Bad apples, sad couples, glad tidings

By chhotebhai

Kanpur, March 3, 2023: Fortunately I belong to a small parish where just a handful of people come for the Sunday evening Mass. It is therefore a time of quiet reflection for me.

These reflections then are based on the first two readings of the first Sunday of Lent. The first reading was from Genesis on the “fall” of our first parents. The second was from Romans that stated “One man’s offence brought condemnation but now one man’s act has brought justification and life to all humanity” (Rom 5:18).

I did this reading and made an introductory remark that if we believe that one man’s act brought sin, death and damnation, and another man’s act redeemed us of all that, then we could make the fatal error of believing that we are but “passive spectators” in the economy of salvation. This would be an erroneous conclusion, fraught with danger. Hence this reflection.

Some forty years ago I made my first 30-day Ignatian retreat under Jesuit Father Dan Rice in his ashram in Bihar. He asked me to contemplate in complete solitude on the Genesis account of creation and fall, for about a week! What could one contemplate on such ancient and abstract events?

In truth it was a very enlightening experience. Ever since, I have been fascinated by the first eleven chapters of Genesis; described by biblical scholars (exegetes) as being primordial pre-history, allegorical in nature. Those events are both authentic, yet not factual! An oxymoron?

To comprehend this reflection one needs to understand a little bit about Genesis, the first of the five books of the Pentateuch and more particularly its first eleven chapters that are pre-historical.

For close to 2000 years it was believed that the Pentateuch was recorded by Moses (circa 1250 BC). However, since his own death is recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 34, he could not possibly have been the author. Exegetes now believe that the Pentateuch was compiled from various sources by as yet unknown authors. It is with this caveat of how, when and by whom the Pentateuch was written down that I share my reflections on the “Fall”.

Popular calendar art depicts an unclad young couple eating an enticingly red apple. This is nonsense. Exegetes tell us that apples did not grow in ancient Palestine. The Hebrew word for the fruit is tappnah which could be an apricot, orange or lemon; but not an apple.

So how did the apple enter the Adam story? Even today a bulge in a man’s throat (laryngeal) is referred to as Adam’s Apple. Master story-teller Dan Brown in his fictional “The Da Vinci Code” uses the apple of the garden to connect with Newton’s apple, the laws of gravity to build his fictitious tale of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

The reason is found in St Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible (Vulgate) in the 4th century AD. The tree of good and evil is translated as “Bonum et malum.” Mal is the Latin prefix for evil, as in malicious and malafide. The botanical name for apple (all are in Latin) is Malus Pumila. In all probability it is from here onwards that the two words got juxtaposed and the bad apple entered the English lexicon.

What was bad/ evil about this lethal fruit, even if it was not an apple? Genesis refers to two trees in the middle of the garden – the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 2:9). Note two things – that the trees are in the middle; that is they are central to the entire story. Secondly the tree is called “Knowledge of Good and Evil”. The messaging now becomes clearer. Before this incident/ development humans did not have the faculty to distinguish between good and evil. It is only after “eating the fruit” that their eyes are opened (Gen 3:7) and they become aware of good and evil and their own inadequacy (described as nakedness).

A celibate and monastic church leadership has insinuated that the first sin was sexual. This is as absurd as the apple. There was an old joke that the first sin was not the apple on the tree but the pair (pear) on the ground.

My personal reflection is that this was the transition from animal existence to humans with spiritual/divine faculties and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. It was the beginning of morality. This is precisely what distinguishes humans from all other intelligent creatures like chimpanzees, dogs or dolphins. They don’t have a sense of morality or a divine connect. In classical language, humans now have a soul (anima) that other creatures don’t possess. A commentary in The Jerusalem Bible that I use for study says that the word “knowledge” is “moral discrimination”.

So I daresay that my reflection is correct. It also means that the Genesis account is not just a story or myth. It is rich in meaning and symbolism.

Those who have studied the evolution of the human race now know that it began with a woman (not a man) in Africa. Evolution of the species over thousands of years led to the Neanderthal species and finally Homo Sapiens (modern humans). We also know that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens had mixed or common progeny. At what point of time did Homo Sapiens emerge as a distinct entity?

The science of evolution may or may not find the answer. Scientific exploration is concerned with HOW things happen. The Bible, and very specifically Genesis, tells us WHY thing happen. The how and why are two sides of the same coin and not mutually exclusive.

So while scientific evidence tells us how creation took place (the Church officially accepts the Big Bang theory of the beginning of the universe) Genesis tells us why God created. We get clear messages – there is a creator god, while the sun, moon are mere creations. God made humans in its own likeness (Gen 1:27). It made them to live forever (Gen 3:4). It gave them free will, the faculty to choose (Gen 2:17).

See the powerful messaging. Humans have free will. We are not bound by fate or pre-destination. I see this as something that distinguishes Christianity from almost all other religions and philosophies of life. If we have freedom we need to act intelligently and responsibly. However, God is aware of the frailty of its creatures, hence has some built in safeguards.

God had therefore warned humans not to eat of those trees under pain of death (Gen 3:4). However, post the “Fall” God had to resort to Plan B. It therefore takes remedial action saying “Now that the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and live forever” (Gen 3:23). It therefore banishes them from the garden (Gen 3:24). Again go beyond the symbolism to the message. If in a fallen state humans reach the tree of life (immortality) would that result in eternal damnation? God loves his creation too much to not allow that to happen. Morality was OK, not defective immortality.

Enter Jesus. Humans needed to be redeemed from a fallen state. Jesus needed to come to open the gates for the banished. He needed to be born, die and rise again to tear the curtain in the Temple (Mat 27:51), again symbolic of the gulf between God and Humans.

Did the human race have to wait in some kind of a limbo for millennia till God found somebody like Mary who could say a total yes, for the redeemer to enter history? Humanly speaking this seems gross injustice. This can be answered in two ways. As the Bible says “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet 3:8). This tells us that in the spiritual realm there is no such thing as time and space that are finite.

We have reflected on the bad apple, the sad couple and the glad tidings of the New Adam, Jesus. “The first Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45).

I now revert to my original observation that we could arrive at the dangerous and erroneous conclusion that we are but passive spectators. This is the real temptation – to not do anything, possibly believing that one is already “saved’ as some evangelicals assert.

Genesis tells us another story – that we have the knowledge and freedom to chose between good and evil. We have to actively co-operate in God’s plan of salvation for each and every one of us. For, “As you sow, so you shall reap” (Gal 6:7). So let us not blame a bad apple or a sad couple. Let us assume responsibility for our own actions and bear good fruit (Jn 15:2).

May this holy season of Lent be a time of prayerful contemplation of God’s Word to discover the Glad Tidings of God’s eternal love and, in turn, respond in love and service.

(The writer often shares his reflections on spiritual matters.)