42.

 What questions were raised in your mind by this chapter and then left unanswered?

            The Apostle Paul wrote that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom 8:22). That is, because of the fall of the progenitors of the human race, the universe was turned into a cosmic cemetery. Nature does not have a moral will, and thus it did not fall by itself but was swept along to decay by Adam and Eve. Their sin had immense consequences for nature. Since the world is groaning in torment until it is saved by God, and since all members of the human race and all creation share this tragic fate, questions arose concerning Adam and Eve's transgression and how it affected not only man's existence on earth, but also the existence of the plant and animal kingdoms as well.

            More specifically, questions concerned the presence on earth of bacteria, viruses and pathogens in general; of sporozoan parasites, blood protozoans and every kind of internal and external parasite causing sickness and misery to humans and animals. Was the evil unleashed in the fall such that the RNA and DNA of living organisms changed to the extent that harmful traits started to emerge in certain ones as they multiplied? Was mankind's first sin the cause of damaging mutations that brought about insect pests and vectors (mosquitoes, flies, lice, cockroaches, boll weevils, termites, locusts, wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, fire ants, etc.), and the cause of harmful arachnids such as poisonous spiders, ticks, mites, chiggers and scorpions?

            Investigation into this matter led to the ineluctable conclusion that science has no data whatsoever concerning the primitive life of man. Even a Time magazine article “How Man Began” (March 14, 1994) contains an open admission that paleontology is a “data-poor, imagination-rich” field in which there are few certainties. The entire article, in fact, is saturated with uncertainties such as perhaps, presumably, appears to be, seemingly, if, and such-like. The famous French anthropologist Katrefage gets to the truth of the matter in his observation that:

Neither experience nor observation gives us the slightest facts concerning the very beginning of mankind. Strict science must therefore leave inviolate this problem. He who acknowledges his ignorance in the given case recedes less from the truth than he who does not acknowledge it and strives to press it on to others [Quoted in Ivan Andreyev, Orthodox Apologetic Theology, p. 131].

Dr. Andreyev states that the one oblique proof of the correctness of biblical teaching in this question are the most ancient traditions of diverse peoples about the primitive state of the race of man. Comparative study of these traditions, the same professor writes, forces us to conjecture their common source — the actuality in the past of a “golden age” or Paradise. Dr. Andreyev explains that:

Dim traditions about Paradise and its loss through the fall are met among peoples of Assyria-Babylon, the Persians, the Chinese, the Indians, the Egyptians, the ancient Greeks, the Romans, etc. In other words, biblical teaching about the primitive state of man is not alone. Various s of this teaching are met in traditions of people of Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and America (in Mexico, Paraguay, and others). What can explain this remarkable mutual accord in traditions of various peoples about the primitive state and fall of man? The only explanation can be the historical actuality of Paradise and its loss through the fall [Ibid].

Further investigation into this matter brought to light the findings of a biophysicist, one Dr. Lee Spetner. This scientist's research shows that all useful genetic information was initially present in each organism. He demonstrates that chance mutations cannot produce grand-scale evolution since these mutations result not in increased genetic information, but rather in a loss of information. His findings thus support the traditional view that the universe is devolving.

            Dr. Spetner goes on to posit that the variations that do occur within each kind of organism are the result of “triggers” or “cues” which a “biological Engineer” (that is, God) built into organisms to enable them to adapt to their environment [Cf. Not by Chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution, 1977]. This postulate and all of this scientist's research accord well with the idea that living organisms underwent injurious changes as a consequence of man's fall.

            Another question concerned the explanation of the cause and spread of evil and suffering that is found in pre-Christian Greek mythology. According to this account, evil appeared and extended across the face of the earth when a certain Pandora opened a box contrary to a command that she was not to do so. Is this story based on the Genesis account of the curse that followed Adam and Eve's fall?

            In all likelihood it is, given the fact that many different peoples and nations have preserved, in one degree or another, a mutually agreeable account of another biblical narrative as well — that of the flood. As the findings of the English scientist Arthur Hook show, these nations include those of the Fertile Crescent and adjacent areas — the Greeks themselves, among them, as well as the Phrygians, Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Armenians and Persians, and also more geographically isolated peoples — the Indians and Chinese, and even the Mexicans. Also testifying to a widespread tradition that the flood was an even that gripped all mankind are the compilations made by secular historians (R. Andree, H. Usener and T.G. Frazer). In these, it is shown that accounts of a great deluge are to be found in cultures all over the world, on all continents. In the majority of flood stories, the deluge results from the sins of a fallen humanity, the old world is submerged under the waters, only a few people and animals are saved, and a new world comes into being [Cf. Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, vol. 1, pp. 63-64]. Among the most interesting flood stories are those of the Australian aboriginal people, which are filled with striking parallels to the Genesis account.

            Related research showed that idolatry developed after the fall and was the product of man's fallen nature. The Holy Fathers state that the development of natural religions occurred because the knowledge of God was still in people's memories. Adam was granted a long life of 930 years so that tradition could be established — that is, so he could tell many generations of people all that he had experienced. Even though most of his and Eve's progeny lived far away from God as they began to scatter across the face of the earth, they maintained a knowledge of God, however limited, by word of mouth and memory. However, because of the sins that separate men from God, their reason was clouded, and in time they began to forget the invisible true God, the Creator of the world. With fewer and fewer righteous men, there was no one to teach people true faith in God. Concurrent with this development, as people still retained a need inside to reach something divine, myths began about the creation of the world, about a universal flood, etc., as well as false faith, superstition.

            The book of Genesis mentions two groups of closely related peoples who had come to inhabit the earth — the sons of God and the daughters of men (Gen 6:2-4). The Fathers understand the sons of God to be the offspring of Seth, the chosen race. These “Sethites” were a people who maintained a knowledge of God, albeit an imperfect knowledge. Their path was one of striving towards personal reconciliation with God and repentance before Him in the hope of someday receiving forgiveness and the return of the condition which had been lost. It is from these sons of God that faith in one God was passed on to Abraham and his descendants. By the time of Moses, the other peoples had lost this truth for some time. Even among the Hebrews, surrounded as they were by polytheistic nations, the truth of one God was becoming darkened, and it was threatened to die out during the Egyptian captivity.

            These sons of God are also the giants mentioned in Genesis 6:5, according to St. Ephraim the Syrian. By giants, one does not need to understand enormous men. According to St. Ephraim, because these people were the descendants of blessed Seth and were dwelling in the land along the boundaries of the fence of Paradise, their produce was abundant and full of strength. So too were the bodies of those who ate that produce strong, tall, full of stature and powerful. It is thought that these same giants with their mighty deeds of strength (manifested perhaps in wars with the offspring of Cain) would have been the origin of the “gods” of later legend in Greece and other lands.

            The Sethites were called the sons of God because through them, Christ was to be born. They were therefore to keep themselves pure and to preserve in themselves virtue, and they were not supposed to marry into the line of Cain. However, moved by carnal lust, they began to abandon their own wives for the daughters of Cain. Although the Sethites were the chosen people, they eventually became corrupt through this practice of intermarriage and were destroyed, save Noah and his sons.

            Regarding this second group of people, the daughters of men, these were the offspring of Cain. These “Canaanites” (not to be confused with the Canaanites) were not the chosen people but were forbidden people, the outcasts. As Fr. Gregory Naumenko points out, the path of the Sethites and the path of the Canaanites are two differing reactions of man's reason to the fall into sin and the resultant banishment from Paradise. After the banishment, the first people came to know hard labor in their struggle with nature, and they began to know suffering from disease and injury, and finally they encountered death. Already, the first steps of man outside Paradise were covered with the blood of fratricide, after which came new crimes, corruption, wars, polygamy, etc. Because of these sufferings, the desire to regain the blessed existence of Paradise became the all-encompassing goal of the entire human race, although the means of attempting the practical attainment of this goal were different. Unlike the Sethites, the Canaanites took the circuitous (indirect) route and attempted to recreate the actual paradisiacal blessed condition by earthly means. That is, they attempted to set up their life on earth without God, following the example of their ancestor Cain, who after murdering his brother Abel “went out from the Lord.. [and] built a city” (Gen 4:16-17), thus laying the foundation of material civilization. Along with the appearance of cities, external culture began to develop. Trades appeared, and machinery began its development, along with the sciences and art. All these things, however, were only a coarse substitute for the free creativeness that Adam and Even had in Paradise.

            Concerning the offspring of Cain, St. Ephraim states that they were small. The house of Cain, he explains, because the earth had been cursed so as not to give them its strength, produced small harvests, deprived of its strength, just as it is today that some seeds, fruits and grasses give strength and some do not. Because these people were cursed and were dwelling in the land of curses, they would gather and eat produce that lacked nutrition, and those who ate were without strength, just like the food that they ate. This same Father states that a preponderance of daughters was born to the offspring of Cain, indicating a dying out of Cain's descendants and their desire to marry the sons of Seth so as to protect their race.

            With the offspring of Cain and with those of the other offspring of Adam, there came to be two parallel lines of humanity. These lines were images, as it were, of the true followers of God and the apostates from Him, or as Blessed Augustine of Hippo later described it, the City of God and the City of Man. It was this second group of people, the descendants of Adam and Eve through Cain, who mixed the true faith with demonic ideas, thus giving birth to pagan religion.

            Thus, on the basis of this history, it appears all the more certain that the mythical story of Pandora is a modified account of the Old Testament narrative of the fall, one in which the truth of the biblical account is interwoven with fiction by pagan peoples. All the more so would this explanation be valid, given the distinct probability that the giants mentioned in Genesis entered into pagan religion and myth (including pagan Greek myth) as “gods.”

            Another question was how man's primordial fall affected man's relations with animals, and also how it affected the relation of animals among themselves. Holy Scripture shows that the consequences of moral evil spread from the fallen angels to people, and to the animal world and the whole of creation. Research also showed that animals did not prey upon one another in the beginning, but that the predatory condition is related to man's fall. Thus in the two highly acclaimed paintings Peaceable Kingdom, three anachronisms are present: there are more than two people with the animals, the fierce animals show no interest in predation, and the timid animals show no fear of the fierce ones or the people.

            Actually, Peaceable Kingdom could have existed only when there were no more than two people on the earth — that is, before the fall, before the disruption of harmony between humans and animals, and between the animals themselves, took place. In Paradise, when Adam was the king of all creation, all living creatures saw the light of God's image in Adam's face, felt his holiness and sensed the fragrance of sanctity. All of them acknowledged Adam as a king, and all willingly and naturally submitted to him.

            After the fall, however, after Adam disobeyed God's command, this acknowledgement was abolished, and the unreasoning animals refused to submit to man, the criminal. Speaking of this new state of existence, a hermit of Mount Athos states:

Nicholas Cabasilas analyzes this new condition vividly. Man, he says, is created in the image of God. In Adam, the image of God was the clear mirror through which the light of God reflects on nature. As long as the mirror remains unbroken, all nature was lit up. However, as soon as it was broken and smashed, deep darkness fell on all creation. All nature, then, rebelled against man and now does not acknowledge him, neither does it want to give him its fruits. Thus, man is sustained with anguish and labor. The animals are also afraid of him and are quite aggressive. Yet, when man receives the grace of Christ, all the powers of the soul integrate. He is in the image and likeness of God. He becomes a mirror, a light which shines forth the divine grace even to irrational creatures. Now the animals acknowledge him, obey him and respect him. There are many cases recorded where the ascetic-hermit lives in the company of bears and wild animals. He feeds them, and they in turn serve him, [and] acquiring divine grace through the Jesus Prayer, he becomes again the king of nature, and even more, he ascends to a more elevated state than Adam's. According to the Fathers, Adam was in the image of God, but he had to reach to the likeness of God through obedience. He was in the stage of illumination of the nous and he had to attain to theosis. Whereas the ascetic attains to “the likeness of God” (divinization) as far as possible, through divine grace, [he does so without entering] into the divine essence. He partakes of the uncreated energies of God. I shall give you an example of this acknowledgement on the part of nature.... When my ever memorable gerondas [elder] was saying the Jesus Prayer, wild birds would come to the windows of his cell pecking on the panes. One would think this was the activity of the devil to hinder him from prayer. But, in fact, the wild birds were attracted by the prayer of the gerondas! [Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain, p. 124].

Any such idyllic realm as Peaceable Kingdom has been reestablished since Adam and Eve's time only aboard Noah's ark, and then in post-Noahic flood times, in the Christian Church among various ascetic recluses and desert anchorites who regained the likeness of Adam in Paradise. The righteous Noah is like a second Adam. In Noah's presence, the wild beasts became meek and obedient as they were before the fall, and for this reason they do not attack one another inside the ark. Just as animals were at peace with one another before the fall, so they are also at peace around Noah, the image of Adam and the second progenitor of the human race. In his presence, animals which are natural enemies once again coexist in harmony.

            In Christian times, saintly men and women, having purified themselves through unceasing prayer to God, Whom they loved so deeply, restored the image of God in themselves. By becoming dispassionate through prayer and ascetic struggle, Orthodox saints throughout the ages regained in themselves while yet in a corruptible body, some measure of pre-fall Adam. Like Adam, they were impervious to the elements, and also like him, they were masters and stewards of creation. Animals sensed the purity and holiness in these hermits, and all of them willingly submitted to these saints in obedience. Such is the concept of prepodobny in Orthodoxy: a saint who has become like unto the first-created Adam. This phenomenon is seen in the lives of the saints right up to very recent times.

            The last question concerned the consumption of flesh. Investigation in this area showed that man's eating meat is a condition related to the fall. A recent Synaxis Press article, “Commentary on Scientific Creationism,” mentions that both science and the Fathers confirm that early man's sustenance was a diet of carbohydrates, plant proteins and high fibers (that is, fruits, herbs and grains), rather than one of fleshy proteins. Another source shows that the most natural food is that which was assigned to man by the Creator immediately after the creation: food from the vegetable kingdom. God said to the parents of the human race: “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant, the sowing seed which is on the whole earth; and ever tree which has within it the fruit of seminal seed shall be to you for food” (Gen 1:29). It was only after the flood that the use of meat was allowed, Noah being the first to receive this permission (Gen 9:3). Eating meat was allowed at this time because, as the Fathers suggest, man had by this time become lower, more fallen. God sees that men will continue to be evil, and that is why He allows meat to be eaten, in accordance with the lower conditions of post-flood humanity.