Spiritual Sunday
Today’s Old Testament reading explains the entry of sin into the world. As this is also the main theme of Milton’s Paradise Lost, I pair up the Genesis passages with Milton’s dramatization of them.
Lent is a good time to reflect upon the existence of human evil. If God is benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient, then how is it that He/She created a being that He/She knew would sin. Religions that believe in good and bad demons, or that see Satan as co-equal with God (the Manichean heresy), don’t have this theological problem. Milton handles it by emphasizing free will, having God explain, “I made him just and right,/ Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.”
The problem of human evil was particularly pressing for Milton, who had just seen the restoration of the monarchy following the Puritan failure to establish God’s kingdom on earth. Invoking the Holy Spirit as Homer and Virgin invoke the muse, Milton begins his epic by asking it to “illumine what is dark” and help him “justify the ways of God to man.” At the moment, he’s finding it extremely hard to do so himself.
Searching for answers is a major reason why he wrote the poem. Sewanee theologian Rob MacSwain says that the British famously conduct their theology through poetry, and while he is speaking mainly of Anglican authors, the observation can be extended to Milton.
Genesis: And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
[Milton’s Eve to Satan as the Serpent] He who requires
From us no other service then to keep
This one, this easy charge, of all the Trees
In Paradise that bear delicious fruit
So various, not to taste that only Tree
Of knowledge, planted by the Tree of Life,
So neer grows Death to Life, what ere Death is,
Some dreadful thing no doubt; for well thou knowest
God hath pronounced it death to taste that Tree,
The only sign of our obedience left
Among so many signs of power and rule
Conferred upon us…
Genesis: Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto
the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree
of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We
may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil.
[Milton’s Satan to Eve]:O Sacred, Wise, and Wisdom-giving Plant,
Mother of Science, Now I feel thy Power
Within me clear, not only to discern
Things in their Causes, but to trace the ways
Of highest Agents, deemed however wise.
Queen of this Universe, do not believe
Those rigid threats of Death; ye shall not Die: [ 685 ]
How should ye? by the Fruit? it gives you Life
To Knowledge…
Genesis: And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and
did eat…
Milton: So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the Fruit, she plucked, she ate:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.
…
Greedily she engorged without restraint,
And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length,
And heightened as with Wine, jocund and boon,
Thus to herself she pleasingly began.
O Sovran, virtuous, precious of all Trees
In Paradise, of operation blest
To Sapience, hitherto obscured, infamed,
And thy fair Fruit let hang, as to no end
Created; but henceforth my early care…
Genesis: … and gave also unto her husband with her; and
he did eat.
In Milton’s version, Adam is a reluctant participant but, in the end, chooses to go with Eve rather than with God:
Milton: She gave him of that fair enticing Fruit
With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge, not deceived,
But fondly overcome with Female charm.
Earth trembled from her entrails, as again
In pangs, and Nature gave a second groan,
Sky lowered, and muttering Thunder, some sad drops
Wept at completing of the mortal Sin
Original; while Adam took no thought,
Eating his fill…
Adam then becomes fully complicit by endorsing the act:
Adam to Eve: Eve, now I see thou art exact of taste,
And elegant, of Sapience no small part,
Since to each meaning savour we apply,
And Palate call judicious; I the praise
Yield thee, so well this day thou hast purveyed.
Much pleasure we have lost, while we abstained
From this delightful Fruit, nor known till now
True relish…
Although we don’t see Adam and Eve repenting in Genesis, Milton describes their sorrow in depth. He also shows us Adam later rejoicing when he learns from the archangel Michael about how, in the future, Jesus will sacrifice himself for humankind. Adam wonders whether he should be glad that he sinned–what is known as the felix culpa or fortunate fall–since it provided God an opportunity to show the immensity of His love:
Adam to Michael: O goodness infinite, goodness immense!
That all this good of evil shall produce,
And evil turn to good; more wonderful
Then that which by creation first brought forth
Light out of darkness! full of doubt I stand,
Whether I should repent me now of sin
By me done and occasioned, or rejoice
Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring…
Think of Paradise Lost as a Lenten reflection.