Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: faithhopecharity

I wonder where the Christians would get that interpretation. Maybe it’s their way to account for evil in man. The snake can be symbolic of a penis and maybe that plays into their interpretation.


8 posted on 02/15/2018 11:07:53 PM PST by BEJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]


To: BEJ

Yes it is indeed true that most Christian churches teach the original sin doctrine , while that is not specified in the Genesis Eden account itself ( to which it is usually attributed). Thus, those churches teach that man is born sinful and, further, is helpless to improve his behavior to reduce evil in the world. It is also correct that received Judaism does not teach the original sin doctrine ( preferring to account for evil as a consequence of bad decisions people make with their free will, decisions we can learn to improve, free will means we can “choose life” - we can do good — this avoiding or at least reducing evil in fhe world). So, there is a major difference - indeed I trace all the doctrinal differences to this one difference of opinion in the nature of man. —- ( a longer essay, smile smile). We should, for completeness, note that the original sin doctrine was not invented by Augustine as is oft claimed. It traces back at least to 4 Ezra, a first century Jewish book, and Paul can also be read to contain at least seeds of the o s view. ————————— Most Jews probably wouldn’t want to take credit or rather blame for the o sin doctrine, at least in how it has come to be developed in Christian theology (!) as a condemnation of man ( including babies said to be born condemned to “Hell,” another Christian doctrine not generally found in received Judaism). and how the o s doctrine appears to relieve man from any responsibility for his behavior since he supposedly can’t improve it anyway ———effective neutering of all human moral responsibility —————but the original seeds of the received Christian original sin doctrine, like almost everything in Christianity, derived from Jewish sources. (( thus, there was logic for the church to keep such writings as 4 Ezra while Judaism discarded them as theologically erroneous or misleading).


10 posted on 02/16/2018 12:28:47 AM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson