Acronyms are popular, and the word “bible” appropriately serves as an acronym that defines what this “good book” is! The Bible provides us with “basic information before leaving earth.” This week’s readings are good examples of how this is so. We have some very important knowledge—relevant to each of us—conveyed in the Genesis reading and the Gospel.
Remember that for centuries it was thought by many that Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible. Some might still hold this belief, but scholars say otherwise. Genesis, for example, is a book of many stories that were no doubt part of a people’s oral tradition. Over time, unknown editors compiled the text we know today.
As with all cultures, this Israelite literature contained “etiological tales” (stories that told of how things came to be). Among other things, today’s story explains why we wear clothing (or rather, why the ancient ISRAELITES thought people wore clothing; or, perhaps this part of the narrative was a child’s story. That is, maybe elders told their inquisitive children when asked “Why do we have clothing and not walk around naked?” In this instance, the misbehavior of Adam and Eve accounts for why we wear clothing. Recall that pain at childbirth, death, and having to toil to survive are also part of this origin story.
A misconception that has been around for 2000 years is that the serpent in the story was the devil. If this has been your understanding (and I suspect it might very well be)—forget it. Regarding the serpent as “the devil” has never been the teaching of this Israelite origin story. Equating the devil with the serpent did not come about until the time of Jesus—centuries after the Genesis story was committed to paper (or rather, papyrus, or animal skins used for writing on scrolls). It was a first-century writing, The Life of Adam and Eve, that the snake-as-devil slithered into our consciousness. And ever since, generations of teachers misled their listeners.
An engaging topic is determining when the idea of “devil” even arose within the Bible. Too broad a topic to address here, just keep this in mind. What Christians tend to call the “Old Testament” (and what scholars and Jewish people call the “Hebrew scriptures”), did not have what we think of as “devils.” In the Hebrew scriptures, God contends with, does battle with, or repeatedly gets frustrated by HUMANS (not legions of devils). The Israelites might have become known as God’s “chosen people” through whom God’s identity would be known—but the Creator often thought of “throwing in the towel” on this human race! It was WE who were a pain in God’s heart—not the persuasive serpent.
History has given us devil names such as Satan, Lucifer, and Pazuzu (the demon of the film The Exorcist), but today’s Gospel cites the name “Beelzabub.” If you’re abreast of the music and cinema worlds, you know that name from a wildly popular rock hit sung by a band named “Queen.” Its lead singer was Freddie Mercury—an AIDS victim whose life was portrayed in the film Bohemian Rhapsody (the name of a Queen’s song—a verse of which refers to today’s Gospel demon-figure “Beelzebub”). The song was in the popular film Wayne’s World (1992), but 2 of Queen’s other hits are We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions (both songs often associated with sporting events).
Listeners of Bohemian Rhapsody can identify with the lyric that says: “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me.” THAT is the Adam and Eve-like experience one gets when confronted with temptation. One feels powerless to resist because there is a force specially programmed to work on their weakness or vulnerability. Listeners should, however, not just nod in agreement with what the rock song asserts. Instead of feeling they are incapable of being victimized by their own “fallen human nature,” one should take heart in knowing that the Adam & Eve story is reminding us of vulnerability—yes—but that we have the power to resist temptation. It’s our choice (just as it was for Adam).
If the word “Satan” is used in scripture or rock music or by people on the street, its meaning should be associated with a kind of prosecuting attorney. Translated as “accuser,” satan is one who shows us where we’ve gone astray. The Persian (Persia is Iran today) religion of Zoroastrianism is laden with good and bad angels, and it was this religion that eventually came to influence the thought of Israelites from the 3rd century B.C. onward (N.B.., Freddie Mercury, mentioned above, was a Zoroastrian). Before this influence, Old Testament books were not filled with references to angels or devils. Eventually, however, Christianity adopted the concept while Islam asserted that each person has 2 angels—one to record your good deeds and one to record your bad deeds—to be shown at the final judgment. Belief in angels is, moreover, a dogma of Islam (whereas Christians commonly believe in angels but are not obliged to accept their reality).
The New Testament speaks of one being thrown into “fiery Gehenna,” but the reference here is not to the fires of hell but to a smoldering garbage dump near Jerusalem. Nonetheless, images of “Satan” presiding over a fiery hell have been our inheritance in popular religion.
Scholars tend to think of Satan’s “kingdom” as not a place of torment but a place of bondage due to acts of unrighteousness.
French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the play No Exit which presents a similar notion of eternal condemnation. Characters in the play are Garcin (a man interested in character #2, Inez). However, Inez is a lesbian and is interested in character #3, Estelle (not interested in Inez but preoccupied with looking into a mirror). A fourth character in the play is a valet who erratically responds to a bell that is rung to call him. The setting of the three people is in a room with “no exit” and furnished with couches to sit on. These people come to realize that they are dead—and the play consists of them in dialogue. For the length of the script, these characters frustrate, depress, annoy, irritate, and upset one another. The play concludes with the man, after a few moments of silence, say to the others: “Well, well, let’s get on with it.”
Playgoers are left to ponder what “life” would be like if it consisted only of frustration, depression, annoyances, irritations, and being chronically off-balance or upset. This is your state of being–for all eternity . . . .
Philosopher Sartre might leave us with this grim sense of the future, but getting back to our reading from Genesis—shows us where the “exit” CAN be found.
Notice that when God asked Eve about eating the fruit–that no specific fruit is mentioned in Genesis. Folklore has us refer to an “apple” that they ate—not the Bible. Notice, too, that Eve tries to escape responsibility by pointing to a snake as the real culprit. Because of that nasty creature, she argue for compassion since that darn serpent was so persuasive. It took advantage of her! Adam is no better in the excuse department. He, too, pleads for clemency by pointing to his wife as being the one REALLY responsible for the act he committed.
Now recall what I regularly mention about our use of scripture—and how I started off this week’s reflections here about “basic information” we need to have before we step into eternity. What we need to know is that you and I are Adam and Eve—and every other character in scripture at different moments in our life. You and I have a tendency to “pass the buck,” “make an excuse,” “blame someone else,” “call elections corrupt,” and complain that “verdicts are fraudulent.” Be it examples on the national stage or the stage of our lives, we are quite capable of making bad decisions and trying to escape the consequences of our behavior.
We tend to see the Genesis story as a downer account of losing the garden of Paradise and being pawns in the hands of powerful forces that we cannot resist. Au contraire! The story of Adam and Eve is telling us to BE AWARE of our tendency to make self-serving decision. The story is asking us: “Do you want to make mistakes like this one?” And of course, our answer is that we DON’T want to mess things up as Adam and Eve did. The story tells us that we are NOT pawns who are helpless in resisting the various venoms that bring us some kind of death or gloom.
The story is as much a story of how to find success as it is a story of how to mess up your life. Which leads into a reflection on the gospel.
There’s a folktale told in different cultures around the world that tells of how God made humans. Without embellishment, here’s the basic plot: God decided to create the human race and so he formed them from dough and put them in the oven to bake. Pulling them out too soon, he produced white people. Leaving them in too long, he produced black people, leaving the next batch in not long enough, he created yellow people. Finally, however, God timed it perfectly. The humans were a beautiful tan color from head to toe—and that is how we Navaho came into being.
This version is from the southwest U.S.. However, this same plot is found in cultures that are white, black, and yellow—only the end result shows the Creator “getting it right” when making beautiful black, or yellow, red or white humans. It appears to be normative globally for cultures to depict their origin as being “just what the doctor ordered.” Black, white, red, or yellow—each group having their story report them being the “best” people. Not surprising is that European scholars of the 19th century, thinking they were objective in their science of human origins—tended to rank human populations in order of “who are the smartest people?” Ta da! White Europeans was their conclusion (a conclusion now much debunked and no longer regarded as scientifically based).
Before the science of genetics in the 20th century, scholars and laity speculated on human origins and diversity. Around 1775, the word “Caucasian” was introduced and became part of the English vernacular. It referred to “white” people and was principally applied to Europeans (although it originally included many other geographical regions of people). Today, the word is not used within scholarly communities. In short, all humans belong to one “race,” and this reality makes use of “racial categories” obsolete.
This is important not just on some socio-political level, but it can even be said to have grounding in the New Testament, e.g., TODAY’s Gospel!! Revisiting that reading, we hear Jesus say: Who are my mother, brothers, and sisters? And he answers his question by saying they those who do the will of God! 2000 years ago Jesus asserted what science now tells us—that the human race is one family. Just as persons in your family look different from one another, so do all the peoples in the world look different from one another. Apart from this skin-deep appearance, we are all brothers and sisters. And Jesus informs us that God is our loving parent—who brought each of us into the world for a reason—with a special vocation to accomplish what no one else can replicate.
If we acquire a certain kind of basic information before leaving earth, we will be best able to learn how to live the identity that makes each of us distinctive—as designed by our Creator.