Could you please elaborate on that whole eye for an eye thing and how that applies to the discussion.
If the meaning of the Bible is the vindication of Jehovah God's name through the ransom sacrifice of Christ Jesus, which it is, the sacrifice can be seen as having taken place for the sake of justice. Jehovah is a God of justice. In the Bible the soul as we call it (actually a poor translation due to its pagan origin) is the blood, the life, and the life experience of any breathing creature. It was sacred, so when God gave us permission to eat meat after the flood, it was with the stipulation that the blood be poured out on the ground and not eaten in acknowledgement and respect of the fact that life, the soul, was sacred to God, who had given it.
If a man was murdered outside of a town and no one knew who the killer was, so that the blood of the killer couldn't be taken in return for justice, then a bull had to be sacrificed and it's blood spilled in order to remove the blood guilt of that town.
If you knocked out someones tooth then you receive the same for the sake of justice. Adam caused the death of everyone who would follow him, and so for Jehovah to accept justice there had to be an equal sacrifice to release mankind of the death, through sin, we inherited from Adam.
Man may have been created without sin, but he wasn't perfect.
Perfect in Jehovah's eyes much like a baby is perfect in it's parents eyes. A baby is fat, bald, toothless, hairless, can't talk, walk, feed itself or go to the bathroom, but in the eyes of it's parents it is perfect in potential.
Man in the Garden did no such thing regarding bringing about death. The only long-term thing Man and Woman did was to grant people knowledge of all things (well, most things).
The tree of the knowledge of good and bad didn't represent knowledge in a general sense, it represented, to Adam, the importance of Jehovah's guidance and protection. His sovereignty. God's rest in his creation work, the seventh day, wasn't for the sake of God's resting from being tired, it was a long period of time in which he would step aside and allow mankind to fulfill their purpose of multiplying and subduing the Earth. Though most likely meant to last thousands of years, the sin (sin means literally to miss the mark set by someone, in this case God) caused a brief (relatively speaking, since we were meant to live forever) delay. That is why thousands of years later David said we (being mankind having inherited sin) couldn't enter into, and Paul, still thousands of years later confirmed the seventh day continuing on in his day. It goes on today, and will continue until the end of Satan, sin and death, and we, like the angels, have matured so that we know it is best and wise to adhere to the guidance and protection of our creator. Until then we will only bring destruction upon ourselves and our creation. (John 5:16, 17 / Psalm 95:10,*11 / Hebrews 4:3, 4, 6,*9)
The angel later known as Satan (meaning resister / adversary) challenged Jehovah's sovereignty, you see?
Not in the Tanakh I don't.
Genesis 3:6
1Now the serpent was cunning, more than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made, and it said to the woman, "Did God indeed say, 'You shall not eat of any of the trees of the garden?'" אוְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל הָאִשָּׁה אַף כִּי אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹאכְלוּ מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן:
2And the woman said to the serpent, "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. בוַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֶל הַנָּחָשׁ מִפְּרִי עֵץ הַגָּן נֹאכֵל:
3But of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God said, "You shall not eat of it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.'" גוּמִפְּרִי הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר בְּתוֹךְ הַגָּן אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹאכְלוּ מִמֶּנּוּ וְלֹא תִגְּעוּ בּוֹ פֶּן תְּמֻתוּן:
4And the serpent said to the woman, "You will surely not die. דוַיֹּאמֶר הַנָּחָשׁ אֶל הָאִשָּׁה לֹא מוֹת תְּמֻתוּן:
5For God knows that on the day that you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like angels, knowing good and evil." הכִּי יֹדֵעַ אֱלֹהִים כִּי בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְכֶם מִמֶּנּוּ וְנִפְקְחוּ עֵינֵיכֶם וִהְיִיתֶם כֵּאלֹהִים יֹדְעֵי טוֹב וָרָע:
6And the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise; so she took of its fruit, and she ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. ווַתֵּרֶא הָאִשָּׁה כִּי טוֹב הָעֵץ לְמַאֲכָל וְכִי תַאֲוָה הוּא לָעֵינַיִם וְנֶחְמָד הָעֵץ לְהַשְׂכִּיל וַתִּקַּח מִפִּרְיוֹ וַתֹּאכַל וַתִּתֵּן גַּם לְאִישָׁהּ עִמָּהּ וַיֹּאכַל:
In a sense, the authority of his name. His sense of justice. He, the Devil (Greek diabolos, meaning slanderer / acuser).
Since the angels in their myriads, who had been around for, most likely a great period of time before man was created, had witnessed this challenge, so it is more important than mankind's salvation.
You are beginning to swerve into Fan-Fic here.
Job 38:7 The angels are obviously interested in Jehovah's new creation. If Jehovah's name and what it stands for is challenged, and the angels see that it effects them as well, as even some were involved in it. But it raises a question, which Jehovah allowed to be explored. Can man survive without God's guidance and protection? If a respected judge is challenged and basically slandered, even if innocent his name, which in a sense represents his authority, is in question. So why don't God step in and stop the suffering we create?
About the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, the Jerusalem Bible of 1966 says: "This knowledge is a privilege which God reserves to himself and which man, by sinning, is to lay hands on, 3:5, 22. Hence it does not mean omniscience, which fallen man does not possess; nor is it moral discrimination, for unfallen man already had it and God could not refuse it to a rational being. It is the power of deciding for himself what is good and what is evil and of acting accordingly, a claim to complete moral independence by which man refuses to recognise his status as a created being. The first sin was an attack on God’s sovereignty, a sin of pride."
That is yet one of a bunch of interpretations that people put forth for The Fall.
Yes. Once one begins to remove the religiosity and pagan influence of Greek philosophy and Babylonian mythology from the Bible, it begins to make a great deal more sense.
But if want to actually know what it really meant, we should really stick to the source material. ~'Man has become like us, knowing of good and evil. He must not eat of the tree of life and live forever."
Okay. Of what evil did God have a knowledge of firsthand?
This gives us a true understanding of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man is booted from the Garden because Man has become like him, prideful? No. Smart, knowing of things, knowing of all things from good to evil, not morality, but knowledge in general. Just as a side note, it is of interest that the Serpent tells the truth, God has not. They did not die the moment they ate the fruit. They also did learn of all things good and evil. If anything, it appears God boots them from the Garden because he doesn't want competition.
At Genesis 3:17 " But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die." the Hebrew term mohth ta muth is used, which literally means "in dying you shall die." In other words the process of death began then. They began to die. And they did die.
