ADAM AND EVE AND THE CREATION
INTRODUCTION
Incorrect accounts of the Creation and the story of Adam and Eve has been perpetuated for centuries to the detriment of all religions and churches who do not have it, and that is most of them. The restored gospel provides the corrections needed to permit theological progress to be sustained and utilized to prepare one for their return to the Father. The implications for Cosmology are also great, and very important to the astronomer. Most of these corrections are provided in the Endowment ceremony. If the teachings and work of Joseph Smith are fiction how is it that unusual details are found in ancient documents? And why are there, at this writing, 201 announced and active temples, where the doctrines are being taught every day? Adam and Eve came to the earth “and did exactly what God had sent them to do--exactly what the father wanted them to do.” (Gaskill p. 3)
PREPARED AND FOREORDAINED
“The incorrect and incomplete account “of the story of [Adam] and Eve in the book of Genesis has had a more profoundly [negative] impact on women throughout history than any other… the Prophet Russell M. Nelson taught that ‘we can initiate a course correction by restoring Mother Eve to her rightful role in the grand plan’… The story of Eden … is based on historical fact. Adam and Eve were real beings. Theirs was a spirit creation followed by a spiritual creation, at which time their spirits were joined with physical bodies, but these bodies were not yet mortal. This period was a time of learning, however, a fall to mortality was necessary if waiting spirits were to claim bodies that were both physical and mortal. This creation and Adam and Eve’s actions leading thereto and initiated thereafter are the cornerstone of the grand plan of salvation… this story assures us of the realty of an eternal God, who is literally our Father and who created the world, It brings into clear focus the purpose of this mortal life, ...having been part of the grand plan, we bring with us to this earth an entire compendium of experience with attendant strengths and weaknesses, traits and talents …we recognize the earth as a vast university. We accept that we are moving forward on our individual tutorial, each one a complex and intense program that will deny us none of the challenges and growth necessary for our eternal advancement. The Prophet Joseph Smith declared ‘Adam to be second only to the Savior in powers and priesthood. … a righteous brilliant, vital woman was chosen, called, and trusted by God, loved and honored and cherished by Adam, and trusted by the spirits in the Grand Council to act with her magnificent eternal companion in their behalf… How could her ultimate gift to mankind-mortal life itself, have been overlooked?... the opportunity of life on …. earth, resulted from her choice to become mortal. Elder Bruce R. McConkie said ’there is no language that could do credit to our glorious mother Eve… -a daughter of God, one of the spirit off spring of the almighty Elohim among the noble and great in preexistence…. Christ and Michael presided over much of the creative work. ... Can we do other than conclude that Mary and Eve and Sarah and myriads of our faithful sisters were numbered among them?’’ (Campbell pp 8-16)
President J. Reuben Clark said: After Christ and Adam had prepared the earth with living creatures and great variety of plant life, ‘Eve was sent to build, organize, to be creator of bodies under the faculties given her by the priesthood of God, that God’s design and the great plan might meet fruition. …. this was her calling, her blessing, bestowed by the priesthood; a function as divinely called as eternally important in its place as the priesthood itself.’ … Eve was foreordained to be a partner, an organizer, a builder, and a creator of forms so that the great plan might be fulfilled.” (Campbell pp. 16-17)
A FOREORDAINED PLAN
“A fall would be necessary if God’s children were to become like Him. The Fall would change Adam and Eves bodies so that they would have blood and thus the power of procreation.” (Gaskill p. 3) “God’s eternal plan… the entirety of the plan [was] built upon the foundation of the Fall… the Fall was foreordained…in the words of Brigham Young: “The Lord knew they would do this, and he had designed that they should.” “Elder Bruce R. Mconkie wrote; ‘Adam our father and Eve our mother must obey. They must fall. They must become mortal. Death must enter the world. There is no other way. They must fall that man may be.” They understood it all, and it was all planned. (Campbell pp.27-28) Elder Boyd K. Packer taught: … “All of it has order: all of it was planned for us.” “The Fall was one of three events (the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement) planned for in the councils of heaven.” (Campbell p. 28) “All things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.” (2 Nephi 2:24) “But partaking of that fruit was prerequisite to their parenthood.” (Campbell p. 33)
“The fall of man was made from the presence of God to this mortal life.“ (Packer, in Campbell p, 34) “This would be a planned offense, a formality to serve an eternal purpose: (Oaks in Campbell p. 34).” “Elder James E. Talmage stated that the fall was “the means of winning title to glory, exaltation, and eternal lives.”” (Campbell p. 67)
”Adam did not commit sin in eating the fruit, for God had decreed that he should eat and fall.” (Joseph Smith in Campbell p. 34)
We must never forget that our knowledge of good and evil also makes us free-“Free to choose liberty and eternal life.” (2 Nephi 2:27)
The prophet Elder Russell M. Nelson hailed Adam and Eve’s course of conduct: “We and all mankind are forever blessed because of Eve’s great courage and wisdom. By partaking of the fruit first, she did what needed to be done. Adam was wise enough to do the likewise.” (Campbell p. 41) “Only in the Eden story is the word tsela (rib) translated “rib.” Adam and Eve as two perfect and equal human beings created by the same Supreme hand and endowed with the same noble intellect and instincts…. We are told not that the woman was made out of the rib or from the rib but that she was the rib a powerful metaphor…Eve was created, and then Adam was awakened. The word awake seems to indicate that the advent of Eve is the harbinger of a profound spiritual awakening for Adam and, by extension, for all of us.” (Campbell p. 53)
ADAM AND EVE MARRIED IN EDEN
The prophet, President Nelson, reminded us: “President Joseph Fielding Smith assured us, “Adam and Eve were married by the Lord while they were yet immortal beings in the garden of Eden and before death entered the world.” (Campbell p. 54) “Theirs must have been a poignant and near perfect love, perhaps the grandest of all love stories. They could now act together for the good of all waiting spirits. At this sealing ceremony they may have been reminded of their responsibility to waiting spirits, for therin lies the glory of marriage and the purpose of their creation…Eden is at times referred to as a prototype of all temples…areas of sacred space, made holy because God’s presence can be found there; Eden in a paradisiacal state was itself as a temple…there they worshipped. learned of the ordinances and made sacred covenants…When we enter the temple, for there, as is in Eden, we are in a place wherein God can dwell…Wherein we can make covenants, receive ordinances, and learn all that is necessary to find our way back to our heavenly home.” (Campbell pp. 54-57)
ADAM AND EVE
From the fourth tractate of Codex 11 of the Nag Nammadi documents a work has come down to us to which a title is appended: ‘’The Hypostasis of the Archons.’ (Foester pp. 40, 84)” It is in two parts, combined with a question and answer dialogue without either party being identified. We have been very selective by taking some data from the first part dealing with Adam and Eve, and then some limited data from the second part which deals with Norea or Orea, (both names occur interchangeably),” (Campbell p.84) “The original name of Norea and the origin of the myths about her [can be obtained] by referring to non-gnostic Jewish material of a haggadic nature, rabbinic and pseudepigraphical.” (Pearson p. 89) Pearson devotes an entire chapter to her, (The Figure of Norea in Gnostic Literature). (Pearson pp. 84-94). She is a daughter of Adam and Eve, [with at least ten variations to her name, as an example that the children of Adam and Eve were visited by and instructed by angels. (D&C 29:42) So we now turn to that ancient document.
“Then came in the serpent, the instructor. And it [the serpent] instructed him saying: ‘what has he told you … “from every tree [which is in paradise …you shall eat [but from the tree]” of the knowledge of evil and good do not eat.” (Genesis 3:1) The fleshly woman said: ‘Not only did he say: “do not eat”…” but “do not touch it, for on the day you which you eat from it you shall surely die,” (Genesis 3:2) And the serpent said: “You shall surely die. For he said this to you because he is jealous. Rather your eyes shall be opened and you shall become like gods knowing evil and good’ (Genesis 3:4 f)… And the fleshly women took from the tree. She ate and gave to her husband with her. (Gen. 3:6). … And they perceived that they were denuded of the spiritual … they took figs leaves (and) bound about their loins. (Gen. 3:7) … And then came in the great Archon and said: ‘Adam where are you?”… . And Adam said ‘I heard your voice. I was afraid for I was naked and I hid.’ The Archon said: ‘Why have you hidden unless you ate from the tree of which I commanded you; “From it alone do not eat”, and you have eaten?’ Adam said: ‘The women whom you gave me [has given] me (and) I ate.’ (Gen. 10-12) … The women said ‘(The serpent) has deceived me (and) I ate.’ (Gen. 3:13) They came to the serpent. They cursed its shadow [spirit, so that it] was impotent [Lucifer and his followers cannot procreate] … since that day the serpent came under the curse of the powers until the perfect man should come … They turned to their Adam. They took him and cast them out of Paradise. (Gen. 3:23] with his wife. For there is no blessing with them because They too are under the curse. They cast men into great toils and troubles of life (Gen. 3:37-19), that their men should become attached to life and have no leisure to devote themselves to the Holy Spirit.” (Foerster pp. 47- 48). In the first line what we seem to have is a prompter’s text for someone officiating in the presentation of the Temple Endowment. “Then men began to multiply and increase.” (Gen. 6;1) “The Almighty did not permit Adam and his posterity to die a temporal death (D&C 29:42) until he had sent angels declaring the possibility of repentance and redemption.” (Sperry p. 141) “Adam relates his own and Eve’s ‘paradisiac’ state and their fall. Originally they were like the great eternal angels… Adam and Eve fell into ignorance, were instructed concerning dead things…For their deliverance came three men, [Peter, James and John] (1 Nep. 1:10) who called upon Adam to rise from the sleep of death [forgetfulness] submit to instruction. ” (Foerster p. 13) “Linking up with the appearance of the three men…Adam reports their revelation deals with the future destiny of the descendants of Seth and of Noah…after those days…we received instruction…for I saw three men before me …they came … saying ‘Arise Adam, out of the sleep of death and submit to instruction concerning the aeon and the seed of his son Seth, and the seed of that man [Christ] to whom life has come, who came forth from you and from Eve your consort……when I heard these words from those great men who stood by me, we groaned, I and Eve in our hearts. And the Lord God who had created us stood before us …a weakness overtook us…I came to know that I had fallen under the dominion of death. Now my son Seth, I will I reveal to you what those men revealed to me, whom I saw before me earlier.” (Foerster pp. 14-17)
NOREA: A DAUGHTER OF ADAM AND EVE
Immediate descendants of “Adam and Eve were cast into great toils and troubles of life that they should become attached to life and had no leisure for the Holy Ghost).” (Foerster p.48) “I, the Lord God, gave unto Adam and unto his seed, that they should not die until, I, the Lord God, should send forth angels to declare unto them repentance and redemption through faith on the name of mine only begotten son. (D&C 29:42) From the ancient documents it is evident that those who came to teach Adam and Eve and their children included Angels, [Eleleth], God himself, three men, [Peter James and John] and others. In spite of this deluge of divine effort (Alma 12:29) the first generation, perhaps some of the second and third also, fell away being led astray by Lucifer appearing as an angel of light. (2 Nephi 9:9) After the loss of their first offspring, she then “gave birth to their son Cain.” (Foerster p. 48) And lucifer got him also. This story in the life of Adam and Eve pieced together from the D&C and Book of Mormon is not found in the annals of any of the modern Christian groups, but they are there in the recovered old documents. On whose authority had the doctrines been deleted?
One of the powers of the adversary was bothering Norea, a daughter of Adam and Eve. Norea turned in the [power of God], She cried out in a loud voice [and said to] the Holy One, the God of All: Help me against the Archons of unrighteousness and rescue me out of their hands.’ At once the angel came down from heaven (and) said to her: ‘“Why are you crying up to God: Why do you boldly advance upon the Holy Spirit?’ Norea said ‘Who are you?” ‘The Archon of unrighteousness had departed from her. He said: ‘I am Eleleth, the wisdom, the great angel who stands before the Holy Spirit. I have been sent to speak with you and to rescue you out of the hand of the lawless ones. And I shall teach you about your root [origins].’ (D&C 29:42; Foerster p. 49)
We do not know how fast Adam and Eve ‘replenished the earth,’ but it would seem that in order for the “none would die’ before they all had heard the gospel and been taught the gospel of redemption, that several generations of children came under that order. The episode of Norea would have been just one among many. They had been taught by God Himself, Three men (Peter, James and john), different angels, including Eleleth, and others, but having lost contact with the Holy Ghost they lost everything.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CAMPBELL, Beverly, Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2003
FOERSTER, Werner, Gnosis. A selection of Gnostic texts, Vol. 11, Coptic and Mandean Sources, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1974
GASKILL, Alonzo l., The Savior and the Serpent, Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City, Utah, 2005
PEARSON, Birger A., Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1990
SPERRY, Sidney B., The Doctrines and Covenants Compendium, Bookcraft, Inc., Salt Lake ‘City, Utah, 1960