Continuing from Beverly Campbell’s book, “Eve” and: ‘Thou Mayest Choose III’:
“I, the Lord God Commanded”
(Previously. . . .) To gain a true understanding of the principles inherent in the Lord’s seemingly contradictory instructions, we must be sure that we know both meaning and context at the time they were recorded. So much from scripture has been lost through centuries of personal interpretation, overlain with customs of changing eras. (now continuing. . . .)
As I began to understand the role of agency and recognized the actions taken by Eve and Adam were in accordance with law, I began to wonder if the word command used in the creation story was the same root word as commandment, as in the Ten Commandments. Because I had heard a Hebrew scholar Dr. Nehama Aschkenasy speak on the subject of Eve and read her book on feminine images in Hebrew literature, I asked her if she saw any difference in those two words. She agreed to research the question for me and subsequently advised me that they were in fact not from the same origin. She found that command as used in the Creation story was from a different verb form, whose usage connotes a strong, severe warning, perhaps a statement of law, that was possibly temporary in nature, so that at some future, unspecified time it might not apply.
I thought of the warnings we give our children who, in their tender years, must be protected in matters that involve life and death or injury. Such a warning might be, “Do not, under any condition, touch the stove.” “Do not ever cross the street alone.”
Do we mean that they are never to cross the street or to use a stove? Of course not! What we intend is that until our children have learned enough to make appropriate decisions, the stern warning, indeed prohibition, is in force. We also know, however, that as our children are prepared, they must step out into the larger world and make choices. Those choices can either be good or bad—the good will enhance and enrich their sojourn and help them fill the measure of their creation; the bad will generally bring sorrow and often diminish their opportunities for growth, be it spiritual or physical.
If God intended that there would be a time when such a “command” was not to be in effect we can understand more clearly the account in Moses in which he advised Adam and Eve that nevertheless they may choose for themselves. This interpretation coincides with knowledge garnered from restored scripture and the word of modern prophets. This concept seems to have been known in the early Church, in the meridian of time, for in the Gospel of Phillip we read: “This garden (is the place) where they will say to me,. . eat this or do not eat that, just as you wish.”5
Forbidden? Only If You Want to Stay
President Joseph Fielding Smith spoke on the use of the word forbidden in the story of the Garden of Eden. “Mortality was created through the eating of the forbidden fruit, if you want to call it forbidden, but I think the Lord has made it clear that it was not forbidden. He merely said to Adam, if you want to stay here [in the garden] this is the situation. If so, don’t eat it.”6
Brigham Young stated something similar: “Mother Eve partook of the forbidden fruit. We should not have been here today if she had not; we could never have possessed wisdom and intelligence if she had not done it.”6 It was all in the economy of heaven, and we need not talk about it; it is all right. We should never blame Mother Eve, not the least.”7
In all this, wrote Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Adam and Eve simply “complied with the law which enabled them to become mortal beings, and this course of conduct is termed eating the forbidden fruit.”8 (continued) ~Beverly Campbell, Eve and the Choice Made in Eden (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003). 73-77 Dwarsligger edition (Continued)
For the first post of this series, click. . . . Nevertheless, Thou Mayest Choose.
