Avatar and Pandora's Box

In the movie Avatar, Pandora is the name of the planet on which the main characters play out their drama. The choice of the name of Pandora is interesting because it’s Greek connections and the Greek connections to the Bible as well.

Wikipedia states the following brief summary of Pandora and the box which she opened.
“After Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create the first woman, Pandora, as part of the punishment of mankind. Pandora was given many seductive gifts from Aphrodite, Hermes, Hera, Charites, and Horae (according to Works and Days). For fear of additional reprisals, Prometheus warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus did not listen, and married Pandora. Pandora had been given a large jar and instruction by Zeus to keep it closed, but she had also been given the gift of curiosity, and ultimately opened it. When she did so, all of the evils, ills, diseases, and burdensome labor that mankind had not known previously, escaped from the jar, but it is said, that at the very bottom of her jar, there lay hope.”

This concept of the evils which a woman allowed to loose is one of the major stories in the Bible. God tells Adam and Eve that they have free access to all of the trees in the Garden, including the Tree of Life, but of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they are not allowed to eat of it lest it cause them to die. Genesis 2. In Genesis 3 we have the story of the temptation of Eve, the mother of us all. After she eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, at the enticement of a speaking flying serpent, she then in turn tempts Adam, the Father of us all, to eat of the fruit as well.

In the story in Genesis 3 Adam does not choose to speak to his Father – God – about this choice. He chooses to eat of the fruit out of love for Eve, rather than love for God. After eating of the fruit, the spiritual luminescence leaves Adam and Eve and they recognize that they are naked, a statement of loss of relationship with God and their loss of innocence. They also attempt to fashion clothes for themselves to cover their nakedness.

When God comes to speak with them that evening Adam and Eve choose to flee from Him and hide in the garden. When God asks them why they are hidden from Him and He asks them if they have “sinned” against Him. In stead of answering Him they choose to blame other things – Adam chooses to blame Eve, and Eve blames the serpent. God then tells them that as a result of their choices they have initiated a series of events that will cause them to die – as a result of no longer having access to the Tree of Life. In addition they will have to work for their daily bread, and they will have to struggle with life. God says that Eve, and her daughter’s, will experience pain in childbirth and will be abused by the men in their lives.

Then God tells them that there will be a great warfare between the descendents of the woman and the descendents of those who follow the teachings of the serpent. Then God informs Adam and Eve that He Himself will come to the world and be born of the woman – the Descendent of the church. He would be the Great Avatar – the God man, born of a virgin. As a result of His birth He would defend the church and eventually destroy the great serpent/dragon Satan.

After completing His presentation God offers to exchange clothing that He makes for the clothing that Adam and Eve had made. To get the skins for the clothing, Adam is required to offer an animal sacrifice to show that to deliver them a precious and innocent life must be sacrificed for them. Now Adam and Eve have the personal experience of bringing the first death to any animal on Earth. This death is a type, or symbol, of the death of Jesus when He would come to earth. From the skins of this sacrifice God creates clothing suitable for Adam and Eve and is again a symbol for the righteousness of Christ that God offers to sinful Adam and Eve to cover them and their sinful experience.

So Avatar, by bringing in the story of Pandora, reinforces the story of Divine intervention by connecting it to the real story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Each of us, as reminded by the symbols of Avatar, gets to choose again whether we will accept the righteousness of Christ or to offer Him our own wisdom and actions in place of His.