"What about when the Hebrew Bible seeks a progenitor, or first father? Adam plays this role just once after Genesis 5 when he appears at the beginning of 1 Chronicles (at 1:1), and never again. An exception may reside in Ezekiel 28:12-13, where the Lord calls the king of Tyre the “signet of perfection” and says, “You were in Eden, the garden of God.” This glorification of the king—before he fell into violence and pride—seems to be inspired by a vision of the (glorious) first-made man. This at any rate is what both the rabbinic texts and modern scholars have inferred. Ezekiel 31 and 36 and Joel 2:3 also appear to refer to the primordial paradise. If so, they would be rare cases of explicit reference to the paradise story outside the Pentateuch and before the second century BCE." "So once again, searching the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the Pauline concept of Adam as first father, or especially as progenitor of sin and death, would be an exercise in frustration. The Hebrew understanding of death is not theologically consistent, and there was no unanimity in viewing sin (especially the purported original sin of Adam) as the entry of death into an otherwise immortal humanity. The one time the Hebrew Bible speaks of a “first ancestor [who] sinned” is Isaiah 43:27, and the referent is certainly not Adam: it may be Jacob (see Hos. 12:2-3), or possibly Aaron (who makes the golden calf for Israel in Exod. 32)." Bouteneff, Peter (2008-10-01). Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives (p. 14). Baker Book Group - A. Kindle Edition.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:19:31 +0000
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