Mark 1:13 Challenge

We find full accounts of the temptation of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew & Luke.  Mark also writes about the temptation of Jesus, but Marks account only takes up one verse.  Mark 1:13 says, "And He [Jesus] was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.  And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to Him."  This verse occurs between the baptism of Jesus, where His ministry was commissioned (Mark 1:9-11) and the beginning of His ministry when Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15)

Its interesting that Mark makes a note that Jesus was with the wild animals.  It is possible that the phrase could be just a bit of colorful description detailing the dangers of the wilderness.  However, Mark is written in a very concise style where every word is important and has meaning.  So given what we have learned from our study of Genesis 1-3 and the importance of the theme of the Kingdom of God, why might Mark have included this detail?

Here is a hint:  Mark is very influenced by the book of Isaiah.  The gospel of Mark begins with a quote from Isaiah 40:3.  Look at Isaiah 11 and see if you can make a connection between Genesis 1-3, Isaiah 11, and Mark 1:13.  

Throw out your ideas in the comment section to this post.  I think it will be fun to get a discussion going and see if we can get some practice in trying to view all of scripture as part of one story and seeing how it ties together.

Week 8 Prayer Requests

Big praise for Gabe Lundberg for not having X-linked juvenile retinoschisis.

Gary Owens' friend from Church of the Good Shepherd, Jack Blackaby, passed away.

Ryan Merrill broke his wrist, meet with the orthopod on Monday.

Grace Hill Church, as committees are formed and members voted on.

Table of Temptation

One of the goals of this series in small group is to try to show how the scriptures tie together.  Below is a table that illustrates the parallels of the temptation of Adam & Eve, Israel in the wilderness, Jesus, and Christians.  The Bible views Israel as a corporate Adam and, like Adam, Israel fails to resist temptation.  Jesus wins a victory over Satan by not succumbing to temptation.  As Jesus followers we can resist temptation and we can also take comfort by John's point in 1 John 2:1 that even if we do sin we do not face an accuser in the form of Satan, but an advocate in the form Jesus Christ.

Week 8 Temptation of Adam & Eve

Q.  Who is the serpent?

-  We are not told specifically that the serpent is Satan, the text does not seem interested in revealing this information to us.  All we know from this text is that the serpent is opposed to God.  

-  He is introduced not as a serpent, but as the serpent.  This may indicate that the writer presupposed knowledge of the identity of the serpent.

-  The serpent seems to act under the influence of a higher power.  There is no tradition of magical talking animals among the Israelites.  Even in the story of Balaam’s ass in Numbers, the text makes a point to tell us that God opened the ass’ mouth.  

-  The serpent also has knowledge of God’s command to Adam & Eve by using God’s exact language.  

-  The serpent represents an aberration to God’s design.  Though a beast, he seeks to establish dominion over man. Though an animal, he speaks.  Though a creature, he challenges the creator and disputes God’s word.

-  The Old Testament introduces Satan in two places: Job & Zechariah.  Neither connect him to the serpent.

-  In the New Testament we do find references connecting the serpent to Satan.  Though there are other references, the most explicit is Revelation 12:9 where the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil, and Satan are all said to be the same being.  

Satan’s strategy

Q.  What is Satan’s strategy? 

1.  The serpent does not mount a frontal assault, but instead asks a question.  The question exaggerates God’s prohibition by asking if God had forbidden all the trees.

2.  The serpent disputes the truth of God’s word and even quotes God perfectly doing it.   The serpent denies there is penalty for sin and denies the possibility of death.

3.  The serpent calls God’s motives into question.  God has given man a kingdom and extended to them the promise of Sabbath rest upon successful completion of their assigned tasks.  The serpent however focuses on the prohibition and convinces them that God is motivated by jealousy.  God is a tyrant who is holding them back from their destiny.  The serpent presents himself as one who really cares for them and wants them to reach their full potential.

4.  The serpent’s attacks on two fronts: 1.  Denies the truthfulness of God.   2.  Denies the trustworthiness of God.

5.  The serpent never tells Eve to eat the fruit.  He simply leaves her to draw her own conclusions.  It is left to Eve to stand in judgment of God and decide for herself His trustworthiness and truthfulness.  

Q.  Where do we find fault with Eve’s answers to Satan’s questions in 3:2-3?

We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the

Tree in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

1.  Minimizes God’s provision.  If you read Genesis 2:16, God says the may freely eat of any tree in the garden.

2.  Adds to the prohibition.  Eve says they must not eat or touch the fruit.

3.  She weakens the penalty.  In Genesis 2:17, God said they would surely die.  Eve says lest you die.  The serpent brazenly adds back the surely in verse 3:4 when he directly challenges the truth of God’s word.

4.  She distances herself from God.  This is more subtle but the serpent uses the word Elohim to describe God rather than Yahweh.  Eve continues to use Elohim throughout the narrative rather than Yahweh.  Yahweh is the personal name for God, by using Elohim she is not viewing God relationally.

-  Genesis 3:6 says “When the woman saw that the 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, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who with her and he ate.”

-  Desire and delight are related to the word for covet.

1.  Physical Needs

2.  Aesthetics

3.  Knowledge - moral autonomy

-  Note the irony by comparing this verse to Genesis 2:9 “The Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.”

-  After the fall we see Adam and Eve responding to God’s questioning by lies and deceptions, and the questioning of God’s motives.  Humanity was made in the image of God but now they are resembling the serpent.  There is a interesting pun as well.  The serpent is described as arum or cunning.  The result of Adam & Eve’s actions are that they realize that they are arumim or naked.  

Parallel with temptation of Jesus

Q.  How does Jesus respond to the three temptations?

-  Jesus quotes scripture.  Unlike Eve, Jesus adheres firmly to the word of God.

1.  Deuteronomy 8:3.  This is part of Moses' reminder that God provided manna in the wilderness.  

2.  Deuteronomy 6:16.  This is when Moses reminded the people that they were upset with God at Massah and Meribah because they did not have any water.  They demanded water from Moses and insinuated that God had brought them out of Egypt to die in the desert.  

3.  Deuteronomy 6:13  Moses reminds them of all God had done for them by freeing them from Egypt and bringing them to the promised land. Therefore, they are not to have any other gods.

-  Jesus quotes each time from Deuteronomy.  All of these quotations are a result of God’s provision for Israel’s failing in the wilderness.  Jesus shows that unlike Israel, he is able to resist the temptations that Israel was unable to resist in the wilderness.

-  Everything that Satan offers is something that Jesus would be given anyway.   Jesus is content to wait on God’s direction and timing.  

-  Jesus also is able to resist the same temptation that Eve responded to in Genesis 3:6

1.  Turning stone into loaves of bread (physical)

2.  The cities of the world (aesthetic)

3.  Throw himself down and let the angels save him (use God’s provisions for His own purpose.) 

-  In the book of I John,  John warns against falling prey to the temptations of Satan and references Genesis 3 heavily.  John tells us that we have an advocate in Jesus Christ.  In verse 1 John 2:16 we are warned:

For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride in life - is not from the Father but is from the world.   

- We see again the same three temptations we face are the ones that Adam and Israel failed to resist but Jesus was able to.  By Christ’s resistance Satan is defeated and according to 1 John 2:1 we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.

- Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."

-  This is contrast to the previous situation, where Satan was allowed into heaven to accuse Job & Joshua the Priest.  As a result of Jesus’ defeat of Satan his position is changed.  Jesus ascends to heaven as our advocate in place of Satan the accuser.  

Luke 10:17-20 "The 72 returned with joy, saying 'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.'  And he said to them, 'I saw fall like lightening from heaven.  Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the powers of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." Notice how Luke uses Psalms 91:13, the verse Satan stopped at when he quoted Psalms 91 to Jesus during the temptation.

 -  Now that strong man is bound as Mark & Matthew say, then his house can be plundered.  Satan can no longer accuse the saints because of Christ’s sacrifice.   The saints are now blameless and Satan no longer have a case as an accuser.  

Gordon Wenham's Noah Chiasm

You can see above the highly ordered structure of the Noah story demonstrated by the chiastic arrangement.  Source critics typically assign this passage to J and P and note the passage switching back and forth between the two sources 24 times.  It seems more likely, given the chiastic structure, that there is a single, coherent design behind the Noah story.  

Authorship of the Pentateuch

Traditionally authorship of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, was attributed to Moses.  There are five verses in the Pentateuch that mention Moses as having written certain passages.  For example in Exodus 24:4 we read, "And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord..."  referring to the words of the ten commandments and the commentary following them in Exodus 20:1 - 23:33.  Other books of the Old Testament refer to the "law of Moses" but it is not necessarily clear that the entire Pentateuch is referred to by this phrase.  In fact, Nehemiah 8:3 states that Nehemiah read the law of Moses to the people in the space of six hours, which is too short a period of time to read the whole Pentateuch.  In the New Testament, Jesus quotes passages from the Pentateuch and attributes them to Moses.

So the Bible itself, does attribute at least parts of the Pentateuch to Mosaic authorship.  However, there are some good arguments that Moses did not write the entire document from scratch.  Numbers 21:14 quotes a passage from a work called "The Book of the Wars of the Lord."  Though not necessarily named, it is conceivable Moses could have used other sources as well.  Numbers 12:3 describes Moses as more humble than anyone on the face of the earth.  It would seem awkward for Moses to brag about his own humility.  Also Moses could not have written the last chapter of Deuteronomy that mentions events after Moses' death.

In the 18th and 19th century, scholars developed a theory that the Pentateuch was woven together from separate, independent sources that at times were competing and inconsistent.  Most of these ideas resulted from a scholar named Julius Wellhausen who worked mostly in the 1800s.  His ideas were built upon over the years and became crystallized into what is known as the Documentary Hypothesis. The study of these sources is known as source criticism since its methodology is to examine the sources that the overall work of the Pentateuch derives from.

The Documentary Hypothesis posits that there were four authors of the Pentateuch known as the Yahwehist, the Elohimist, the Priestly source, and the Deuteronomist.  These sources are usually abbreviated J, E. P, and D (J stands for the Yahweist because most of the work was done by German scholars and the "y" sound in German is written as a "j", for example the "j" in Jagermeister is pronounced as a "y").

J is viewed as the oldest source and dates from the 10th century B.C. and is centered in Judah during the reign of king David.  E dates to the 9th century but is located in the Northern kingdom of Israel.  D dates from the 7th century and is thought to have occurred during the reign of king Josiah.  Recall that a forgotten scroll was discovered in Josiah's time.  Scholars believe this was actually not an ancient text but one that written during the time of Josiah and the story of its discovery merely a fraudulent attempt to justify its legitimacy.  P was written by a group of priests living in Babylon during the time of the exile in an attempt to preserve their traditions during the exile.  The diagram below gives a pictorial representation of this theory.

While the Documentary Hypothesis has been widely accepted among scholars at times and is often taught to students in college courses where the pentateuch is examined as literature, there are several arguments that call the theory into question.  Currently, few critical scholars promote the view and source criticism is no longer as popular an approach among academics as it was at one time.

One of the arguments against the Documentary Hypothesis is the theory presupposes a linear, evolutionary view of history.  Anything deemed primitive from the standpoint of modern scholarship is assigned to an older source.  For example, any anthropomorphic description of God is assigned to the J source.  The thinking goes that viewing God as having human characteristics is the thinking of a primitive, unsophisticated culture.  Whereas the writings of P are descriptions of a well developed highly, ritualized system of a more advanced civilization.  However, it would be naive to think that history actually progresses by such a simple model.  In addition it is also condescending to ancient people, who may lack technology but demonstrate sophistication and intelligence.

According to the Documentary Hypothesis, later editors called redactors, cut and pasted the various sources together.  However, the current text demonstrates a high degree of structure.  Genesis is divided into ten sections called toledots sort of like chapters.  Obviously, this structure could not arise merely by cutting and pasting sections together.   Another examples involves the Noah story in Genesis 6-9.  It was thought by source critics that two separate flood stories by J and P were fit together to generate the story of Noah as we find it in the Bible.  However, Dr. Gordon Wenham has demonstrated the entire flood story is arranged in a sophisticated chiastic structure.  In a separate blog post, I will post Gordon Wenham's chiasm of the Noah cycle, so you can see for yourself the remarkably consistent chiastic structure.

Further studies in archaeology have also shown the chronology of the Documentary Hyopthesis to be incorrect.  At one time it was thought that the alphabet and Semitic writing arose in the 12th-10th century B.C.  As Moses is traditionally assigned to the 15th century B.C., it would have been impossible for Moses to have written the Pentateuch.  Recent archaeological expeditions have uncovered evidence of Semitic alphabetic writing in a turquoise mine in Sinai that dates from the18th century B.C.   An excerpt from the high priestly prayer from Numbers 6:23-26 has been found on an amulet that dates from the 7th century B.C., much earlier than the 5th century B.C. time when P is dated by source critics.

It was assumed by source critics that the Deuteronomists lived some time in the 7th century B.C.  The whole book of Deuteronomy is essentially a suzerain-vassal covenant document laying out the stipulations and sanctions of the covenant between Israel and God.  In the 20th century, archaeologist uncovered many of these ancient suzerain-vassal covenants from various civilizations and time periods in the ancient near east.  From this, historians have learned that the covenants from different time periods follow specific rules and guidelines.  The book of Deuteronomy follows the pattern of Hittite covenants dating from the 15th century B.C., the time period when Moses would have lived.  At no point does Deuteronomy resemble the covenant treaties of the Assyrians that would have been followed in the 7th century B.C.

While there is certainly evidence of place names being updated, the pentateuch fits best within a 15th century B.C. world.   There exists lots of evidence for this such as the use of Egyptian words in Genesis and Exodus that would have been unknown later, customs that would have been out of place in later Judah such as decentralized worship by the patriarchs, and tribes that ceased to exist after the 11th century B.C.   Famed Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen from the University of Liverpool, has written an excellent book called "On the Reliability of the Old Testament"  that lists all of the arguments for a 15th century setting in a more complete way than I can do in a blog post.  I have a copy of this book if anyone is interested in borrowing it from me.

As Moses, a Hebrew from the 15th century educated in Pharaoh's court, would be the most likely person to have compiled the pentateuch, the tradition of Mosaic authorship seems to rest on reasonable evidence.  No doubt Moses uses various sources and possibly oral traditions, but he compiled them together in a highly ordered manner.  Of course we believe, according to 2 Timothy 3:16, that all scripture is inspired by God, so whoever the author of the Pentateuch may have been, the ultimate author was the Holy Spirit.

Week 7 Homework

Read Genesis 3:1-13 & Matthew 4:1-11

We are going to compare the temptation of Eve with the temptation of Christ so look for areas to compare and contrast between these two texts.

Week 7 Prayer Requests

1.  Beth's Sister-in-law, Tricia, had some good news in her struggle against cancer.  The last scan revealed no sign of cancer in her lungs.  There were some areas of her liver that showed metastasis, but these were in a good location to be operated on.  Tricia is going to travel to Texas for her lung operation soon and will be away from her family for 2 weeks.  The last liver surgery was very difficult so we need to pray that this surgery will not be as difficult, we need to pray for their family, and pray for a successful outcome to the surgery.

2.  The Lundberg's are still awaiting results from Gabe's genetic test to determine if he has X-linked juvenile retinoschisis.

3.  Pray for Grace Hill and for the decisions that will be made in the next few weeks.

4.  Brant's sister was recently separated from her husband.

5.  Cathy Durham was recently diagnosed with what may be a serious medical condition.

6.  Pat's nephew Stephen was charged with a DUI, pray that this will wake him up.  Also pray for Pat's sister and Stephen's mother who recently started attending church.

7.  Marc is working hard on an anthology, pray for wisdom that he will use his time wisely.

Week 7 Garden of Eden Part II

Small Group Week 7

Last week we looked at the stipulations of the covenant:

1.  Subdue and have dominion over the earth
2.  Guard and keep the garden
3.  Be fruitful and multiply
4.  Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

This week we are going to look at the covenant sanctions.

Sanctions -  Death would result from disobedience represented by the tree of the knowledge of good 

                    and evil

                 - Continued access to tree of life, and entering of God’s Sabbath rest 

There is a parallel between Israel and Adam.  Israel can be viewed as a corporate Adam, they are given the command to be fruitful and multiply, and are prohibited to do certain things lie, commit adultery, murder.  Deuteronomy 30:19-20, says the choice they are making is between life and death and that if they obey they will enter the promise land as a place of rest. 

This is why we have spent so much time learning about the covenant.  The kingdom and its method of administration, the covenant, is a recurring theme throughout scripture.  It is not to impress you about my knowledge of ancient near east diplomacy.  The covenant is what connects the Old Testament together and why the Old Testament is not just a random collection of ancient texts.

Covenants are structured into parts:

1.  Introduction of the parties

2.  Historical prologue of the relationship between the parties

3.  Stipulations

4.  Sanctions

We can see the Old Testament follows this pattern.  We learn who God is in Genesis 1 and we learn about his relationship with man in Genesis 1-11.  The rest of Genesis continues to flesh this out and we learn about the salvation of Israel in Exodus 1-19.  The rest of the law contains the stipulations and sanctions.  The historical books record the history of Israel in relation to the covenant.  The prophets contain exhortations to obey the covenant as well as warnings of the sanctions that will result from disobedience.  The prophets also act as God’s lawyers prosecuting the covenant lawsuit.   The wisdom literature contains meditations on the covenant.   

The phrase knowledge of good and evil is complex.  We should not just read this and decide what we think it means.  We must be careful to try to understand it the way the original audience understood it.  Recently, I have heard several people talk about the passage in Isaiah that talks about the Messiah being a counselor and then go on to describe a counselor like a psychologist.  Yet the ancient Israelites would have no concept of a psychologist.  The word counselor here refers to a political figure who would provide strategic advice for a king the way Joseph did for pharaoh or Daniel did for Nebuchadnezzar.  A good way to do avoid this problem is to look at the rest of the Old Testament to see how the phrase is used.

Elsewhere knowing good and evil is used in terms of rendering decision in judgment as would a civil judge.  It is not viewed as negative throughout the scriptures.  It usually refers to figures in a position of judging or ruling over others.

2 Samuel 14:17  Here the woman of Tekoa appeals to King David’s ability to make sound judgment in a judicial matter.

1 Kings 3:9  When God asks Solomon for anything he wants, Solomon asks for wisdom so he can properly administer justice.  

The word know means much more in Hebrew than in English.  To us, knowledge usually means to know a fact or a proposition.  In Hebrew it refers to an intimate relationship or to experiences.  It would therefore be wrong to reduce the knowledge of good and evil to knowledge of some sort of fact that God wants to keep secret.  

The word knowledge is in the infinitive form meaning the tree to know good and evil or knowing good and evil.  Elsewhere when know is in the infinitive form it takes the meaning of discerning or determining.  

In the Ancient Near East, trees were often the place where judgments were pronounced.  Saul and Debra are described as rendering judgments under trees.  

I think the best interpretation is the tree of the discernment of right from wrong.  Knowledge of good and evil is a neutral term.  It was the way it was obtained that was issue.  In other words, it was not the content of the knowledge that was the issue but the manner by which it was obtained.  

Adam and Eve decided to obtain the knowledge of good and evil in a way forbidden to them by God.  They wanted to attain knowledge of good and evil without reference to God whereas they should have relied on God to understand good and evil correctly.  Adam and Eve wanted to be like God, positioning themselves above the law deciding good and evil for themselves. 

Under this interpretation, Adam and Eve’s failure is that they claimed the judging of right and wrong for themselves.  This makes sense with the story of the temptation because the serpent did not frame the debate as listen to me or listen to God, but rather decide for yourself if God’s prohibition makes sense.  There failure was in seeking moral autonomy rather than relying on the word of God.  Clearly judging for themselves the truthfulness of the Serpent’s words and ignoring God’s command demonstrates this disregard for God and desire for moral autonomy.  

A second point in favor of this interpretation it is not a magic tree that causes the problem, but rather the tree is symbolic of what happens at the temptation.  It is a symbol of the testing that Adam and Eve would undergo, just as the tree of Life is not a magic tree but symbolic of eternal life.  A good analogy would be a sacrifice.  The mere act of sacrifice did not appease God, it was the heart of contrition symbolized by the sacrifice that was important.

What would it have looked like if Adam obeyed God’s command perfectly?

-  As God’s image man would have administered the earth as God would.  The imitation of God would guide man’s conduct.  Romans 1:19 & 32 tells us that man does not just know that there is a God but man knows what God is like.

-  God created the universe, subdued the chaos, ruled over, and created and filled the earth with life.  Humanity was to essentially imitate God’s work.

-  God created the universe for His own glory, and man in imitation of God would also work to develop the earth for God’s glory.

-  God is love and cares for His creatures, humanity would do the same for on another.  

-  Here we have the two greatest commandments - love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. 

-  God’s judges His work good and humanity in imitation of God must also produce good work.  

Q.  How is being fruitful and multiplying being like God?

God had not created the earth empty but filled it.  Man by being fruitful would reproduce and fill the earth with humans who would also be the image of God.   

Q.  How would man have subdued and have dominion over the earth?

-  Humanity would have overcome the chaos of the world outside the garden and expanded its borders overcoming the barriers of the untamed world to make it suitable for human habitation.  Eventually he would extend paradise until it covered the whole earth.  

Q.  Humanity is told to guard the garden.  What is humanity guarding the garden from?

-  Anything alien to the holiness of God - the serpent.  The serpent is a bizarre aberration - it speaks which only God and humans can do, it attempts to rule the rulers, the serpent questions God’s authority by disputing His word.  

-  The garden can be thought of as a temple.  It was a holy place where God’s presence manifested itself.  The temple incorporates garden imagery with images of trees and fruit into its decoration.  Later when John describes the heavenly temple in Revelation, he uses imagery derived from Genesis like precious stones, rivers, and the Tree of Life.  Adam was a priest serving in a primeval temple.  

Q.  What action should Adam have taken with the serpent?  

-  Adam should have recognized the serpent as an unholy being infringing on the sacredness of God’s garden.  As guardian of the garden and possessed with dominion over the beasts, Adam should have used his authority to slay the serpent.  

-  The text even hints at this since Genesis 1:26 & 28 specifically mentions Adam is due rule over every creature that creeps on the earth.  

Q.  What is the purpose of man’s imitation of the Sabbath?

-  Just as God’s work ended with his royal enthronement rest, humanity would eventually completely the task assigned and enter God’s rest.  This is the rest that Hebrews is describing in chapter 4.  We would call this heaven.  Therefore there is a purpose and end point for man’s activities.  The sabbath was given to man as a reminder of this goal that humanities’ labor was directed toward.  

-  After defeating the serpent, Adam would have continued in his task toward subduing the entire earth. There would be a increasing phase of ruling and a climatic point in which he would fulfill the goal of worldwide dominion.  

How do we see Jesus, as the second Adam, fulfilling Adam’s task?  

Small Group January 13 Cancelled

We will not meet for our regularly scheduled small group meeting on January 13 because of the church meeting at 5:30 that day.  This church meeting will be very important.  Please be in prayer for this meeting and that decision will be made with wisdom.  See everyone again January 20th.

Week 6 Prayer Requests

1.  The Howell's neighbor Debbie, went to church for the first time recently.  Pray that God continues to work in her heart.

2.  Pat's nephew Michael has severe pain and is preparing to undergo an operation to help correct the pain.

3.  Genetic testing determined that Beth Lundberg is a carrier for X-Linked Juvenile Retinoschisis which means Gabe has a 50% chance of developing the condition.  Gabe will undergo genetic testing.  Pray that Gabe does not have X-Linked Juvenile Retinoschisis and if he does that the severity is limited.  Also pray for anxiety for the Lundberg's as they wait 4-6 weeks for the results.

Week 6 Homework

Genesis 2:4-25.

Think about what it would have looked like had there not been a fall.

Think about Adam's proper response to the temptation of the Serpent.

Adam failed to complete the tasks God assigned him.  Paul tells us that Jesus is the second Adam.  Think about how Jesus does fulfill Adam's tasks.

Week 6 Garden of Eden

Small Group Week 6

Adam is created in a special relationship to God.  He is created in God’s image and given authority over God’s creation.

Man as God’s image and authority are related concepts.  It is because man is the image of God that he has authority to rule.  You can see the relationship in Genesis 1:26-28 the  clauses of these verse alternate in an interlocking parallelism that emphasizes this relationship:

Image: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 

Authority: And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Image: So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

Authority: And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God is ruling all of creation, but he is doing so through a mediator.  Man is given delegated authority.  

Q.  What does this arrangement sound like?

We have a suzerain-vassal arrangement with God as the suzerain and Adam as the vassal.  

This relationship implies a covenant and in fact traditional covenant theology calls this the Adamic covenant or the Covenant of Works.  The problem is no where is the word covenant used in this text. 

Q.  Is it legitimate to call this a covenant?

1.  Covenant does not have to present in the text for there to be a covenant, e.g.

2 Samuel 7 is later in scripture referred to as the Davidic covenant but the word covenant is not used in the text.

2.  Hosea 6:7 “But like Adam, they (Israel) transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.”

3.  Romans 5 draws a parallel between Adam and Israel and says that Adam like Israel has committed transgression.  The word transgression is a technical word used in almost case to describe Israel’s failure to keep the Mosaic covenant.  

So if we are right that there is a covenant between God and Adam even though the word covenant is not used, what are the elements of this covenant:

Stipulations: 

1. Be fruitful and multiple  - fill the earth with other images of God

2. Have dominion over the earth  

3. Not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

4. Tend and guard the garden - phrase used to describe the activity of the Levitical priests in their duty of preventing unclean or unholy things from entering the temple.

5. Name the animals - an exercise of dominion

Next week we discuss what fulfilling these stipulations would have looked like.  We will also discuss the sanctions of the covenant represented by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life, and the goal of man's project symbolized by the Sabbath.