Description or Prescription? (Part Four) – What was the original sin?
Added 2022-12-11 23:28:58 +0000 UTCWhat do we know so far? [1] Careful scripture reading requires that we determine what is description and what is prescription. [2] The primary passage in Genesis (3:16-19) about “Biblical marriage” is a descriptionof the damage done by The Fall, not a prescription for normative, healthy, blessed sex. And [3] the original commandments given by God Themself began with the prescription that we should “be fruitful,” whether or not that results in multiplying.
What, then, is the original sin, if openly engaging sexually was the first of the original commandments? We know that the first sin was notabstinence. Humankind was obediently fruitful. And those wonderfully varied activities were part of what God Themself declared to be “Very Good.”
How then, if everything was Very Good, could anythinghave become Evil? Well, there was that one tree, the one that granted us the ability to judge good and evil, an “Evil” that had to be part of the Very Good. So we immediately decided that nakedness and intimacy among humans and before God, as well as any authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability had to be hidden away from the God who sees everything all the time. Hardly possible. But, Oh! how we’ve tried
In short, our Evil was the decision to judge some of God’s Very Good as being evil. That’s the original (and ongoing) sin.
About the images: You may notice that Elly looks a little flushed in these natural color shots. In the larger set (at the Crooked Container site – link in profile), you’ll notice that her lips are a little pouty, too. She’s also veering more and more toward a nap. Why? Well, these were taken after the intensely intimate sets we shot with her and Deanna tied, teasing, twisting, toying, and titillating each other for most of the morning. And, if we may borrow from the Biblical text, it was all Very Good.
