• Parallels from the Ancient Near East
• • No real parallels to the entire story but some elements are paralleled
  • "Epic of Gilgamesh"
  • • From Mesopotamia ca. 2000 B.C.E.
    • Gilgamesh's quest for immortality fails when he sets down a plant whose fruit gives eternal life and a serpent steals it
  • Pandora and her box
  • • Greek legend
    • Legend
    • • First woman on earth
      • Zeus was angry that Prometheus stole fire from the gods to give to humans and ordered that an evil being be created whom all men would desire
      • Pandora was created
      • Her name means "all gifts" because all the gods gave her gifts
      • • Athena gave her knowledge
        • Aphrodite gave her beauty
        • Hermes gave her cunning and flattery
        • The Graces gave her clothing
      • She was also given a box and told not to open it but her curiosity got the better of her
      • When she opened the box, all the world's vices, sins, diseases, and troubles flew out - she was able to get the lid back on in time to capture only one thing: HOPE
• Genesis 3 (Rebellion and Fall of Adam and Eve)
• • Serpent (3:1)
  • • No indication in the story that he is Satan or personifies evil
    • He is simply one of God's creatures who happens to be extremely clever
    • Serpents were intriguing to the ancients because they moved without legs, never blinked, and shed their skin seeming to be immortal
    • God's creation has already begun to reach for more than they were allowed
    • Responsibility cannot be shifted from humankind
  • Dialogue between the serpent and the woman (3:1-5)
  • • Serpent misrepresents God - the command is only an option and indicates that God is withholding something - He cannot be trusted
    • The woman answers by "putting a fence around the law" - by not touching the tree she will not be able to eat its fruit - yet her law indicates that she does not trust herself to keep God's law
    • The plural pronoun "you" indicates the man is there too - he is not participating in the dialogue - she is not solely to blame

• • • God becomes an object - someone to talk about rather than have a relationship with
    • Reality becomes distorted
  • Eating the forbidden fruit quickly follows (3:6) - probably some sort of fig
  • First thing they notice (3:7)
  • • They are naked
    • They want to cover themselves up so that God or the other cannot see - differences have become more obvious than similarities - can we trust someone who looks different from us?
    • Lack of trust in God and each other
  • The trial (3:8-19)
  • • Man blames woman and indirectly God who made her, woman blames serpent
    • Sentences
    • • Serpent - crawl on belly and have enmity between itself and humanity - some believe there is an early messianic prophecy here (the Devil would bruise the heel but a descendant of humans would destroy the Devil) but most likely the situation reflects the reality of serpents striking at feet while humans try to kill them by hitting the head
      • Woman - have pain in childbirth and be dominated by husband
      • • Had she already had children without pain? - if the punishment reflects a change in life from what was previously known as with serpent and man, perhaps she has had children
        • Her partnership with man is dissolved - her relationship with the man from whom she was taken is damaged
      • Man - struggle to produce from the land - his relationship with the land from which he was created is damaged
    • All sentences are distortions of what was intended - the world has turned upside down
  • Conclusion (3:20-24)
  • • Clothes that will last longer than fig leaves are created from animal skins - the man and woman have not died but something had to for them to be clothed - death has entered the world
    • They are kicked out of the garden - to live forever with such guilt is not permitted - God will graciously let them die someday
    • Even the tempter is allowed to live
    • God decrees that life go on - one sin will not nullify His creation
  • Some theological points
  • • Distrust of God has led to distrust of fellow humans - that is NOT God's desire
    • Trust is encouraged rather than knowledge - we will not understand all the rules but we will be expected to follow them
    • Knowledge of good and evil is not so much moral knowledge but knowledge of consequences - the man and woman already knew what God wanted
    • Death becomes the way life ends - exceptions to this in the Hebrew Bible will be rare indeed
• Genesis 4 (Rebellion and Fall of Cain)
• • Meaning of the names
  • • Adam = "humankind" and is closely related to the Hebrew word for ground or dirt
    • Eve = "living" because she is to be the mother of all living (3:20)
    • Cain = "spear" although his name is derived from a verb meaning "get, acquire" (4:1)
    • Abel = "mist, vapor, fog, vanity"
  • The brothers choose different professions (4:2)
  • • Some have tried to see great significance in this
    • • If Cain follows his father's profession, perhaps he will also follow his father's sin
      • Cain, the farmer, symbolizes Israel as a disobedient people when they practiced a settled, agricultural existence in Canaan - Abel, the shepherd, symbolizes Israel as a more obedient people when they practiced a nomadic existence
    • Both interpretations are strained
    • Intent probably is to show how old farming and shepherding are as professions
  • Trouble occurs at worship (4:3-5)
  • • Both brothers offer a sacrifice to God - they are the first to worship
    • They perhaps use different altars which may indicate tension between the two - they give gifts that are representative of what they do for a living
    • God accepts Abel's blood sacrifice but not Cain's grain sacrifice
    • God gives no explanation to Cain - we know that blood sacrifices are more valuable because Leviticus states that, but Cain did not have Leviticus
    • Cain could perhaps have tried something different the next time but chose not to
  • God warns Cain (4:6-7)
  • • Cain does not have to fall prey to sin - just because his father and mother sinned does not make it genetic - no original sin
    • Sin waits for an opportunity - it is active
    • Cain has the responsibility to live his own life
  • The murder (4:8-10)
  • • Cain decides to eliminate the competition
    • The murder is reported quickly with no frills
    • The "bloods" of Abel cry out - later rabbis stated that the term "bloods" was used indicating that Cain's one murder actually killed a nation of people, all of Abel's potential descendants
  • Conclusion (4:11-26)
  • • Cain is exiled farther away from the garden yet is allowed to live
    • Cain is protected from those who might want to destroy him as an act of vengeance - we are not to ask who might be out there
    • Cain is allowed to marry and have children - life will go on for him and he will continue to be a part of God's creation
  • Some theological points
  • • To live on God's terms is difficult enough, but living with other people (sometimes especially relatives) complicates matters
    • God wants life to triumph over death - Abel's murder is not satisfied by simply murdering someone else
    • From Cain's line come those who invent metallurgy, cities, and music - these things are not evil because they come from Cain - they are evidence that good can come from evil
    • Lamech's later decision to take great vengeance shows how humanity continues to decay - sinning more makes it easier to ignore God and become calloused to His voice
• Genesis 5 (Shortening of Lifespan)
• • Ancient Near Eastern parallels
  • • Sumerian King List
    • • Ca. 2000 B.C.E.
      • List of kings of Mesopotamia from the dawn of time to their present day
      • The kings who lived before the flood lived incredibly long lives
      • One of the kings after the flood, Etana, who was a shepherd, ruled for 1,560 years and then ascended into heaven
      • As the list draws closer to the author's day, the reigns become more reasonable with the last king in the list, Balulu, ruling for 36 years
    • The list is interesting but hardly accurate as far as lifespan is concerned - the biblical list is far less extreme
  • Biblical list
  • • Probably from Priestly source
    • Adam becomes a father of a son in his likeness, even as Adam was created in God's likeness
    • • The image of God continues in humanity
      • There may be some idea of the image being diluted
    • The lifespans hover around 900 years with two exceptions
    • • Enoch (5:21-24)
      • • Lives 365 years - exactly the number of days in a solar year
        • He "walks himself" with God - an intimate communion

• • • • • Enoch is able to have close communion with God despite his distance from the sinless beginning - sin has multiplied but great faith is still possible
      • Lamech (5:28-31)
      • • Lives 777 years - a perfect number as opposed to 666 (Rev. 13:18)
        • As the father of Noah, perhaps his age indicates the perfection that provides "rest" for God's people
  • Some theological points
  • • How do we explain the incredible lifespans?
    • • Perhaps "years" should be interpreted as seasons, thus dividing everything by 4 - still the lifespans are fantastic
      • Perhaps "years" should be interpreted as months - that lowers the lifespans to a typical level but Enoch would have fathered his first child at the age of 5 ½ years!
      • Perhaps the earth allowed for longer lifespans since it was younger or sin had not increased to such an extent or Adam had eaten from the Tree of Life and it took awhile for the almost-immortality to be removed from the bloodline
      • In the long run we cannot explain the long lifespans, but can only mourn they have decreased so drastically
    • The genealogy does point to a better time near the dawn of time - some time in the past, things were better as God had intended - that time is lost and can never be recaptured
    • Israel believed genealogies were important - they knew where they had come from; not the gods but from other humans - their sense of place was very realistic
  • Some interesting points
  • • The first person in the genealogy born after Adam's death was Noah
    • Enoch is the 7^th figure of the 10 which adds to the mystique of the perfect number 7 and of Enoch's life
    • Methuselah lived to be the oldest at 969 and died in the year of the flood
    • Lamech died before the flood

Above artwork by Michelangelo from the Sistine Chapel

"Body of Abel Discovered by Adam and Eve" by William Blake