I am very pleased to see thise series of articles on the bible and reincarnation. I cannot contribute with any historical research--just my own observations.

Shortly after my spritual awakening I began a series of conversations with my spirit guides, facilitated by a channeler. Upon learning that this is my soul's 17,043rd human incarnation, I had an epiphany about the allegorical story of Adam and Eve. I had learned that souls are always given the choice to remain in "Heaven" or incarnate back to the "master class" of Earth and that if reincarnation is chosen the soul contract / lesson plan has the goal of continuing the soul's journey of learning through experience. Thus I realized that the Adam and Eve story is a mangled story of reincarnation. God did not forbid the characters from eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge and banish them from Eden. It was a choice offered to them them.

This is what I wrote at the time in the late spring 2020 as part of my at the time private writings:

"It dawned on me one night how screwed up the story is of the Garden of Eden, or I should say, how the interpretations of the allegory are wrong and have led to so much that has been and continues to be wrong in this world, particularly sexism. It occurred to me that so called “original sin” is quite the opposite. It is curiosity; it is thirst for knowledge not just of things, but of what is the best way to handle life, which some idiots turned into right vs wrong and good vs evil. Then it occurred to me that the tree of knowledge is Earth and the tree of life is Heaven. Then I googled and the Kabballah is the closest to my thought as it has the tree of life as “the tree of souls.” I was listening to Aloha Ke Akua and the line “in the image of God” caught my ear, and I started to wonder what the uncorrupted meaning would be. It could certainly refer to souls, and to a baby; after that life takes over — only a newborn is created in the image of god and newborns do not display any masculine vs feminine. Newborns are divine innocence."

I have to run now. A possibly more cogent and detailed response can be found in this piece I wrote. https://medium.com/promptly-written/reimagining-sacred-texts-and-their-messages-ac5f6306a7f7