The “Fall” and Representative Consequences

The circumstances and the prohibition

• The creation was “very good”• The garden was hospitable – the tree of life• Adam and Eve enjoyed intimacy and harmony• The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was

prohibited with the threat of death – “in the yom you eat of it, you will surely die” –

implications regarding yom– This presumes they knew something about death

The Actors in the Drama

• Identity of the serpent

• Presence of both Adam and Eve

• The LORD God

The serpent’s strategy:a fabric of deceit

• Twisting (changing) the words of God and introducing doubt– “Certainly God said: ‘You shall not eat from

any tree in the garden…”– Eve’s response is also not the word of God

• Flatly contradicting the word of God

• Appealing to pride and self-advancement

The results: Disruption in every sphere of existence

• Perception of nakedness – personal insecurity• Fear of God and alienation• Curse on the serpent an element of hope• Pronouncement to the woman: pain and friction

in relationships• Curse pronounced on the ground because of

Adam – pain and toil• Humans would return to dust - death

The mercy of God

• Promise of redemption (Gen 3:15)

• Provision of coverings (clothing symbolized inheritance) – both physical and possibly the covering of the blood sacrifice

• Physical death

A Bit of Review

• What is an adumbration?• Which of the following does not appear in the

narrative in Genesis 3 as an expression of the mercy of God to Adam and Eve?providing coverings of skin for them, which was both protective and symbolic of God’s keeping them “in the family”promising redemption by means of the serpent’s “seed” being crushedbanishing them from the garden so they could not eat from the tree of life and live forever as sinful creaturesall of the above are evident in the narrative of Genesis 3

And the answer is…

• Which of the following does not appear in the narrative in Genesis 3 as an expression of the mercy of God to Adam and Eve?

• providing coverings of skin for them, which was both protective and symbolic of God’s keeping them “in the family”

• promising redemption by means of the serpent’s “seed” being crushed

• banishing them from the garden so they could not eat from the tree of life and live forever as sinful creatures

• all of the above are evident in the narrative of Genesis 3

Perspectives on fallen humankind: Cain and Abel

• Crime and punishment– The contrasting sacrifices– Cain’s anger and murder of Abel– God’s mercy – sent to wander

• New Testament comments (1 John 3:12)– “Do not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and

murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”

• Cain’s descendants– parallels with the line of Seth– Significant development of culture

Notes on First Testament genealogies

• Establish identity and relationships• Demonstrate the value of individuals in

God’s eyes• An adumbration of being written in the

Book of Life• Set the stage for specific individuals• Not intended to be comprehensive• Note age differences between Genesis 5

and 11

Perspectives: Noah and the Flood

• Identity of the “sons of God”– Human descendants of Seth (cf 5:1-2)– Corrupted angelic creatures (cf. Job 38:7; II Pet 2:4; wide range

of early Jewish interpretation)– Royal lines intermarrying with “commoners”

• Resultant appalling evil – corruption and destruction• Noah’s preparations: Construction of the ark (tevah);

gathering two of every kind and seven of the clean animals

• Extent of flood: Time and geographical range• Noah’s sacrifice and God’s response (first use of

“covenant”)• The Gilgamesh Epic – whose hero is Utnapishtim

Perspectives: The Sons of Noah

• Shem, Ham, Japheth

• The incident with Ham and the curse on Canaan

• The descendants inhabit the earth

Dispersion

• Tower at Babel - ziggurat

• Motives for building were pride and fear

Setting the Stage for Abraham

• “focus on the family” (not a stylized genealogy)

• Line of Shem noted twice – it is important