I thought the tree of knowledge gave A & E the understanding of right and wrong? If that is true, I'm being punished for something someone else did but didn't understand that what they were doing was wrong. Seems unjust and unloving to me.
We are punished for our own transgression and not for someone else's including Adam and Eve. We all have our free moral agency to choose good or evil. Sure, Adam and Eve were the first to transgress the law. But, they did not have full knowledge, or any knowledge what it meant to die. But, for Adam and Eve to keep the law to multiply the earth with humans, they had to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So, my question is did Adam and Eve actually commit a sin or transgression by keeping the law of multiplication of the human being? What they did do is cause knowledge to be available about good and evil by partaking the fruit. From that point on, the people either formed a good life or one with chaos and sin, not God. God provided for this opportunity to test our "faith" in Him with a perfect world for this test.
The Tree of Knowledge gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of both good and evil. The account starts out with noting that all God made was good. It was like Adam and Eve said, "All this good is nice and all--but we want to know evil, too." In Orthodox Judaism, the story continues with God agreeing to their decision, and the Tree was planted. In this Orthodox version, Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit because the fruit wasn't yet ready. In remembrance of this, some Orthodox do not eat fruit off trees is not eaten until the second year it produces.
You are being "punished" in this life for the same reason Adam and Eve were.
lg325; you are spot on here with your post. Unfortunately faith in the Divine, & human rebellion mix about as good as oil & water. Many(?) of the public school educated city kids of today appear to end up as tomorrows homeless & sometimes violent street kids. Maybe many of the kids in private(non g'ment) schools also end up as street fodder but I do not have info to verify this one way or the other. I do know for a fact that kids raised in a more country &/or farming community are VASTLY different from their city counterparts.
I'm guessing this is from the Talmud? Interesting, and a good example of how people seem to need to interpret the Bible and write their own scripture as to what God really meant.
I don't remember--So many different sources. I wouldn't be surprised if someone knows of a source even earlier than Judaism made this point, and Orthodox Jews picked up on it.
The great thing about the Bible, you can find a justification in it for anything. Do you love your enemies or is it an eye for an eye?
Eye for an Eye is in the old testament the new testament did away with that. There is a lot to learn from the old testament but what you read in it is a history of incidents leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ. Others may explain it better than me. I could use the brush-up course on scripture study.
Justice is a good place to begin. "An eye for an eye" continues with "a tooth for a tooth". I am not sure it was even meant to be taken literally. The lesson is, if someone knocks out a tooth, justice is not taking someone's eye. Let the restitution fit the situation, not surpass it. In today's world, how many file frivolous lawsuits over something relatively minor, essentially asking for an eye in return for a tooth?
So the moral code of God has changed? Will it change again in the future and what is bad today will be good then?
As you said, their are many interpretations of scripture, I didn't realize we can just pick the ones we like and ignore those we don't. Explains a lot about the history of Christianity.
There is no reason to ignore anything. All should be studied (not simply read). What is it you wish to ignore?
I ignore none of it but I certainly don't accept all of it. You really should ask lg325 that question since he, like many Christians, feels the OT is no longer valid.
It must suck to be you.
Could be worse, I could be you.
