Ten over Eleven // Samantha Tedder

 Compared to the books we have read so far, these two have been the easiest to follow but saddest to read. Ten is the book I want to focus on, though. The added conversation between Adam and Eve after God confronts them over their sin doesn't go how I thought it was going to. Adam laments greatly over his sins and the consequences of them for many lines. Though it is when Eve speaks up that strikes me the most. From lines 914-935, she states the deepness of her sorrows over her actions. Eve ends her statement with the idea to return to her spot of transgression to end her life. She finds herself thinking she is more guilty than Adam because she has sinned against him and God; her choices affected more than just her relationship with their heavenly father. Adam goes into a touching response where he leads their thoughts away from death to living in repentance under God's mercy which has already been displayed to them. He ends his response by proposing they go back to where they sinned against God and fall to their faces in repentant prayer, crying out for mercy for what they did, and that's precisely what they go do. God sees this at the end of book Ten, and at the beginning of book Eleven, the Son hears their prayer and intercedes for humanity in the throne room of heaven. God accepts their prayers but, he has them removed from Paradise.

Book Eleven I did not like as much as most of it is embellishments and/or extensive additions to the text. Though I find I'm not as bothered by book Eleven's additions as much as previous books. I find my main problem was putting words in God the Father and Son's mouth, alongside having the Son is a created being and not a distinct person of the being of God as we find to be true in scripture (John 10:30). Here we have the future up until Noah revealed to Adam by Micheal, which I do not have much contention with. I think Milton uses this addition to drive home how repentant Adam and subsequently Eve genuinely are in his version of the fall. Regardless I have a little bone to pick with any additions to scripture as it requires none. 

P.S. I commented on Haylee Lynd and Elijah Mahn's posts

Comments

  1. Emory CooperSeptember 28, 2021 at 1:18 AM

    I think I understand where your coming from, Samantha, when you say you have problems putting words in God's mouth. Along the same lines as Milton's work, there are paintings and films about Jesus that portray Him in a way that is not strictly biblical. However, I personally think these imaginations are harmless, and even do a good job of displaying truth, goodness, and beauty, as long as they are not taken to be divinely inspired or on the same level of authority as the Bible. It was definitely no Divine Muse that breathed out this epic!

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  2. Lily CaswellSeptember 28, 2021 at 8:04 AM

    I definitely agree Samantha with your preference of books. But like we’ve talked about in class, sometimes it isn’t what people say, it’s what they don’t say (or what there is or isn’t record of). I also have a small bone to pick with Milton.

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