As youre well aware of Quinns interpretation of the fall Id like to write a bit about the traditional interpretation. The comparison can offer a more comprehensible judgement about what the story is really about. Because the Bible canbe interpreted in either a positive or a negative way. If you read it literally, it turns into a negative reading where everything seems cruel and pointless. But this is by design because the tanakh was written as a lecture tool in theology. The stories are therefore veiled in order to stimulate the students thoght process. On the surface of it the stories seem ridicolous and impossible. Therefore studying the Bible requires a teacher who is well aware of the hidden positive theological message in the stories. Because G-ds will is always positive.

Quinns has done an interesting, but not a spiritual interpretation of the fall. The stories of the Bible are on the surface portraying physical, earthly events. But except for the prophets the stories are about spirituality, not corporeality. And must be understood in that sense.

The story of the fall is as you knows as follows, G-d creates the world, life and man. Immediately after G-d creates man, man sins, recognizes his nakedness, feels shame and hides from G-d and is then driven out of the paradise. G-d also forbids Adam to eat from the tree of life and setss out cherubs to protect the garden from man coming back.

The question is how come man and woman ate from the one tree that was forbidden from them, almost immediately after G-d exclusively told them not to eat from it. Was this an act of disobedience perhaps? Were Adam and Eve simply too stupid or rebellious to follow G-ds command? It would seem strange that G-ds creatures, living in the most perfect of worlds, so far without sin, immediately after G-d telling them not to eat from the tree of knowledge goes and eats it anyway. Were they simply being sinful and arrogant? The answer is an empathic NO.

The actual reason why Adam (man and woman) chose to eat from the tree of life was that if they had not done it, they would have lived forever in the paradise as spiritual infants and therefore unable to appreciate it. The paradise is not a location on earth but is a spiritual world, just as Adam was a spiritual being. Adam (man and woman) didnt crave to dominate the world, Adam longed for life. He was tempted by Eve and the knowledge that she promised.

Living in paradise forever would mean being forever ignorant. So the decision to eat from the apple of knowledge was the answer they were seeking. They were told that life would be hard on them, that women would have to bear children in pain and that getting bread on the table would come through hard work. This was a preparation for the life on earth wich is a life in concealment from G-d.

So seen from this perspective, the fall was actually a positive event. The return to paradise would then become far more appreciated than before.

Traditionally the spiritual world is a world of eternity and is without change. So the only way to change and learn something and to appreciate the life in paradise more is to first decend into this world where everything changes. Therefore this world is very valuable. It is in fact a sacred place because only here can we make mistakes and grow. To grow means to increase our ability to recieve pleasure when returning to paradise.

Because traditionally, all pleasure comes from G-d. G-d is the source of all health, vitality, life and pleasure. This world on the other hand contains not only pleasures but pains and sufferings as well - wich are the alienation from G-ds bestowal. So through our sufferings here, we grow and mature as souls so that we upon returning to the paradise we will be able to appreciate G-d in much deeper way. This world was in effect created for us, in order for us to have a deeper and more meaningful relation with G-d.

So the question of why Adam and Eves eyes opened and felt shame for their nakedness and why they tried to hide themselves from G-d becomes more understandable this way. They realized that before G-d they were nothing. A child will behave like this as well, the strongest urge of a child is to become like its parent. There comes a time in every childs life where it feels shame for its childishness and wants to become an adult and it will mock all those other kids who are "so childish". The same applies to this passage. Adam and Eve realized that they were incomplete, when their eyes opened to the fact that there is more to life than paradise they immediately felt inadequate and felt shame. For this reason they sought to hide themselves with leafs and branches. But it didnt work because you wont become an adult by merely dressing up as an adult.

So we can then see that the creation of the world and the fall was actually a gift by G-d in order to help Adam with a serious problem of not being able to come to maturity. Living in an eternal paradise is stagnation. So the snake is on the one hand the cursed creature on the earth, but in a spiritual sense the snake is crafty, as it says in the verse, and is helping Adam to grow. The snake does ofcource symbolize evil, but what is evil seen this way? How could there even be a snake in paradise? Something evil in an inherently good place? Thats impossible.

What man considers evil are things that he doesnt understand. The snake is a mystery creature. Just like not knowing anything means that everything is a mystery. Where did it come from? Did G-d create the snake on purpose or did it come from outside? Ofcource in Judaism there is nothing but G-d and there is a purpose to everything. However Adam could not know this, so for him and for us reading the text, the snake is a character full of mystery.

Still today are children always attracted to things that are a bit dangerous. The curiosity is a means to learning. And in Judaism the spiritual progress is likened to that of a child growing up into an adult. From being a spiritual infant into becoming a spiritual adult and more of an equal to G-d.

So again the interpretation of the fall goes as follows. Adam, wich means the team of man and woman, is tempted by life (Eve) and the possibility of knowledge that physical life can offer. Despite the possibility of suffering and pains and so forth, there is no stopping the curiousity of finding out for oneself what life is without first tasting it and living it. In all possible ways. Curiosity is a quality or virtue that is just as unexplainable as that of courage. Its an unreasonable virtue, but its the only thing that makes sense if you realize that you are "naked". Naked in the story of the fall is the realization of being an infant. Without experience and without knowledge. So Adam and Eve were no Hobbits, these stagnant halfcreatures that are idolized in Tokiens works. They were curious and craved to know what life is.

Good and evil, thats what this world is. There is pleasures and there are pains, there are ups and there are downs. There are winnings and there are losings. And for this reason, only in this world can a spiritual infant learn something. If everything would just be good, there would only be G-d and there would be no creation and then there would be no appreciation for G-d and there would be no true sense of pleasure. The distinction between light and darkness is what makes a creation possible. So the interesting point here is that when G-d created the world, he was also creating evil. Evil, just as in any good story, is what makes it possible for the protagonist to learn his lesson. The antagonist is required for there to be any story at all.

I saw a movie the other day called "The key to Provence II". And this movie was interesting in that there was no antagonist. There was a constant reassurance of the good life of living in Provence. The protagonist is telling the story of his happy childhood and we are told happy story after happy story until it becomes ridicolous. Whats cool about that movie tho is that each time you anticipate an antagonist, like when you think the kid will be punished by his teacher or something, the reverse happends and instead the protagonist is being congratulated. So the movie lives on a very unique formula of an anticipated antagonist instead of an actual one. So we are somehow awarded with it by the movie as its a bit theurapeutic treatment of contextual paranoia.

But if all movies were like that, there would simply not be any point to them. There would be no problem to solve and in effect nothing to learn or gain from it. Its not satisfying to see a person getting everything he wants throughout an entire movie. A story becomes gripping and relevant only when the protagonist faces a problem. Because we are in the same situation. Because in this world we are mortals. We face the risc of death. We hate this possibility above everything else, and we try to find a way to get around it somehow.

Then we read that G-d made it impossible for man to eat from the tree of life while on earth. This seems to contradict the idea that eating from the tree of life would be the natural state of being. As it seems to be the least harmful thing to do. As it seems, in Quinns interpretation, leavers only eat from the tree of life and not from the tree of knowledge. However this is not so. The fall occured before this world was formed. The fall was a spiritual event in order to learn from living in total concealment from G-d, but for Adam to live forever in concealment from G-d would not benefit him at all, therefore it had to be absolutely forbidden for man to find the tree of life in this world, or similarly the fountain of youth.

To eat from the tree of life is to become immortal. Its the fountain of youth. So, in order for man to be able to return to paradise he must never eat from the tree of life and become immortal in this world. This is something that G-d would never allow because being in this world forever is not the desire of G-d.

So instead of the tree of life, G-d gave man the Bible, or actually the Torah - wich actually is translated as "the tree of (eternal) life".

Reference: http://www.inner.org/times/shevat/tubeshvat/E58-0515.php

Okay, so now on to the false interpretations of the fall. We have that of Adam and Eve simply being disobedient and being punished and driven out into this world where they are to toil and when they die, because of their sin, go to hell and suffer for eternity. This is the traditional Christian interpretation. Christians has often read the verses from the perspective of a negative spirit. They interpret the idea of fearing G-d as actually living in fear of G-ds retribution. Incomprehensible enough, these thinkers considered this world as the world of the devil and that if you taste anything in this world you will immediately go to hell when you die.

The negative spirit is prevalent in the taker culture. This spirit is one of paranoia and doubt. Its doctrine is that if the worst thing can happend, it will happend. Therefore people are looked upon in the most suspicious way. Their intentions are always read as being lies, false and evil. And if youre not following the correct doctrine, you will automatically be very suspect. The spirit of paranoia is still strong, but reached perhaps an all time high in Germany during the witchtrials. Torture was used to make people confess their involvement with the devil. And if they didnt confess the first time they were tortured, they would be tortured again, and again, and again. I read about a man who was tortured 20 times, and there are horrible accounts that are just terrible.

To its credit, the witchtrials was not entirely a Christian invention, because in 1627 the Swedish king Gustav Adolf rode in with his protestantism and put an end to all of it. So Im not blaming Christianity per se, but making a point that the negative spirit was prevalent even within Christianity. And it seems it still is in many places. But understanding the scriptures correctly, one must read the Bible from a total conviction that G-d is good. Not merely a revengeful punisher that wants to destroy all liars.

I made a check on the word "critique", it comes from the greek word kritikos and means a reasoned judgement, analysis or value judgement upon an opinion. The critic is not interested in destroying the opponents views, but as that of reasoned guidance. The meaning of judgement in the Bible has the same meaning. Putting oneself before G-ds judgement does not mean that you will be punished and condemned to hell. It is the same as going to the doctor. If you dont go, you´ll stay sick. Because G-d is good, he wants to help. But we have to first come to G-d for him to help us. So the actual meaning of Judgement does not mean doom, but it means salvation and healing.

Judgement day is in the Christian evangelicals portrayed as G-d punishing the devils and all wicked men and delivering the ultimate damnation. And sure there might be a hell, and in Christianity that hell is eternal. But in Judaism, hell is a temporary place and is not intended for destruction, but of correction. Therefore its a place of judgement, just as putting in your exam paper for refutation. Therefore this is also a world of judgement, its a world where correction is possible. G-ds testing us humans are not there to hurt us, but for us to benefit from. But the Christian interpretation has always been that the fall was a tragedy, and that tests was the work of the devil only to fool man to go to hell.

Also considering the interpretation of the "fall" above, would it be reasonable with a redeemer that would save us from this world? If this place is meant to be a place where we can make mistake, suffer and do evil, it would mean that Jesus is there to simply put an end to all of creation and in fact not helping anyone.

The interpretation of the Christians has been this way. But I think that the story of Jesus can be seen more reasonable in a different way. That he came to remind people that this world is not the only world there is, in order to give hope to people. Not just to lead them out of this world. He came to tell them that there is a higher purpose and that there is a better way of life. His life is not one of teaching, because we never get to hear much of actual teaching. There was instead the appearance of a holy man. Later, Christian thinkers would deify this man. Make him "son of God" as if there would be a family relationship. A thought that does not make sense from the Jewish point of view, but could very well be seen as possible under Greek thought where Gods had intermarriages all the time.

So then Quinns analysis. He interprets the fall to mean the beginning of Civilization, from an outsiders point of view. Sure, the story can have this element. But considering that the Bible is a theological textbook it doesnt make sense. Quinn defends himself by calling scholars for believing the stories to be about "dreamlands" but his interpretation makes sense only of a very limited part of the story. Why would anyone bother to write a theological story about a physical event? It doesnt make sense.

So I think rather that Quinns interpretation is interesting, but its not a theological interpretation, wich it should be. Imo, the story of the Civilization seems rather to have more relevance to the story of Babylon. Because here people are trying to build a tower to heaven and as a consequence is punished by being spread out over the world and talking different languages. In the Bible, nationalities is a punishment and something to be avoided because it leads to conflict. Every nation against eachother, each claiming to know right from wrong (speaking different languages) and trying to make G-d obsololete. Building a tower towards heaven means to put man where G-d is, and put man in rule instead of G-d.

And the story of Cain and Abel can be interpreted as a physical event as well. However, it is a moral story. Cain sacrifices vegetables and Abel sacrifices animals. Abel is rewarded and Cain is jealous. Jealousy means the breakdown of human relations. Its a consequence of living in concealment from G-d. My interpretation of this story is this, that vegetables doesnt have any blood and is not a significant sacrifice. It shows spiritual immaturity and such a sacrifice is not enough. Abels sacrifice on the other hand was something that was mature and was therefore pleasing to G-d. And then Cain kills Abel, and Abel disappears from history while Cain on the other hand is allowed to continue his life and will even be protected by G-d.

The reason; a spiritually immature soul is more egoistic and will feel jealousy towards the more spiritually mature one. The mature one will also merit to return to paradise, but the immature one must continue his life until his lesson is learned. In Hebrew the mark of Cain has the numerical value of 6, wich represents the human being. He will be defended seven times over. And the number seven means completion. So my analysis is this; Cain avenges his spiritual immaturity upon the innocent brother and is therefore driven out from his fields. He will because of his immaturity remain as a human being until his learning as a human is completed.

The originial meaning of "curse" is not punishment, but more like a transmutation. An alternative to a blessing and a further concealment from G-d. So there were so far two concealments from G-d. The first was the fall from Eden, and the second fall was that of Cain. Abel was righteous and his death was therefore not a tragedy, but the returning of the righteous to paradise and the opportunity for Cain to go on to continue his learning. Because learning does not begin with a blessing, it begins always with a curse. As is understood from above. There must first be evil, in order for good to grow. Abel was allready accomplished and therefore the significance of his place in the story has been limited, while Cain has had more sympathy. In a spiritual context there has always to be a descent for there to be an ascent. The world began in paradise, and almost immediately there was a "curse" and a descent.

The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil. - Isaiah 57:1