I now revisit the narratives relating to temptation in Genesis 2 and 3.
Genesis 2:7-9 records: “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”[1] After the creation of man, “out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” According to this verse, every tree was pleasant to the sight and good for food, including the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, “the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”[2] Even though the tree of knowledge of good and evil was originally pleasant to the sight and good for food, God’s command to man prohibited man from eating of it. However, if man was disobedient and wilfully ate of it, then not only man but also the whole of humanity would perish and die, for all humankind may be said to be residing in this one man. This seems to be the implication in the Septuagint, as the word for ‘you’ in ‘you shall not eat’[3], ‘you shall eat’[4] and ‘dying you die’[5], in Genesis 17 quoted above, is in the plural, while the ‘you’ in Genesis 16 is in the singular[6]. The Hebrew Masoretic Text, however, has the ‘you’ in the singular emphasising the personal, though the consequence would include all humankind. Herein is the first introduction and communication in Scripture of the dynamics of action and consequence, cause and effect, sowing and reaping. The harsh take concerning God’s relationship to man and man’s relationship to God seems to be unequivocal: Disobey God’s command and the consequence is death[7]. There are no two ways about it. The serpent came into being after God this gave command to Adam. However, being more “crafty[8] than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made”[9], it must have gotten an inkling or some knowledge pertaining to the command given. How else would it have been able to initiate the temptation of Eve with the opening words of “Did God actually say, ‘you[10] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” The Septuagint and the Masoretic Text record the ‘you’, in Genesis 3:3, as plural,[11] in Eve’s reply, “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”[12] “4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You[13] will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you[14] will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Although the serpent was speaking to the woman, Adam was with her[15]. As such, I suspect that the writer was inferring that the serpent was also surreptitiously addressing Adam, hence, the plural ‘you’. Eve responded on her own, and “saw that tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”. The tree was indeed good for food, except that God had commanded that it was not to be eaten. The tree was a delight to the eyes as God grew it to be pleasant to the eyes. The tree was to make one wise[16]? That could have been Eve’s presumption, or sensing in her spirit. Or, was it her personal understanding and take of the tree, being the tree of knowledge of good and evil? But, how far wrong or right was Eve? [1] ESV [2] Genesis 2:16-17 ESV [3] φαγεσθε ‘eating’ Greek second person plural [4] φαγητε ‘eating’ Greek second person plural [5] αποθανεισθ ‘you die’ Greek second person plural [6] φαγη ‘eat’ Greek second person singular [7] Ezekiel 18:4 “The soul who sins shall die” ESV [8] Subtle, cunning [9] Genesis 3:1 [10] φαγητε ‘you eat’ Greek second person plural [11] Greek second person plural [12] Genesis 3:2-3 ESV [13] Greek second person plural [14] Greek second person plural [15] Genesis 3:6 [16] Hebrew שָׂכַל sakal – to be circumspect, intelligent, to have insight Strong’s H7919
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With Christ in us being the beginning and end of glory, I begin to have a new and fresh perspective of God’s relationship to man in Genesis Chapters 2 and 3.
Genesis 2: 7-9 reads “7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”[1] Genesis 2:15-17 states:“15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[2] of it you shall surely die.”[3] The original Hebrew words translated as surely die is מֹות תָּמֽוּת׃[4] muth[5] thmuth[6] [7] having the literal meaning ‘in dying, you die’[8] or dying you would die. In the Septuagint, the Greek words are “θανατω αποθανεισθε - thanatō[9] apothanḗisthō[10] literally ‘dying, you shall die[11]’or ‘by death you shall die’[12]. In Leviticus 20:9,10,11,12,13,15,16 the words מֹֽות־יוּמַת muth מֹֽות־ iumth יוּמַת[13] meaning “dying, he shall die”[14] is also recorded seven times. Julia Smith Translation Leviticus 20 – relevant verses:
In all instances in Leviticus quoted above, the words “muth מֹֽות־ iumth יוּמַת[15] ‘dying, they shall die” connotes and describes a life, which is in a process of ‘dying’, being prematurely terminated by being put to death by an external intervention. I submit that the words מֹות תָּמֽוּת׃[16] muth thmuth,[17] “in dying, you die”[18] in Genesis 2:17 also carries the same meaning. This is because man, as a created being, was from the onset of creation, subject to creation’s process of decay and death. Only if the fruit of the tree of life was eaten could Adam and Eve live eternally: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”[19]. Until and unless they ate of the fruit of the tree of life they were living in the process of decay and death. They will eventually die. Therefore, when God told Adam “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it” “in dying you die or in dying you would die,” what is meant that Adam’s life (which is in the process of decay and dying), would prematurely be ended ‘in the day’ that he ate of the fruit. Here, the fruit and the eating will initiate the external intervention that would prematurely end life, within the day of its occurrence. The narrative in Genesis 2 and 3 has no record of either Adam and Eve dying or more accurately having their lives prematurely ended ‘within the day’ of their eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Instead the narrative records that they were driven out of the Garden of Eden, lived for hundreds of years and had many descendants. [1][1] ESV [2] footnote ESV ‘when you eat’ [3] ESV [4] Parsing ‘מוּת muwth’ Stem Qal Aspect Infinitive - Infinitive Construct is used as a verbal noun corresponding to the English verbal noun ending in “-ing”. Strong’s H4191 Parsing ‘תָּמֽוּת׃ thmuwth’ Stem Qal Aspect Imperfect -It is used to describe a single (as opposed to a repeated) action in the past; it differs from the perfect in being more vivid and pictorial. The perfect expresses the "fact", the imperfect adds colour and movement by suggesting the "process" preliminary to its completion. Strong’s H4191 [5] See footnote 5 [6] See footnote 4 [7] Scripture4all.org Hebrew Interlinear Bible (OT) Westminster Leningrad Codex with vowels [8] exeGeses Companion Bible [9] See Strong’s G2288 [10] See Strong’s G599 [11] The Septuagint with Apocrypha Greek and English Sir Lancelot C L Brenton [12] Charles Thompson Translation [13] מוּת muwth Stem Hopal Aspect Imperfect Hophal is the "passive" of Hiphil [14] Julia E Smith Parker Translation [15] See footnote 13 [16] See footnote 4 [17] See footnote 4 [18] See footnote 8 [19] Genesis 3:22 ESV Continuing from the last post, I will now revisit the mystery of humankind in Genesis.
In John 10:27-30, Jesus proclaimed that “27 The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand.29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are One [in essence and nature].”[1] My understanding of and paraphrasing of this passage is this: – “I and Father are One. As such, even as Father is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of Father’s hands, no one can snatch them out of my hands, for in the Oneness with Father, I am also greater than all”. It is not as some assert that as Father is greater and mightier than all, Father is also greater and mightier than Him, Son Incarnate. There is no explicit statement in this passage that Father is greater and mightier than Son or that Son is inferior or weaker to Father. Rather, Father and Son are One(εἷς)[2]. Incarnate Son, as the man Christ Jesus, was revealing that though truly and properly God and truly and properly man, His oneness and equality to[3], in and with Father was/is not diminished or lessened in any way. In John 17:1-3, Jesus had referred to Father as the only(μόνον from μόνος)[4] true God. In New Testament Greek, as in Old Testament Hebrew[5], there is distinction in words between ‘one and only or unique - monos[6] in Greek and yachid[7] in Hebrew’ and ‘one including oneness - heîs[8] in Greek and 'echad[9] in Hebrew’. In John 17:10, with reference, again, to Father, God, Jesus asserts: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.”[10] Jesus is very explicit on this. What this means is that: All God is, What and Who God is, Jesus is. Paul had written concerning this as the ‘fellowship of the mystery”, from and in eternity, being hidden[11] in God, who created all things through Christ. In the last few paragraphs of my last post, I had stated that “I am now able to see, understand and integrate all creative acts of God 'elohiym and Lord God (Yahweh 'elohiym) as the joint participatory acts of Father, Son and Spirit, even as Father initiates, Son mediates and Spirit generates all creative acts, in union and communion.” Paul’s phrase ‘fellowship of the mystery’ that God('elohiym) created all things through Christ, the Incarnate Son, is wide enough to include this view, that in God('elohiym), Father initiates, Son mediates and Spirit generates creation into being. For me, the phrase ‘God, who created all things through Christ’, not only means that God created all things through the Mediatorial Person of the Eternal Son, but also for the one[12]( εἷς-heîs) Mediatorial Person of the Incarnate Son. I note that the Greek word εἷς-heîs is used here instead of μόνος mónos. I believe that this is so because in the person of Christ the divine and human natures are so in union that Christ is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.[13] This is because the Greek word εἷς-heîs, having the meaning of one, including oneness in plurality[14], is much more encompassing than μόνος mónos, which is more specific in meaning only one or unique. The mystery[15] of the Kingdom of God is also the mystery of the Incarnate Son[16]. Paul wrote[17] of this as “the wisdom[18] of God in a mystery, even the hid wisdom, which God had determined before the world[19], unto our glory.”[20] [1] Amplified Bible (AMP) [2] Greek εἷς heîs Strong’s G1520 [3] Philippians 2:6 “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Greek: οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ - literally not robbery to be equal with God. The Amplified Bible has it as “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted [as if He did not already possess it, or was afraid of losing it]” [4] Greek μόνον from μόνος mónos Strong’s G3441 [5] See previous post Genesis Revisited (1) [6] Strong’s G3441 [7] Strong’s H3173 [8] Strong’s G1520 [9] Strong’s H259 [10] English Standard Version ESV [11] Ephesians 3:9 ἀποκεκρυμμένου See Strong’s parsing in Ephesians 3:9 Reverse Interlinear G613 [12] 1 Timothy 2:5 Greek εἷς heîs Strong’s G1520 is used here by Paul. [13] See Salvation Army Doctrine 4. – even though Paul was on the human Christ. [14] See Mark 12:29 where the Lord is one εἷς-heîs and Mark 10:8, Ephesians 5:31 one εἷς-heîs flesh See also Matthew 19:5 where μία mía the Irregular feminine form of εἷς was used. [15] Mark 4:11 [16] Ephesians 3:4 1Timothy 3:16 "the mystery of Godliness,: Gog manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit....received up in glory." [17] 1 Corinthians 2:7 See also Romans 6:25 [18] See Proverbs 8:22 [19] Before creation – in Eternity [20] 1599 Geneva Bible. |
WILFRED YEO
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