The Flight Into Time

 Having summoned time out of the fabric of the divine spirit, it appeared to this angel but a mere formality to put the idea into action, through the creation of a temporal world. Yet the divine council hesitated, warning of the many unforeseen and unintended consequences of a changeable cosmos.  “With generation there will be decay, with success there will be failure, with music there may well be cacophony,” they warned.  “The creature we call “Adam,” who is now but a beautiful image, will, with time, have the freedom to act upon, alter, and even destroy your magnificent creation!” “In a world of time there will be moments of great pleasure, but untold hours and years of suffering and pain.”

"The Flight Into Time" Oil on Linen, 42" x 48"

"4 But Adam and Eve fled from the garden  with the flowers of time,

5 Into a land of ancient olive trees, cliffs and stones..."

“What’s more,” they said, “‘Death’, who is now only an abstraction, will be unleashed upon the world with such force that even the Holy One, will be powerless to stop it.” “Better,” they declared, “a timeless world, devoid of experience, action, pleasure, love, music, freedom, creativity, hopes and dreams, than one dominated by death.” Other members of the council countered, pointing out that there was no inherent contradiction in a temporal universe in which pain and death were kept in check and humans made immortal.  

And so the divine council was deadlocked, frozen in its inability to decide whether to breathe temporal life into a timeless world.  It was then that the Holy One suggested that they consult Adam and Eve: “For it will be they and not us who will bear the misfortunes of time put to ill use.” While members of the council hesitated to grant the man and the woman even the smallest measure of time necessary for this consultation, it was finally agreed that their input, though by no means decisive, might be of help in the deliberations.



The council determined that the consultation would take place on earth, in the very garden that Adam and his wife, Eve, would inhabit should they be given the time in which to do so. And so Adam and Eve were brought before the divine council, and for this purpose were given flowers, granting them the smallest measure of time in order to add their opinions to the great debate. Yet, at the moment when this time was granted, the humans' minds flashed and filled with the endless possibilities of actual existence, and upon hearing the prefatory remarks of the council chair, the "wherefores," “whethers” and the “ifs”, Adam and Eve felt both frightened and free.

Not wanting to surrender the greatest gift that could be bestowed upon a finite creature, Adam and Eve fled from the garden, into a land of olive trees, cliffs and stones,  taking with them the small measure of time granted for the consultation, and forsaking the possibility of immortality in a temporal world.