“God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light, And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1). In the Hebrew Bible, a common pattern that we see is when God created the world with binary opposites, where there are sets of opposing forces, starting with the sun and moon, light and dark, and male and female (Adam and Eve). We are also able to see these opposing forces through God’s test of faith.
We are able to see these opposites forces exhibited in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting. There are competing light and dark elements featured in the painting, as well as the contrast between good and evil. This painting looks like a before and after image of what happens when Adam and Eve are beguiled by the serpent and eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. They are exposed, calm, and happy on the left side, and more ashamed and sad on the right side.
Adam and Eve, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo
In the story of Genesis, God created Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden, where there was the tree of knowledge, good and evil. “The Lord God commanded the human, saying, “From every fruit of the garden you may surely eat. But from the tree of knowledge, good and evil, you shall not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you are doomed to die” (Genesis 2). This is significant because the forbidden fruit on the tree of knowledge was a test of faith to God. The fruit was not kept away, but rather, it was right in front of them ready to take. It was the humans’ choice on whether or not they should choose obedience over disobedience. Their first disobedience to God brought good and evil into the world, another example of opposite forces. Even when God seems to have done everything right, and how everything was “good”, there seems to be this natural evil in the world, no matter how “good” God makes it.