XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: jointuser@thepub.co.za   
      
   Stan Brown  wrote in message   
   news:MPG.1a0fa607838fe02198b6a1@news.odyssey.net...   
   > In article <3fa5be56.53296499@news.saix.net> in   
   > rec.arts.books.tolkien, Steve Hayes  wrote:   
   > >Is the idea of death as a punishment really part of Judaism?   
   >   
   > Yes, of course. It's in Genesis -- along with painful childbirth and   
   > having to work for food.   
   >   
   Not exactly. The painful childbirth, menstruation, working for food, are all   
   punishment for the original sin, but mortality is not a punishment but   
   rather a necessary change to the original order. In Judaism, the idea is   
   that in Eden, Adam and Eve were permitted to eat from any tree except the   
   Tree of Knowledge. This means that humans were permitted to eat from the   
   Tree of Life - and thus be immortal. But once they had eaten of the tree of   
   Knowledge, they could not be permitted immortality. Not as a punishment, but   
   to prevent certain results which would arise from infinite knowledge and   
   infinite life being granted to a person. In fact the Jewish view is that the   
   punishment is not so much for disobeying God, but rather for making   
   Humankind mortal.   
      
   *In other words mortality is not part of the punishment, but actually part   
   of the sin*   
      
   Since the original sin and the changing of the order of the world, death is   
   a way of reconnecting to God and part of the cycle of the human soul's   
   purpose - which is to attain Godliness. So death is not a punishment.   
      
   Now if one were to consider another race who could not reconnect with the   
   Godhead in such a way, but were in fact spiritually bonded to the world,   
   then death would be seen as a gift in comparison.   
      
   Tolkien's ideas about human mortality are not new and are IMO firmly rooted   
   in Judaeo-Christian beliefs, but the perception of mortality as a gift if   
   compared to another race who lacked mortality seems to me to be one of the   
   most beautiful concepts in Tolkien's work. Whether this comparison had been   
   discussed earlier by other writers, philosophers or theologians, I am not   
   sure, but in Tolkien it is magically presented. It is a concept that makes   
   Tolkien worthy of serious study in all three of the abovementioned fields:   
   literature, philosophy and theology.   
      
   Gauss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)