Dream
Well-Known Member
![bast3.jpg](http://www.bibleistrue.com/qna/bast3.jpg)
I've always wondered how Egyptians came to tell this version of the story. For the present I assume it is another version of the original Genesis story. Some scholars propose this imagery is older than that of Genesis, but I think theirs is the bigger assumption. The symbols used are similar in each, since Bast the female goddess represents wisdom in Egyptian traditions while in Judaism wisdom is seen as a woman. (Perhaps wisdom found herself growing the head of a cat in order to express some philosophical aspect of wisdom, but I'm just trying to impart the gist of how it seems to me.) There are interpretations of Egyptian lore that say the gods and goddesses were developed to explain facets of the Divine. To me, this sounds similar to the concept of names or titles of the L!RD in Judaism. I think the biggest difference between the Egyptian and Mosaic approaches is the absence of images in Judaism and the fact there are not separate priesthoods for the facets of the Divine. Since the Egyptians had an entire priesthood for each god or goddess, the tendency was to embellish and extend. In both representations, there is a serpent, a tree, and a wisdom as female somehow involved in the destruction of the serpent's head. I admit I'm speculating, but that admission strengthens my argument. I think that the practical power of monotheism is still in progress, gradually destroying the human justification of the abuses of religious power. I see in Christianity and Judaism supreme arguments against any central religious authority, and all of them woven with the imagery of the Garden of Eden.