Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/65

 1

The Garden of Bden

LKSSOxN

47

1

THE GARDEX OF EDEX (Genesis

Then

the

4— III,

II,

24)

Lord God formed man of the dust of

breathed into his nostrils the lireath of Hfe.

tlie

(Genesis

ground, and

II,

call heaven and earth to witness against you this

I

have

7.)

da}^ that

fore choose

life,

Read Psalm XXIV,

The



1-6.

Garden of Eden

of the

story

I

and death, the blessing and the curse there(Deuteronomy XXX, 19.) that thou mayest live.

set before thee life

is

one of the most

beautiful, not only in the Bible, but in all literature,

and has

deservedly come to be regarded as one of the world's im-

mortal

classics.

several

climax

are

dramatic,

is

story

Its

incidents

when

the guilty pair, conscious of their

must come forth from

sin,

The The

and directly. and concisely pictured.

told simply

is

clearly

their hiding-place

and by excusing themselves with

a half

lie,

at

God's

call,

incriminate them-

selves irrefutably.

Despite acter

is

its

simplicity

delicate

and

and

brevity, the portrayal of char-

The

effective.

serpent,

evil-minded, purposely overstates God's

"Hath God

Ye

cunning and

command and

asks,

any tree in the garden?" And the woman, guileless and unsuspecting, falls into the trap, and even enlarges upon God's actual words, "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we mav eat but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, said:

shall not eat of



God touch

hath it,

humanly,

said lest let



Ye

ye die".

shall

not

eat

And when

of

it,

neither

shall

ve

she has, so natin"allv and

herself be enticed by the alluring beauty of the