The Beginnings of Man -Part 4

God is credited with knowing everything before it happens, but it is clear from what God is said to have done He made a mistake.! And then with the help of the Archangels, He punishes the ‘fallen Watchers’.

If you haven’t read Part 1 -here it is The Beginnings of Man -Part 1 – Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius and part 2 is here The Beginnings of Man -Part 2 – Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius and part 3 is here The Beginnings of Man -Part 3 – Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius

Some will describe Adam’ fall from grace after eating the apple as a loss of innocence. Innocence as the dictionary defines it means someone who is not guilty of a crime. A person not having much experience of life and not knowing about the bad things that can happen. It can also describe someone who is righteous, who is free from fault, it can even be used to describe a simpleton or idiot. According to the OED the word innocence is occurring only 7 times in modern written English, or to put it another way, is saying almost never does our consciousness consider its meaning as important or relevant.

I am focussing on the meaning of innocence because neither Adam nor Eve were aware of the consequences from eating the apple. That is saying their psyche prior to eating the apple did not include  the animal nature. They are described in Jewish literature as the first Man and Woman -and conceived by ‘God’, and as I have already given reason ‘the sons of God’ in fact was the ‘Watchers’ as named by Enoch, and they are shown to have produced sons, which initially was the Nephilim and then after the fall of Adam and Eve the patriarchal line of Men succeeded and that includes Enoch.

The names of men given in Jewish Literature prior the great flood are singular but are they? They are more likely names of populations. The cycle of time from Adam, Cain, Abel, and Seth is recorded in hundreds of years, but given these are names of populations, more like thousands of years.

The Garden of Eden as created by God for Adam appears to be a utopian paradise but on closer examination suggests otherwise. Animals lived there and they are subject to life and death, as indeed are all other forms of life, so the garden couldn’t be called a paradise. Adam is created immortal to live in this so-called Eden and given ability to name the animals and care for the animal’s well-being. At this point in the story God has created a world which is subject to change -conflict that includes all other forms of life supporting the existence of animals.

God then highlights to Adam two trees; the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. Clearly He doesn’t mean physical trees. Symbolically trees represent a life-giving entity connecting earth to the heavens. Adam was directly related to the tree of life and warned not to connect with the tree of knowledge. The tree of knowledge was the enablement of the tree of life; its function was God’s business alone. Provided Adam didn’t question his immortality by knowing of the tree of life the Garden would continue to be his abode.

The story blames the serpent for causing Eve to eat the apple and beginning the fall of Man, but NO the action of the serpent is the action of the id force in the body otherwise called the kundalini force and was caused by eating the apple; the knowledge of how the tree of life functioned in vertebrates. The introduction of Eve in the story is describing the juncture of change that brought about the separation of the male and female forces, that in turn destroyed the harmony which had been established initially by offsprings of the Watchers.

As advised in Part 3, Adam must have been some kind of androgynous conception, not unknown in the early development of life of Earth.  Many other earth-life forms exhibit androgynous traits through sequential sex changes, including fish, mollusc’s, amphibians, and invertebrates.

Science emphasises the androgyne functions of its male and female nature in humans are by choice and for all other forms of life instinctually driven by the need to survive as a species.

Before proceeding further we should recognise that the writing of Genisis and the Book of Enoch is still subject to scholarly debate. Genisis is thought to have been composed during the lifetime of Moses, between the 15th and 13th centuries BCE, others suggest the 5th century BCE, whilst others say even later, influenced by the Dead Sea Scrolls 2nd century BCE. And the Book of Enoch between 300- and 100-years BCE. All scholars agree input to either would have been created by orally informed information. Which, to put it mildly, means we don’t know the source nature of these writings.

Given we now look at the creation of man story in Genisis through the words of Enoch 1 (as translated by Andy McCraken in 2023 ) which is based on the Ethiopian text and including some corrections from the surviving fragment found in Aramaic and Greek, a different story emerges.

Enoch begins by saying his words are a blessing to the chosen and righteous who must be present on the Day of Distress, which is appointed for the removal of all wicked and impious. What Enoch means by the Day of Distress is a final reckoning at which the righteous will be saved and the wicked will be destroyed in a distant generation to come. He then goes on to say, “And all will be afraid, and the Watchers will shake, and fear and great trembling will seize them, unto the ends of the Earth”. He is not saying they will be destroyed.

After advising the destruction of the Earth and how the righteous will be saved, in chapter 6 he says, “And it came to pass, when the sons of men had increased, that in those days there were born to them fair and beautiful daughters”. And then goes on to say, “And the Angels, the sons of Heaven, saw them and desired them. And they said to one another: “Come, let us choose for ourselves wives, from the children of men, and let us beget, for ourselves, children.” He clearly means the Angels are the Watchers and the sons of Man are an evolution of Homo Erectus. Enoch specifies 20 Watchers by name and their leader is Shemyaza. Each named Watcher leads nine others, and there are more Watchers, but he doesn’t quantify how many or give them names.

At this point in his narrative the Watchers are able to interact with the physical world as he further describes the knowledge and skills they taught Man. From sexual union with the daughters of men there were born giants, describing them as 3’000 cubits tall that’s as tall as a mountain! As they obviously couldn’t be, he is either saying the number of giants, or he referring to their powers to control nature.  They were certainly controlling as they ‘devoured’ men and all other forms of life and are further described as the ‘lawless ones’.

In chapter 8 we are told that Azazel, one of the named Watchers, “taught men to make swords, and daggers, and shields, and breastplates. And he showed them the metals of the earth, and the art of working them, and gold and silver bracelets and ornaments, and the art of making up the eyes with antimony and eye-paint, and of beautifying the face, and the most precious and choice stones, and all kinds of coloured dyes. And the world was forever changed”. (my italics).

He goes on to say. There was great impiety and much fornication, and as if Azazel hadn’t done enough, “their leader, Shemyaza, taught spells against the mind, and the use of cut roots of plants, and Armaros magical skills and the release of spells, and Barakel taught astrologers, and Kokabel portents of the stars, and Tamiel taught portents of the weather, and Shahariel taught the path of the Moon. And they all began to reveal these mysteries to their wives and their children. And, at the destruction on the Earth, men cried out, and their voices reached Heaven”.

At this point let me summarise what Enoch is saying.

He begins by saying there will be a final reckoning when the Earth will change dramatically because the rebellious sons of God (the Watchers) will bring about destruction because they have caused their offsprings, the giants to teach men eternal truths. And the world is forever changed because of their ‘destructive’ actions. Thereafter some men who are not in league with the Watchers and their Giant offsprings complain to ‘God on High’ (my italics).

In chapter 9 we are introduced to Archangels Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabrial. Michael is chief, protector of humanity, and appointed to bind the ‘fallen Watchers’. Uriel is humanities guide warning Enoch to instruct Noah of the impending flood. And Gabrial is the divine judge who will condemn the ‘fallen Watchers’ and enforce heavenly order on Earth.

We should now remind ourselves that the first five chapters of Genisis records how got made the Earth, created Man on the fifth day and concludes by telling us that Man was expelled from the Garden of Eden because he ate the ‘apple’ of the Knowledge Tree. Then in chapter 6 to 11 we are told the Sons of God took women to become their wives, birthed a race of giants who behaved badly, despite describing them as heroes and men of renown, where everyone spoke the same language.

What Enoch and Genisis is telling us is the creation of Man begins with a sexual union between women and ‘Angels’ which turned out badly and a higher form of angels, namely Archangels put matters right by destroying all that went before by causing a great flood. As it is stated in Enoch chapter 9, “Shemyaza has made known spells, he to whom You gave authority to rule over those who are with him”. YOU can only mean “Lord of Lords, God of Gods, King of Kings!”.

God is credited with knowing everything before it happens, but it is clear from what He goes on to say, with the help of the Archangels, He made a mistake and the ‘fallen Watchers’ will be punished. Note Enoch is now using the term fallen Watchers which implies not all Watchers behaved badly!

Enoch underlines this division of Watchers in chapter 12 where he states the Watchers called and said to him, “Enoch, scribe of righteousness, go and inform the Watchers of Heaven, who have left the High Heaven and the sanctuary of the Eternal Covenant, and have corrupted themselves with the women, and have done as the sons of men do, and have taken wives for themselves, and have become completely corrupt on the Earth. They will have on Earth, neither peace, nor forgiveness of sin, for they will not rejoice in their sons. The slaughter of their beloved ones they will see; and over the destruction of their sons they will lament and petition for ever.  But they will have neither mercy nor peace.”

Where did it go wrong?

We need to answer that question and by doing so look at other creation myths to understand how compatible they are with the biblical narrative. Why for example was Cain the first son of Adam condemned to wander for ever? Birthing the concept of what we call the Wandering Jew?

The Beginnings of Man -Part 3

How and when was Man physically created? Homo erectus (“upright man”) appeared around 1.9 million years ago and persisted until at least 110,000 years. Homo erectus is widely considered an ancestor of later humans.

If you haven’t read Part 1 -here it is The Beginnings of Man -Part 1 – Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius and part 2 is here The Beginnings of Man -Part 2 – Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius

According to science reflective consciousness is the capacity to be aware of and critically evaluate one’s own mental states, enabling self-reflection, metacognition, and intentional behaviour, which is a human definition of itself. We further distinguish reflective consciousness from primary or phenomenal consciousness which involves raw sensory experience.

I have said that reflective consciousness, albeit that is inclusive of phenomenal consciousness, is a feature of all vertebrates -we can go further than that! For example, plants don’t feel pain, but they can sense damage and respond with complex chemical and electrical signals. In short; all forms of life have consciousness that is reactive to change and that is because we live in a light reflective world. So, Man defines it for himself but chooses not to recognise it as consciousness in other forms of life. The issue of understanding here is that Man thinks of himself as the only form of vertebrate life that has consciousness -at least of the kind he defines for himself. Yet again, Man is myopically viewing the universe through his rationally minded ego, which is uniquely present in Man.

How and when was Man physically created?

Homo erectus (“upright man”) appeared around 1.9 million years ago and persisted until at least 110,000 years. Homo erectus is widely considered an ancestor of later humans, including Homo heidelbergensis, which in turn gave rise to Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens. Homo heidelbergensis lived approximately 700,000 to 200,000 years ago across Africa, Europe, and possibly Asia. Neanderthals, Denisovans  and Homo sapiens were closely related human species as a result of interbreeding, with distinct physical, cognitive, and cultural adaptations, but only Homo sapiens survived to populate the modern world. Homo sapiens have demonstrated remarkable adaptability and innovation. The earliest homo sapiens (according to Anthropology) were hunter-gatherers, and around 13,000 years ago, the Neolithic Revolution introduced agriculture and permanent settlements -and that is the beginning of the Flood period that ended approximately 9’000 years BCE.

Homo Sapiens (Latin) means ‘wise man’. Clearly an egocentric definition. Neanderthals existed from roughly 430,000 to 40,000 years ago, coexisting with early modern humans for tens of thousands of years. Both Neanderthals and Denisovans demonstrate the complexity of human evolution and the interconnections among archaic humans. DNA studies have looked for ‘strings’ that have remained relatively stable for eons but had exploded into evolutionary action since we and chimps diverged from our common ancestor.

When we look to see what might have changed us into Man there are many references in so-called mythical writings which refer to a union between god-like beings and ‘Men’.

The acceptance of God(s) creating Man is fundamental to the concept of all major religions, but they cannot tell you why God(s) chose to do so.  Myths are accounts of events and the actions of peoples, gods and forces, from periods of time before the ‘discovery’ of writing, the earliest form of which was  Cuneiform, developed by the Sumerians around 3400–3100 BCE. However, the historicity of ancient stone structures and of symbols engraved upon them can be carbon-14 dated, as for example the construction of Stonehenge shows its origin was approximately 10’000 years ago.

The intelligence of peoples who built these ancient structures encompassed knowledge which accedes in some respects the knowledge we have today. How they came of this knowledge is mystery, as is their accurate detail of the solar system and star world known thousands of years prior to Galileo. Myths are records of a past memories verbally passed down by succeeding generations in different parts of the world, showing comparable events and God-like Beings in prehistory, which cannot be explained historically by global interaction of information. Even as late as the 20th century there were families in Asia who attested to a historical line of ‘story tellers’ who faithfully passed on their knowledge to subsequent generations -stories that cannot always be dated to have occurred after the creation of writing.

What we are told in the Old Testament e.g., in Genisis 6:2 is … the sons of God saw the daughters of Man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose…. And in the Book of Enoch, the “Sons of God” are often identified as angelic beings, specifically referred to as the Watchers. They are described as descending to Earth and becoming enamoured with the daughters of men, leading to the birth of the Nephilim. The Nephilim are also mentioned primarily in Genesis 6:1–4 and Numbers 13:33. In Genesis, they appear in the context of the “sons of God” mating with the “daughters of men,” producing offspring described as “mighty men of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4). . In Numbers, spies report seeing the Nephilim in Canaan, describing them as so formidable that the Israelites felt like grasshoppers in comparison.

Interpretations of the Nephilim vary widely across religious and academic traditions. One influential view, preserved in Second Temple literature such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees, identifies the Nephilim as the offspring of rebellious angels (the Watchers) and human women, portraying them as destructive giants whose corruption contributed to the moral decline preceding the flood. Another major interpretation, found in some early Jewish and Christian commentaries, describe the Nephilim as powerful human rulers or warriors, possibly arising from intermarriage between the righteous line of Seth and the unrighteous line of Cain. A third approach views the Nephilim as legendary or symbolic figures reflecting ancient Near Eastern traditions about semi-divine heroes or primordial beings.

The concept of gods mating with men is a common theme in various mythologies and religions, for example, in Greek, Indian, and Islamic Mythology. Human Science has found it’s impossible to date even approximately by tens of thousands of years when this era could have occurred. Modern man can be estimated as beginning his cycle of development some 300’000 years ago, but we have no archaeological dating of discoveries or Human Science that can reliably advise existence of the ancient civilisations previously referred to.

However, what we can say is some basis of attraction enabled the union of Gods and men, It’s reasonable to suppose that Gods expressed that need, which also suggests that whilst myths show their interaction was to ‘make men wise’ (Homo Erectus?) it also must mean they were not entirely self-contained, having a balance of energies eternally present . There is a tendency amongst scholars to suggest the actions of Gods was arbitrary and at best to suggest humans were ‘engaged’ to facilitate and further the warring of Gods between themselves.

The Hebrew bible refers to these Gods as the Elohim, which means many gods. And Enoch calls them the Watchers, a group of Angels who rebelled against God and fathered the Nephilim. Less the ideological interpretation it means an intelligence (not necessarily an entity in human form) mated and influenced development of the DNA in early man.

There are many creation myths. The most widely known account by English speaking people is the Garden of Eden story told in Genesis, often interpreted as a theological narrative explaining humanity’s transition from innocence to moral awareness, introducing concepts of sin, suffering, and mortality.

According to Genesis, God created the first man, Adam, from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, forming the first human being (Genesis 2:7). God then created the Garden of Eden, a lush paradise in which the tree of knowledge of good and evil was at its centre. Adam was directed to tend the garden, name and care for all the animals. Seeing that Adam needed a companion, God took one of his ribs, and created Eve, the first woman (Genesis 2:21-24). Naked and unashamed they enjoyed the harmony of the garden, until that is, the appearance of a serpent, who deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She then shared the fruit with Adam, and upon eating it, they became aware of their nakedness and felt shame, symbolizing the loss of innocence and the acquisition of moral knowledge. God punished them for their disobedience causing Eve to experience the pain of childbirth and be subject to her husband, while Adam would ‘toil the ground’ for sustenance. Clothed in animal skins they were expelled from the garden and prevented from returning.

And where was this Garden of Eden? Traditionally it’s believed to have been located in Mesopotamia, near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but there is no archaeological evidence to suggest it was. The only evidence we can be certain of was it could only have existed prior to the great flood, perhaps even 100’s of thousands of years before.

And what exactly is the story telling us?

In simple terms, less the theological interpretation, the story is saying God created the first man for the task of managing the Garden of Eden. Initially all was hunky dory with Adam doing exactly what he was born to as a caretaker, until God decided Adam needed a mate and created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. Now the trouble starts. God warns them not to eat from the Tree of Life, but Eve doesn’t take God seriously and eats an ‘apple’ from the Tree. Adam doesn’t do anything to stop her and worse still actually eats an ‘apple’ as well. God is furious and causes Adam to seed her with his sperm causing Eve ever after to suffer the pangs of childbirth. They both became aware of themselves being naked. Adam has to ‘husband the soil’, which means he and Eve needed food to survive and that involved killing animals which hitherto he had been friendly with.  Not content with lowering their status God banishes them from the Garden and for good measure posts an Angel at ‘the gates’ with the express purpose of denying them entry should they attempt to.

I think you have to agree things didn’t go according to plan. We have to seriously question who God is in this story because as told He is clearly not omnipotent. As told He either intended to cause disunity, or He simply cocked it up!

Who is this God? In other creation stories the advent of Man is described as caused by divine or supernatural beings. Nowhere do these myths admit to omnipotent powers making mistakes. The blame for the outcome is firmly placed on the Serpent. Now, if we look at the Garden of Eve story, less its theological interpretation. where ‘God’ is an ‘intelligence’ that could be described as a group of beings with interest in ‘creating ‘ human beings, a different story emerges.  

Could these ‘beings’ be the Watchers referred to by Enoch?