How Does the Old Testament Mesh with the New? 4
Previously, we looked at a more detailed description of the creation of Adam and Eve, our soul, and why we were created the way were (see Part 3).
Now, we are going to explore the roots of original sin and how that impacts us all:
- The downfall of humanity
Adam was created in Divine love. He was fashioned as a man, who instantly knew that love and willingly obeyed the Source of it. We know that because he didn’t get into trouble until he first disobeyed God.
Adam was meant to be a ‘son’ of God’ – living in complete harmony with his Creator. In fact, his sole source of love, intelligence, and wisdom was God Himself. Adam saw the world through His Father’s eyes.
Furthermore, as we saw in chapter 2, Adam and Eve were placed in an idyllic garden that fed them. In addition, the Tree of Life provided for their immortality. Likewise, we saw that Jehovah had only given Adam one rule to follow, that is, not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – the transgression of which would lead to death.
Why this rule? The obvious reason is because God cannot lie; eating of the fruit would result in death. However, I believe that the primary purpose was to give Adam and Eve an opportunity to make a free-will choice to obey Him.
This is important to understand, because God and His Son both measure our efforts to love them by our labors to obey them.[1] So, choosing to obey is choosing to love. And true love only exists in a continuing freedom to choose to do so. God is only about true love.
Chapter 3 begins with a visitation to Eve from a talking snake:
Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, “Can it really be that God has said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” Gn. 3:1 AMP
I defer to the Amplified translation because it identifies the serpent as empowered by Satan at the outset.
Some of our Hebrew scholars see the Garden of Eden as a divine parable rather than a literal divine account – some going so far as to say there is no satanic infiltration or any inference to the struggle between good and evil. That’s their interpretation. I do not disrespect nor judge Judaism. We are spiritual brothers and sisters, in concordance on many levels.
Yet, this is another important Christian divergence. Jesus, Himself, tied the serpent to Satan directly.[2] And He refers to Satan straightforwardly as the first murderer who deceived and manipulated Adam and Eve into sin, which led to their deaths.[3]
Notice in the aforementioned Scripture that Satan approached Eve, (even though Adam was in earshot, because the devil was using ‘you’ pronouns that are plural in this encounter). It is conjectured in both Hebrew and Christian, that was because only Adam directly received God’s admonition about the tree, and that perhaps his conveyance to Eve was weaker.
Again, back to the previously cited Scripture: what was the devil up to? He was purposely misquoting what God had said, saying instead that He commanded them to not eat from any of the trees in the Garden – to both confuse and sow seeds of doubt in her understanding of the accuracy of Jehovah’s command.
Eve responds to correct Satan’s twisted declaration:
“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do you will die.” Gn. 3:2, 3. NLT
Interestingly, Eve herself innocently misquoted God by adding ‘or even touch it.’ Some scholars get their panties in a twist, declaring that she added to Jehovah’s word. We don’t know how Adam repeated His command to Eve, or if she understood it correctly.
Moreover, at this point, Eve had yet to commit any sin. She was innocent and blameless, as was undoubtedly her motives. The devil retorts:
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” Gn. 3:4, 5. NLT
Satan is calling Jehovah a liar! Instead of recognizing God’s attempt to get them to obey His word for their good and well-being, and to depend upon Him to discern between good and evil in every situation, the devil makes Jehovah out to be a jealous God, not wanting them to be on His level.
Moreover, the devil began this pack of lies by denying that they would die, when in fact they do, making him the first murderer in recorded history.
This is what I call Satan’s ‘Big Lie,’ because at the core of his falsehood, he promises Eve that she would be like God, suggesting that she was missing something. The devil was appealing to the desire of her flesh, a desire that was already stirred up as she began to consider the veracity of his claims:
The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. Gn. 3:6 NLT
Adam is the greater at fault in the commission of the ‘original sin.’ He received the prohibition against these actions directly from God. He kept silent while she was being tempted, and he ate without hesitation. You can also see this because he receives a greater degree of God’s discipline than does Eve.
As God promised, the change was instantaneous:
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Gn. 3:7 NLT
(Note that the Hebrew word for ‘nakedness’ here, (with shameful and sinful associations), is not the same word used when they were first united and unashamed.)
A very unexpected thing happened next – a clear example of God’s compassion, love, and forgiveness, not of his wrath:
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So, they hid among the trees. Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
“Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” Gn. 3:8-13. NLT
There is so much to glean from this exchange:
First, another Christian divergence. Only in the New Testament do we learn that God is invisible, and that Christ is the visible expression of His Father – once from Jesus Himself[4] and secondly from the Holy Spirit-inspired apostle Paul.[5] Thus it had to be the pre-incarnate Son of God walking in the garden.
How does that work? Let’s follow Thomas Aquinas’ reasoning from his book Summa Theologica – especially with regards to the trinitarian concept (which, I did not believe or understand until I became familiar with what the Holy Spirit imparted to Aquinas):
God in His totality is what comprises His essence. He brings His essence to bear through His will.
God is Father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit. And these are not three Gods but one God.
Following this reasoning, God’s Word is an outpouring of His essence, so it is related to God, and proceeds forth as His Son:
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought life to everyone. Jn. 1:1 – 4. NLT
Christ existed before creation, before time. Thus, there was nothing to create Him with. The only conclusion is that He was generated (begotten) by the essence of God.
As we have seen, (teased out in our examination of Gn. 1:1), God is immovable and eternal. And He is infinite. If He is infinite, He cannot be divided, or He would be reduced to a finite state. Therefore, the Son of God must be incorporated within the Father.
Continuing to follow Aquinas’ reasoning, given that God knows all things and was maintaining the universe through His essence, He is identical to His actions. Therefore, if God speaks, it is indistinguishable from who He is. So, Jesus, Jehovah’s Word, cannot be anything other than God Himself.
“If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Jn. 14:7 CSB
And because everything that God does is perfect, Christ Himself must be perfect.
If God is love,[6] then He must love Himself and He expresses this love, this essence of Himself, as the Holy Spirit, living in God, as does His Son – both in equal rank because they are part of God’s essence.
Again, God is a perfect unified essence, consisting of His thoughts, His substance, and the exercise of His will (actions). God’s Word (Christ) is representative of His thoughts, distinguished as different only with regards to the process of God’s generated Words becoming Jesus’ expression of them.
Similarly, God’s love is who He is, yet it is expressed outwardly through the Holy Spirit. This directed process is the only distinction between God and the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit is also identical to God.
So, God expresses Himself through His Son and loves through the Holy Spirit. Given that God is a unified essence, He cannot have differing views from His Son or from the Holy Spirit. The three exist in perfect harmony.
God is the Father, Jesus is the Son, who emanates from the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from them both.
In addition, the Bible tells us that flesh and blood, in our present state, cannot enter heaven.[7] We must be transformed, which is what happens when we accept Jesus. So, Christ, a part of God’s essence, and must have been a Spirit being as well.
I hope this discussion helps you see why Christ, the visible manifestation of God, (and He could take on that visibility, even as a Spirit-being), had to be who was walking in the Garden.
So, let’s return to Jehovah’s exchange with Adam and Eve:
God is not asking all those questions for the sake of information. He is omniscient. Jehovah wanted them to see what kind of predicament they had put themselves in and to hopefully elicit confession and repentance from them.
But no. We see, instead, that Adam blamed Eve, and even put some blame on God for bringing her to him, and Eve blamed the serpent.
Now, God turns to the serpent, finished with His somewhat gentle admonition of Adam and Eve, but gives the snake (Satan) no quarter:
Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. Gn. 3:14 NLT
The snake already crawled on its belly, so how was this a curse? He elaborates:
“And I will put enmity (open hostility) between you and the woman, and between your seed (offspring) and her Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, and you shall [only] bruise His heel.” Gn. 3:15 AMP
This marks a big Christian divergency from the Hebrew view of a Garden parable, or referring to a Messiah that has yet to come. Christians see this Scripture as the Protoevangelium (‘first gospel’), pointing to Christ (Eve’s descendant) as the Messiah, whose heel will be ‘bruised’ on the cross, but only a bruise – that He will overcome by His resurrection.
Satan on the other hand, will suffer a fatal blow from Jesus’ bruising of his head.[8]
God turns His attention to Eve:
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” Gn. 3:16 NLT
This is not a curse like the devil received. It is more of a Divine reprimand. Eve would already have pain in pregnancy by the virtue of the anatomical changes that occur, but He was going to intensify her symptoms to put her transgression in her remembrance.
Regarding her relationship with Adam, this is not a curse, but an explanation of what will manifest outside of the Garden, i.e., she will want to dominate him, but being unsuccessful, she will resent his rule, (his intended leadership role given by God).
Jehovah turns to Adam:
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made of dust, and to dust you will return.” Gn. 3:17 – 19. NLT
God cursed the ground (and all of nature with it) instead of Adam. Yet his life would be made more difficult for it. Also, he will die, returning to the dust from which he came, having been cut off from the Tree of Life due to his imminent expulsion from the Garden.
Speaking of expulsion, it now begins:
Then the man – Adam – named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. Gn. 3:20, 21. NLT
In this Scripture, we also find Divine forgiveness / atonement for their sin, which at that time required a blood sacrifice, which would have been facilitated by God’s slaughter of the animals for their skins.
Moreover, we see the continuing love and compassion of the Godhead for the first couple:
And the LORD God said “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), knowing [how to distinguish between] good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take from the tree of life as well, and eat [its fruit], and live [in this fallen, sinful condition] forever” – therefore the LORD God sent Adam (and Eve) from the Garden of Eden, to till and cultivate the ground from which he was taken. Gn. 3:22, 23. AMP
After sending them out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Gn. 3:24 NLT
The love and compassion were born out of God’s concern that Adam and Eve might eat from the Tree of life and becoming eternally damned in their newfound moral depravity. Thus, by removing them from the Garden and making sure they could not return in an inappropriate time (i.e., before the end of time)[9], God saved them from themselves.
Yet there are unavoidable consequences outside of the Garden.
Judaism uses Chapter 3 of Genesis to explain human suffering, suggesting that people are born innocent but tend to commit evil as Adam and Eve.
Christianity diverges once again, with the concept of ‘Original Sin.’ In this view, we see Adam’s and Eve’s actions as a source of devastating consequences for both them and for all humankind, throughout the ages.
It led to self-rejection, because they accepted Satan’s Big Lie that there was something missing from how God created them – inferring that they were inadequate. They exercised their new-found sin, the expression of pride, for something they didn’t have (the knowledge of evil; they already had the knowledge of good).
And so, they became something less, because they were made perfectly as God made them. Now, they would eventually die in the flesh – meanwhile, cutting themselves from a direct relationship with God, because sin cannot coexist with righteousness.
This sinful taint is passed on through all successive generations, robbing all people of the original paradise, the gift of immortality, our direct love connection with God, and of the peace and freedom that accompanies living a sinless life.
It was the beginning of all human suffering, at the hands of themselves. Humans shifted their relationship with God from one of love, to one based upon fear and shame – stemming from their disobedience. What results is that we all suffer from an indelible imprint upon our souls that tells us that God will not accept us.
The Big Lie is the devil’s masterpiece, because in the end, most are infected with that lie – a twisted belief that they are unacceptable or unlovable.
This drives an unrelenting cycle of fear and shame that perpetuates our transgressions against God, to numb ourselves against our pain of separation from Him.
We are afraid that God doesn’t love us, so we act contrary to His word, hoping it will bring temporary relief to our flesh, to ease our spiritual pain. Shame kicks in, and we try to bury it in addictions or obsessions, until we feel that we’ve done enough penance, whereupon we hopelessly rinse and repeat.
As we will eventually explore, a relationship with Jesus is the only way out – a guaranteed pathway of salvation that allows us to return to Him forever, in eternal paradise…
[1] Jn. 14:15
[2] Rv. 12:9 & 20.2.
[3] Jn. 8:44
[4] Jn. 1:18
[5] Col. 1:15
[6] 1 Jn. 4:8
[7] 1 Cor. 15:50
[8] Ps. 110:6; Rm. 16:20; 1 Jn. 3:8; Rv. 20:10
[9] Rv. 22:1,2.
Building Better Americans 120
How Does the Old Testament Mesh with the New? 3
Last time, we watched God create the universe and its inhabitants (see Part 2).
Now, we will look at a second description of His creation of Adam and Eve:
- Is there an alternative Creation?
So many people try to ‘nitpick’ the Bible, either trying to negate it, or by trying to twist Scripture into a meaning of their own making. Such shenanigans are flagrant concerning the following Scripture:
This is the history of [the origin of] the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day [that is of the days of creation] that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens – Gn. 2:4 AMP
First, let us examine the truth of the new information that we can glean here. One: notice it says the ‘day’ that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Here is another use of the Hebrew ‘yom’ for the ‘day,’ where the word’s use does not reflect a 24 -hour period but instead represents the 6 days of God’s creation.
Second, we see for the first time, a conjunction of the words ‘LORD God,’ consisting of the Hebrew Elohim (the all-powerful cosmological Creator of the Universe and its inhabitants), coupled with the Hebrew YHVH, translated as best as we humanly can, as Yahweh or Jehovah, (the personal, all-loving God, who looks after the welfare of His most beloved creation – humankind).
This is also where people have concocted weird variations to push a narrative of an ‘alternative creation.’ We will spend a little time debunking these wild ideas.
First, chapter 2 of Genesis is not an alternative creation that is in opposition to chapter 1 in any way. Chapter 1 is the about the great cosmological creation of the universe, the formation of the elements within it, and the sequential preparation of Earth, creating the ideal environment for the formed inhabitants therein.
Chapter 2 is instead a sharply focused treatise about all things essential to the creation of what it means to be human – and the idyllic conditions in which they first existed. Let’s continue:
…neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the LORD God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up out of the ground and watered all the land. Gn. 2:5, 6. NLT
Thus, God granted water that was necessary to nurture nature, before the coming of rain. Nowhere does this suggest that humanity was created prior to the creation of the plants. The part about ‘no people to cultivate the soil,’ presents the picture that humankind had not yet been created, nor had Adam and Eve fallen, because having to cultivate the soil was a penalty that God levied upon Adam for his transgression against Him.[1]
Next, we see Jehovah complimenting His creation of humankind (already pronounced in Gn. 1:26, 27.), described with far more depth:
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gn. 2:7 KJV
What about this ‘soul’ thing? It is so remarkably wondrous and divinely made, that I will call again upon the spiritual acuity of Thomas Aquinas, from his book, Summae Theologica, to help me out.
He begins describing the created characteristics of the human soul, (this God-given image of Himself) – stating that intellectual beings (humankind) are closer to being like God than any of His other creations.
This is further demonstrated by the fact that we have ‘free will,’ as opposed to the ‘innate impulses’ that drive all other animal species. Aquinas further postulates that humans alone possess understandings about universal themes and relationships, which they first begin to understand through their five senses.
The intellect then engages in logistics and conclusions, in a process that occurs outside of the body. Therefore, it exists on a higher plane than our flesh. This Intellect, (soul), is unique to everyone, as each exists in their own exclusive environment – i.e., in a distinct body.
Aquinas explains that the soul is not endowed with the body, yet it may maintain a union with it, as long as the body lives. Moreover, the human soul reaches for loftier planes, independent of its associated flesh, above and beyond whatever expressions it may initiate through the body.
Those capabilities of the soul which are expressed in the flesh, are subject to corruption because of the degradation of the body as it ages; but the intellectual portion remains intact.
Since the soul is incorporeal, it cannot be passed generationally through biological conception. It must be created; and only God creates. It is the highest part of us, made in the image of God:
So it is written [in Scripture], “The first man, Adam, became a living soul (an individual) …” 1 Cor. 15:45 AMP
And yes, God Himself has a soul:
I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject nor separate itself from you. Lv. 26:11 AMP
We are called by Jehovah to look to seek Him with our souls:
…you will search for the LORD your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul. Dt. 4:29 CSB
In the same way, we should love Him.[2]
Finally, according to Christ Himself, it is imperative that we preserve this portion of our God-connection: (the other portion being our spirit, which we shall discuss later).
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? Mt. 16:26 NLT
Okay. What does this discussion of the soul stimulate in a bigger question? How about ‘Why were we created this way?’ Yes? One last time, let us examine Aquinas’ deductions.
‘…everything that is made by God necessarily exists for an end.’
What he is saying is that everything will ultimately be perfected at times’ end – regardless of which ‘end’ you have steered yourself into, (i.e., brought to a consummate state for heaven or hell):
For now [in this time of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [when the time of perfection comes we will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God]. 1 Cor. 13:12. AMP
This revelation is further strengthened by the Scriptures that promise a new immortal body[3] and new heavens and a new earth.[4]
And for our last dip into Aquinas to put a period on his final conclusions, he says: ‘This then, is the reason all things were made: that they might be assimilated to the divine goodness. To be assimilated by God, we must be perfected by Him through the power of His glory – His divine light…
Much food for thought.
Let us return to our examination of the second chapter of Genesis:
Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and he placed the man he had made. The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground – trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gn. 2:8, 9. NLT
A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. The first branch, called Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah…The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates. Gn. 2:10 – 14. NLT
According to the Moody Bible Commentary, ‘Eden’ means delight. It is where the garden was planted. It is the first time that ‘directions’ (e.g., east vs. west) is introduced in the Bible. Notice too that there are two trees separated from the fruit trees: the tree of life, (the source of Adam’s and Eve’s immortality), and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (God’s complete compendium of morality – meant for Him only).
In addition, it says that the ancient whereabouts of the Pishon and Gihon rivers are unknown. Yet what we do know, is that the land of Cush was in Africa, south of Egypt. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers are very well known, located in Mesopotamia – placing the garden of Eden between Mesopotamia and Egypt, and suggested by some scholars to be the future site of Israel. See also the book of Revelation, which presents an analogous description of ‘New Jerusalem – which also contains the Tree of Life.’[5]
It is this garden where we learn of Adam’s placement there, and the purpose of it, and bear witness to an exceptionally important admonition:
The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Gn. 2:15 – 17. NLT
We see that if Adam eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will be stripped of his immortality. The Hebrew states that ‘on the day you eat from it, you will die.’ Again, using the Hebrew yom, not as a 24-hour period, but as a period within which his mortality would end.
Jehovah then continues along in this greater creation supplement to the first chapter of Genesis, as He addresses Adam’s present state:
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But there was no helper just right for him. Gn. 2:18 – 20. NLT
There is a lot that we can learn here. God is not creating animals anew; this is putting the 5th and 6th days of creation in the backdrop. Some scoffers claim that Adam could not name all the animals in one day. This passage does not concern naming all the animals. It is purely to instill upon Adam his need for a mate of like kind.man and
It is God pointing out that loneliness is detrimental to humans. This is the first time in the Bible that He has said that something was ‘not good.’ In the Hebrew, it says that God will make him ‘a helper who is ‘his equal.’ Consider too that despite Jehovah’s relationship with Adam, it is obvious that we still require people around us in relationship as well.
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ Gn. 2:21 – 23. NLT
So, Eve is made equally from the same stuff as Adam.[6] And Jehovah brought her to him, similarly as a Father brings his daughter to the bride groom – as is borne out in the close of chapter 2:
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Gn. 2:24, 25. NLT
We see that a man must divest himself from the dependency upon his parents to prepare himself for the responsibilities of marriage – the highest form of a godly man / woman relationship, more so, in a monogamous one.
They are ‘joined together’ in a life-long commitment to each other’s well-being. They ‘are united into one,’ both in sexual union and in a mutually beneficial unification in purpose.
Lastly, both Adam and Eve were married in innocence, unaware of their nakedness, and thus, not ashamed by it.
All this chapter is devoted to what God had in mind for His children…
[1] Gn. 3:23
[2] Dt. 6:5
[3] 1 Cor. 15:35 – 55.
[4] Rv. 21:1-6 & 10 – 22; Rv. 22: 1- 5.
[5] Rv. 21:1, 2.
[6] Gn. 2:7 & 3:19.