ABSTRACT
In accord with the J text of Genesis, Milton incorporates into Paradise Lost the mythic and nonrational elements implicit in the prohibition against eating the fruit. In so doing, he formulates a view of the prohibition that at once dismisses the prevailing rationalist interpretation based upon a covenant theology and embraces a nonrationalist outlook that has ties with something associated with a covenant theology. This nonrationalist perspective allows Milton to exploit the mythic propensities latent in the prohibition. It allows him to conceive of the prohibition as a taboo, an approach decidedly in keeping with his anthropological approach implicit in Christian Doctrine. Through this oudook, all that surrounds the prohibition in Paradise Lost has affinities with cultic phenomena well known to the Renaissance. Accordingly, Paradise Lost embodies a "Theologia Adamica" that gives rise to the "cultum institutum" of all races. In that way, it reflects a view of sacred and profane that has ties with the Levitical code but that retains its essentially archaic and mythic basis.
