One of the great themes of Christian Scripture is curing the incurable. Over the sweep of the Bible, the idea of incurability is introduced, established, chipped away at by degrees, and then demolished.
The concept that a condition of human life can be both baneful and irreversible is first introduced in the second and third chapters of Genesis, where Adam and Eve reach for the forbidden knowledge of good and evil. In punishment, God, as portrayed in this narrative, banishes them to an earthy life of perpetual toil and pain. There is no rehabilitation offered.
The punishment of Adam and Eve can be summed up in one word: mortality. The Bible's succeeding generations will share this irreversible fate. The cure, held in the tree of life, is forever guarded by a twirling sword, completely inaccessible.
