ALIVE: Chapter One - The Fallen Story Begins

Until the book of Joshua, Alive is based upon the Septuagint version of the Torah (gr. Pentateuch) – there had been so many versions that 70 Jewish scholars proficient in Greek, the language of the day, were selected to prepare one translation. Zoe, the name given to Adam’s wife, means life in Greek. After Adam and Zoe knew death in the body of Abel, her name in the Torah was changed to Eve. Multiple translations from Greek into other languages followed. Alive uses the original Greek to English translation.

Chapter One- The Fallen Story Begins

"Come on Adam! Get up and play with me!" she called. "It's such a beautiful day! I'll race you to the fig tree.”

Adam didn't budge. He was trying to nap and so he pretended not to hear.

Giving up Zoe muttered, "Okay, I'm going for a walk. Sweet dreams sleepyhead."

Zoe walked through the field of bright yellow buttercups, and other wildflowers whose names she couldn't remember, purple ones that made bouquets all by themselves, and little iridescent white platters of petals. The earth was so beautiful on this spring morning that she was thrilled and grateful to be a part of it. Blue-winged, and red-crested birds were flying to and fro overhead. Other birdsongs were so loud that she wondered what they could be saying. They sounded so busy and so serious.

While she was walking and gazing up at the birds, Zoe stumbled over a rock and landed on her knees. At that moment a long snake approached.

"Oh no not you again!" she exclaimed. "Haven't you done enough damage? Go away. I am never speaking to you again."

The snake slithered closer to her and said, "What are you talking about? I did you a favor. And look, you're not dead, are you?"

"I know you tricked me, and besides, I didn't even know what being dead meant, and I still don't. All I know is that everything seems different now. You told me that I would become like God knowing good and evil. Well, I don't know any more than I did. I still don’t know what good and evil are. You lied to me!"

The snake chuckled slyly to himself and said, "This place is beautiful too and God still loves you!"

"And I still love Him," she barked back as if threatening the slimy snake.

"God!" Zoe shouted out to the air, "Please come here and make this snake leave me alone!"

No sooner had Zoe said that than she felt the familiar warm breeze infused with the sweet-smelling fragrance of lilies-of-the-valley wafting over her face.

Immersed in the feeling of fatherly love Zoe watched the snake shrug and bury himself into the earth.

"Thank you, Lord." she whispered. "But while You’re here, may I ask you a question?"

God replied, "Of course my daughter; speak."

"What is death? Why is knowing good and evil deadly?" Zoe paused to wait for His reply and then added, "I don't feel smarter or dead. I don't even know what they mean. All I know is that since that snake tricked me and I disobeyed You I feel sad sometimes; I miss Eden, and I still feel like I need to wear these clothes. Lord, are You angry with me? I’m so sorry."

"I am not angry, Zoe; just disappointed that you didn't trust Me, and sad for you."

"But you made that snake, God!" she exclaimed. "Didn't you know what it would do? How did it get to be so sinister?" Before God could answer Zoe added, "Why are you sad for me Lord? I'm happy. I love this beautiful world you made for us. It’s not Eden, but it’s still beautiful!" And then, to change the subject, she added, "Look what I can do!" Zoe flung herself to the ground sideways in a cartwheel, and then another, and another before she stood up straight with her feet planted firmly on the ground and her long arms opened as wide as could be. Her smiling face shined.

She heard God chuckle and that made her happy again, so she decided to say goodbye to Him and continued frolicking through the fields. Soon she grew hungry and walked over to Cain’s garden to get something to eat. He wasn’t there so she plucked a few tomatoes and called out to him, "Cain, Cain, where are you?"

No answer.

Little did Zoe know that across the plain, in the distance, her world was being transformed, resulting in millennia of the delayed effects of her crime, beginning with her two precious grown-up sons, Cain and Abel.

***

That day Cain and Abel decided to give to the Lord God sacrifices from the labor of their hands. The brothers prepared their sacrifices, selecting the best of what they had and proudly walked over to the place where their parents would talk to God.

Cain stretched out his arms holding a basket of unblemished grapes and a bouquet of the finest wheat.  Moments later Abel pointed to a fat little lamb, and fat little calf, and looked up with a big toothy smile.

God’s eyes went straight Abel’s animals, their curly fur sniffing the earth enjoying them with delight. So much so that He didn’t look over at Cain’s basket at all.  

Cain noticed this right away and was exceedingly sorrowful; his face turned dark and sullen with the pain of rejection.

God felt Cain’s saddened heart, turned to look at his darkened face and said, “Why has your countenance fallen Cain? You look so hopeless. If you offered Me your sacrifices with love from the labor of your hands, but then divided your love for Me with your self-love, then didn’t you pull away from Me? That is sin. Remember the evil serpent that persuaded your mother to think of herself more than to trust Me? This is the same; he is dividing you now. You must not allow that to happen. You should rule over him. Don’t allow yourself to feel that way. You should master him.  Be still, be silent, relax.”

Cain shrugged his shoulders; as his sadness gradually evolved into anger and he said, “Abel, let’s get out of here.”

Abel innocently followed his brother farther into the plain.  Cain’s anger continued to well up. When he decided that they were safely away from God and their parents, he turned and slew his brother so viciously that both young men were covered in blood. Cain ran away.

When he stopped to catch his breath, Cain heard God’s voice say to him, “Where is Abel, your brother?” 

Cain replied, “How should I know? Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The Lord said, “What have you done? I heard the voice of your brother’s blood crying to me out of the earth. And now you are cursed from the earth which has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood shed by your hands. This is not punishment; it is the effect of what you did. Now when you till the earth, it shall no longer give you strength. You will have to endure groaning and trembling in order reap your food, just as I told your father.”

Cain replied, “Lord, my crime is too great for me to be forgiven. If You caste me out today from the face of the earth and I am hidden from Your presence, and I am  groaning and trembling, then anyone who finds me will kill me!”

The Lord God answered Cain, “Not true, anyone who slays you, Cain, will suffer sevenfold vengeance.” The Lord God placed a mark on Cain so that no one who finds him would be able to kill him.

***

Meanwhile, Zoe continued to wander over the fields and plains looking for her sons.

Cheerfully, looking up at the beautiful azure sky, she stumbled over the still body of Abel, her sweet shepherd boy.  His skin was green and lifeless, and his wide-open eyes showed shock and fear.

Eve was dumbfounded. "Abel, wake up!" she shouted, shaking him. "What is wrong with you! Abel, my son, what is wrong?!" When Eve realized that Abel was “dead”, she screamed in horror, so that the birds of the air, and every living breathing creature fled from her presence. Eve’s screaming was so shrill that far-away Adam heard her and ran across the plain to where he found her sobbing beside Abel. He gazed on the bloody lifeless body of his youngest son, and then up at his mother stunned and silent.

Eve begged, "Bring him back, Lord. You made us, make Him live again for my sake."

"I will not do that." replied God, "This is the consequence of you doing what the serpent wanted; you didn’t trust Me. That is sin. Sin destroys both you and our relationship, and the body’s death is permanent. Besides, I created a place called Hades where Abel's soul went. He is there alone, but soon all of mankind will go there.

I cannot go there because I am Life, the creator of life and the essence of life. There is no possibility of death within Me because I am not human. Only humans can go to Hades. That is final. One day Cain, you, and Adam will go there too. Cain slew his brother but will face Abel again. Be ready for that day."

Eve and her husband Adam were crouched, weeping by their son's side. They had heard nothing of God’s conversation with Cain.  Eve was stroking Abel’s hair and patting the lifeless body of her little shepherd who had died because of his brother’s jealousy. Adam said, "Now we know death." Talking to himself he added, "When we disobeyed God, we didn't even know what death meant. I didn’t think we died as God had threatened, but today I see and feel death."

"My son, my son where art thou?" Eve could not be consoled; the shock of a human death overwhelmed her more than if the sun had failed to rise above the mountaintop, as if the earth opened to swallow her. Nothing that she had experienced since her creation prepared either Eve or Adam for this moment.

Eve moaned at the thought of having lost Cain too.  She had no idea where he went. She winced at the memory of her own disobedience; how easily that serpent convinced her to not trust God. Now she knew evil, and the suffering that evil and disobedience causes. Now she felt regret for the first time.  Eve still could not imagine death for herself. She only just learned that it was possible for a human body made in the image of God to become lifeless, and that sight alone horrified her.

Eve wept in Adam’s clutches. "Before you go," said Adam, "let’s dig a hole to plant our Abel deep into the earth. I can’t gaze upon this body any longer."

When Adam and Eve arrived back at their empty home and were alone together, Adam’s sorrow turned to anger. He said, “This is your fault, not just Cain’s. THIS is death! This is knowing evil! We see it now when it hurts more than if we had died, because we gave him life, and it was taken away from us because YOU disobeyed God’s one and only command!”

In self-defense Eve retorted, “God didn’t tell ME not to eat it, He told you! YOU! Why did you immediately blame me? Instead, you could have asked God to forgive us: you and me!

No Adam, we’re equally to blame. The serpent didn’t trick you. God spoke to you and the serpent spoke to me, and we both obeyed the serpent, instead of God, and now God will barely speak to us.  Let’s not argue. Now we know what death is and it’s evil. Now we know what evil is.”

Eve walked away. She wanted to be alone in this new world without her sons. It was a new world of loss and conflict. She was confused and miserable.