I’ve been reading the curse as described in Genesis 3-9 over again, and I’m attempting to question the traditional understanding of these passages: that is, it’s talking about origins of how thorns and thistles came into existence.
It seems to me that most focus on the initial curse in chapter 3, but don’t look at the other passages that talk about it.
It begins with Adam “Cursed be the ground because of you…” Continues through Cain, “When you till the ground it shall not henceforth yield her strength.” Is lamented by Noah’s father, Lamech, “This same shall comfort us for the ground The Lord God hath cursed.” And then finally reaches some sort of conclusion in Noah, after the Flood, “And God said, No more shall I curse the ground for man’s sake for he is wicked from his youth.”
- is the emphasis of the story talking about aeitology? The origins / causation of things like thorns? Or is it rather talking about mans sinfulness, and how out of control it is?
From a literary perspective, we seem to reach some sort of conclusion of the curse in Noah after the Flood.
Theologically speaking, this would fit quite well because Noah is portrayed as the “new Adam”. God is starting anew with Noah … And that means new tactics. I get the impression that with Adam, God used curses as a form of punishment as well as a tactic to get mankind back on the right track … But it obviously doesn’t work seeing how the world dwindled down into horrible violence. With Noah, and the Flood, it’s a whole new beginning a fresh start. The curses were simply external … What needed to change was mans heart.
If we read what God tells Noah very lterally it would seem to imply that the curse was done away with … But it’s not. We still have thorns and thistles.
My conclusion is that it’s taking about how bad man’s sinfulness is — and the terminology of thorns, tilling, and toil is just to make use of the theological meaning.
What do you guys think? Is my interpretation bizarre or does it have some merit?
-Tim