Alyoshka,
The serpent (not that I interpret the creation narrative literally) is deliberately deceptive. In 3:1 he asks Eve “Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Why would the serpent ask Eve if God said they couldn’t eat from “any” tree of the garden, when actually God said they COULD eat of any tree of the garden, save one? 1. To make them feel restricted from eating from ALL the trees (since they couldn’t eat from ALL of them), not just 2) to make them feel restricted from eating from that particular tree. Double wammy. Crafty, indeed. But it’s just the beginning. In verse 4 the serpent says, “You surely will not die!” But, they surely do. Physical death is not the central point here (as some young-earthians might think), but separation from God (a worse, more ultimate kind of death). Strike two. The final blow comes when the serpent tells them his version of God’s motive. Rather than telling them the truth–that God wants them to KNOW only good, he puts a massive spin on it and tells them God doesn’t want them to be as wise as he is. Bull-oney. The only “wisdom” they ever got out of the deal was a loss of innocence. Before they fell in the serpent’s trap, they were naked and unashamed, like any innocent kid or wild animal…able to have loads of innocent fun together without all the gender war-game crap. The serpent is definitely a bad guy here. Same one referred to in Job, 1 Chronicles, Revelation (“that old serpent” 12:9), et cetera. He is already considered terrible by the writer of Genesis. Which narrative was ‘told’ first? Do you know?
Liteninbolt,
The fall of Satan from heaven is referred to by Jesus in Luke 10:18–he is not talking about a literal fall from a literal heaven, but about a rapid decrease in Satan’s power because of the 70 disciples Jesus sent out.
The point of Job is not any wisdom he gained, or what he did or didn’t do wrong. Job is a counter-argument against those who would say that the only reason to be “good” (to love what is good, to love God) is for selfish reasons…family, possessions, health, acceptance (definitely not a “prosperity gospel”)–Job never cursed God despite all his loss and pain, but instead wrestled with God, like Jacob did–that is relationship. [ Of course family, possessions, health and acceptance are not bad…that isn’t the point, either (hence, Job is restored). ] And Genesis and Job both deal with theodicy…Genesis deals with why things are so screwed up, Job deals with the issue of bad things happening to good people…it all comes back to the ultimate purpose, our freedom to love. “Wisdom” without love is a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.
Seems we’ve had this sort of discussion earlier in ILP.
I hope you’ll join me at the Project this year.