{"id":4634,"date":"2017-11-16T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T00:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2021-10-20T10:35:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T02:35:56","slug":"188-creation-sin-expulsion-from-eden-and-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4634","title":{"rendered":"188. Creation: Sin, Guilt, and Shame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><sup>22\u00a0<\/sup>Then the\u00a0Lord\u00a0God said, \u201cSee, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever\u201d\u2014\u00a0<sup>23\u00a0<\/sup>therefore the\u00a0Lord\u00a0God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.\u00a0<sup>24\u00a0<\/sup>He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life<\/span><\/strong>. [<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Genesis 3:22-24<\/span>, <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>NRSV<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Massaccio.Adam-and-Eve-driven-out-of-the-terrestrial-paradise.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4580\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Massaccio.Adam-and-Eve-driven-out-of-the-terrestrial-paradise-119x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"146\" height=\"368\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Fall-and-Expulsion-of-Adam-and-Eve-by-Michelangelo-Buonarroti-c.1510.-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4583\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Fall-and-Expulsion-of-Adam-and-Eve-by-Michelangelo-Buonarroti-c.1510.-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"714\" height=\"368\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Left: Masaccio\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden<\/em>, c.1425.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Right: <em>The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve, <\/em>by Michelangelo Buonarroti, c.1510.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Consequences of the Fall<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The\u00a0<strong>fall (of man)<\/strong> is a traditional Christian term that describes the transition of the first man and woman from a state of pure, na\u00efve and innocent obedience to God to a state of self-centred, corrupted and guilty disobedience. The doctrine of \u201cthe fall\u201d, although not named as such in the Bible, comes from an interpretation of Scripture in Genesis\u00a0chapter 3. Originally, Scripture envisaged, the first man and woman lived blissfully with God in the Garden of Eden, but an external (evil) disturbance symbolised by the serpent\u00a0tempted them into eating the fruit\u00a0from \u201cthe tree of knowledge of good and evil\u201d, which God had forbidden (3:3-4). Thereupon, they lost their innocence. Narrating a series of actions on the part of Adam and Eve, the ancient inspired writer attempted to describe what would typically happen to human persons when they sin and fall from grace.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In original blissful state, the man (Adam) and woman (Eve) were blissfully unaware of their nakedness. The man would leave father and mother (2:23-25), commune with the woman, and they became one-flesh.\u00a0Falling to temptation, they became disobedient. No longer at one in spirit with God, they fell away from God.\u00a0At once, they became aware of their nakedness (symbolised by the &#8220;ashes&#8221; from which they came and &#8220;nothingness&#8221; before God). So they sewed fig leaves to cover their \u201cshame\u201d (3:7).\u00a0They experienced guilt, became \u201cafraid\u201d and thus estranged from Him; then they began hiding from Him (3:8-10).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Scriptures convey the truth that sinners are <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>first<\/em><\/span> estranged from God in disobedience, and <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>then<\/em><\/span> estrangement between the human persons ensued. And so, <em>after<\/em> being estranged from God in vertical relationship, the man and woman sank into estrangement with each other in horizontal relationship. Adam \u2013 he who was made from \u201cashes\u201d, thus symbolizing all of humanity \u2013 began to point the \u201cblame\u201d to Eve (3:12) who only a few moments ago was jubilantly received by Adam from the hands of God as pure and glorious gift of \u201cbone of my bones and flesh of my flesh\u201d. Implicitly, God was blamed, as Adam insolently suggested that it was \u201cthe <em><u>woman<\/u><\/em>\u201d whom <em><u>God<\/u><\/em> gave him that <em><u>caused<\/u><\/em> this chain of events. From primordial time, the inspired writer suggests, before undertaking any serious self-examination, \u201cfallen\u201d humanity would blame everyone else, and finally God if necessary, for their personal woes and problems in society.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>God expelled Adam and Eve<\/em><\/strong> from the Garden to prevent them from proceeding further by eating from \u201cthe tree of life\u201d and becoming immortal (3:22-24).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Human behaviour exemplified by the first man and woman is narrated in Genesis 3 as an archetype of the behaviour of \u201csinful and fallen\u201d humanity. Thus, Scriptures attempt to explain the \u201csuffering\u201d state of human existence: great childbearing pains (3:16); the woman being ruled by the man (3:16); Adam having to toil, labour and till the ground for food (3:17-19,23), away from the conditions of a paradise that the Garden of Eden was.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The Drama of Shame<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">From the anthropological angle, the phenomenon and manifestation of shame is empirically universal \u2013 blushing face, cast down eyes, bowed heads, avoiding the public, and so on. Shame somehow inheres in <em>Homo sapiens<\/em> and is thus common in all human cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">From a sociological angle, from the moment of birth, the work of socialsation begins, as the child learns to <em>live in and with society<\/em>, even often against her innate nature. The child has to negotiate fear, shame, disgust, erotic affects, joy and sadness as part of the work of socialization. The critical factor for the social trigger of shame is \u201cthe eye of the other\u201d, and that is the eye of the community. In other words, one is under the watchful eye of society, as one is constantly <em>seen<\/em> in whatever one is doing. So long as one carries out all activities according to the rules of society, one is not ashamed for the \u201ceye\u201d approves. However, when one does something that (one thinks) infringes the rules, one is conquered by the affect of shame.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the ethical approach, the eye of society functions as a moral authority. Once a person infringes the social rules, guilt and shame set in. While the ethical sanction of the external authority is shame, the sanction of the internal authority forms the pangs of conscience. The combined effect of shame and ill-conscience create tormenting feelings and psychic pain. Before anything else, the person <em>feels and suffers<\/em> the \u201cpunishment\u201d. One blushes, tries to hide, to cover up, to disappear from the public eye, to avoid society\u2019s nasty \u201claughter\u201d, accusing glances, and horrible judgments, to vanish from the face of the earth, to become invisible as a way of \u201csaving face\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Seen in psychological terms, one is shy and bashful while feeling uncomfortable in being constantly exposed to the regard of others. One believes, consciously or unconsciously, that one is falling short of the standard of the judgmental \u201ceye\u201d, the external authority. In any culture where showing one\u2019s naked body is in itself an insult or sin, one hides one\u2019s body, especially one\u2019s genitals even in adulthood. Of course, one can \u201cfeel naked\u201d even when one\u2019s body is not naked. Men and women can feel \u201cundressed and naked\u201d in their souls and minds by the judgmental eye, just as women can \u201cfeel\u201d undressed by men\u2019s \u201cdirty\u201d glances. Shame-avoiding techniques include hiding one\u2019s face, putting on a poker face, turning away, moving to another place, or even abandoning one\u2019s community. These techniques do not just aim at counteracting the fear of disapproval and ridicule but, often more so, they attempt to protect oneself against transparency. In a word, they attempt to ward off the <em>threat<\/em> of the loss of the \u201cself\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Artistic Readings of the Text<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Artists have a way of communicating the deep messages of Scriptures on a piece of canvas, particularly germane to the consequences of guilt and shame resulting from sin and disobedience. Two classical paintings in this regard offer excellent catechetical tools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The first masterpiece is Masaccio\u2019s\u00a0<em>Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden<\/em>, c.1425, uplifted above, shown on the left.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sinners, stripped nude, returned to their original state of being made from earth. Thus, nakedness may signify nothingness. Yet, they have not lost their dignity, for they are neither debased, nor degraded physically.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Yet, their expulsion from the company of God and the delightful garden caused them to experience deep, profound shame. Now, they know the pain of guilt, shame and distress.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In fact, the biblical account gives only one explicit reference to emotion: when the Lord calls Adam after the Fall, Adam replies, \u201cI heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself\u201d (Genesis 3:10). Fear may be written on the face of Adam and Eve in some images of the Expulsion, but not in Masaccio\u2019s rendition.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Adam and Eve seem absorbed in their own emotions, their shame seeming to isolate them even from one another. Is Masaccio alluding to the effects of internal estrangement after separation from God, including the lack of solidarity in human community (compare Genesis 3:12 with 2:23)?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Above all, they appear to be grieving.\u00a0And yet, their gestures are a great deal more than simply expressions of grief.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">From \u201cthese gestures and their contrapuntal relationship to each other\u201d, James Clifton sees clear indications that Masaccio has used them \u201cto depict the primeval couple\u2019s shame according to traditional gender stereotypes.\u201d To mark the implication that <em>both<\/em> Adam and Eve experienced shame at their nakedness, Masaccio attends to the iconographic requisite of their nudity, but in gender-specific ways consistent with the Mediterranean concepts of honour and shame.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Thus, as Clifton puts it, \u201cthe man, as a primarily rational being, experiences intellectual (or spiritual) shame and covers his face (or head) as the seat of reason, whereas the woman, as a primarily carnal being, experiences sexual shame and thus covers her erogenous zones.\u201d But, one must add, Eve\u2019s covering gesture reflects the stock gestures of modesty common quite universally with the female gender throughout the different ages. Still, Eve\u2019s gesture seems somewhat pathetic when applied to one who is walking.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What is more striking, however, is that, instead of hiding her face, Eve casts it upwards and appears to be wailing aloud in great distress. Psychiatrist Andrew Morrison has observed that \u201cMasaccio\u2019s Eve perfectly conveys the expression of shame: her entire body brings in apology for her very existence.\u201d In any case, Masaccio\u2019s evocation of Eve\u2019s dramatic howling and deeply felt pain, easily expresses acute human suffering in the world. Is he even using Eve\u2019s howling to symbolise women\u2019s deep suffering, and even her justifiable protest against prejudice and oppression, in a male-dominated world?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The second masterpiece, shown above on the right, is Michelangelo&#8217;s\u00a0<em>The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve\u00a0<\/em>c.1510\u00a0on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Art experts have noted the composition\u2019s three pilasters: the fallen pair to the left, the pair expelled from Paradise to the right, and the anthropomorphized tree of knowledge with the female tempter in the centre. Unlike other artistic representations of the Genesis text, Michelangelo\u2019s masterpiece is a two-in-one presentation of the \u201cbefore\u201d and the \u201cafter\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There is the profusion of the Garden of Eden surrounding the blissful couple to the left, sharply contrasting the total desolation surrounding the \u201cfallen and disgraced\u201d couple to the right. In the desert, humanity shall find its way back to God.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In parallel opposites, just as the tempter in the garden of plenty stretches out its hands of temptations, the cherub raising his sword points the way out to the desert of desolation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Before the fall, Adam and Eve were a youthful couple, exuding confidence, mindlessly willing and ready to try everything and anything on offer, boldly \u201cgrabbing\u201d the \u201cforbidden fruit\u201d regardless even of divine strictures.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">After the fall, their confidence noticeably waned, they walk away from their expulsion considerably aged and visibly disturbed <em>inside<\/em>. Feelings of guilt and shame are displayed all over their entire demeanour.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Adam\u2019s face is turned away from the site of shame, his guilt and shame being all but laid bare in the gestures of his two arms. On the left, his two arms were raised in greed to grab what he should leave alone; on the right, his two arms are stretched in defeat. God, who was previously near to him has, after the fall, become inaccessible and remote. Now, he knows, he is no longer worthy of the Garden God has built.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Guilt and shame are written all over the face of Eve who now, lacking in self-confidence, conspicuously crouches in anonymity under the shadow of Adam (\u201cyour desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you\u201d &#8211; Genesis 3:16<sup>b<\/sup>).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh, November 2017. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to <strong><u><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"mailto:jeffangiegoh@gmail.com\">jeffangiegoh@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/u><\/strong> You can also be dialogue partners in this <em>Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>22\u00a0Then the\u00a0Lord\u00a0God said, \u201cSee, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever\u201d\u2014\u00a023\u00a0therefore the\u00a0Lord\u00a0God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.\u00a024\u00a0He <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=4634\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh","author_link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"22\u00a0Then the\u00a0Lord\u00a0God said, \u201cSee, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever\u201d\u2014\u00a023\u00a0therefore the\u00a0Lord\u00a0God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.\u00a024\u00a0He&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4634"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6756,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions\/6756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}