#bible garden of eden

[rona-eser]

"Father, why eternal torment? Is it not cruel?

Is torture unending truly a fate fit for a fool?"

[houghtonlib]

The Creation, from Biblia; das ist, die ganze Heilige Schrifft deutsch. Wittemberg: Hans Lufft, 1534.

GC5.L9774B.1534

Houghton Library, Harvard University

[reesemh]

Genesis.

[illustratus]

The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise

by Giovanni di Paolo

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

"I wouldn't have eaten the forbidden fruit" yes you would have. Why? Because you do it everyday. Because every character in the bible does it (with a few exceptions) over and over and over again. The narrative uses different ways of talking about it, "taking the fruit", "getting bit by the snake", etc but the real point is that your absolute failure to read the bible as a narrative, and instead to insist on historicity as your primary way of reading scripture, is the root issue here because it causes you to be blind to the actual message of the Bible.

[evesedenramblings]

Spoilers ahead for Project: Eden’s Garden regarding the first trial, it’s blackened, along with the murder victim. First trial and Bible comparison ahead!

There’s something very symbolic about the first blackened in Eden’s Garden (or, the “Garden of Eden”) being a woman, much less one named Eva.

Eva is a variant name of Eve, meaning “life”. In addition, Eva also became the blackened due to a pursuit of forbidden knowledge, the traitor perk, much like Eve. Now, this knowledge wouldn’t technically have been forbidden, except Damon advised her not to share it. This decision directly led to her feeling more isolated rather than accepted by the group. Damon, here, arguably represents the Serpent who inspires Eve to bite the apple, a serpent very prominent on his design. Meanwhile the group of students could represent “Heaven” or “angels” that Eva is turning away from, especially since Eve was created second, and not the “favoured human”.

Wolfgang is fitting to his own role, I think, that being the “Righteous Man”, Adam. The Angels believed Adam could do no wrong, but it’s seen in the game that Wolfgang, in trying to be Righteous, only ends up creating an environment that fosters his own death, but the group doesn’t believe it, even when Eva confesses her motive.

Adam, when he does not trust Eve with knowledge, causes her to meet with the serpent instead, who guides her actions to release sin unto humanity.

Wolfgang, by not trusting Eva into their group due to their differing of opinions, causes her to turn only to Damon before anyone rather than the “group” mindset. Damon, another outcast by Wolfgang’s righteousness, says they should keep this knowledge to themselves. This causes the chain of events that allows Eve to open the vault herself, and for Tozu (or the Devil, with this metaphor) to bring the Killing Game into the school.

I don’t think it’s a PERFECT metaphor, for obvious reasons like “but that means Eve would be killing Adam” and “Damon’s morals are weird but not Devil-level evil” but there’s so many parallels I wanted to throw together a post about it because I really think it fits together well! There might be more stuff I missed so I encourage more additions or contributions from people who remember more game details or have a more in-depth knowledge of Bible lore than I do, it seems like an interesting rabbit hole to go down!

[7pleiades7]

Adam and Eve (1507), (detail), by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) , oil on wood panel, 208 x 91 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid

[akystaracer22]

Free the Bird from its Gilded Cage

Synopsis: Lucifer would tell anyone who asked his greatest regret was letting humanity eat the apple. Better than admitting what he really regretted.

Notes

Golly gee good thing affairs didn’t exist back then huh!

In which Lucifer’s tism hurts his best friend, the fic.

I think I can tag this as Edenpoly considering the conversation between Lucifer and Lilith.

I give my greatest thanks to my good friend Hat who uttered the phrase “I raise a glass to the friend you could have been and drink to the monster you became” (Or something of the sort) which has not left my brain 2 years later.

No shade on other people’s depictions of the ancient archangels. I love good archangels as much as you guys but… this is very much bashing.

I’m so sorry Michael. And Azrael, and every single angel who’s characters I butcher in this AU. It’s not you guys I swear.

God on the other hand fuck you I’m not sorry.

I have been told by many people irl that I have religious trauma. I didn’t think I did but fuck it we ball.

I am so sorry this came out late but I had two assignments and I'm moving houses, I'll try not to have a repeat.

Word count: 1957

Fic under cut!

Lucifer felt Lilith before he saw her, the first woman’s aura screaming frustration and hurt louder than the tears in her eyes.

She was sitting under an aspen tree with her legs tucked to her chest.

Lucifer didn’t need to guess why she was upset; it could really only be one thing these days.

“Adam did something again, didn’t he.”

Lilith huffed and lifted her head to meet Lucifer’s gaze, “We fought, again. He still doesn’t get it.”

Lucifer sighed and sat down next to the first woman, not for the first time the little voice in his head bemoaned Adams chronic inability to listen to anyone other than God. It was really starting to cause problems in Eden.

“He’ll regret it.”

“He always does, but he still does it.”

Lucifer nodded, “He needs to learn that God isn’t right about everything,” His siblings would murder him if they knew he was spreading this kind of blasphemy, “But I do agree, it’s a little irritating.”

“It is!” Lucifer jerked as Lilith stood up abruptly and began to pace, “He’s great most of the time don’t get me wrong, but he’s just increasingly growing more and more insufferable! It’s like every time he gets better he just goes straight back to being worse!”

“Truly the trials and tribulations of the first humans.”

“I just wish he would listen to me! Not some stuck up self-important know it all who thinks I’m worthless.”

Lucifer wisely held back the instinctive defence of the Creator, “Especially when you are so much more than that.”

Lilith seemed to finally run out of steam, falling back into Lucifer’s arms and holding him tightly, “I hate this… I hate him.”

“No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t… I hate the man God wants him to be.”

“I hate that man too,” Lucifer admitted, “I hate how he hurts everyone.”

Because it wasn’t just Lilith that was left hurting. Lucifer hated how he was losing track of the near silent breakdowns of Adam’s.

God created humanity different from the grand design, and every day Lucifer loathed that fact more and more.

“He’s going to win, that man.”

“Neither of us will let him.”

“He’ll let himself,” Lilith hissed right by his ear, the sound sending a shiver down Lucifer’s spine, by the choirs that felt good “Adams an idiot.”

“Yep!” Call Lucifer blasphemous, but he was so tempted to-

Lilith opened her mouth to say something, and Lucifer listened to the little voice in his head once again.

He caught her mouth with his own swiftly before pulling back, face flushing as he realised what he just did.

That was something only Adam and Lilith was supposed to do with each other.

Lilith blinked, taking time to process before giving her response, “Do that again.”

Lucifer didn’t need to be told twice.

The bark of the aspen tree was lit up by Lucifer’s wings as he pressed his lips to Lilith’s again.

And again.

And again.

Lucifer had never felt so good. He could see why Lilith and Adam like doing this. This felt so good.

- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -

It was hours until Lucifer disentangled himself from Lilith, still not having quite recovered from the experience. Sadly, he could feel the mental tug attached to his halo signifying his siblings wanting an audience with him. The last thing he wanted was to have them come down and see him with Lilith.

The moment he returned to heaven however, he had the distinct feeling that he might have messed up regardless.

Michael was pacing and muttering angrily under his breath, sharp sounds grating Lucifer’s awareness. When the archangel saw Lucifer, his wings physically bristled as he lunged forward and grabbed the Morningstar by the robe.

“You are so very fortunate that God was already growing tired of Lilith’s rebellion!”

“What?”

“Michael,” Lucifer turned to see Azrael landing nearby, “I highly doubt Lucifer knows what he has done, as impulsive as he is.”

“What? What happened,” Lucifer demanded, mantling his wings to make himself look larger as he stared down the other archangels.

“You don’t know?”

“Know what!”

“God decided to give the first man a new wife,” Michaels words cut through Lucifer’s anger and left only shock, “Made from his rib.”

“… what?”

“Yes, I had to tear it out myself,” Michael huffed, Lucifer noticed the dried red still dusting the angels gloves, “Adam tried to flee.”

“…”

“What Michael means,” Azreal shot the other a look, “Is that Adam didn’t take the information well, and saw it fit to attempt avoiding the situation entirely.”

“He was awake?!” Lucifer screeched “By the choir what is wrong with you two?!”

“It was the Creator’s wishes, none of us knew it would bring pain,” Azrael sighed, “However, it would encourage not repeating the situation…”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Michael scoffed, “The Creator ensured Adam wouldn’t remember.”

“It would taint him.”

“It would motivate him.”

“What?”

“Our Creator has decided to take a more… hands on approach in ensuring the situation does not repeat itself,” Azrael looked uncomfortable, “Xe employed the use of divine power to keep Adam and Eve from straying from the grand design.”

Lucifer took a step back.

Michael opened his mouth to say something, but Lucifer couldn’t hear over the roar of nothing in his ears.

No.

Nononononono.

Lucifer ran.

He broke into a sprint before diving back down to Earth, landing on the soft grass of Eden he looked around desperately.

“Adam!”

“Yes?”

Lucifer turned around as Adam’s figure came into view from behind a tree, “Adam-”

His eyes were gold.

Lucifer stumbled back as he took in the first man’s appearance, Adam’s eyes were no longer the colour of earth. The familiar dark brown orbs that bore the gold of honey and of leaves in the sun were gone. In their place was the brilliant gold of divinity, of heaven, the same gold of the-

The chain attached to his wrist.

Lucifer lunged forward and grabbed his friends arm, pulling him forward and running a hand along the softly glowing cuff on Adams wrist.

It was definitely the Creator’s doing.

“Adam what have they done to you.”

“Ah, apologies, but have we met before?”

Lucifer’s golden ichor froze as he looked back up to meet that accursed golden gaze, “What?”

“It is just that… you seem familiar with me, but I do not recall ever having met you. I apologize.”

Lucifer stepped back from the first man, “What.”

“Were you present for my creation? That day was such a blur I hardly recall all those present.”

“Adam- Adam look at me,” Lucifer grabbed Adam by the shoulder, staring desperately into those too gold, too inhuman, too holy eyes “Adam. You are my best friend. You remember me don’t you?”

Adam’s eyes flickered for a moment, that familiar beautiful earth brown peeking through for a moment before being swamped by heavenly gold.

“You are an angel; how could I ever be friends with someone of a higher status such as you?”

Lucifer wanted to cry.

The Creator truly was cruel.

“Are you alright, sir?”

Lucifer couldn’t do this.

Lucifer shoved Adam away and ran like a coward, stumbling through the bushes and past trees as he ran away from the puppet wearing his best friends face.

He didn’t even talk like Adam.

The Creator just stripped his best friend of everything that made him… him.

Lucifer collapsed under a willow tree as he sobbed into his arms.

He didn’t move for a long time after that.

- - ┈┈∘┈˃̶༒˂̶┈∘┈┈ - -

Lilith found him in the dim of night, her eyes sharp and he teeth bared in a rueful grimace even as she took him into his arms.

“We’re not letting them get away with this. Not this time.”

A hot flame of righteous anger sparked in Lucifer’s heart as he held onto Lilith. She was right, this crossed a line.

Lucifer wanted to rush in, to steal Adam away and find a way to break that chain.

Lilith told him to wait, to watch and observe as she would.

“Right now, heaven does not know about our rebellion, if we move too quickly we will both be destroyed.”

She was right, of course she was. Lucifer hated it though.

They had to watch Adam go through the motions of what his life used to be. The way he would no longer wander the garden without reason.

He wouldn’t play with the animals anymore or sit and relax under the sun.

Lucifer almost broke the trunk of a tree when he saw Adam tear out a plant Gabriel considered ‘too imperfect for the garden’ even though Lucifer knew that it was Adams favourite flower.

That flame of anger grew every time that damned shackle glowed and chained Adams will.

It took a little time to figure out, but if there was one thing Lucifer was sure would free Adam and Eve, it was the apples of knowledge.

They had to.

Lucifer and Lilith also watched Eve through everything. She seemed meek through the control of the Creator, but in the few moments the attention of heaven faded and the gold in her eyes let a little bit of reddish brown through, they got to know her.

She was gentle and sweet to the animals but there was a steel in her spine.

She was vibrant and wild as she chased the cheetah’s around the garden or buried her head in a grizzly bears side.

Lucifer grew to love her in a way. As little of her as he could see. But she was the one the Creator paid less attention to, and why would xe? She is supposed to be subservient to Adam.

Lucifer shifted into the form of a snake and curled through the branches of the tree of knowledge as she came into view.

Showtime.

“Eve my dear, may I borrow your attention for but a moment?” Lucifer sing-songed, drawing the girls eye as she stopped at the base of the tree.

“What is it you require of me, snake?” Eve asked, Lucifer watched intently as the telltale hint of red brown filtered into her gaze, this was the shot he needed.

“The fruit of this tree, could you tell me how it tastes to you?”

The woman flinched back as if struck, and Lucifer’s eyes narrowed at her response.

“I couldn’t, God said-”

“And have you not wondered why xe demands such things of you? Have you not questioned why xe forbade this?” Lucifer hissed, snapping off an apple and letting it fall to the ground at Eve’s feet, “I know, and that is why I ask this of you.”

Eve’s will fought with Heaven for a moment as she picked up the apple, but she was not gone yet, “God said that if I ate the fruit, I would die.”

“And the Creator lies to you,” blasphemy dripped off of Lucifers tongue as he all but snarled at Eve, the white-hot flame of fury envenoming his words, “To eat the apple is not to die, but to be freed. To have your eyes opened to the truth around you.”

Eve held the apple in her hands, the reddish brown in her eyes traitorously present.

“How do you know I won’t die?”

“Because my dear, I have had my eyes opened long ago. To open them is a freedom the Creator keeps from you on purpose,” Lucifer hissed, “You will not die, of that I can promise.”

Eve bit into the apple, and the chains snapped under the weight of knowledge granted.

[lionofchaeronea]

Adam and Eve in Paradise (one of four panels), Jan Polack, ca. 1480

[starryeyeddreamer21]

Okay here me out for a minute and then I'll go crawl back under my rock I swear

So the forbidden fruit was never specifically stated but we as a society have seemed to agree that it was an apple (though I'm not quite sure why). It's a fun bit and everyone sticks with it. When you think of Adam and Eve or the garden of Eden you think apple but I've managed to convince myself it wasn't actually an apple.

I was in church earlier and just had a random thought "what if it was a pomegranate?". It made sense to me. In Greek mythology Hades trapped Persephone (part time I know but still) in the underworld with a pomegranate and religions often seem to overlap in a few aspects.

I thought it would be really interesting if it was the same fruit that doomed two different women from two different religions leaving them with the same type of fate.

[planeswalker-umbral]

You know with the "Temptation in The Garden of Eden" scene in the Bible, the "lying serpent" is the only being who doesn't lie/sin.

God says even touching the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will kill Adam and Eve. Adam says his wife forced him to eat the fruit. Eve chooses to disobey. The Serpent simply asks a question ( “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”) and informs Eve of the truth and consequences of her actions if she takes them (“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”)

[garden-of-thoughts-fruit-of-lips]

He also told this illustration to some who trusted in their own righteousness and who considered others as nothing:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and began to pray these things to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like everyone else—extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give the tenth of all things I acquire.'

But the tax collector, standing at a distance, was not willing even to raise his eyes heavenward but kept beating his chest, saying, ‘O God, be gracious to me, a sinner.’ 

I tell you, this man went down to his home and was proved more righteous than that Pharisee. Because everyone who exalts himself will be humiliated, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18: 9-14

[whydousernamesevenexist]

As an atheist who hasn't read the Bible, I'm curious - how do Christians explain the fact that not only humans, but also animals give birth?

I know that some animals were in Eden with Adam and Eve, and then A+E ate the apple and were kicked out and Eve was punished by birth being painful.

But what about the animals?

Did they already give birth in pain, and God just added the pain for humans?

Did they just not have babies at all, and gained the ability to have them after Eve ate the apple, and got the pain because fuck knows why?

Did they use to have babies painlessly, but then God came and was like "lmao sike fam, some hairless monkeys ate an apple so now you're gonna have pain"?

More additionally, why the heck do mammals give birth in pain but animals who lay eggs have been spared? What did they do differently?

Also, why did God kick the animals out of Eden too? They didn't do anything wrong, right?

Once again, I'm not Christian, I just like thinking about what doesn't add up in Christianity, but I'm too lazy to read the Bible to find out if it's somehow explained

[illustratus]

The Formation of Eve by Gustave Doré

[starcrossedandstupid]

Adam and Eve are such butch4femme toxic yuri

[hopealoft]

Who is Jesus Christ?

6. Immanuel – God with us

Isaiah 7:14 – All right then, the Lord will choose the sign—a child shall be born to a virgin! And she shall call him Immanuel (meaning, “God is with us”).

Matthew 1:23 – ‘Listen! The virgin shall conceive a child! She shall give birth to a Son, and he shall be called “Emmanuel” (meaning “God is with us”).’”

Have you ever reminisced on your life and examined specific experiences that made you realise that God is indeed with you? I know I have.

God came to earth to live with us (humankind) for just over thirty years. His presence with us is significant for many reasons. Before Jesus,  God walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden. 

Genesis 3:8 That evening they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and they hid themselves among the trees.

After ‘The Fall’, God revealed himself to a few chosen men in various ways. Abraham spoke with God, Moses went up the mountain to talk to God, and the prophets communed with God, but God no longer walked amongst humans. 

When Jesus was born into the world, the full being of God dwelt among us humans. This means humans could speak to, touch, walk with, and experience God's presence. This is a huge deal! However, not everyone realise(d) it. It is beyond human comprehension that a person in human form could bear the full being of God. However, with God, all things are possible! 

When God is with us, there is liberty – captives are set free. 

2 Corinthians 3:17 – Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

When God is with us, there is fullness of Joy.

Psalm 16:11 – You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

God’s presence brings healing.

1 Peter 2:24 – He personally carried the load of our sins in his own body when he died on the cross so that we can be finished with sin and live a good life from now on. For his wounds have healed ours!

God’s presence brings light.

John 1:4 – In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

God’s presence brings grace.

John 1:17 – For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

There is so much more that happens when God is present. Have you welcomed Jesus into your life? When God is present in your life, you will be set free!

Say this prayer to invite Jesus into your life: “Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You into my heart and life.”

Now, join a sound, Bible-believing and practising church. Continue to study Jesus’s words and live as He wants His followers to live.