Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/66

 ;

The Book of Genesis

48 tree

and the seeming

eaten, her first

benefits

thought

is

which

it

might confer, and has

of her husband; "and she gave

And unto her husband with her, and he did eat". sin, each their with (lod finally, when directly charged by also

seeks

to

shift

the

responsibility



man puts the blame upon God Himself, for

the

upon the woman and partly

partly

having made her, and the

woman

in

turn shifts the blame

Touches so delicate reveal the master's hand. The story shows remarkable power of condensation and The one sentence, "And they were both naked, suggestion. the man and his wife, and were not ashamed", pictures their state of pristine innocence far more effectively than any Similarly, after both have eaten of the detailed explanation. forbidden fruit, and both they and the reader of the story are anxiously awaiting the results, the few words, "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew" what did they know what was this strange and wonderful knowledge which came from eating the forbidden fruit ? "they knew that they were naked", are powerfully suggestive. Not a single one of the blessings which they had so eagerly anticipated, had come to them, but only the With this comes first the recognition of their nakedness. sense of shame, and they hasten to hide from their Maker And there come also the full in the gloom of the trees. consciousness of sin, and the realization that the serpent had in fact deceived them. They had expected so much and although the serpent's words were literally true, and they had not died, yet after all they had gained so little, and to the serpent.

.

.

.



.

.

,

at so great a price.

However, although the author of this story was a supreme artist, the story is by no means entirely the product taken a number of I le has of his own fertile imagination. product of the childhood period of

ancient

folk-tales,

Israel's

cultural evolution,

the

them together around

and with

delicate art has

a single, central theme.

Tliis

woven told of