[Right Wing Professor]

Therefore, Genesis 2 and 3 speak of events which are concurrently transpiring in eternity – culminating with Adam and Eve being banished to mortality. That's when I see Adamic man entering the physical realm in the form of a human being. That constitutes the Fall, when death entered the physical realm, i.e. spiritual Adamic man must now die. What made the difference between Adamic man and all the other men who were on earth was the neshama – the breath of God.

AG, have you read any of the gnostic gospels? There seems to be a strong similarity between what you wrote above and the beliefs of some of the gnostic sects, in particular the idea of the Fall as bondage to the physical realm. The gnostics were on the fringes of early Christianity; they had some influence on its development, while at the same time the more extreme gnostics were anathematized.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for your post! As far as I know, I haven't read the gnostic gospels unless they were part of the Pseudepigrapha. But since you have made me curious, I'll go looking.

[general_re]

AG, have you read any of the gnostic gospels?

I've only ever read the Gospel of Thomas in translation, but it does have a way of turning a neat phrase. Very beautiful language, IMO.

[Aric2000]

The Gnostic Gospels are a fascinating read, they had an interesting worldview.

I'll have to break it out of the bookshelf where it is crammed in there with a number of other religious type texts and read it again.