The other day...

...I was talking to one of my co-workers about dinosaurs and evolution and religion and the Bible and eventually, we got onto the topic of the Apocrypha.

So I started reading it last night. So far I've gotten to Chapter XLVI, and Adam and Eve have died about seven or eight times. Apparently, God kept bringing them back to life. It's almost funny. One interesting part, though, is the first sacrifice.

Adam and Eve didn't just leave the Garden of Eden without a fight. They wanted to go back, so they hung around outside it for a while, and a few days after they'd left, they climbed a mountain that looked out over the Garden. Adam jumped. He died a bloody, gruesome death. Eve couldn't stand to live without Adam, so she jumped too. She also died a bloody, gruesome death.

So God brought them both back to life and explained things to them again (essentially, "Dude, you really can't go back. Just wait 5500 years for goodness sake. I already told you this about thirty times."). Adam and Eve felt sorry and they gathered a bunch of rocks that they'd landed on and stacked them up into the shape of an altar. Adam took the sand that was all bloody and collected it and put it into the altar.

He started to pray and was truly sorry and asked God's forgiveness for all the foolish stuff he'd done (*plenty* more was on the way) and God was pretty impressed because He'd never told Adam to do this. To show His acceptance, He sent fire from Heaven and it consumed the offering.

I'd never really thought about why sacrifices were done the way they were. It sort of makes sense, though, how the spotless lamb represents Adam and Eve in a very baby-like, almost innocent state, and its blood needs to be shed (through death) to cleanse sin.

Also, the serpent is incredibly creepy. When he saw Adam and Eve outside the Garden, he confronted them because he was no longer beautiful (again, no one ever thinks about how the serpent felt). He threw Adam and Eve on the ground and tried to kill them, so God sent an angel to stop him. God yelled at the serpent and it was then that He took the serpent's voice from him. Then He sent a strong wind to blow the serpent all the way to India.

This was cool to me because I always picture the serpent as like a garter snake. I just did a little research and it looks like it may have been a King Cobra. They live in and around India and can be about 13 feet long. When they lift themselves up, they can be about six feet tall (the perfect height for tempting). And they only eat other snakes, so they sound kind of bitter.