Fall of Man = Beginning of Agriculture

yes. but also keep in mind that the stories of genesis written to explain the origins of current customs, from the pov of the authors. genesis 2/3/4 works just fine as an story about why the hebrews live out in the middle of a desert (instead of the fertile crescent's "garden of eden"), and why they have to farm. there are a number other etiologies in that portion of the text too.like any "just so" story, they're mythological or traditional explanations for things. and genesis 3 definitally seems to have been written to explain agriculture.Edited by arachnophilia, : typo

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Wandering God : a study in nomadic spirituality by Berman, Morris, 1944-or maybe it wasThe Bible unearthed : archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its sacred texts by Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman.Or perhaps both talked about the fluid relationship of nomadic and settled peoples in that area in those times. There were tensions between herders and farmers but in times of drought farmers picked up and followed their herds and in times of mild weather and rain herders settled down to farm.The archeological evidence is that Jerusalem during the era ascribed to Soloman and David was a tiny village that expanded a bit and shrunk as the weather alternately favored farming or didn't.Ezra or whoever redacted the Pentauch envisioned a mythical reign of Solomon, I imagine in much the same way the English envisioned a mythical setting for Arthur in Camelot. There are several historical candidates for Arthur but I don't know about Camelot. It's clear that the stories at the time favored the farmers over the herders.lfen

I agree that the customs and laws portions of Genesis are a major part and, if I read you correctly, I have also always thought that the Garden of Eden was an idealization of the more fertile regions surrounding the ancient Israeli desert. I have wondered if the story of Adam and Eve came from some sort of expulsion or migration of a group of people from those areas or, more likely, that there was a group (the ancient Hebrews) that tried to continue on in the nomadic ways when the majority of the people were settling down in the fertile arable land and developing agriculture and found that they were eventually excluded from the best lands that were being "settled" by the others who partoook in the agricultural revolution earlier on. They would have possibly created stories to justify their decision and the fact that the land they had to till was "cursed" and harder to work than the Fertile Crescent surrounding them.You have prompted me to re-read Genesis and try to connect it with this possibility in order to make a more coherent analogy to history. Get back to me if you have any further comments or see any possible contradictions in what I just said. You seem like a knowledgeable debater

it's a vague connection, possibly the influence of some sort of traditional or cultural memory, i suspect. the area i'm thinking of, specifically, is the fertile crescent. two of the four rivers that surround eden are the tigris and euphrates. literally, eden is "in the east" but this is much more likely an idiom than a direction. "east" is also used, in hebrew, to describe the concept of antiquity. then again, that might be another vague connection too.on a literal level, there is another story that directly describes the hebrews mesopotamian origin: the journey of abram. he leaves "ur of the chaldees" (an anachronism, btw, but it indicates the region) and ventures to the west, into the wilderness. it's actually sort of a thematic thing, than any one specific story. for instance, we have in the next chapter a very literal struggle between agriculture and nomadic herding in the story of cain and abel.genesis 3 seems to be more about the birth of conciousness and morality, and a result of that, suffering, hard work, and emotional pain. agriculture is part of the literal curse, though you will find that not many of the patriarchs were farmers. i've thought about it for a while, and paid attention on my last read-through of genesis. i doubt you will find any coherent analogy, but rather cultural traditions stemming from vague memories. thank you. Edited by arachnophilia, : typo

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A lot of the politics that are described in Genesis is the conflict between farmers and herders , to be sure.In Hebrew, the name Cain literally means 'Tiller of the ground', and the name "abel" means "Keeper of the sheep".

i get some strange meanings in my dictionary. for abel (hebel):

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‘— (literary) steam, vapor ; breath ; (flowery) speech, utterance (esp. related to Torah, learned)

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‘— foolishness, nonsense, absurdity ; (flowery) for nothing, uselessly (as adverb)

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and for cain (qayin):

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(talmudic) someone with large testicles

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Well, Cain did have some large testicles. God said to him, "... a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." But did Cain accept his punishment?No. He complained, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." And God put a mark on him to protect him from anybody seeking vengeance.
(For the sake of topicity, we can ignore the obvious question, "Who?" )Cain was the first to appeal to the Supremest Court - and win.But this is the interesting part:

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Gen 4:12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength;

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Adam was condemned to farm instead of "gathering", but Cain was condemned to stop farming.

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