Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1631

1631. Quite apart from Nature's own speech, it is clearly evident that impressing an aversion to darkness on human beings has not always been important. Indeed, between its lines even "The Bible" indicates to the attentive reader that the opposite was once the case. When one understands that the term "serpent" in "The Bible" actually expresses nothing less than the principle of world redemption itself, it is not difficult to see that the "seduction of Eve" was not "seduction" in the proper sense of the word, but "guidance". Does not the serpent's speech and that of Eve show that it is a matter of shedding light on things, of clarifying a mystery? Did the serpent not say to Eve: "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden but one thou mayest freely eat"? The serpent was thus interested in the situation of Adam and Eve, that is to say, the situation of terrestrial human beings. There had thus been something that this mankind had been interested in, namely being able to "eat of the tree of knowledge". If this desire had not existed in the mind and heart of human beings, the "seduction by the serpent" would have been impossible. People are thus longing for a new view of life. The old view of life was such a habitual matter of course that it could no longer nourish their thinking or feeling. They were hungry for a new way of being, a new morality. But they lacked the authority that is always needed in situations in which mankind changes its view of life and way of being. They themselves could not elucidate or explain the details of their situation. They had some knowledge of the fact that they would "surely die" if they followed their hunger or desire and threw themselves into "eating of the tree of knowledge". This fear was a restraint, an inconvenience, an obstacle between them and the new way of being they were hungering for. And since the old way of being absolutely had to be outgrown, for otherwise a desire for a new one could not possibly have arisen, it could no longer inspire them or make them happy. The intervention of the serpent in mankind's situation can therefore be only divine deliverance or salvation. It liberated Adam and Eve from their restraints. This restraint is defined more precisely in Eve's words to the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the tree in 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 lifts this restraint with the words: "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."
The fact that this restraint was lifted in this way is expressed by the subsequent words in the account: "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, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." That their new way of being made them happy at first is thus documented here and is further confirmed through all the forms of religious worship that had human sacrifice, murder and killing as their highest ideals. That they later discovered that they were "naked" and covered themselves with "fig leaves" (lies, untruths and falsehoods) – only thereafter ultimately having to accept the Godhead's pronouncement about darkness and his enlightenment or initiation into it – abundantly confirms the truth of the serpent's words. God and the serpent, that is to say, God and the world redemption, thus stand for the most intimate cooperation. Adam and Eve really began to know the difference between "good" and "evil". If the opposite were the case, there would of course be nothing to fear. They would not then have had to use "fig leaves" in order to cover the "evil". They could neither fear nor be ashamed of an "evil" they did not know.