I've been reading a lot of Neville Goddard recently, and I enjoy his interpretations of the bible.
He believes the entire bible is an Eastern metaphorical text designed to teach us about our states of mind.
His opinion is that the story of Adam and Even is a parable about human nature.
Adam represents the body and all material reality, and Eve represents the inner life, soul, or mind.
This is a little excerpt from his writings on the subject:
The Great Law of human nature is that one's surroundings at any time are but the outer expression or outpicturing of his conscious (and subconscious) mind at the moment.
States of mind never result from outer conditions (although, of course, they seem to do so until we analyze the situation thoroughly), but it is always the outer picture which is produced by the mental state. Eve (mind) can bring trouble upon Adam (body) or she can present him with harmony; but Adam cannot do anything to Eve.
Unless the soul (mind) first eats the forbidden fruit of fear, anger, greed, etc., the embodiment will be harmonious and free; but anything that the soul (mind) does consume or entertain must and will appear on the body.
So I think, the question of 'Was there death before Adam,' perhaps becomes irrelevant when you think of this story not as a story of real people or a real historical event, but instead as a metaphorical lesson.
Neville Goddard has written so much on this subject - far more than I could waffle on about here!
But perhaps you might enjoy checking out some of his work? :)
Thanks for this post, it gave me a good excuse to put off doing the washing up which I'm supposed to be doing right now ha!
Sounds alot like what Jordan Peterson says. He seems to believe that the biblical stories are a representation of years & years of patterns of knowledge of what mankind learned but was not yet able to articulate through word ergo stories expressed what was known subconsciously but not cognitively understood. Things that were acted out and true but not yet able to be expressed any other way but story form.
Oh interesting, I've not heard of Jordan Peterson before. Thanks for the link, I'll check out the vid you posted. :)
Yw. He gave me a new perspective on religion. I've always considered myself a Christian (because I was brought up that way) but It really don't attend church etc. Not impressed with institutional religion. I myself questioned tradition and viewed it all as simple belief passed on. But after hearing Jordan's explanations as to how it all actually coincides with human nature (scientifically) psychologically and biologically it freegin blew my mind. His lectures are very long but if you listen a little here and there, I even fell asleep to them and had to replay them a few times..lol but sooo worth it. The knowledge and understssnding you gain is immeasurable. Makes you realize that it's not wise to reduce it all down to simple 'belief' that we can choose to do away with due to irrelevence. It is totally relevent!