Dear Readers,
While I am
actively updating Jasmine’s Discoveries, complete with links to
the selections already written pertaining to the discoveries Jasmine has already
made, I, her author, wish to share some of the factors relevant to her quest
into Eve, and the overall story of Adam and Eve, which she will not be
discovering, even though I, her author, believe them. For example, I, Jasmine’s author, believe the
“Adam” figure and the “Eve” figure represent Jung’s “animus,” the unconscious
masculine, and the “anima,” the unconscious feminine, within every human being.
Jasmine, however,
is not going there, due to her method of investigation. Jasmine is choosing to investigate the person
of Eve and of the overall story at the beginning of Genesis in the manner
she was taught as an Evangelical Christian.
By reading the story in the way she was taught to read the Bible,
Jasmine makes some very astonishing discoveries. For example, the most sinister character in
the story of what Evangelicals term “The Fall” is God Himself. This character, called by the masculine/feminine/plural
name Elohim in the original Hebrew, forbids Adam and Eve from learning (knowledge)
what Elohim sees as wrong (evil), severely punishes them when they learn what
Elohim sees as evil, and then in a later tradition, many millennia later,
calls upon them to learn the very same thing that Elohim had previously
forbidden! (Heb 5:14)
As absurd as
this sinister Elohim interpretation may sound, it follows the literal
method of interpretation Evangelicals are taught to read the Bible, and part
of my purpose as Jasmine’s author, is to expose some of the troublesome tenants
of Evangelical Christianity by using its own tool: a literal interpretation of
the Bible.
For now, permit me, Jasmine’s author, to
separate myself from her by sharing what is not part of her quest, but is critical
to my own understanding of the Adam and Eve story. Here begins a
future selection in Just like Eve that will introduce Jasmine’s discoveries
. . .
Jasmine’s
Journal: “What is ‘The Fall’?”
Nor even was Jasmine aware of the origin of her tradition’s interpretation of the story it calls “The Fall,” from Augustine, based on skimpy scriptural evidence, limited logic, and his own sexual hang-ups. According to Augustine’s obscure logic, Adam and Eve were responsible for ushering into Humanity the concept come to be known as “Original Sin.” (For just how sexually messed up and, more importantly, illogical Augustine was in his development of his concept of “Original Sin,” see chapters 5 and 6 of Stephen Greenblatt’s The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve.)
Nor did Jasmine consider that this concept of “Original Sin” conveniently led the Catholic Church to scare its congregants with a terrifying image of an afterlife, from which they could save themselves should they generously donate their earnings to the Church.
Nor was she aware of the psychological interpretation of Adam and Eve as the unconscious masculine and the unconscious feminine, Jung’s animus and anima, that reside within each human. (While either the animus or the anima are likely to predominate, I, the author, see both residing in each one of us.)
Nor was Jasmine aware that centuries prior to Augustine, the Jewish scholar and philosopher Philo had already presented an interpretation remarkably similar to Jung’s, and that Philo’s interpretation remains to this day in many contemporary Jewish traditions.
No, Jasmine was uninformed about all of these interpretations and contexts. However, her tradition had taught her to carefully read the Bible, and to read it closely, regularly, and literally.
Finally, Jasmine was disturbed. No, she was was mad, inflamed. A quick, uninvestigated assumption that she had tempted the church youth pastor had cast her from church. This assumption had, in fact, unbiblically cast her out, based on the omitted second half of 2 Tim 2:22, calling not for separation, but connection, as long as one is working to keep lust away, which both she and Davie had promised to do.
Jasmine had
been violated. Jasmine was mad. Jasmine had also heard a mysterious inner
voice prompting her to find out who Eve is and to overturn “centuries of misunderstanding.” Jasmine’s quest had led to some astonishing
discoveries, for which she was now ready to record into her journal . . .
