Adam and Eve, Faith and Science by Laura S.

In "Across the sea" we found out that Jacob created the smoke monster through his "mistake" of killing his brother in order to avenge the death of their "mother". This episode is appropriately tied to to the season one episode "Adam and Eve", and here is why (at least in my opinion). The two skeletons discovered in the season one episode "Adam and Eve" are the woman known as "Mother", and the body of Jacob's brother. Now, in the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, there are the two humans, Adam and Eve, and a serpent, seen as the catalyst for the action in the story because of its role of convincing Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. The traditional interpretation of this story is that the serpent's persuasion brought about the first sin and death into the world, for which all 3 characters suffered consequences (Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden, and the serpent being condemned to slither around on the earth - many scholars believe that in this story, this creature was originally supposed to have legs, and then as punishment these legs were taken away - an interesting connection to Locke, perhaps.)

So, if "Mother" and "Brother" constitute Adam and Eve, what if Jacob's character can be paralleled to that of the serpent, bringing death and murder where death was not truly known before (the boys didn't seem to understand what death really meant, and the rules were set that they could not harm each other), and through his moment of anger and revenge, he created the smoke monster, throwing their world, the island, from a state of light into a perpetual battling state of light vs. dark, as is described in Genesis. Just a thought.

Also, as an afterthought, i find it interesting that throughout the seasons of the show this tension between the characters of Jack and Locke has grown because of one's commitment to science and the other's commitment to faith. In the later seasons, this tension divided not only John and Jack but the entire group, and I'll find it very interesting if Jack remains the new Jacob (per last night's episode "What They Died For"), forever battling/protecting/in conflict with Locke in a sense, even though its flocke.