovah or respond willingly to his voice.

Until this time there hadn’t been a problem, there was no shame about what each had done to the other and they were very wise and discreet in the way that they behaved in their relationship with Yehovah, the plants and the animals in the garden.

It is to Eve’s credit that she sought to do her part in rectifying the situation. She wanted to produce the “seed“ that would defeat the snake crushing its head as soon as possible. She also wanted to repair her relationship with Yehovah and she wanted to be a supportive and helpful she mate to Adam. Her original design purpose was to be a help, a protector and comforter at the same time as being in front of Adam which is a general term for actually being in front, either as a conversation partner or as a sexual partner, or as a confrontation partner who is a sounding board. Any of these attributes of being “as a front,” representing Adam, it would seem that when she was deluded by nachash she stepped out of this role and began to access her own “selfish“ interests. Such as becoming more skilled, being wiser, making her own determination of what should be looked at, assessing things by her own standards of what is beautiful and desirable, and ignoring or not putting first any advice given to her from her creator, especially if it’s given through her he mate!

So in effect Yehovah did not really punish as some people want to portray it, he gave more details to make it possible for Eve to fulfil her design function. Within that is the interesting expression which occurs again with regard to her son Kane that her “desire“ will be to her husband and he would represent her.

Now for some reason the translators want to translate this as rule, especially in the many cases where that seems to be applicable. But this word is better translated as to represent, or to be a copy of, or to be a proverb of or to be a parallel to. It is not about ruling over; it is about ruling by the side of, being a support at the side of, being a ambassador in front of etc. It is by no means a lesser role, especially with the added responsibility of conceiving, giving birth and instructing and bringing up children. It is important as a builder of the house of her he mate. Without her doing what she does at his side and also reproducing, their house and their family would not build up into their tribe and their nation etc. 

We see in this that she becomes a willing and compliant aid to her he mate. The use of the word rule or dominate makes this relationship seem overbearing, whereas it was never designed to be overbearing. It was designed to be mutual and it was designed to fulfil the purposes, policies and procedures and the expressed goodwill of Yehovah to them with regard to managing the garden and the animals and the fish of the sea, and their responsibility to grow and store food in order to feed all these creatures on Yehovah’s behalf and according to his instructions.

So when we come to Kane’s example we find this same principle being explained to Kane. The circumstances in verse seven are as follows: 

How many people understand that Yehovah is good, excellent, thorough, and pleasing and pleasant? If you do not know him as a wind energy operating within your experiential continuum you can at least look around at the environment that he has created and see that these are his attributes, policies and procedures. Given this as a starting point you may come to understand that Adam and Eve were in for a good time and an excellent relationship with the creator. However there was one who was a liar, a thief and a murderer who was sent to test them to see if they would be “reliable,” that is would they fix their life support reliance on Yehovah? This one was sent to test them because he had decided not to fix his life support reliance in Yehovah but instead decided to do something which was absolutely crazy when you understand the big picture, that is to strike it out on his own!

Since it was a possibility for any of his creations to adopt this stance this could be a reason why he created clay models, lumps of soil which represented himself, so that he didn’t have to deal with eternal beings who rebelled against him and would therefore have to be repurposed for eternity!

Now avoiding the questions: “well couldn’t God have seen etc etc?” let’s deal with the reality in which we are; which seems to be this state of affairs that we have an opportunity to make good the lack that these dissenting wind energies have created and that we are going to become loyal, faithful, immovable parts of his Imperial administration by our own inexorable choice.

So we see that Adam and Eve were in for a good time despite the fact that they were now potentially going to die, we see that didn’t occur for many years. This is because Yehovah did not create Adam and Eve to ultimately be worthless! So the option of becoming eternal has always been on the table for those who qualify.

So the first thing that Yehovah did after establishing them outside of the garden of Eden was to train them in how to relate to each other and to him since this was where the breakdown had occurred. We have to remember these things could have taken place in a matter of days or weeks, not years as we have no idea of how long it took. 

We come upon the words that are sniggeringly referred to as “knowing” in the biblical sense! Adam got to know his wife Eve. This is crucially important in any relationship, as we all know unless we are blind drunk, stoned out of our heads and engaged in some kind of orgy most of us would not enter into any kind of relationship with a stranger. To all intents and purposes Adam and Eve were in the first few days strangers to each other. So you can see why it is important and was important that they got to know each other.

So let us just realise that dating, date nights, going to the movies, taking walks, having long discussions, doing things together at work, doing things together on journeys etc are all an important part of getting to know the person that you think might be the one that Yehovah wants you to leave your father and your mother for. This is to join together in a mutual contract of a joint venture in order to become one flesh, one breathing and digesting blood being with two mates. So all of this is what should be meant by the biblical sense of getting to know any she or he mate. And it doesn’t include “sexual intercourse“ which is a phrase coined to distinguish it from social intercourse which is an old-fashioned way of expressing the relationship between men and women in society. However it is plain today that many young men and women do not know anything about social intercourse because sexual intercourse is the paramount thing on their malleable minds, to the extent that instead of choosing a mate to meet they meet to mate to choose. 

So the first lesson is to get to know your potential spouse. Now the next statement shows that they had got to know each other and obviously liked and loved and desired each other, and having made that clear to one another they engaged in sexual intercourse which was in receipt of the goodwill from Yehovah. Eve conceived!

And this phrase is notable in terms of its rarity. The fact that a woman conceived after sexual intercourse is a special event celebrated in the texts. Whereas it is common amongst us to think that sexual intercourse will lead to pregnancy this does not seem to be guaranteed in the past. And in fact it is not guaranteed today, it is just “the norm“. But there are many others of us who are different from the norm and experience all kinds of difficulties. So the next lesson that we are learning is that we do things the way that Yehovah trains us as he will show us goodwill and favours. This essentially is what she shouts out. She makes the claim that her he mate is not Adam but Yehovah and that she has gained that relationship or rather regained that relationship with him. She then seems to turn over and give birth to a twin. So the picture seems to be that we have Cain the firstborn (that is an old-fashioned saying for the one that came out of her womb first) and then the second one who happens to be in this case a twin.

The eldest child, the first born, the pioneer from the womb, the matriculation of the womb; all these are terms referring to the first functioning of the womb in the birthing process. In most societies it is the first child, male or female who has a special position within the family, but particularly the male first child is revered in the orient. This first child was called Cain which means to gain or regain and she is referring to her relationship with Yehovah, but it later on came to be related to two types of people. The brother of Cain was called Abel and this means the mist of the mountain dew, to be poetic it is a vapour which you see but is in certain senses is insubstantial.

This second son or twin was assigned to looking after the flocks. This was not an easy option, but it did mean that he worked away from his father and his mother over extended periods. The first son Cain was assigned to work the arable land with his father, and so therefore he stayed nearby to their dwelling place tackling the thorns and the thistles and the areas cleared by Adam and by his brother Abel using the sheep and goats and other animals, and basically working in the heat of the sun with sweat on his brow. This is not to say that being a Shepherd does not involve sweating but the difference between the two doesn’t appear until an incident some days which could be a few days or it could be a whole year later. After crops had been sewn and harvested a difference appears.

Remember during this time we can assume that they were being trained by Yehovah and their father and their mother. They were being trained to live with each other in a good relationship and with Yehovah in an excellent relationship.

Now it seems like the system of “tribute“ had been set up, that is a system whereby producers would bring in produce and silver or gold to a central authority or a central government. We see these systems set up in the Assyrian empire and also in the Babylonian empire whereby conquered nations would be given tributes to bring to the central government according to the agreed arrangement. This resulted in the flow of goods, silver and resources to the central government which would then use these resources not only to supply its needs and the needs of its population but also to build great halls and great houses with expressions of their supposed grandeur.

In any case it seems that within this dwelling a system of tribute was set up which would involve the workers we are concentrating on, Adam and Eve and Kane and Abel to bring tribute to Yehovah for inspection and acceptance or rejection. This will be done on the basis of a contract which is: if you do good good will come to you, and this is a powerful lesson that Yehovah wanted to reinforce over and over again.

However this was specific to Cain who had an inherent difficulty. And it is not that Yehovah wanted to condemn Cain, it was that he wanted him to learn to rely on Yehovah, to overcome all his issues and problems and to rise up be and be an example of the power of the Imperial administration of Yehovah. This would imply that this was individual tutoring to Cain based off the general principle that if you do good you will receive good from Yehovah.

So we are told that after sometime one of these inspection visits was due and Cain wanted to bring to this visit some fruits and some of the produce which he had produced from the land. So that is what he did. But then his twin brother turned up. It says ‘as well,’ so that could imply that Cain wasn’t expecting him to turn up, but that would be unusual for a tribute day when everybody would be expected to bring their tribute, so what it implies to me is that he turned up with a better tribute! 

When we look at this carefully we have no idea that Abel’s tribute was better than Cains. We only have the response of Yehovah which was pointedly, very pointedly all eyes on Abel and a point blank almost refusal to look at Cain and his tribute! This is unusual.

It is unusual because one would be tempted to think that this is respect of persons, and this is why it is important that this verse is translated sensitively and properly.

There is one phrase which indicates what is going on, and that is “is it not if/with or should it not be if/with?” This phrase indicates that some prior instruction or contract has been set up which both parties understand. Now we go and look at the specific behaviour of Cain and we find that he erupts into a violent rage or anger and then he falls over on his face! So whichever way you want to describe it that is the kind of description we want to come up with, someone so out of control with rage, he falls over on his face!

Now instead of being annoyed or angry at Cain’s behaviour, after all he is in front of the supreme creator when this happens, instead we find what can only be considered as conciliatory words. These are words trying to bring Cain back to his senses and to what the whole process that he was engaged in was about! So Cain erupted like a volcano: the question is why are you erupting like a common volcano? So Cain fell on his face: the question is why are you falling on your face?

Then comes the phrase ‘should it not be with you doing good, or being excellent, or being thorough that you will be lifted up, (as opposed to falling down, that there would be a rising, as opposed to an explosion like a volcano) that you would be held up, your tribute would be held up and you would be filled with a feeling of worthiness.

So we see that just from this brief interaction that Yehovah is attempting to bring Cain to his senses and remind him of the conditions under which he is contractually obligated to Yehovah for his own good, to help him to overcome this inherent weakness or failing or instability.

And we know that they are eating from the tree of good and bad knowledge, but Yehovah does not want to mention or concentrate on the bad so it doesn’t say if you do bad. He doesn’t want us to be thinking of bad, he wants us to be concentrating on what is good and excellent and noble. Something that the messenger Paul talked to the Phillipians, probably extracted from this encounter with Cain recorded here. Always focus on the excellent, the noble and the good no matter what kind of situation you are in, because if you do Yehovah has contracted with you to lift you up, to raise you up and to bring into you a rising up of your ability and standards. Thisis a contractual agreement with Yehovah to all who refuse to look on anything but the good or to do anything but the good.

Now realistically what happens if you fail to do what is good and pleasing and excellent? Even in this situation Yehovah has established a way to bring you back up to the contract agreement and this is where the translators have misleadingly translated this phrase. Some who have a look at this have gone on to use the word “sin“ and to try and draw attention to the whole theology of “sin“ and how it relates from this first appearance of the word chattah through to the redemptive work of Yhosha, but they have done this through their own Christology or theology. They have not looked at what Yehovah is teaching Cain and demonstrating through Abel.

If you do not do good, or if you do not perform well enough then there is an option provided by the door of the “house“. Go to the door or the opening of this meeting place and see what is waiting patiently there! It is the covenant breaking offering that is just waiting there patiently! It is sat down with its legs folded and in itself it is just waiting looking for who? In this case it was looking for Cain, it was waiting there all along at the opening for Cain. It would seem that he just walked right past it and brought his produce offering and tribute before Yehovah. So what did Abel do?

Specifically it said he brought his tribute as the collection from all the flock which were first out of the womb in his flock. You know therefore he took care to note who was giving birth for the first time, and that lamb or goat was set aside as the first. And then all these firsts were collected together and they were what he was going to give to Yehovah. Now this did not necessarily mean that they were the best, but generally the ones that are first out of the womb are better than all those that follow because they have had the best of the mother, so it is clear that his intention was to give Yehovah the best. And then it says that he brought the fat of them, all the choicest of them.

No it’s possible that he slaughtered these animals, disembowelled them and brought the fat of them before Yehovah, But it is more likely that he selected from among the first ones, the ones that looked in the best condition, whose midriff was round and plump, whose wool or skin was clean, whose eyes were bright and teeth were good etc. I’m other words  he took care to bring the best of the best. This was his tribute offering to Yehovah. And the response of Yehovah was to give these animals a thorough inspection! He looked them over, up and down and sideways to check that they were indeed the best and the plumpest and the finest. This is very pointed because he didn’t look at the produce of the fruit that Cain had brought from the land in any detail whatsoever! Instead he gave Cain this mini “lecture“ about what he should be doing?

Now I am sorry if it seems that this was a lecture when in fact it was part of the training process that Cain required and needed to go through. As he said this covenant breaking offering is for you, it’s at the door, well at the opening of this “temple“ or house and more than that you will have abundance from it! Or she will be abundant from it.

Now this is the same verb that was said to Eve, that her “desire“ would be towards her husband. Here it is translated as desire in the sense of longing, but the word actually means to create an overflow of abundance, and so in each case Yehovah was making clear to her that she would get an overflow of abundance from her he mate if she stuck with her he mate as Yehovah instructed. And similarly in this case although the form of the verb could be referring to Cain or to the covenant breaking offering and the ‘it’ has to refer to some male noun somewhere, never the less the idea is that this patient, willing animal would provide for him abundance, overflowing abundance. The only probable male reference is the opening.

So the teaching here is if you do well there will be a rising up and enervation and exaltation, and if you don’t do well then by the opening is a covenant breaking offering which will provide an abundance to you at the entrance and it is for you! This is all personal instruction for Cain because it is important to realise that this whole portion is about the inherent self-centredness and flaws within us and what we can do about it, and also what happens if we do nothing about it

The last part of the saying is that: you will represent in it! That is to say that if you do not do well you will represent this innocent willing animal at the temple opening if you so choose! In other words if you go back to the door take the covenant shredding offering and humble yourself, realising that it is there for you and you are to be there to represent it, and if you can do that; if you can represent its purity, its trust, its purpose and teachability, that will bring you superabundance at the door of the temple.

So this is the instruction to Cain and to all of us who want to develop a right relationship with Yehovah despite our inherent proclivities and waywardness and disobedience and selfishness which are biological traits, not so much character traits but which will become character traits if we don’t follow this advice.

The whole of chapter 4 is very significant because it shows that this inherent weakness if we do not rely on Yehovah can lead to disastrous outcomes not just for us but for the rest of humanity who do not want a relationship with Yehovah. We don’t know if the drastic measures that Cain went through actually helped him to come into a right relationship with Yehovah but we do see that his line was continued, that he started to get to know his wife which presumably he hadn’t done before and that in his line some very great artist and artisans and musicians and flutists etc first came into existence. But also we are reminded that this inherent rage and eruption doesn’t get any better through the generations, in fact if anything it seems to get worse. What we need to note from this chapter was that it was after the fourth generation that some notable increase in this weakness was proclaimed. We know from studying genetics there is something about dominant and sun-dominant traits. The modern genetic study has completely changed the understanding of genetic inheritance, however the genogram still seem to be useful in predicting family traits across three generations at least or more.

Further research required.

Adam and Eve were not naked

What are the things that often get taken for granted or just swallowed as is in the story about Adam and his wife Eve?

The story centres around a lump of soil being formed by a “potter“ or rather a sculpture of clay which is better because those who work with clay and soil know the skills required to form a lump into anything like a recognisable anthropomorphic form. We have no idea what the shadowcast mould of Elohim looked like or what plaster cast forms were produced. We also have no idea what size this mould was, and we cannot readily assume that this figurine was what we now take for human size. In fact the implication of later chapters is that these were possibly giant forms.

So now we have this lump which was made from the dust from the soil and mixed with water to form a slurry which was cast into a mould to give a form which was called the Adam. The lump was formed and split into two forms, one with male genitals and one with female genitals, that is with a penis and with a womb.

Specifically, the word used for penis is an anachronism as it refers to something that is used as a memorial. To the readers of Moses’s literary works it would be clear that it was referring to the circumcised penis. The female genitals are referred to quite specifically as being an excavated form for a womb although the usual name for a womb refers to more spacious capacity and also to the attendant feelings of compassion and mercy. This word refers specifically to the womb and the external genitalia, and in fact it is used somewhat humorously by one of the enemies of Israel to refer to those leaders in the communities who didn’t dare lead their armies into battle but stayed hidden amongst the womenfolk sending them out to be defeated. There is a common and well known English word for men and generals like that! And it doesn’t mean cat!

So now in all of this description there is no mention or assumption of whether the two are closed or unclosed. It would be an assumption to assume that these pristine figurines would be totally undressed showing off their manly and female attributes for all to see. Whereas this modest description would be well received by an Hellenistic audience as artistic, within the general Semitic traditions this would be seen with some embarrassment, tantamount to neglect. It would be assumed that the figurines would be clothed in some kind of attire. 

Now, when we come to the detailed explanation and introduction of the clay sculptor and his intention for his handiwork we find that initially a lump is formed which is called Adam, and then the lump called Adam is transformed into a living, breathing and digesting blood being rather like Pinocchio, a wooden sculpture going through various stages of becoming alive and finally becoming the flesh and blood little boy with a big nose!

So let’s not be confused here, we are not talking about a “fairy” story, we are talking about the incredible transformative power of our creator exercised through the incredible capabilities of his wind energy.

Now the wind energy that was given into the orifices of Adam is given a specific name in Hebrew which the Jewish scholars have translated by the Greek English word “soul.” That is to say that a soul was breathed into this clay form and then the clay form transformed by this interaction into a living, breathing and digesting blood being. However because of the many confusions associated with the words soul and spirit I prefer to refer to it by its Hebrew name neshmat chaim and to reference an operating system like Windows or Mac to give you an idea of what it does as a function. As a function it enters into the “hardware“ and brings the hardware to “life“ indicating that it is now operational and able to communicate with the user.

So in this condition Yehovah states immediately that the Adam will need a “helper and protector as a front to him because it is not good that he should be disjointed,“ that is separated from everything else, that is every other living, breathing and digesting blood being around him. And not only was this protector and helper to be a “front” to him, it was to be a challenge and a responsibility for him just as he was to be a protector and defender for it, amongst other things. What these other things might might be has been touched on previously. That is that they should be reproductively active, and able to generate multiples of themselves and have responsibility with the help of Elohim to manage and feed and generally look after these multiples as well as all the other living and breathing digesting blood beings in the air, bugs in the soil and the fish in the sea. This was something that he would not be able to do on his own; that is unless he was going to be “hermaphroditic“ and produce copies of himself from his own being. This clearly was not what Yehovah had purposed or designed.

In order to make it clear and to initiate communication with the Adam, the lump that he was taking on a training course in communication, in which he gave utterance to the names of all kinds of living creatures and these names were noted and used in communication with him. In this way Yehovah and Adam developed a common language which both understood what was being referenced. It is also important to realise that this authority to name things was not just to do with communication, it was also a sign of authority and creativity. So for example if he added the word “throne“ then this word would be used to create thrones at his command according to the will of Yehovah.

Now the immediate impact of this exercise in communication and authority was the dawning realisation in Adam that he was not the same as all the other living and breathing and digesting blood beings because he did not have a protector or a front to him. So when he did realise that he did not have this and it could not be found amongst the other creatures then Yehovah performed the first surgical operation using anaesthesia and made this form called Adam fall into an anaesthetic state and then removed from this form something and it is not clear whether it is from the rib cage or from the lower backbone. I suspect it was from the lower backbone taking with it not only the bone but also the flesh and sinews as a block but leaving the skin. This was then closed up neatly so that there was no scar and the excess skin was then formed into an external penis in the place underneath where the backbone was removed with its raw flesh, nerves and sinews.

Then using this backbone as a scaffold the woman was built up step-by-step, brick by brick and backbone by backbone with several differences including the internal difference of the womb and genitalia and the external differences of the breasts.

Now Adam has woken up from his anaesthetic state and this figure is presented to him and the question is “are they both naked?” It is possible that in this initial state they are both naked as it is common to do operations with a clear “field“ so clothes and other attire are removed and a simple covering is placed for the sake of modesty and decency. However the assumption that they remain naked is perhaps a step too far.

We have Adam exclaiming the first use of the words mother and father and he mate and she mate, and remember that he has the authority to name and then spring into existence these things. The actual Hebrew words ish and ishah have a relationship which is worth knowing in English and the relationship is based on the concept of “a warm ember and that is a live coal that is glowing.” So this is like a live coal from which another live coal breaks off and it is recognised that the second one has come from the first one, that is it leads one to associate it with the first one. The concept of father and mother however is a bit more complicated.

This concept of father and mother would probably be anachronistic, in that Adam had no experience at this stage what it meant to be a father and what it meant to be a mother other than the fact that the living creatures around him multiplied and took care of their offspring and set them to work. The real notion of father and notion of mother would have to be derived from their relationship with Yehovah.

Now in addition to this naming of things was the declaration of a process of going out from father and mother by the male and the joining together in a common commitment with a female to the extent that both of them would become one flesh. That is to say that they would mimic the original creation of Adam and Eve in reverse, for Adam was one flesh and then he was split into two, but then they would have a common purpose which would make them one flesh still. In other words they were clearly two but they remained one flesh because they had committed to a common joint venture. And because of this he mates and she mates can become one flesh by committing to a common joint venture before Yehovah. The reverse extends to the action of taking out. So just as she was taken out of Adam so the he mate will take into himself the she mate to become one flesh; and vice versa we must add.

So the concept of marriage introduced by human beings doesn’t quite cover what is been described here and therefore consequently the concept of divorce does not exist. In the purpose and intention of Yehovah there is no divorce. A he mate is given birth to by his parents and then he is matched up with the one that has been prepared for him by agreement and then both of them become one flesh before him.

So now in none of this is there any kind of reiteration of the nakedness, in fact there is information of celebration and innovation and working together with one another and Yehovah. Anybody who has attended any weddings knows that nakedness is not the aim of that day!

Now we drop back a little to understand that Yehovah gave Adam a job before he gave him a wife and that job involved working in his special garden. So to get the idea of Adam pottering about in the garden with no clothes on seems a little ridiculous.

So what are we to make all these words; arumim and yhtbshu?

Well the first thing is that they were not naked! The word translated as naked actually means covered over! And it doesn’t mean just with their own skin, it means with some other kind of covering whether it’s an animal skin or whether it’s some kind of protective skin or some kind of camouflage.

We know this because the word is related to a being called nachash, often referred to as a snake. And one thing we know about snakes is their ability to remain camouflaged and hide away in cover and undergrowth!

But by extension this is also referred to referencing the behaviour of spies! Those who are skilled in deception and camouflage, in misdirection and not drawing attention to themselves. This is called a kind of wisdom as Yhosha from Nazareth references it, the wisdom of snakes.

Now it has taken some time for this wisdom of snakes to be a pejorative, but throughout the animal kingdom the ability to camouflage and not draw attention to oneself is a highly desirable characteristic. And the fact we see many creatures whose design by Yehovah, a beautiful blend into their surroundings, and even a lizard that can change its skin patterning to do exactly the same. These animals are not naked, they are discreetly covered and by implication secretive, wise and discreet and able to blend into any background without causing alarm. These qualities are admirable, especially if you have to deal with a wide range and variety of other creatures.

So laying aside the assumption that they were naked and instead adopting the plain fact that they were given a natural ability to blend in and be discreet what does this other verb mean which is misleadingly translated as they were not ashamed?

The root idea behind this powerful verb is the idea of being paralysed and from this idea of paralysis the powerful notion of “shame,“ that is embarrassment and confusion has been derived. Most of us were not taught to be embarrassed, we simply naturally find ourselves unable to function in certain unfamiliar situations. In these situations we naturally cling to our comfort blankets or our parents, hiding behind them and peeking round from behind their legs to try and assess the situation as to how we are going to cope with it. Inside we are feeling our internal organs shaking and usually on our face we either have a flash of blood or we go pale. These are powerful endemic emotions within us and they are signs of uncertainty and fear and only later on develop into social embarrassment and shame regarding one’s behaviour or speech acts. Initially they are a protective fear response.

So in the form which it is initially presented and considering the context we are being told that Adam and Eve did not fear one another and they were not confused or uncertain about one another. By implication they were not afraid of the creator Yehovah.

Just to be clear what we are being told here is that these two wonderful, compatible created beings were created with discretion and without fear of either each other or of the creator Yehovah. These are ideal qualities for working in the garden of Yehovah amongst all kinds of animals, plants and situations. They were entirely comfortable within their surroundings and with their relationship with Yehovah and with each other and with the job which they were given to do!

So you can see why I’ve spent some time developing this argument. It is because so much has been hidden and taken away from before our eyes by this notion which is Greek at best, and classically pre-Raphaelite at worst of some innocent human beings in the garden of Eden. We are not dealing with innocence here, we are dealing with a creation that was fit for purpose, capable and fully functional and in alignment with its creator. It seems not necessary to add that they were fully clothed! In fact later on we see that Yehovah himself provides them with different clothing skins which could resist the tearing and pricking and slashing of the thorns which he was now introducing into the environment. The same Yehovah that did this would not have left his children naked. Think about it!

Now Yehovah and Yhosha want me to draw your attention to the question that Yehovah asked them both after he had caught up with them, because they were playing a kind of hide and seek game from his wind energy which was calling out to them in the garden. So when he asked them why they were doing this and they said something about being discreet/wise he said “who told you that you were discreet/wise? Have you eaten from the tree that I told you not to eat from?”

So who told them that they were discreet/wise? When we look at their encounter with nachash we see that he told them that the tree was to be desired to make them wise and open their eyes and to make them see like the Elohim, so we see that he told them this description of themselves, and we were also told that he was the most discreet from all the living things to be found in their outlying fields and scrubland outside the garden. This was not the wild, as in forested land and full of wild carnivorous dangerous wolves and animals and lions, it is more like a field for grazing animals and other creatures including lions and tigers who at this time were all herbivores, not carnivores.

So we see something very powerful here, the creature that is described as discreet and wise in its behaviour somehow manages to impart the same behaviour to Adam and Eve. But not in the same way that they had it initially, because they would interact with the wind energy from Yehovah but rather more like his behaviour, his hiding away and camouflaging himself from Yehovah.

To be accurate nacash did not say that they were discreet or wise. He implied that they were in someway blind in their eyes and deaf in their ears and their senses were hindered. Therefore something was being withheld from them by Elohim and if they ate from this tree they would receive what was missing and be able to see and hear and understand like Elohim.

So what was it that the woman even wanted to gain from eating the fruit of his tree, given the lie that they wouldn’t die? Why did she come to think that this fruit was desirable and needed to make one prudent and understanding, skilful, masterful and wise?

The underlying Hebrew is very revealing. We know that as it says “Eve was thoroughly deceived, not Adam.” In the Hebrew is where this description comes from! It actually says that from this conversation with nacash her whole understanding and perception of that fruit completely changed! She had perceived it as bad because it was dangerous. But now this discreet and wise creature countermanded that notion that she had. He didn’t say that Yehovah had lied to her, because she had no concept of a lie. He simply said that what she said would not happen. They would not die, that has become wet spots marking a place in the ground!

Now ordinarily one would say “what do you mean?” You are saying something completely different to Adam and what Yehovah instructing me in?“ But she didn’t get a chance to reflect on what he said because he followed it up with “ Elohim knows that your eyes will be opened, your senses will be extended, your abilities will be enhanced and you will see what he and they see, and you will know good and bad!“

It seems that this caught her imagination so she no longer concentrated on the fact that there was death involved in this risky business, she imagined the good that would come from touching and eating this fruit. The good that she saw was the ability to be as skilful and as productive as Elohim and to be as knowledgeable as he is. And obviously this was something very desirable and this would come from eating the fruit from the tree, not from avoiding it. She forgot why she was avoiding it because nothing has been said about that other than the false assertion that it would not happen, that they would not die and so on the basis of accepting that assertion, that is risking her life on the assertion, she began to imagine the good that would come from having these abilities.

And then she looked at the fruit and saw that it was desirable and pleasant like every other fruit in the garden, and then she looked at the tree and realised that it was not called the tree of death and dead things, it was called a tree of knowledge, that is both good and bad knowledge. This knowledge obviously is what Elohim possessed and it seemed to make them extremely competent and skilful. This was a tree that would make her as skilful, prudent as understanding, as evil, as knowledgeable and as competent as he was and they were!

The snakes job was done and we don’t hear anything about him until much later on . What we know is that almost immediately the woman jumped into voraciously eating the fruit from the tree, she couldn’t stop it seemed. She is picking and eating, picking and eating and Adam watched and apparently didn’t say anything. It was almost as if he was expecting her to drop dead there and then, but she didn’t and she seemed to be enjoying the fruit. So she turned to him and offered him some, so he took it and ate alongside her, seemingly both of them enjoying themselves until it suddenly hit them. Suddenly their eyes and senses were opened! Suddenly they realised that they were discreet and wise beings and that now they had been fooled by another discreet and wise creature into eating from the tree which they were told not to touch.

So if you can imagine that they became full of fear, confusion and consternation, looking at each other seeing where to point the blame, being ashamed of what they had done and of each other and not really knowing what to do. But they were wise and they were discreet, so like the snake they slipped away into the undergrowth and camouflaged themselves. How are they going to deal with the daily interaction with the wind energy from Yehovah?

They didn’t have long to wait. The wind energy came along as usual and called out to them but this time they didn’t answer and declare themselves, they hid. “Where are you” said the wind energy approaching where they were. They scurried away and covered themselves with leaves. What’s going on with them he said as they hid themselves deeper in the undergrowth. Finally the wind energy uncovered them and said “what’s going on?”Adam blurted out “we are wise and discreet and so we hid ourselves.”

That is why Yehovah asked them the question “who told you that you were wise and discreet? Have you eaten from that tree which I told you not to eat?”

Adam blurted out “the woman that you gave me, she gave me some of it to eat and I enjoyed it!” He was so ashamed, so afraid he passed the buck onto his wife. Yehovah looked at the woman and said “what have you done?” Again she blurted out “the snake deceived me and told me that my eyes would be opened if I ate from the tree.” She was ashamed and terrified of what she had done. Finally Yehovah directed his full attention to the snake. “What have you done?” Because of what you have done you will go on your belly until the day that your judgement comes and this woman’s seed will crush your head and you will only be able to bruise his heel.

And that’s what happened to the snake, he slunk away demoted and exposed. Meanwhile Adam and Eve were each given a curse to bear and the situation was changed from one of pleasant and wonderful enjoyable work to hard slog full of pain and injury and scratching to teach them that they would die, and that their only hope was to listen to and follow the instructions of Yehovah.

This is the same instruction that we are given today, to listen to and follow the voice of our creator because that is the only way that we will escape the consequences of disobedience to him which is a mighty curse. But despite this Yehovah did not abandon them, he continued to talk with them and teach and instruct them and even made them clothes more suitable for their new environment, clothes made of the skin of animals. And he introduced to them the practice of representative sacrifices in order to make up for the covenant shredding and to help them to develop the strength of character needed to resist the lies of the snake. They also came to understand that that the snake intended to murder them. He was not only a liar, he was also a murderer and their first son who was probably a twin with Abel ended up being involved in a murder incident; Cain murdering Abel. 

What else was the snake responsible for? Probably stealing but also causing jealousy and anger and allsorts of rage in people concerning their relationship with each other. He stole their peace and now they were embarrassed before each other with regard to whether they could trust each other. He was a thief as well as a murderer and a promoter of falsehoods. We would do well to avoid him at all costs and to focus our attention on the voice of Yhosha.

So you see we have been robbed of this by the simple lie that Adam and Eve were naked in the garden.