Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part A

 The Fall of Satan

    This was my favorite story of this unit.

Adam was extraordinarily blessed, arousing jealousy from the angels. 

The angels tried to kill him. 

Satan was particularly jealous.

**it specifically mentions that Adam has a soul. This suggests that the other angels do not.**

Satan refused to bow down to Adam as commanded. 

God then offered a challenge. If satan could name all the animals according to what God had for them, then Adam would bow to Satan. However, if only Adam could name them according to what God had for them, Satan would be forced to bow. 

**This implies that Adam did not create the names himself but just articulated the names God already had.**

Satan failed the challenge and Adam did not. 

Satan cried out and refused to bow leading to God casting him out.

Thoughts

    Initially, I was confused. It seemed that Adam was special because he was made in the image of God. Does this suggest that angels are not created in the image of God? If this is the case then what do they look like? Are they humanoid or resembling human at all? Perhaps they resemble animals more than humans. 

    There is also the issue of god kind of giving Adam the answers. He phrased the question so that the first letter sort of gave the answer away. This suggests that Adam didn't inherantly know the names... This is pretty problematic as neither of them are able to pass the test on their own capabilities. 

Story source:
The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909).

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