THE FALL.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 4993, 13 January 1885, Page 2

THE FALL.

[To the Editor of the Evening Star.]

Sib,—Eating the forbidden fruit by Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden about 6,000 years ago in disobedience to the command of the Creator, is said by theologians to constitute the sin called the, fall of man. The 3rd chapter of Genesis describes tho circumstances, but the details of the narrative which are familiar to everyone, have always been interpreted by theologians with a greater or lesser departure from the literal sense. The ordinary interpretation is that the serpent was only a figurative designation of Satan, or actually Satan in disguise, or at least the serpent, if real, was employed by Satan as his organ or instrument. According to this view the effects of the disobedience recorded in the narrative were merely subordinate expressions of the divine dis* pleasure.and the consequences of that which was the real .and primary effect, namely, spiritual death or absolute ruin analogous to that of the fallen angels; so that the fall is the very basis of the whole system of Christian theology, necessitating as it does the Atonement. Others; however,' regard the serpent of the narrative as a real animal, but the narrative itself as a fable or allegory intended to explain. philosophically the origin of evil, physical and moral, in which allegory the tree of Life represents spirituality, the tree of Knowledge sensuality, the serpent being the symbol of pleasure. According ,to- fthis view, which has been held by some of the learned from the earliest times, e.g.,. Philo, Clement of Alexandria,. Origen, Eusebius, Augustine, &c , the allegory teaches that as soon as man's mind, through the weakness and treachery of his senses, becomes captivated and seduced by the alluremonts of lust and? pleasure, he loses and forfeits the happiness and prosperity which he enjoys in innocence. Traditions of a fall from a state of original innocence and happiness are to be found among every nation possessing a cosmogony and theogony. According to the Hindus the first man was tempted by the Supreme Being, whose special symbol was the serpent, by means of a blossom dropped from heaven off the sacred Indan fig. Instigated by his wife who had derived her being from him, the niau determined to possess the blossom, with the expectation that it would ma,ke him immortal, and on gathering it, actually believed himself to be so ; but on the appearance of the Deity the pair were banished from the Paradise in which they were. The Persian account, contained in the Zend^Aoestair is as follows:—The first couple lived originally in purity and innocence. P.rpelual happiness was fromised to them by Ormuzd. the creator of every gocdf gilt, if they persevered in their virtneJL But an evil demon was sent to them by...".! Aliriman, the representative of everything! noxious and : sinful. He appeared unexpectedly in: the form of a serpent, and gave them the fruit of a wonderful tree,,-. Horn, which imparted immortality, and had the power of restoring the dead T tq~ life. Thus evil inclinations entered their, hearts; all their moral excellences were destroyed. Ahriman himself appeared under the form of the same reptile, and completed the work of seduction. They acknowledged him instead of Ormuzd as the creator of everything good, and the consequence was that they forfeited for erer the external happiness for which they weredestined, A likeness will be remarked.: between the Greek myth of the garden of ihe Hesperides—in which was a tree with golden apples, guarded by a speaking dragon, the possession of which conferred immortality— and the story in Genesis; I for which also some of the designs might stand as i'lustrations which appear in the ancient Greek gems and Etruscan pottery; To account for the similarity existing among all these traditions, divines suppose them all to be derived from the Hebrew Scriptures. Another school • holds the theory that the Jews derived their history or the early history of the human race from the Babylonians and Persians during their captivity in Babylon. The latter view has received positive confirmation from the discoveries of Chaldean literature made by,Mr G. Smith. On the terra cotta tablets dug from the ruins of Assyrian cities by himself and others, he has discovered accounts of the CreationFall, deluge, &c, corresponding almost' exactly, as. far as the narratives on the tablets yet found go, with those in Geneais nxcept that they are fuller. Your correspondent "Sphidon " has sought knowledge on these subjects, and received that memorable stone, which is commonly the ignorant man's substitute for the bread of intelligence and mental culture. A gar* bled quotation of a quotation from a noncaninical author wi/h a blasphemous arrogation to himself of a beatitude with the gentle and merciful Christ and an apostle, who are audaciously represented as now about to destroy and "cut off wholesale by wars, earthquakes, volcanic erupi ions, pestilences, famine, revolutions, and the fiery bolts of the angry heaven," hundreds of those who differ with the childish utterances of a malevolent > cursing, false prophet. S.uch is the vile trash that in the present day floats, scumlike, uppermost, and is substituted by religious hypocrisy for an answer ai to the authenticity of Revelations.—l am.

Cbedbkdi.