If there were another legitimate way to interpret the scene in the garden that wasn’t a sex orgy
version, I’d like that very much
—Bob Schlenker
Herein is the continuation of a review of Bob Schlenker’s article Who is Cain’s Father? Part One the subsequent portions of which we will get to as we continue this series which you can (eventually) find in toto here.
Bob Schlenker seeks to “consider the potential meaning of the figurative language” within Genesis 3 towards the end of elucidating how “the Author of the Bible has a very refined sense of justice and legality. Where punishment is mandated it fits the crime. The penalties and consequences are suitable according to the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
He asks us to “consider why the metaphor of eating is used” within the context of Genesis 3 via an example of John 6 wherein Jesus stated, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” which it metaphoric. Of course, Catholic take this literally (even though, that is, Jesus made his intention clear in pointing out the following in verse 63 “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”).
He goes on to example how “When you eat something, it’s subsequently digested and something of it’s assimilated. It becomes part of your body” and that in John 6 “There’s a weaving back and forth through the bread of life eating and the father and son themes. This is what we call a clue. :)…The very profound truth hidden here is that food is to the eater like a father is to a son…natural eating involves putting things in your mouth and chewing them up. The other kind of eating is procreative.”
He then notes that in Eden “A tree that might be seen as ‘good for food’ does not necessarily mean it’s expected to provide a meal” and then calls us to recall that (within an utterly different context, mind you) John 6 also referenced eating in a metaphorical manner. But is it accurate to conclude that “‘good for food’ does not necessarily mean it’s expected to provide a meal”? Well, perhaps not if we are having an un-contextual chat however, Genesis 3 follows from, as you may have guessed, from Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 1 states that God created the Adam and Eve and told them, “I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat” with Genesis 2 stating “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat” with the stated exception of the forbidden tree.” Thus, within context a tree that might be seen as “good for food” does in fact mean it’s expected to provide a meal.”
In fact, serpent seedline of Satan theorists tell us that the forbidden “tree” was the serpent Satan. However, as we can see from Genesis chaps 1 and 2 “tree” means “tree.” If, by the way, “tree” is metaphorical of beings such as a serpent, Satan or the serpent Satan then God commanded Adam and Eve to have sex with multiple partners (who or whatever they were) as they could partake of the various trees freely.
Bob Schlenker states that “The seed of a tree is in the fruit. When you eat the fruit, you eat the seed” which is only true if you accidentally swallow the seed as people actually eat the fruit and discard the seed (with the exception of strawberries which are berries and not fruits). Following his mistaken statement about eating seeds (which people might do on, say, a sesame seed bagel but not as Schlenker stated it—along with the fruit), he then states that “Trees are reproduced by way of their fruit. Let this sink in” well, let this sink in: that is not accurate as trees are not reproduced by way of their fruit but by way of their seed.
He then gets into the area of asserting that terms such as grass and tree (and I would as: as well as any word in any language) they are “used metaphorically.” Well, I have been down this serpent seedline road before and most succinctly dealt with the terms fruit, eat, tree, etc. in Disambiguating the serpent seedline of Satan theory in Genesis 3.
Bob Schlenker, et al., ignore context, look up the terms in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, for example, and then pick and choose from the various definitions which ones they want to arbitrarily and subjectively string together into a supposed personal revelation. Thus, when he writes, “If we interpret the description of the activity in the Garden according to those same principles we have an intriguing alternative to consider!” he thinks he is really getting somewhere with the serpent seed of Satan theory and yet, I hear him stating that if we interpret the description of the activity in the Garden according to an un-contextual picking and choosing of terms from we can claim that anything means anything.
Next, Bob Schlenker really does himself in since you will recall that I noted that if in Genesis eating means sex then what do you make his statement, “The Tree of Life is the Bread of Life, Y’shua”? Genesis 2:9 notes that “And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden” and since “The Tree of Life is the Bread of Life, Y’shua” then Adam and Eve could have sex with Y’shua / Jesus.
Bob Schlenker, et al., seem to miss this logical conclusion of their clailms. He even makes a case on “artistic renderings of the scene in the Garden” wherein “the serpent is pictured winding around the tree of knowledge of good and evil like a helical strand of DNA.”
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