One of the themes in the Bible that has always fascinated mankind is that of the Garden of Eden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with the serpent lying on one of its branches.
During the period of October 2013 – January 2014, I wrote a series of articles for SOS, mostly about the esoteric interpretation of Bible texts, based on Hebrew numerology. In at least five of these articles this theme of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the serpent was examined, each following article building on the findings of the previous ones.
Before moving on to new findings, I will give a summary of what is written in the previous articles about this subject first, in order to get reacquainted with the subject after such a long time.
I found the meaning of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to be the tree of duality, ets-2, in Hebrew.
Eating from that tree caused the descent of Man into the world of duality and matter, also called the fourth world or the world of the seventh day. Eve, the female, nourishing and creative side of Man, was enticed into eating from it by the serpent, the nachash, numerical value 358, which proved to be the downward force in Man during the descending part of the involution / evolution cycle. This is a cycle, which you could see as a circle that is divided in three segments:
- The first segment is the descent out of a world of higher consciousness as described above; this is called involution.
- The second segment, described in the next paragraph, is the period that mankind resides in the world of matter.
- The third segment, called evolution, is about ascension, going upwards in consciousness again, as described in the third paragraph of this description.
When man had almost reached the bottom of the cycle, the downward force got the upper hand and turned into par’oh (pharaoh), and man became enslaved / addicted. After a call for help to God and a promise to address this addiction themselves later on, man was delivered from this slavery by God and the nachash got its head / its downward principle, crushed, which made it fall asleep. It was then called the Kundalini that slept in 3½ coils at the halfway point of the cycle.
After having been anointed with the oil that was produced by man through processing and digesting all that happened in his / her life during this stay in the world of matter, the downward force changes into an upward one as the messiah, mashiach, also with a numerical value of 358, which leads man upwards again, and to its rising as the Kundalini serpent at the end of the process as the conclusion of the cycle.
The descending phase in this whole process is part of the sixth day and the serpent, the nachash, is therefore associated with the number 6. The world that we enter after descending into the world of duality and matter is called the world of the seventh day, as mentioned before, and the deepest point of the cycle, where the sleeping Kundalini lies, is exactly its halfway point (3½).
Because of all the work that man has to do in order to process and digest everything, this day is also called Jom ha Assiyah, the world of doing things. In this world God, the Higher Consciousness, rests and man works his / her way through the process of ‘eating’ the fruit of the seventh day.
This fruit is the tamar, 400-40-200. You can also read this as 400-mar. Mar means bitter and 400-mar means the bitterness of the four hundred. The bitterness of slavery and addiction and the bitterness of the cross, as the number 400 used to be written as a cross on its side. The word tamar means date. A date is sweet. In order to discover that all this bitterness is sweet, man will have to process and digest it however, symbolized by the verb to eat.
Another image that is used to describe this process is the word oil. As the nachash, the serpent, turns into the mashiach, messiah (both having the same numerical value, 358) which means the anointed one, there has to be oil, olive oil, to do the anointing with. Oil is shemen in Hebrew, and is connected to the number 8, shmona. That is why the messiah is connected to the eighth day of resurrection and ascension. This oil is produced by crushing the olives, fruit of the sixth day, in an oil press, gat shemen, or in English Gethsemane.
So processing the fruit of the sixth and the seventh days is the process of Gethsemane and Golgotha, and although in the Bible it is the story of Jesus, it is a process that all of us have to undertake. All this processing lies hidden in the symbols of the cycle.
Processing and digesting also includes embracing everything that is being placed before us today without resistance and with love. It includes calling it Good in the end because we have become aware of how much we have grown in conscious awareness because of it.
Those who are interested in checking out the previous articles can find the links to them underneath this article.
*****
The quest for new findings started with asking an old question anew. Why did God create the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then forbid Man to eat from it? In one of my previous articles I answered this question with the reply a rabbi once gave:
“If you want a child to do something, you have to forbid him to do it.”
I quite liked the answer and at the time it helped me get on with my article, so I used it, but at the same time I felt that there had to be something more. It did not completely satisfy me but I did not know why.
Now I still believe that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil can be seen as the tree of duality but in the Bible every story has other interpretations as well. I could not really believe that this interpretation could be the reason for this prohibition. But why? And recently I suddenly saw the reason why.
Man had been in duality all along.
With the act of creation, duality had been created. The very first letter, character, of the Bible was the bet, the number 2, of duality, followed by the opposites of light and dark, sea and dry land, etc. It was created for God to experience Itself in a world of contrast, in a multitude of forms and shapes and ideas and identities. To become consciously aware of Itself and to fully experience Itself. And contrast means experiencing both good and evil, for experiencing only good would mean remaining within the oneness and not becoming aware of anything. It would defeat the purpose of creating this world of illusion, or game as it is also called sometimes.
And then I suddenly remembered the final conclusion that I had reached and have just described at the end of the summary. After we have processed all our emotions, everything that ever happened in our life, and we have become able to embrace it all and call it good, no matter how painful it was, because we have realized how much we have grown because of all of it, then everything is Good without an opposite evil. Then we have reached the original Oneness again, but this time with conscious awareness whereas ‘in the beginning’ we were not aware of all that.
Coming from both these points and combining them I suddenly jumped to the conclusion:
Could it be that with this prohibition God warned us not to start judging? Not to start labelling things good or bad as nothing has an inherent meaning in itself. It depends on our attitude towards it and what we do about it how we will experience it. Whether we remain victims or take responsibility for the ‘bad’ things that happen to us.
I think that maybe God meant to say: “Expose yourself to all the contrasting things in this world we created for those experiences but do not start labelling them good or bad. Because if you do, you will die.”
To die is met tamut, 40-400, in the Hebrew text. Forty is the number of ego and emotions. And four hundred is the number of slavery / addiction and also the cross. We found both of them in the word tamar as well.
“Once you start labelling and judging people and things, your vibration will go down rapidly and your ego and your emotions will overpower you. You will not be able to stop it and slide down into dense energy or matter. That is not what was planned. That is why I advise you not to do that. Do not eat from the tree of judgement.”
*****
This may look like it is the opposite of what is written in Joshua’s article Thank God Adam and Eve Ate the Apple! but I do not think so. I think that Joshua’s article does refer to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as the tree of duality.
There is another thing I had missed. In Genesis 2:9 it reads: “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food …” This is said about all the trees they were allowed to eat from. And in Genesis 3:6 it says: “And when the woman saw that the tree (of the knowledge of good and evil) was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.”
I wrote about the meaning of good, tov, 9-6-2, 17, before. Seventeen means the last, bitter phase of a period before the start of something new and beautiful.
Joseph was seventeen when he was sold by his brothers to be a slave in Egypt. That in the Bible symbolizes the phase in the world of matter where the serpent, the nachash, has become pharaoh and man is overpowered by his ego and emotions. Joseph however never becomes a real slave as he learns how to master his ego and then becomes ruler over ‘Egypt’.
When someone’s age is mentioned in the Bible, it always symbolizes something and in this case the age of Joseph symbolizes the process he was to go through in order to become master over his ego and emotions.
When we break the 17 of the word tov, good, down in its three characters (both letters and numbers) 9-6-2, we first look at the number 6. This character is called wav and as a word it means hook. A hook links two things together and is therefore also used as the word ‘and’. So the number 6 links the number 9 (birth) to the 2 of duality. All of it taken together points to the last bitter phase of duality that will lead to the birth of a wonderful new world.
What I had missed is that this seventeen does not only apply to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but to all the other trees as well.
Eating from all the other trees would also include bitter experiences but without the judgement of good or bad the bitterness would not have so much impact whereas there still would be an experience of contrast. There would be an embracing of all bitterness immediately, and an experience of All being Good, but not as much gain of conscious awareness as when the whole process as described above would have taken place. There could not really be enlightenment as there would never have been serious darkness.
With reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil however something else is said as well, which is not said of the other trees, and which is the determining factor here. About the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is said, literally in Hebrew, that it is ‘nice’ or ‘lovely’ because it gives the possibility to reach enlightenment, haskala, in this case expressed by the use of the corresponding verb lehaskil.
Eve, the creative side of man, saw that eating from this tree would, after all was said and done, lead to enlightenment and she was willing to take all the potential bitterness (that she foresaw in the word tov, good) into the bargain in order to achieve that. Even if it would mean she had to descend into the four hundred of the slavery and the cross to accomplish that. It took enormous courage to take this decision, because she would not be able to recognize the sweet date in the bitterness of the cross until she (we) had gone completely through the whole bitter process.
Within this interpretation and on this level I believe that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil may also be called the tree of judgement, and even God might not have known what eating from it would eventually lead to and therefore have wanted to protect man from having to go through all this.
Maybe Jesus did too when he said: “Do not judge for if you do, you will be judged.”
The other articles linking to all this can be found below:
A Deeper Revelation of the Serpent and the Messiah , The Exodus and Crucifixion and How it Applies to You! , The Importance of the Words not Written in the Bible , Hidden Symbols and Patterns in the Bible: Part One , Hidden Symbols and Patterns Inside the Bible: Part 2
Anny,
A very brilliant article that I immensely enjoyed. You stated,
“With the act of creation, duality had been created. The very first letter, character, of the Bible was the bet, the number 2, of duality, followed by the opposites of light and dark, sea and dry land, etc. It was created for God to experience Itself in a world of contrast, in a multitude of forms and shapes and ideas and identities. To become consciously aware of Itself and to fully experience Itself. And contrast means experiencing both good and evil, for experiencing only good would mean remaining within the oneness and not becoming aware of anything. It would defeat the purpose of creating this world of illusion, or game as it is also called sometimes.
And then I suddenly remembered the final conclusion that I had reached and have just described at the end of the summary. After we have processed all our emotions, everything that ever happened in our life, and we have become able to embrace it all and call it good, no matter how painful it was, because we have realized how much we have grown because of all of it, then everything is Good without an opposite evil. Then we have reached the original Oneness again, but this time with conscious awareness whereas ‘in the beginning’ we were not aware of all that.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I believe creation is the automated result of primordial consciousness which requires no beginning or end. Inherit in this process is the potential for self-awareness. Once the process has been completed for which you describe above, God, through that self-awareness, is given meaning. God, or consciousness, gives meaning to itself through the long process of experiencing Itself. This newfound self-awareness is the gift of life, and it is ever-evolving through new experiences, which at a certain point realizes its Oneness and wholeness. The beautiful thing in all of this is the new added awareness.
You then provide us with the answer of achieving greater progress along our spiritual paths: not to judge our situations as good or bad, because this reinforces the ego, keeping us trapped in our limited understanding ignorant to a greater reality of who we truly are in this game of duality. I, too, believe Jesus gave us the teaching not to judge to help us rapidly progress through the limitations of the lower ego. As you have hinted, Jesus’ words enable us to develop the spiritual ego. How? Your further statement reveals a pertinent truth:
“It depends on our attitude towards it and what we do about it how we will experience it. Whether we remain victims or take responsibility for the ‘bad’ things that happen to us.
I think that maybe God meant to say: “Expose yourself to all the contrasting things in this world we created for those experiences but do not start labelling them good or bad. Because if you do, you will die.”
I believe this death is our reinforced ego-ignorance in duality, keeping us caught up in the game instead of transcending it with greater awareness.
Your breakdown of numerology and Hebraic terms makes your argument quite sound. You have certainly convinced me.
I thoroughly enjoyed your explanation of the “other” trees in the garden too. Their purpose is often overlooked, but your breakdown of the number 17 and its relation to the term “tov,” which further breaks down to 9-6-2 also makes sense. Not just the tree of good and evil, but the other trees also represent the contrast needed for self-awareness to develop. Excellent points!
Thank you, Anny, for enlightening us with this knowledge. It gives us a profound hope to see great purpose in all our experiences, both of what we have traditionally as a human race have termed “good” and “bad.”
A fitting scripture here would be from Paul:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28
Hello Josh,
Thanks for your comment and for posting the article so quickly.
I am glad you liked it as I was tentatively feeling my way around when writing it. This viewpoint is relatively new to me as well.
You write: : “I believe creation is the automated result of primordial consciousness which requires no beginning or end. Inherit in this process is the potential for self-awareness.”
I have never heard it expressed that way yet. The automated sounds a bit cold and I cannot quite relate it to the concept of the primordial Energy(field) being Love. The various Jewish scholars who wrote about this subject approached it more from an anthropomorphic view I guess, describing it either as God got lonely or bored, or God created Man and separation in order to give man the joy of the return, or things like that. I read those things many decades ago and I do not even remember who wrote them but it made me settle on this idea of God loving his creation. That did not change, no matter how much else did change in my perception of who or what God could be.
That Bible text you chose is certainly fitting!
Hi Anny,
Not sure if you are aware of the enormity and scope of this subject you have brought to our attention. I praise God that the time is coming and is now here, where the saints of God, are waking up to the realization and oneness found in Christ Jesus. I believe this awakening starts once you can truly understand this principal of duality. Partaking from the tree of knowelege of good and evil; is judging things by the senses which we are told not to do according to Isaiah 2:22″ cease ye from man, who breath is in his nostrils” Nose in the bible denotes our discernment and unfortunatly most are still living their lives discerning only by the 5 senses….its is truly the temptation of the whole world and tries all those who dwell in the earth realm (Rev 3:10) Jesus did not live by the tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately Religion has obscured the deeper meanings behind all these truths. Take Heb 5:14 for example, while reading this article my Spirit immediate recalled this passage “strong meat belongs to those who are of full age who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern BOTH good and evil.” It does not say to discern between good and evil as in “shunning the evil and doing only what we consider to be the good thing.”
And the prophets point to this truth as well…the prophet Isaiah prophesied about Christ “He shall not judge by the sight of his eyes nor decide by the hearing of his ears but with righteousness….” Isa 11:3-4. Jesus constantly said that he only did what he heard and saw that father do….he did nothing of himself but the Father did the work. This goes back to his pure intimacy and fellowship with God…by living from the inside out, he operated out of Spirit where there is only one power, one presence and one mind…
The symbolic book of Revelation (unveiling of Jesus Christ) is about the awareness of the soul as it goes through its awakening of Christ consciousness…its the de-creation of what Adam released in our awareness…all of these pictures and signs are pointing to what is taking place between our ears….in the minds of men…Once we realized that there are no other powers that rule us, no duality, we come into oneness…AND you see this beautifully pictured in Revelation 12, with the sun clothed woman. This woman is our awareness. She is clothed with the Sun – this is true oneness and the awareness of a New day. The moon is under her feet. We know the moon is reflected light, it reflects the sun…meaning she is no longer a reflection of the sun. She is ONE with the Sun (Son) – the lesser lights or powers no longer ruling in her life as she walks in the realization of Christ consciousness. It goes on to talk about her birthing a man child (expression of Jesus) …but Isaiah says “before she travailed she brought forth, before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child, who hath heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? ”
Phil 2:12 says that we must work out our salvation…”
BUT we already birthed the Salvation of Christ…So what we REALLY do is work out of something that has already been worked in us through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The process is not only a matter of meditation but recognizing aka “reckoning” as Paul puts it…that the work is finished (awake to Righteousness) based on what Jesus did. So the work we do is believe which is our faith obedience toward God now. Paul said, I travail again until Christ be formed in you. (Gal 4:19) Why would Paul say this?
He had the full revelation of Jesus Christ….Commissioned to present it in its fullness (Col 1:25) and the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) I believe Paul was really trying to convey how the formation takes place in our conscious awareness. A consciousness in the awareness is likened to a womb and the womb receives the seed of the husband and in that conception and formation takes place…and then 9 months later it is projected out. There has to be a formation in the awareness and then that will be projected to the experience of our life, which we already are…Praise God!!
Josh, I am new to the site, but ive been reading various articles of yours…I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them. What caught my interest was your bio. You talk about going beyond the milk (literal) of the Word and going on to strong meat (Spirit). You are truly a blessing…its very rare to find believers in Christ actually feeding on strong meat and raising their conscious awareness through the Spirit of the Word and not the letter (for we know the letter kills!).
Anyways, I believe you’ve done a great job tackling this deeper essence of truth by revealing how the sacred scriptures are all about meditation…as we meditate we are calling up the “renewing mind” which is the mind of Christ, we then come into the reality and realization of the Christ conscious awareness where we are connected to the Most Holy Place dimension and live out of the heavenly realm where we have been seated with Christ (Eph 2:6)
All of this is a continual partaking of the tree of life and results in making righteous judgments where we are living by faith and not by sight…this is TRUE judgment based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. When we understand that Jesus went to the cross AS us and not just for us. Because we know that “he who knew no sin became sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:21) and Jesus said “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw (“drag” in the Greek) all things to myself (John 12:32). In other words, Jesus drank the bitter cup of man’s hewn down state and identified with the Ego/Adamaic nature and its destructive mistaken identity (mark -missing sin) and through the cross, there was a “Blotting out of ordinances which was against us, which was contrary to us, he took it out of the way…” Col 2:14
Hallelujah for the blood without spot that has purged our consciousness from dead works to serve the Living God! When Jesus was lifted up on the cross what he really said in John 12:31 was “Now is the judgment of our Adam nature, he ruled you with his duality, with his false ideas and concepts of God, with his false perception of nakedness….AND so as a man thinketh in his heart/mind(which is his state of awareness) so HE is (Prov 23:7). BUT now “it is finished” (John 19:30) And to those who believe and have received the truth through the Eternal Spirit, just WAIT (stand still and MEDITATE) and SEE with the Single EYE of the Spirit..the manifestion of Christ in YOU and AS YOU… He that hath an ear (notice that is single ear, not ears…) let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches (people). Rev 3:22 And “When He utters his voice the Earth melts! Psalm 46:6
GLORY!!!!
Obi
Hi Obi,
I enjoyed your comment. Some parts of it and Josh’s have reminded me of an unresolved question, which my recent experiences and Anny’s post have gotten me a step closer to answering, but the full answer still eludes me. The question, expressed in a somewhat emphatic style, is: “What in the bleep is Consciousness?”
In answer to this, I think Josh is comfortable with the model of “Consciousness” as a unity with infinite potential that by its nature, continually becomes aware of itself by experiencing itself through an interacting population of individual entities of consciousness (persons, animals, flowers, maybe even atoms) which are temporarily separated from each other in a dimension of time and space.
Josh knows I get a mind block whenever I try to fathom that model. My instinct is to wonder why a Consciousness would have to do this dance to experience itself? Also, why does a Consciousness want to experience itself. I think part of my problem may be in thinking that if Consciousness is God, which I am still conditioned to relate to as an anthropomorphic super being, that such a being is by the conventional definition of God, self sufficient and a guardian over the subjects it created. It does not need us. We need it. I still have this conditioning even though I am now suspicious of it and searching for other answers, trying them on, and seeing how they fit.
Anny’s premise begins to break down the obstacle in my conditioning by showing a model that describes a purpose to interacting individuality – we descend into individuality and are perfected by ascending into unity, especially when we make the leap to suspend judgment. When we make the leap we are freer to experience each other as a connected unity. Something like that. I’ll know more about it when I get there.
It now seems to me this is the purpose of all good belief systems, for individuals to have a model by which to ascend through non-judgment into unity. If this is true, then it does not matter if the model is an esoteric explanation for the Tree(s) in the Garden of Eden, or the neo-platonic struggle with the demiurge. The models are just various allegories that lead us along the path of enlightenment.
I enjoy others explaining how the allegories they are used to have expanded their awareness. Sometimes I like to compare and contrast them. I have learned not to argue about which is better. But I have learned to appreciate how others get so excited in their own way about what they have discovered. Other times I like to just quietly reflect and let some common truth about them impress itself on me. Lately I am getting the impression that, once I have stopped judging, that I am actually you (anyone else), whether I liked you or not when I mistakenly judged you. And that is a little scary as long as there is a residue of judgment. Without the non-judgment, I would either have to deny I was you to keep what is left of my sanity, or endure a nightmare that I am secretly the monster I judged you as. That nightmare would be enough to kill me. Imagine me thinking I am Hitler with my judgmental blinders on. Maybe that is why it is said that we cannot see God and live (if we have not ascended enough). Something like that.
Thank you for sharing your version that lead you to the truth. I am beginning to wonder if the literal “blood” you mentioned is an absolute requirement for ascending, but I know what you mean and I am excited for you. Also there may be something symbolic and universal about the “blood” that I am overlooking.
Blessings Friend,
Robert
Robert,
You bring up a lot of good points here, but have you ever considered that God / Consciousness doesn’t WANT to experience itself? The process of expanding space time and spirit and matter could be an AUTOMATIC process, inherent within consciousness itself. Instead of wanting to experience itself, it simply HAS to. Spirit and matter are simply two sides of the same coin, so to speak.
Hi Robert,
I like the way you engage with non-judgment. Way to go! I know it is not easy; I am by no means a saint myself. But it is well worth it and even if we fall down, we just get up again.
Love,
Anny
Obi,
I enjoyed your explanation of Hebrews 5:14. I had never thought about that one this way. I also agree that Paul’s revelation of Christ is about the awakening in our consciousness to the spiritual processes involving the involution and evolution of the soul. Thanks for the comment.
Hello Obi,
Thank you for your extensive comment to my article. And of course welcome to SOS as a new reader and commenter.
I very much appreciate all the trouble you have taken to give us a view of how see all of this, although I must confess that I cannot completely follow you as our religious backgrounds seem to be very different. But that is okay, as long as we are all following our own path towards the same goal. And that we obviously are.
Love,
Anny
Hi Anny,
I’ve always found your articles fascinating, and this one is no exception, particularly how you break down the Hebrew numerology system, and how it relates to its equivalent biblical meaning. Most enlightening. Thank you so much for this Light-filled article. Bless you.
Love,
Raymond
Hello Raymond,
Thank you very much for your comment. I appreciate it enormously to get some feedback. Especially when I get onto some new ground as in this case.
Blessings to you too.
Love,
Anny
Anny,
This post is wonderful. I especially appreciated your summarizing relevant portions of your previous posts, so I cold catch up on tings I missed or forgot. It is interesting to see how themes develop progressively in your personal ongoing ascendant movement, that has led you to your present revelation that suspension of judgment is the key to overcoming the apparent separation between the purposes of good and evil.
The Gematrical calculations of the serpent and messiah being 358 is an eye opener. I know that we can sometimes get distracted or misled by abuse of Gematria. That is why I don’t do it. I depend on others like you who are careful to determine the significance of these things. It was absolutely fascinating to read how you followed through in validating and expounding upon the significance of the serpent and messiah. I’ve heard new age claims that Satan is a secret agent working undercover for God, but never liked that idea the way it was presented. But you have developed a concrete explanation of your concept, similar but not the same as the other, that makes a lot of sense.
The concept you developed that God rests and then man works in “the day of doing things” is another thread that connects the hidden themes in the bible. As you explained, man works his way through eating (processing) the fruit that is bitter to make it sweet. That we get off on the wrong foot for awhile when we become trapped in the separation of good and evil, until we stop judging and then it is all good. This is a quantum leap beyond simply understanding that we must accept the bitter and sweet as necessary dualistic contrasts to better appreciate them. Now we can process the bitter. All this stuff in the bible about angels telling prophets to “eat” the bitter message that is given, now makes a lot more sense.
Gethsemane’s meaning of pressing oil is another vital clue. The trepidation we must sometimes face, or take on, in order to propel us to the turning point (cross).
I think we were told a lot of temporary explanations for things, as kind of place holders to explain something odd, until we have had enough experiences in the world of doing to understand the real thing, like the thing you mentioned about telling a child not to do something as a way to make sure they would. Maybe, whenever we sense something is not right or missing about an explanation, it is a sign that something better will be revealed through our diligence to ponder it. I will pay more attention to those moments.
One point I missed was your mention of 40 representing the ego. I was wondering if you could elaborate on this. 40 means so many things. Why does it mean ego here.
The other point I would like clarification on is your statement “About the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is said, literally in Hebrew, that it is ‘nice’ or ‘lovely’ because it gives the possibility to reach enlightenment, haskala, in this case expressed by the use of the corresponding verb lehaskil. I never got that connotation from reading the KJV. I wonder if you can help me unravel your meaning of this passage. Your meaning makes a lot more sense than accusing Eve of rebellion against God. Eve, as you mention, is the spiritual yearning inside of man. That makes a lot more sense.
I have learned a tremendous amount from your post. I hope you will continue them.
40 = ego and emotions ?
I did some back-tracking and found Josh’s explanation for the number 40 and association with the ego and emotions in “Jesus, 40 Days in the Desert, and the Ego”.
From his description it seems to me that 40 is connected with transcending the ego and emotions to find enlightenment beyond the physical world. So in a sense it does represent the conventional meaning of a period of trial and testing, but it is specifically applied to dealing with the ego and emotion in order to transcend the physical world. I got a little confused thinking 40 meant ego and emotions themselves, but I can see how the above equation might come about at a shorthand. Am I on the right track?
Hello Robert,
Thank you for your comment.
I think that abuse of gematria is more likely to take place when you use the more intricate, complex ways of doing it. Then you would be more apt to start manipulating things, I guess. Or when you start looking for something definite to find, instead of recognizing what is there by using this most simple method.
The concept that God rests on the seventh day is of course based on the Bible itself and the seventh day as the Shabbat and because of that Israel is later commanded also to rest on the Shabbat.
The concept of the seventh day as Jom ha Assiya, the world of doing things, is derived from the Kabbala, I think. At least, I found this concept in a book about the Kabbala.
These two concepts seem to contradict each other, but if I understand it correctly, the meaning of the first commandment is not to do things that create more multiplicity; not to move still farther away from the unity they came from.
The second concept is about working your way back to this unity.
You write: “I think we were told a lot of temporary explanations for things, as kind of place holders to explain something odd, until we have had enough experiences in the world of doing to understand the real thing …”. I believe you are right there but also that, as we are still living in this dream world of illusion, we can also at this moment not yet grasp the Absolute Truth. As such whatever we come up with will still be sort of place holders.
We should be trying to move ever closer to the Real Truth though, and to Unconditional Love. That is why I take that last concept as my guide line and always try to interpret everything from the viewpoint of oneness / unity and Love.
I am using the terms ego and emotions for the number forty as these terms are being used generally these days when describing our processes. They are derived however from the name of the character in question, mem, which means majim or water. And water is used widely as a symbol of the world of emotions, I believe.
Then regarding your last question: the translation of the KJV that you refer to is: a tree to be desired to make one wise. I would not exactly call this translation wrong – it does point in the right direction – but it does not go far enough.
I suppose that the translators did not know anything about becoming enlightened and just thought of worldly wisdom. What they translated as “to make one wise” is in Hebrew the verb lehaskil, which as a noun is Haskala and means enlightenment. So one might translate the verb as “to reach enlightenment”.
What I called ‘lovely’ and ‘nice’ is the Hebrew word nechmad and the words I mentioned are the translations in my Hebrew-English dictionary. It is something like the word tov, with its deeper meanings. In this case I totally forgot to look at that side of the word, but its numbers are interesting. Nechmad is 50-8-40-4.
Fifty is higher awareness.
Eight points to the anointing oil and an eighth day after the seventh.
Forty and four of course point to the world of emotions and matter.
All of them together point to the result (50 and 8) that is to be expected of a descent into the world of ego, emotions and matter.
50 + 8 = 58, which is also the numerical value of the word chen, which means mercy, grace, love. And of the name of the mountain Nebo, which you can read as 50-bo, the higher awareness is in him. This was the mountain that Mozes ascended from as he had reached that higher awareness then, in my interpretation. No punishment here either.
Please allow me to be the devil’s advocate… I would like to suggest that the Tree of Judgment is really the Tree of Enlightenment. Your article suggests that eating from the tree caused the descent of man. I am sure that most scholars will agree with your premise….. but that is not what Genesis says.
In the garden story either God is telling the truth or the serpent is telling the truth. I would suggest reading Genesis again and asking yourself this question….Who is telling the truth…God or the Serpent? Because it would be sacrilegious to think that God was deceiving Eve, even the most educated individuals will defend him and put the blame on the serpent. This also opens the door to a lot of silly answers trying to explain the reason for the prohibition. In my opinion, the reason for the prohibition is clearly stated in Gen 3:4…For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (You will better understand this after you read the last paragraph.)
God says…
Gen 2:17 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.
Serpent says….
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
So what really happened after they ate from the tree….
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened,..
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us
Their eyes were opened….Looks to me that the serpent was telling the truth!!!
The story about the garden made a lot more sense to me when I filtered it through the Gnostic understanding of the Demurige or the God of the Old Testament. The Gnostics viewed the Demurige as inferior to the true God and noted for evil, anger, and violence.
In my opinion it was the Demurige who deceived Eve by suggesting that they would surely die. It was the true God, the Christ Within, who was speaking through the Serpent… encouraging us to look within so our eyes shall be opened and we can become one of us.
So was the tree… the Tree of Enlightenment or the Tree of Judgement?
Frank
Hi Frank. Great to see your comment here.
I think you and Anny are both right. It is certainly the tree of enlightenment, but it is also a tree of judgment because the soul has to go through the process of involution and evolution – that is, the descent of Spirit into matter and then the ascension. It becomes fully the tree of enlightenment in the end process, but at first it is the tree of judgment.
Hi Frank,
Thanks for your comment and for playing devil’s advocate here.
However, I do not understand your question: Was the tree the tree of enlightenment or the tree of judgment?
It is not either .. or, it is obviously both! It is about the cycle of descent from oneness and unity into the world of matter, duality and separation, and then ascending again into renewed oneness and unity with more conscious awareness.
The tree of judgment is the descending side of labelling things and people good or evil and of ever lower awareness because of that. One might call that bad but in the end it is not; it proves to be Good because mankind gains a lot of awareness by working through all the pain that it caused. As such the ascending side can be called the tree of enlightenment.
Actually they are two sides of one and the same tree, just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life in the Bible also proved to be two sides of one tree.
I do not like the Gnostic concept of a demiurg very much as it is dualistic, placing a lesser and angry, jealous god opposite the true God. I know that these terms are mentioned in the Bible but it happened so often that I found a positive meaning in a text that seemed to be negative that I believe that must be the case here as well.
I prefer to look at everything from a viewpoint of Oneness and Love.
Anny
For some strange reason I stumbled across these articles and for the first time in my life I understand the way I feel and think isn’t all wrong. I think a lot of our Bible stories from childhood never got to the grown up version. Now my eyes are open. Thanks. May my heart, brain and soul continue to love this planet of life. I really like your excellent brain matter on scripture!!
Glad to help, Mary.
Hello Mary,
Thanks for commenting on my article. I am glad that you like it and that it could be of help. Writing this kind of articles helps me too in getting greater insights. I hope you’ll stay with us and give your contribution too in your comments.
Love,
Anny
@Anny about the idea of the Demiurge.
Story goes that Sofia bears a child without being in Union. Sofia is ashamed and hides the offspring. Later on She sees the error in conduct and seeks to correct. She manages to do that, her offspring still hides in a cloud.
In that cloud, alone, not connected, that Being starts to emanate from ‘ memory’ and because it is not created ‘Fully’ its creations reflect that ‘not-Wholeness’.
These Creations reflect their Creator and in turn start to crrate ‘in-Completeness’ Sofia calls for help, many Sons of God come to investigate, most of them politely decline, too difficult. Still some of the Sons of God agree to help Sofia with her offspring..
Hence, imo, this world came into being, co-created by Sofia and the Sons of God, that guard over it. This world is a sanctuary for us, creatures, to come in Line with the Fullness of Creation. This process of realignment is closely watched by the Cosmos. It seems that this world is sort of fast-cooker of a new kind of Being.
Although very lengthy the book of Urantia may be a good read. It was advised to me by Lola, a lifelong seekster, member of the Subud group in Bangkok, Thailand.
And thanks Anny, on another blog entry i started to write with a hot heart. I stopped, copied the text and sent an email to myself for further study. Postponed my judgemental nature, unto more discerment.
Hello Leo,
Thank you for your comment and explanation about the demiurge. I have read stories like this one before and they just do not land with me. It all is a metaphore of course or a reality that cannot really be captured in words completely, just like the stories in the Bible and other mythologies. I do acknowledge their value but have decided to stick with what does speak to me when I am in a meditative state.
In my view everyone should stick to what appeals to him or her most, while acknowledging and respecting what speaks to others, as long as it points to unity in diversity and uncondition love as a goal.