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Now to compare and contrast the Fall in Gnostic thought and traditional thought. In the Gnostic mythos, the Fall is a result of disobedience like in the traditional mythos but the difference lies in the characters committing the disobedience. Instead of humans disobeying YHVH and having an "apple break", you have Sophia trying to know God without her partner (wisdom without experience and love). The Fall was the creation of the universe in the Gnostic mythos.

One of the criticisms that falsely slams Gnostics as "devil worshipers" or "anti-semetic" is that the mythos teaches that eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a good thing and salvific. If anything the idea of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (I will abbreviate as KoGaE) as a good thing does stem from Judaism. For whatever reason, God wanted man to eat the fruit, else why would he set up the situation for man to eat the fruit? When mankind partook of the fruit of the tree of the KoGaE, God set the gears in motion so mankind could eventually return back to God and mankind would have the ability to oppose the Authorities. The Authorities being those instinctual and psychological forces within ourselves and external to us that keep us from being the children of God that we are. Because of this gift from the Fruit, mankind is capable of receiving Salvation.

So discuss: Any other comparisons and contrasts between Genesis and the Gnostic Mythos? Any insights you wish to share with me about these two mythos?

On the Origin of the World One telling of the Gnostic Creation mythos.
The Secret Book of John Another telling of the Gnostic Creation mythos.

Both of these are similar in content and the overall story but differ in tone and finer details.

I think the Creation myths both Genesis and the Gnostic Creation myth are very important tools since they help us figure out "who we are" and "where we are going".

And here's my ramble...

The classic Jewish interpretation of the fruit of the KoGaE is that when mankind partook of the fruit, he became morally responsible for his actions since now mankind gained an innate sense of right and wrong. Since mankind knew what was right and wrong, they had no reason to stay in the garden anymore. It's unknown as to why Adam and Eve would want to leave YHVH and, a 1000 Rabbis will give different 1001 answers to this one.

The Gnostic take on this is that when the "glitch" of creation started seeds of God basically got "stuck" here. When Yaldaboath first saw one of the Aeons that was above him, he quickly and ignorantly tried to make an effigy of it so he could trap that First Man, Adamas. The Aeons saw right through his plan but allowed Adamas to willingly enter into the forgetfulness in order to show Yaldaboath up.

To summarize, Yaldaboath makes a "toy" of one of his superiors so he can torture, control, and make it serve and worship him. His superiors are already 5 steps ahead of him decide to bring his toy to life. This now living "toy" doesn't know that he is anything more than a toy. The superiors left a few other "toys" they called Zoe and her child "the instructor". This Zoe doll was not just a toy though but she was a miniature version of Sophia. Yaldaboth and his crew are troubled by this toy they didn't create and decide to defile it in a way to make it theirs. Zoe separates herself from the toy leaving a Eve, while Zoe goes and hides in the Tree of the KoGaE.

Thinking that they made Zoe theirs they gave "Eve" to "Adam", telling him that she is his servant. Now "the instructor" who Yaldaboath and his crew called "the Beast" and "the serpent", recognized Eve as Zoe and when she didn't recognize him, he instructed her to eat of the Fruit and share it with Adam. Upon doing so, they saw that paradise they were given was never a paradise at all. They became aware that they were estranged in a foreign land but because of the fruit, they knew that they had a home somewhere and they would eventually find a way back home.