The bible is an influence of other literature because of the prominent stories told that relate to life. Since the bible is an account of God’s will the words chosen are true reflections of what the people felt at the time of his messages. In the bible it’s determined that “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. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night” (Genesis 1:3-1:5). People truly believed what was worded here even though there may be much more spiritual/symbolic prevalence rather than literary. God was revealed to be the one creating Earth because he was the divinity that determined reality. Whatever he created was what humans perceived. In Paradise Lost it takes from the bible and relates to the concept of god creating. In this story it’s revealed that “in Paradise to Adam or his race,/Charged not to touch the interdicted tree,/If they transgress, and slight that sole command, So easily obeyed amid the choice/Of all tastes else to please their appetite,/Though wandering. He with his consorted Eve/The story heard attentive, and was filled/With admiration” (Paradise Lost page 200). According to the people that deciphered the language of “God” Adam is an extension of the Lord. God is creating free will by giving Adam the choice for a safe, happy future or an unpredictable, evil, and dangerous future. But that’s by literal definition. When it’s taken into account what it meant that “God” gave “Adam” (or the first man/mankind) the choice to eat fruit from the tree it gets much more interesting. It could be theorized that the fruit is representative of mankind developing consciousness. When humans first became conscious it was so rapid and sudden that there was no true explanation for it. The only way to comprehend the absolute ludicrousy of consciousness was by creating representative stories. The tree is a symbol of all the paths that life can go in. Each branch is a part of the organism searching for the healthiest fullest and best life. When the younger branches go out and closer to the light (power or truth) it starts to provide and strengthen the older branches beneath it. Similar to how humans learned to take care of their elders to encourage the success of human life. Wisdom and prior human knowledge is the key to our civilization and life as we know it. The bible and Paradise Lost articulate this but in a much more interpretive manner.
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