Why do we bite the Forbidden Fruit?

While the biblical cherubim sometimes appear as guardians of the sacred tree (1 Kgs 6:29–35; Ezek 41:18–25) or of the garden of Eden (Gen 3:24; Ezek 28:14, 16), the most important function is that of bearers of →Yahweh’s throne, cf. Ezek 10:20 and the divine epithet yōšēb hakkĕrûbîm, “he who is enthroned on the cherubim”, applied to Yahweh already at Shilo (1 Sam 4:4; cf. 2 Sam 6:2; Isa 37:16 etc.). In this function the cherubim express the royal majesty of →Yahweh

Ezekiel 28:13 CSB

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone covered you: carnelian, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold; they were prepared on the day you were created.

Ezekiel 28:14–16 CSB

14 You were an anointed guardian cherub, for I had appointed you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you. 16 Through the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I expelled you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and banished you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.

The passage is part of the diatribe of Ezekiel against the prince of Tyre, in which Ezekiel utilizes the story of a divine being in the garden of Eden who was expelled from the garden. Many scholars think the language speaks of Adam. I believe it refers to the Shining One (the nachash – in my view incorrectly understood as a snake) in Genesis 3.1

The context makes it quite clear that we aren’t talking about planets. How? Because the “stones of fire” are on the holy mountain of God, a reference to the Garden of Eden. Eden? Yes – if you look at Ezek 28:13 (one verse before the citation above) you’ll see that the anointed cherub is also said to be in Eden (the verse should pup up for you here in this blog). Anyone familiar with divine council imagery knows that there are two places where Yahweh and his council (like all deities with councils in ancient literature) meet for business and, in fact, “live”–mountains and well-watered gardens. Eden is where Yahweh lived, and that is why Eden is described as both in the Old Testament. I have a whole chapter on this in my book, but suffice it to say here that imagery from Eden is carried on through to other holy (cosmic) mountains ON EARTH – Sinai and Zion. Recall that Sinai was a mountain (a large “stone”) whose top was afire, and where God met people in/with fire (think of the burning bush here, among other scenes on Sinai; Exod 3, Deut 33; Ezekiel 1, 2 Sam 22:4ff., etc.). God often meets people with fire or in association with fire. Additionally, the divine beings associated with Yahweh’s throne room are referred to as “flames of fire” (Psa. 104:4; see also Ezekiel 1’s references to fire). It’s all very familiar within Old Testament scholarship and the study of Israelite religion. Whoever this is, they are in Eden / the mountain of God – i.e., the place where Yahweh lived at the beginning after he created humans on earth. Nothing unusual.

There is a lot of supporting material for this view. Other than works on the cosmic mountain imagery in the Old Testament and the ancient Near East,2 we can look at the visions of Enoch in the book of 1 Enoch. During his flight through the sky over earth (not on another planet), Enoch sees certain geographical places that are described very similarly to the language in Ezekiel. Note the wordings in the passage below that also appear in Ezekiel 28: fire, precious stones, flame.

1 Enoch 18:6-11 6 I came and saw a place that was burning night and day, where (there were) seven mountains of precious stones-three lying to the east and three to the south. 7/ And of those to the east, <one was> of colored stone, and one was of pearl, and one was of <jasper>. And those to the south were of flame-colored stone. 8/ And the middle one of them reached to heaven like the throne of God-of antimony; and the top of the throne was of lapis lazuli. 9/ And I saw a burning fire. 10 And beyond these mountains is a place, the edge of the great earth; there the heavens come to an end. 11/ And I saw a great chasm among pillars of heavenly fire. And I saw in it pillars of fire descending; and they were immeasurable toward the depth and toward the height. 19:1 And Uriel said to me, “There stand the angels who mingled with the women. And their spirits-having assumed many forms-bring destruction on men and lead them astray to sacrifice to demons as to gods until the day of the great judgment, in which they will be judged with finality. 2/ And the wives of the transgressing angels will become sirens.”3

It’s quite obvious Ezekiel is viewing the earth – he gets as far as the place where the firmament of heaven meets the earth (recall that, in ancient thought — including the Bible — the earth was thought to be round and flat, with a solid dome over its top, the edges of which met the earth’s edge or was “held up” by the mountains).4.

Enoch’s description is actually a striking description of the “world tree” mythology – that the dome over the top of the earth was held up by a huge tall tree (or mountain), which went through the center of the earth, and down into the abyss (note the abyss [“chasm” language in the above citation). The stones of fire = the cosmic mountain, the place where heaven and earth meet, where the gods (or in this case, the God of Israel) lives and renders judgment. At the bottom of that mountain, in its deep recesses, the sons of God who committed the sin of Genesis 6 are kept imprisoned (read on to 1 Enoch 19:1ff.). This has nothing to do with outer space.

There is a pile of material written on this passage and its associated topics. The best books is: Kelley Coblentz Bautch, A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19: ‘No One Has Seen What I Have Seen’ (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2003). It is very expensive and very technical. Likewise for the discussion of the passages cited above in the best 1 Enoch commentary in print, George Nickelsburg’s (cited below in footnote 3).

Luckily, Google Books allows a preview of some pages in Bautch’s book. I was able to piece together screen shots of 12 pages corresponding to the above discussion. Since these pages are available to public viewing on the web, I felt I could PDF them for you all and link to them HERE.

For more on my views on Genesis 3, readers can subscribe to my newsletter archive (available at www.michaelsheiser.com) to get the draft of my book-in-process on the divine council worldview. ↩

You always swallow a lie a about God before you bite into forbidden fruit!

If you don’t stand on truth, you will fall for anything.

God's goodness versus the evil

3. The first question in the Bible is about God’s goodness

Do you ever find yourself doubting whether God’s way really is the best? Do you find yourself wondering whether, even though God says it is wrong, something is worth trying anyway?

God gave to humankind everything they could possibly want. The whole created world was made for us to enjoy. Every possible need was catered for. The pinnacle of God’s creation was humankind. The need for community was solved by the creation of other human beings: ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’ (2:18).

It started with the beautiful gift of marriage – the lifelong union of a man and a woman in which sex, another of God’s beautiful gifts, is to be enjoyed with intimacy and freedom, without guilt or ‘shame’ (vv.24–25).

Yet despite this abundant provision of everything good, human beings looked for something more and they succumbed to the temptation to take forbidden fruit.

The temptation started with doubts about God. Here is the first question in the Bible: ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ (3:1).

Eve’s first mistake was to engage with the serpent in conversation. We are created to converse with God, not the devil.

The devil, in the form of the serpent, fools Eve into thinking that there will be no consequences to her sin – ‘You will not certainly die’ (v.4). He imputes bad motives to God: ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’ (v.5). It is often the case that you swallow a lie about God, before you swallow forbidden fruit.

The fruit looked ‘good’ and ‘pleasing to the eye’ and ‘desirable for gaining wisdom’ (v.6). This is often how temptation appears. Adam and Eve sinned and, as so frequently happens, cover-up followed the sin: ‘So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves’ (v.7).

4. The first question God asks in the Bible is about you

Adam and Eve’s friendship with God was broken. When they heard God coming, they hid (v.8). But God immediately came looking for them, and we find his first question in the Bible: ‘Where are you?’ (v.9) God did not give up on them.

Whenever you fall away from your relationship with him, God comes searching for you, wanting the relationship to be restored.

He says to the serpent that one of Eve’s descendants ‘will crush your head, and you will strike his heel’ (v.15b). Jesus is the one who will crush the head of the serpent. But there will be a cost – ‘you will strike his heel’. We see here the first hint of what it will cost to restore the relationship. On the cross Jesus crushed Satan, but it cost him his life. His blood was shed so that you and I could be forgiven and our relationship with God restored.

5. The first question human beings ask is about responsibility

‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (v.9b). This is the crucial question for today. Do you have responsibility for others?

The result of the fall is a broken relationship with God. Adam and Eve blamed each other (vv.11–12), and in chapter four we read that their children also fell out with each other. Arguments, quarrelling and falling out with one another began here. It has blighted the human race ever since. Try to avoid arguments. You will rarely win one and they are so destructive.

Putting a question mark where God put a period.

First rule of communication, use what is clear to understand the truth.

The moment you discover some is crafty or a manipulator or a complainer, walk away or do waht they do in Britain’s parlament.

Adam and Eve existed in a state of innocence, not perfection.

God wanted them to develop a moral warehouse based on absolute trust in Him as a Good Father and Provider.

God provided everything they needed.

Father instilled a love of fishing in his son. He taught him how to fly fish in the river near their house. They learned that walking up the river near the dam made for the bes fishing. The father would take his son there and point out the dangers of the eddy’s and to stay close by him.

One Saturday, the son said dad when can we go fishing? Dad said, not today son, I have some work to finish. Aw dad, can I go fishing by myself. Dad, said you know you getting older, you can go on one condition. You stay close to the house and you do not go upstream near the dam and the eddies. But dad, you know that is the best fishing.

Son, I know, but I also know the danger and I’m watching out for you. I am giving you a lot of responsibility.

Son went fishing and came home. The dad asked how it went? Son was excited, I caught a few and brought them in myself. I didn’t even go near the dam!

I know son. Iam proud of you. How did you know dad? Because I spent the day watching you from the dam.

Now I know you trust me and I can entrust you to be on your own.

GEnesis3

Two questions to ask yourself:What am I searching for?Where do I go to find fulfillment?When we can’t find something to truly satisfy us, desperation sets in. Desperate (thirsty) people do out-of-character things.

Who do you listen to? What do you listen to?

Romans 7:18 CSB

18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

Taste Touch Sight Sound Smell

These are tools, but they do not convey the totality of truth nor can they create or cause moral knowledge or behavior in themselves. They must be trained.

Abstract

Repeated information is often perceived as more truthful than new information. This finding is known as the illusory truth effect, and it is typically thought to occur because repetition increases processing fluency. Because fluency and truth are frequently correlated in the real world, people learn to use processing fluency as a marker for truthfulness. Although the illusory truth effect is a robust phenomenon, almost all studies examining it have used three or fewer repetitions. To address this limitation, we conducted two experiments using a larger number of repetitions. In Experiment 1, we showed participants trivia statements up to 9 times and in Experiment 2 statements were shown up to 27 times. Later, participants rated the truthfulness of the previously seen statements and of new statements. In both experiments, we found that perceived truthfulness increased as the number of repetitions increased. However, these truth rating increases were logarithmic in shape. The largest increase in perceived truth came from encountering a statement for the second time, and beyond this were incrementally smaller increases in perceived truth for each additional repetition. These findings add to our theoretical understanding of the illusory truth effect and have applications for advertising, politics, and the propagation of “fake news.”

Significance statement

Repetition can affect beliefs about truth. People tend to perceive claims as truer if they have been exposed to them before. This is known as the illusory truth effect, and it helps explain why advertisements and propaganda work, and also why people believe fake news to be true. Although a large number of studies have shown that the illusory truth effect occurs, very little research has used more than three repetitions. However, in the real world, claims are often encountered at much higher repetition rates. The goal of the current research was to examine how a larger number of repeated exposures affects our judgments of truth. To do so, we conducted two experiments. In each experiment, we asked participants to read trivia statements such as “The gestation period of a giraffe is 425 days”. In Experiment 1, the trivia statements were shown either 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9 times. In Experiment 2, the trivia statements were shown either 1, 9, 18, or 27 times. One week later, we showed participants these same facts along with new facts and asked them to rate their truthfulness. In both experiments, we found that the more often that participants had previously encountered the trivia statement, the more truthful they rated it to be, but the largest increases in perceived truth occurred when people encountered a statement for the second time. Together these experiments show the powerful effect of simple repetition in affecting our judgments of truth.

Not everything that we believe is true. For example, according to a recent survey of teachers in Great Britain and The Netherlands, 48 percent and 46 percent, respectively, falsely believed that people only use ten percent of their brains (Dekker et al. 2012; see also van Dijk and Lane 2020). Problematically, as a result of this false belief, some people also have the misperception that “a little brain damage” is unimportant (Guilmette and Paglia 2004).

Hassan, A., Barber, S.J. The effects of repetition frequency on the illusory truth effect. Cogn. Research 6, 38 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00301-5

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