Quote:
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Originally Posted by littlemanpoet
There are three additional words that make all the difference: So yes, there is indeed a desire for wisdom that is used as the bait to lure the woman into the temptation, but it's only the bait. There are three words in the text that the serpent didn't have to say: "be like God". If he had not said them, your contention would stand. However, those three words are there, and they are indicative of pride.
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How can the sin of pride exist before the first sin? That's something I'd have a tough time wrapping my head around. How could Adam disobey when he did not know good from evil?
And here are 2X three words that to me absolve Adam and Eve, as they were created "in our image, in our likeness" (that would be God speaking). Like Aulė, weren't Adam and Eve just trying to be like their Father, not mocking him or pridefully hoping to gainsay him, but simply hoping to just be like him. My daughter, helping me with her toy screwdriver, is not acting with pride, but love. The serpent states that A&E will be more like their Father if they do something they ought not. Like the Dwarves who cringed when Aulė made to smash them, is it necessary for
life to go outside the bounds set by its creator, to do something new?
My kids attest to this (and they would have accidently broken the vase
). On the other hand, having children does make one tend to believe in original sin...
In a lame attempt to tie back into the thread, I say again that I do not see certain religious images within Arda when I peer beneath the surface.