[Milton-L] Abdiel

[Peter C. Herman]

See Millicent Bell, "The Fallacy of the Fall in Paradise Lost," PMLA, 
Vol. 68, No. 4 (Sep., 1953), pp. 863-883.

Peter C. Herman


At 03:13 PM 6/24/2008, you wrote:
>From: Michael Gillum:
>>I guess Eve and Adam are "falling" rather than fallen or unfallen at the
>>time of their interior monologues-- as James Watt says, the categories have
>>a blurred zone between them.
>
>Falling but not fallen?  Then is being tempted the same as being 
>sinful? Abdiel is tempted, rejects the arguments presented to him, 
>and returns to God as an unfallen angel.  Adam is sin free until 
>he--willingly and knowingly--disobeys God and commits himself to Eve 
>whatever the consequences.  Whether Eve really knows what she is 
>doing--after all, she is confused by Satan's rhetoric plus she is 
>hunger--I think is debatable.  But to argue that they are--before 
>eating--in a state of falling is to argue that being tempted is 
>wrong and harmful. Such a conclusion means that Eve was wrong in 
>separating from Adam and that Adam was wrong to let her go and that 
>God was wrong to let Satan reach the Earth.
>
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