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Light to dark. Adam and Eve’s eyes opened to darkness after eating the fruit. They were blind, their open-minds to God switched to close-minds.
Light to dark. Adam and Eve’s open minds to God switched to closed minds.
Light to dark. That is the trajectory followed by Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit. Their open-minded Godly orientation switched abruptly to closed-minded Serpent darkness; this is the moment of turnabout in the human mindset. Even this benchmark of light to dark in human history is a somber mystery to most. It’s time to shed some light on it.
(Agony of Humankind, chapter 2.4)
Instead of speed-reading the Bible, we need to step back and meditate on what’s happening and what’s happened in Genesis 1-3. God’s first words were, Let there be light. The fourth key to Biblical Hebrew is understanding that words can have both literal and figurative meanings. Yes, light penetrated the tohu and bohu and lit up Earth establishing day and night. But, there’s an even more crucial spiritual enlightenment that is commencing.
Let there be light was not only a physical phenomenon God created on the first day of Creation. It was also a spiritual phenomenon of movement from dark to light. John 1 is the New Testament parallel chapter to the Genesis 1 Creation story. In John 1: 9-10, we read, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that comes into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him (the Light who came as Christ), and the world knew him not.” God brought physical AND spiritual light into the world some 6000 years ago. It illuminated, materially, and spiritually the Garden of Eden into which He placed the first man and woman.
The seventh, Sabbath day, the day of rest and refreshing, God promulgated His ethics to the man and woman. He explained the rules to what they could and could not consume in the Garden; this is God’s code of ethics for those who LIVE IN the Garden of Eden. The man and woman possessed clean, naked, wise, Godly minds. If you’re reading The Explanation for the first time, please go to the links. These affirmations are not fabulations. The Biblical Hebrew is clear about the spiritual light, and the dress and keep the Garden points to the more important observe and worship God. Genesis 2 ends with the idyllic but real description of this harmony. God WITH His Creation IN His Garden. The man and the woman were naked and not ashamed. Meaning both of them were WISE and NOT CONFUSED.
That’s the background to this story. After eating the forbidden fruit, the light went off. The man and woman flipped the switch and plunged themselves into darkness, light to dark. Here are the relevant Bible verses.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool (H7307) of the day (H3117): and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you?
10 And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded you that you should not eat?
Last week The Explanation discussed, at length, the episode of Adam and Eve and the opening of their eyes to sakal-wisdom; this is worldly wisdom. Something necessary, but also a characteristic of which we should be wary. Christ praised this sort of wisdom but chacham wisdom; the comprehension of the light of God was what He recommended.
Luke 16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
Read the story carefully, and you’ll see that the UNjust steward robbed his employer and tricked the debtors. That’s sakal-wisdom–UNjust wisdom. Christ was telling the ‘children of light’ to use sakal-wisdom, but to do it JUSTLY.
The man and the woman have just used their up-to-now Godly NATURE, and their FREE WILL to choose disobedient BEHAVIOR. They have broken the ETHICAL code God gave them. I’ve capitalized four words because all of them characterize human beings alone and define HOW HUMANS FUNCTION. Revise section 5 of Audit of Humankind using the links on those four functions. The result of their disobedient behavior is their altered nature. It transforms from Godly nature to human nature; this is the light to dark.
The voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day
Feeble translation, which, unfortunately, reveals the spiritual/physical level of the KJV translators; this is not a criticism. It is more of a wake-up call for us to realize what’s going on in this verse and episode. If we consider that God inspired the words of the Bible, do you think cool of the day is of interest? We’ll see.
Voice (H6963).
I’m not going to display each of Strong’s annotations. By now, you know you can go over to UnlockBibleMeaning.com and verify for yourself what The Explanation is indicating. I hope you’re doing it. You’ll see that voice, kol, H6963 also means sound. God was walking His Garden, and they heard that sound.
Cool (H7307).
Allow me a short digression. For 50 years, ever since I started reading the Bible seriously, I wondered about “God walking in the cool of the day.” In the vital introductory Creation context, this description seems trivial; it doesn’t add any depth and understanding to the narrative. Originally I titled this chapter “From Open-Minded to Close-Minded,” but it didn’t fit. Then, I ended up with the name it has now, Light to Dark. It is only today, after 50 years that I understand “cool of the day,” it has to do with the Light. How so?
We’ve already seen H7307, and it is a Biblical Hebrew word with which you are familiar, ruach. We saw it in Genesis 1:2, The Spirit (H7307, Ruach ) of God moved upon the face of the Earth. The word ruach appears about 780 times in the Old Testament. Genesis 3:8 is the ONLY place where it’s translated cool. That alone should raise your eyebrows. This expression cool of the day has to do with God’s Spirit.
Day (H3117).
We’ve also seen this word, on numerous occasions, “And the evening and the morning were the x day”. The Explanation expounded on the meaning of day. Please click and read it. In short, this is what it says: We ponder life or long days, another of those singular concepts that sum up everything God is accomplishing. There was nothing physically alive that first day, but light, morning, and day symbolize wonderful long life in the fullest sense of its magnificence and accomplishment. Life has nothing to do with destructive darkness, mixed up evening, and twisted night.
The light of day is but the first step to and of life.
God was walking in the SPIRITUAL LIGHT of His Garden. That makes so much more sense. The cool of the day is a correct translation, but it is soooooo much short of the spiritual depth God intended with this description; this is the Light aspect of light to dark.
Adam and his wife.
Again, there’s a better way to express this. The Hebrew says his woman and adam is not a name because in Hebrew it says haadam, which means there’s the definitive article (ha) at the beginning. You wouldn’t say, the Adam, but you would say the man. A better translation is the man and his woman. Why because it’s not just referring to this couple, it’s referring to them as the representatives of humankind.
They hid themselves from God’s presence (vs. 8). I hid myself (vs. 10).
Throughout this Genesis account, the emphasis has been the exact opposite of hiding. Please revise God with his Creation; humans share His likeness and image, God and humans share neshama. From the very start, God wanted man WITH Him. Upon his Creation, God immediately placed him in His Garden, and He communed with the couple on the Sabbath. Humans are God’s sons and daughters. He intends to see that through, this is the sole issue of the Plan of God. There is no separating humans from Him in God’s mind.
It is the couple who SEPARATED THEMSELVES from God. In the wake of this event, it is humankind that has separated itself from God. They hid (H2244) themselves. It entails more than just hiding.
חָבָא châbâʼ khaw-baw’; a primitive root (compare H2245 (חָבַב)); to secrete:
KJV – ⨯ held, hide (self), do secretly.
This verb is generally used in the reflexive meaning they did it themselves. They’re the instigators of this hiding. Not only do humans hide from God, but they seek secrecy as Strong’s 2244 indicates. Genesis 31:27 Wherefore did you [Jacob] flee away secretly (H2244), and steal away from me, and did not tell… One aspect of humans is their secrecy via secret societies, very influential in the philosophical, religious field. No space for details, but one that has gained prominence is the Illuminati. There are many others.
It was not a game of hide-and-seek; they were hiding from God’s presence. They didn’t want God around. Humankind wanted and wants to be left alone. Did you notice that hide-secret (H2245) compares with a very similar word, H2245
חָבַב châbab khaw-bab’; a primitive root (compare H2244 (חָבָא), H2247 (חָבָה)); properly, to hide (as in the bosom), i.e. to cherish (with affection):
KJV – love.
I point this out because H2244, H2245, and H2247 have two identical root letters (), and the third consists of interchangeable vowels. No more grammar. Their meaning is hide but notice HOW. One is in secret separation while the other is in close proximity of affection, the bosom. Totally opposite concepts of hiding; this corresponds with the second key to master Biblical Hebrew, the same word can have contrary meanings. It is the light and dark. The light is in God’s bosom, His love, The dark is being hidden separately and in secret.
Hid themselves amongst (H8432) the trees of the garden
The man and the woman didn’t hide behind a single tree. They found a cluster of trees, maybe a forest that was part of the Garden. We’ve also seen amongst a couple of times in this context. The tree of life also in the midst (H8432) of the garden (Gen. 2:9) Of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst (H8432) of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat (Gen. 3:3). Do you see the light to dark? God offers the man and woman LIFE in the midst of the Garden. Instead, they HIDE in the MIDST of the trees. Hiding in secrecy can be equated with the death from eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. Hiding from God leads to death. Again, the man and woman went from the light of the Tree of Life to the dark in the midst of the trees.
Amongst the trees, just a few words, but they warrant a book. Humans hiding (from God) doing things in secrecy in the forest; this is the theme of some of the oldest myths we look on as fairytales. Here are just a few examples you can examine: The Egyptian god Pan from where we get the word ‘panic’ associated with being frightened in the forest. Various versions of The Pied Piper, even Little Red Riding Hood with the wolf in the woods, the opera The Enchanted Forest, Wizard of Oz. Narnia is predominantly forested and filled with mythical talking animals. There are the underworld and the middle world, all places that are dark and frightening. And so many others; this is the dark aspect of light to dark that the man and woman’s minds underwent.
I was afraid. (H3372)
Afraid comes from Strong’s H3372. Do a study. It is one of those double-connotation words (second key to master Biblical Hebrew) having contrary complementary meanings: The reverence (the correct fear and respect) Adam and Eve had for God has now turned to fright.
יָרֵא yârêʼ yaw-ray’; a primitive root; to fear; morally, to revere; caus. to frighten:
KJV – affright, be (make) afraid, dread(-ful), (put in) fear(-ful, -fully, -ing), (be had in) reverence(-end), ⨯ see, terrible (act, -ness, thing).
This fright is a result of the sakal-wisdom, their twisted wisdom. Did you notice what frightens the man? His nakedness! Remember, his original nakedness represents the wise no-confusion neshama, mind God blew into his nostrils. (Please read this if you’ve never seen it before). In our light to dark trajectory, dark has now ensconced itself.
What should have frightened the man? Having done what God told him not to do! But that’s another story. But, no, his reasoning has become twisted, his sakal discernment tells him that the problem is with his physical nakedness not with his mind and moral nakedness.
The man and woman have switched to the dark side. They’re now estranged from Godly things, they’ve adopted worldly things. God brings him back to the real issue, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded you that you should not eat?.” Nobody told the man he was naked. He concluded it himself because he ate of the forbidden tree. This eating causes the transformation of the mind. God knew the man and woman were no longer tuned to Him. Sakal replaced chakam, dark replaced light, light to dark. A mindset switch took place, which leads to wrong discernment, reasoning, understanding, subtlety, knowledge. In brief, they jettisoned the spirit of God’s light and replaced the emptiness with the spirit of darkness.
Reprobate mind
The result of eating the fruit from the forbidden tree is one of the most significant moments in history. The man and the woman turned the light off. Darkness set in. Paul sums it up in his Epistle to the Romans
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate (G96) mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
The man and woman’s thoughts and actions involved, accepting the word of the Serpent, desiring a tree that wasn’t theirs, plucking and eating a forbidden fruit. Wrongly reasoning that they could hide in secret, dark place where God would not find them. They were afraid of their nakedness instead of fearing God correctly. When you look at this behavior, you realize that these are all MIND decisions.
The man and the woman activated their own MINDS to come to those conclusions. God witnessed that, and let it be. At that moment, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Another translation is a castaway mind. They didn’t want to retain God in their reasoning. They wanted to go and do their thing in the forest. God let them go. We shall see why.
Do you see that from this historic episode until today, humankind is still in the forest? As Job put it, “They grope in the dark without light, and he [God] makes them to stagger like a drunken man.” The move from light to dark. As the man and woman reasoned, so does humankind today. So do those who base their reasoning on observation, philosophy, science, and religion. They are in the dark and confused.
This historical episode is the foundation of this world society and civilization as we know it. We will be investigating it deeply. But, there’s another momentous event also associated with the foundation of this world. One that is highly positive, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” (1 Peter 1:19-21)
In Genesis, we have light to dark; In Christ, we have dark to light. Let’s keep that in mind.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.4 of the book Agony of Humankind.
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