The Discovery of Genesis (45 page)

The ancient ideographs verify the assertion: a
piece
may be represented as
or
. Again the left arm is reaching out for something.
furthermore has been stylized in one form as
. The
trees
here enclose a
person
, but note the
hand
on the person which is the center of interest. Eve’s act of disobedience is thus clearly depicted, and the reason for her
sorrow and pain
becomes apparent.

The second word for
sorrow, suffering, bitter
is
, which literally translates
ancient
,
grass, herbs, weeds
. This character, perhaps, was intended to memorialize Adam’s sorrow, for God declared to him, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you. ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil [
sorrow
, KJV] you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles
it shall bring forth to you; and you
shall eat the plants of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return’” (Genesis 3:17–19).

From this
ancient
time forward, man has had to work hard to secure provisions from the earth in the form of
plants
of the field
to sustain life. The figure
also might be pictographically interpreted as illustrating eating, using the
ten
fingers to put food into the
mouth
.