Adam would die if he ate from the tree of knowledge?
The Myth: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen 2:17).
The Reality: The purpose of this story is to condemn the Egyptian idea that knowledge of moral order {Maat} would lead to Eternal life, which conflicted with Hebrew monotheistic teachings. It’s a sophisticated attack upon Egyptian philosophical doctrines in the OT but when the NT is released Jesus became the deity Shu and reclaims the role of the Tree of life). From Egyptian deities into trees.
The relationship between moral order and eternal life lay behind the biblical story about the Tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Yet, despite the close parallels between the two descriptions, there is one glaring conflict. In the Egyptian text, Nun (the great flood) urged Atum(Adam) to eat of his daughter Tefnut (moral order) giving him access to knowledge of moral order. In genesis, God forbade Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, denying him access to moral knowledge. Along with the Tree of knowledge being based on moral order of Maat. The Ten commandments were also based on the 42 declaration of Maat. Jesus modified the Ten commandments to focus on love rather than the death penalty for some of the Ten orders.
When God created everything he said it was “very good” (Gen 1:31) Chrestos was the “good god” and the Gnostics had it right that Chrestos/Christ was within you. The Romans didn’t want you thinking this so they placed in Jesus mouth to say: “There is only One who is good” to have eternal life obey the commadments which are based on the Egyptian concepts of Maat/truth and the 42 negative confessions (Matthew 19: 16). So this reverses the OT attack on the Egyptian religion.
This inconsistency appears in the face of a moral conundrum in the biblical account. It would seem that god lied and the serpent told the truth. Initially, god ordered Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge, telling him that he would die on the very day that he did so. Yet, later, after eating from the fruit of this tree, Adam not only lived ( for about another 9 hundred years), but God feared that he would obtain eternal life if he ate from the tree of life and so it became necessary to expel him from the Garden.
The Egyptians believed that if you lived a life of moral order, the god Osiris, who ruled over the afterlife, would award you eternal life. That was the philosophical link between these two fundamental principles of life and moral order, and that is why Egyptians depicted them as the children of the creator. In effect, knowledge of moral behavior was a step towards immortality and godhood. That is precisely the issue framed in Genesis.
When Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, god declared that if Adam also ate from the tree of life he would become like God himself. But the Hebrews were monotheists. The idea that humans could become god like flew in the face of the basic theological concept of biblical religion, that there was and could be only one god. Humans can’t become god-like??? But we could be in his image of light (Atum)?
The Hebrew story is actually a sophisticated attack on the Egyptian doctrine of moral order leading to eternal life. It begins by transforming life and moral order from Egyptian deities into that of trees, eliminating the cannibalistic imagery suggested by Atum eating of his daughter. Then, Adam was specifically forbidden to eat the fruit of moral order/Maat. Next, Adam was told that not only wouldn’t he achieve eternal life if he ate of moral order but that he would actually die if he did eat it. Finally, Adam was expelled from the garden before he could eat from the Tree of life and live eternity.
Notes:
O you eight Chaos-gods, being veritable Chaos-gods, who encircle the sky with your arms, who gather together sky and earth for Geb, Shy fashioned you in chaos, in teh Abyss, in darkness and in gloom, and he allots you to Geb and Nut, while Shu is everlasting and Tefnut is eternity...I am Shu whom Atum fashioned, and this garment of mine is the air (Naked) of life....It is I who make the sky light after darkness, my pleasant color is the air which goes forth after me from the mouth of Atum...I am Everlasting, who fashioned the Chaos-gods, reproduced by the spittle of Atum which issued from his mouth when he used his hand...It is my son who will live, whom I begot in my name. He knows how to nourish him who is in the egg in the womb for me, namely the human beings who came forth from my eye which I sent out while I was alone with Nun in lassitude, and I could find no place on which to stand or sit, when Iunu had not yet been founded that I might dwell in it...Nun said to Atum: Kiss/Eat your daughter Ma'at, put her at your nose, that your heart may live, for she will not be far from you....I am the living one who knits on heads, who makes necks firm, and who nourishes throats. I knit Atum together, I make firm the head of Isis on her neck, I knit together the spine of Khepri for him...
That is my daughter, the living female one, Tefnut (cloud/rain),
who shall be with her brother Shu (light/heat).
Life is his name, Order (Maat) is her name.
[At first] I lived with my two children, my little ones,
the one before me, the other behind me.
Life reposed with my daughter Order,
the one within me, the other without me.
I rose over them, but their arms were around me.
- Spell 80, Coffin Texts
The Myth: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen 2:17).
The Reality: The purpose of this story is to condemn the Egyptian idea that knowledge of moral order {Maat} would lead to Eternal life, which conflicted with Hebrew monotheistic teachings. It’s a sophisticated attack upon Egyptian philosophical doctrines in the OT but when the NT is released Jesus became the deity Shu and reclaims the role of the Tree of life). From Egyptian deities into trees.
The relationship between moral order and eternal life lay behind the biblical story about the Tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Yet, despite the close parallels between the two descriptions, there is one glaring conflict. In the Egyptian text, Nun (the great flood) urged Atum(Adam) to eat of his daughter Tefnut (moral order) giving him access to knowledge of moral order. In genesis, God forbade Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, denying him access to moral knowledge. Along with the Tree of knowledge being based on moral order of Maat. The Ten commandments were also based on the 42 declaration of Maat. Jesus modified the Ten commandments to focus on love rather than the death penalty for some of the Ten orders.
When God created everything he said it was “very good” (Gen 1:31) Chrestos was the “good god” and the Gnostics had it right that Chrestos/Christ was within you. The Romans didn’t want you thinking this so they placed in Jesus mouth to say: “There is only One who is good” to have eternal life obey the commadments which are based on the Egyptian concepts of Maat/truth and the 42 negative confessions (Matthew 19: 16). So this reverses the OT attack on the Egyptian religion.
This inconsistency appears in the face of a moral conundrum in the biblical account. It would seem that god lied and the serpent told the truth. Initially, god ordered Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge, telling him that he would die on the very day that he did so. Yet, later, after eating from the fruit of this tree, Adam not only lived ( for about another 9 hundred years), but God feared that he would obtain eternal life if he ate from the tree of life and so it became necessary to expel him from the Garden.
The Egyptians believed that if you lived a life of moral order, the god Osiris, who ruled over the afterlife, would award you eternal life. That was the philosophical link between these two fundamental principles of life and moral order, and that is why Egyptians depicted them as the children of the creator. In effect, knowledge of moral behavior was a step towards immortality and godhood. That is precisely the issue framed in Genesis.
When Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, god declared that if Adam also ate from the tree of life he would become like God himself. But the Hebrews were monotheists. The idea that humans could become god like flew in the face of the basic theological concept of biblical religion, that there was and could be only one god. Humans can’t become god-like??? But we could be in his image of light (Atum)?
The Hebrew story is actually a sophisticated attack on the Egyptian doctrine of moral order leading to eternal life. It begins by transforming life and moral order from Egyptian deities into that of trees, eliminating the cannibalistic imagery suggested by Atum eating of his daughter. Then, Adam was specifically forbidden to eat the fruit of moral order/Maat. Next, Adam was told that not only wouldn’t he achieve eternal life if he ate of moral order but that he would actually die if he did eat it. Finally, Adam was expelled from the garden before he could eat from the Tree of life and live eternity.
Notes:
O you eight Chaos-gods, being veritable Chaos-gods, who encircle the sky with your arms, who gather together sky and earth for Geb, Shy fashioned you in chaos, in teh Abyss, in darkness and in gloom, and he allots you to Geb and Nut, while Shu is everlasting and Tefnut is eternity...I am Shu whom Atum fashioned, and this garment of mine is the air (Naked) of life....It is I who make the sky light after darkness, my pleasant color is the air which goes forth after me from the mouth of Atum...I am Everlasting, who fashioned the Chaos-gods, reproduced by the spittle of Atum which issued from his mouth when he used his hand...It is my son who will live, whom I begot in my name. He knows how to nourish him who is in the egg in the womb for me, namely the human beings who came forth from my eye which I sent out while I was alone with Nun in lassitude, and I could find no place on which to stand or sit, when Iunu had not yet been founded that I might dwell in it...Nun said to Atum: Kiss/Eat your daughter Ma'at, put her at your nose, that your heart may live, for she will not be far from you....I am the living one who knits on heads, who makes necks firm, and who nourishes throats. I knit Atum together, I make firm the head of Isis on her neck, I knit together the spine of Khepri for him...
That is my daughter, the living female one, Tefnut (cloud/rain),
who shall be with her brother Shu (light/heat).
Life is his name, Order (Maat) is her name.
[At first] I lived with my two children, my little ones,
the one before me, the other behind me.
Life reposed with my daughter Order,
the one within me, the other without me.
I rose over them, but their arms were around me.
- Spell 80, Coffin Texts
