ENG 233
Response 1
31 August 2010
In literary semiotics, a metaphor is simply a symbol set meant to represent another symbol set. With the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden (NJB Gen. 2-3), we could then understand this to be a kind of tautological metaphor; that is, the forbidden fruit represents what the text of Genesis claims it to be: that which springs from knowing and understanding.
The fruit was forbidden to Adam before Eve was created when “Yahweh God gave ... this command: ‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for, the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die’” (2:16-17). Once Eve was created to live with Adam in the garden, the temptation to taste of such a forbidden fruit proved too great, and it took little enticement by a serpent: “God knows ... the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods,” (3:5), to convince Eve to eat it. She found the fruit to be “pleasing to the eye, and ... enticing for the wisdom that it could give.” She didn’t seem to hesitate in gobbling it and then taking some to Adam. The difference in their view of the world from before and after their snack can be seen in Genesis 2:25 and 3:7—“both of them were naked ... but they felt no shame before each other,” then “both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked”—which illustrates the basic dilemma of interpreting for what this fruit is actually a metaphor.
If the metaphor is indeed self-referential, then it becomes a symbol set for all that is unknown and mysterious; all that we as a species have yet to know and learn. Once we taste of the fruit, once we accept the knowledge and wisdom offered, we cannot ever unlearn it. In the creation myth of Genesis, it is never claimed that the Lord God, nor Yahweh, is omnipotent (if he were, why then would it be clearly stated in 3:9, “Yahweh God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked,” displaying evidence that Yahweh God did not, in fact, know where Adam was hiding). But Yahweh God is shown to be a jealous overbearing creator who wishes to keep certain privileges and responsibilities from that which he has created—as seen by the laundry list of curses he places upon serpent, Eve, and Adam in 3:14-24, banishing the human couple from their garden paradise and condemning all humans from that point on. This is a vindictive act which reads as the revenge of a scorned lover, not a compassionate and forgiving deity.
This symbol set of the fruit and the tree can bee seen to represent that knowledge and understanding is set in the midst of everything else at the disposal of the two humans in the garden yet, they are told not to touch it under penalty of death. Yet such death becomes metaphoric as well since once they did eat it, neither they nor the serpent actually died from the fruit itself. Under their own initiative, or under the sway of a wily serpent—who has, presumably, already tasted of the fruit and so Knows and Understands what it is—the humans to “become like one of us” (3:22), meaning, despite the plural reference, the Yahweh God. They eat the fruit and metaphorically Know what their Creator knows. Not only is there something else beyond their ken, but now that they know there are things they don’t know, they can never be satisfied with ignorance again.
The Garden of Eden is a school. The fruit is education. That is the metaphor. And once we taste of that metaphor, we can spit out that knowledge but we can never again forget the taste of something beyond our range of understanding.
~•~
Response 1
31 August 2010
The Möebius Metaphor of the Forbidden Fruit
In literary semiotics, a metaphor is simply a symbol set meant to represent another symbol set. With the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden (NJB Gen. 2-3), we could then understand this to be a kind of tautological metaphor; that is, the forbidden fruit represents what the text of Genesis claims it to be: that which springs from knowing and understanding.
The fruit was forbidden to Adam before Eve was created when “Yahweh God gave ... this command: ‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for, the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die’” (2:16-17). Once Eve was created to live with Adam in the garden, the temptation to taste of such a forbidden fruit proved too great, and it took little enticement by a serpent: “God knows ... the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods,” (3:5), to convince Eve to eat it. She found the fruit to be “pleasing to the eye, and ... enticing for the wisdom that it could give.” She didn’t seem to hesitate in gobbling it and then taking some to Adam. The difference in their view of the world from before and after their snack can be seen in Genesis 2:25 and 3:7—“both of them were naked ... but they felt no shame before each other,” then “both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked”—which illustrates the basic dilemma of interpreting for what this fruit is actually a metaphor.
If the metaphor is indeed self-referential, then it becomes a symbol set for all that is unknown and mysterious; all that we as a species have yet to know and learn. Once we taste of the fruit, once we accept the knowledge and wisdom offered, we cannot ever unlearn it. In the creation myth of Genesis, it is never claimed that the Lord God, nor Yahweh, is omnipotent (if he were, why then would it be clearly stated in 3:9, “Yahweh God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked,” displaying evidence that Yahweh God did not, in fact, know where Adam was hiding). But Yahweh God is shown to be a jealous overbearing creator who wishes to keep certain privileges and responsibilities from that which he has created—as seen by the laundry list of curses he places upon serpent, Eve, and Adam in 3:14-24, banishing the human couple from their garden paradise and condemning all humans from that point on. This is a vindictive act which reads as the revenge of a scorned lover, not a compassionate and forgiving deity.
This symbol set of the fruit and the tree can bee seen to represent that knowledge and understanding is set in the midst of everything else at the disposal of the two humans in the garden yet, they are told not to touch it under penalty of death. Yet such death becomes metaphoric as well since once they did eat it, neither they nor the serpent actually died from the fruit itself. Under their own initiative, or under the sway of a wily serpent—who has, presumably, already tasted of the fruit and so Knows and Understands what it is—the humans to “become like one of us” (3:22), meaning, despite the plural reference, the Yahweh God. They eat the fruit and metaphorically Know what their Creator knows. Not only is there something else beyond their ken, but now that they know there are things they don’t know, they can never be satisfied with ignorance again.
The Garden of Eden is a school. The fruit is education. That is the metaphor. And once we taste of that metaphor, we can spit out that knowledge but we can never again forget the taste of something beyond our range of understanding.
~•~
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