And to Adam he said:
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and you have eaten from the tree
which I commanded you,
by saying
Do not eat from it
Cursed is the ground
on account of you
With hard work you will eat (from) it
all the days of your life;
And (the ground) will cause thorns and thistles
to grow for you.
And you will eat the vegetation of the field.
By the sweat of your nose
you will eat bread
Until you return to the ground
because from it you were taken
because dust you are
and to dust you will return.
Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.
St Columba
And the LORD, god, said to the serpent:
Because you have done this
Cursed are you,
more than all the livestock
and the living creatures of the field
On your belly you will move
And dust you will eat all the days of your life.
Enmity I will place
between you and between the woman
and between your seed and between her seed.
He will crush you, that is your head,
You will crush him, that is his heel.
To the woman, he said,
I will greatly increase your hard-work-in-child-bearing
with hard work you will bear children.
And your desire (will be) to your husband
And he will rule you.
O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.
Gertrude the Great
And they heard the sound of the LORD, god,
walking back and forth in the garden in the ‘wind of the day’
And the man and the woman hid from the face of the LORD, god,
among the trees of the garden.
And the LORD, god, called to the man
saying to him
‘Where are you?’
And he said
‘I heard the sound of you in the garden
so I was fearful
because I was naked.
So I hid myself. ‘
And he said:
‘Who told you that you were naked?
Have you from the tree
which I commanded you not to eat from
eaten?’
And the man said:
‘the woman
whom you gave to be with/ to me –
she gave to me
from the tree
and I ate.’
And the Lord, god, said to the woman:
‘What is this that you have done?’
And the woman said:
‘The serpent deceived me
so I ate.’
Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
St Ignatius
And the woman saw that the tree (was) good for food
and that it (was) a delight for the eyes
and desirable for gaining in wisdom
and she took from its fruit
and she ate.
And she also gave (it) to her man, with her,
and he ate.
Then the eyes of the two were opened
and they knew that they were naked
and they sewed ‘fig leafs’
and they made for themselves coverings.
Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen
St Anselm
And the snake was more crafty than all the animals of the field
which The Lord, god, had made.
And he said to the woman,
Is it so that god really said-
“You (both) shall not eat from the trees of the garden?”
And the woman said to the snake:
‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat.
And from the fruit of the tree,
which is in the middle of the garden –
god said “you shall not eat it,
and you shall not touch it
lest you die.”‘
And the snake said to the woman
‘You shall not surely die,
because God knows that on the day
when you eat from it your eyes will be opened
and you will become like gods
knowing good and evil.’
Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.
Thomas More (c.1478-1535)
And YHWH, god, dropped sleep on the human,
and he slept
and he took one of/from his ribs
and he closed (the) flesh
underneath it.
And YHWH, god, built the rib
which he took from the human,
into a woman.
And he brought her to the human.
And the human said:
‘This one,
this time,
is a bone from my bones
and flesh from my flesh.
this one will be called “woman”
because from the man she was taken.’
Therefore
a man will leave his father and his mother
and stick with his woman /wife
and become one flesh
and the two – the man and the woman – were naked
and they were not ashamed.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen
And YWHH, god, said
‘It is not good for the human to be alone;
I will make for him a helper – as opposite to him.’
And YHWH, god, made from the ground,
all the living things of the field
and all the birds of the heavens.
He brought (them) to the human
to see what he would called
and whatever the human called them
– a living thing –
that was it’s name.
And the human called their names
– for all the livestock
and for the birds of the heavens
and living things of the field
and for Adam
he did not find
a helper
– as opposite to him.
O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
(unknown)
And YHWH, god, took the man
and settled him in the garden of Eden
to work it and to guard it.
And YHWH, god, commanded the man
saying
from every tree of the garden you may surely eat
from the tree of knowledge, good and bad, you surely may not eat
because on the day that you eat from it you will surely die.
Eternal God and Fatther,
you create us by your power,
and redeem us by your love,
guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,
that we may give ourselves in love and service
to one another and to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
A depiction of the Garden of Eden and “topography of the earthly paradise” by Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), from 1675
And YHWH, god, planted a garden,
in Eden
in the east
And put there the man
whom he had formed
and YHWH, god, caused to spring up
from the ground
all the trees
pleasant to look at
and good to eat
and the tree of life
in the middle of the garden
and the tree of knowledge
of good-and-bad
And a river leaves Eden
to water the garden
and from there it will be divided
and it will become four ‘heads’
The name of one (is) Pishon
it surrounds all the land of Havilah
where there is gold.
And the gold of the land is good;
bdellium and stone of onyx
The name of the second river (is) Gihon
it surrounds all the land of Cush
The name of the third river Tigris
it goes east of Assyria
And the fourth river is Euphrates
O Lord, in whom is our hope,
remove far from us, we pray thee,
empty hopes and presumptuous confidence.
Make our hearts so right with thy most holy and loving heart,
that hoping in thee we may do good;
until that day when faith and hope
shall be abolished by sight and possession,
and love shall be all in all.
Christina Rossetti (1830-94)
