Where’s Waldo?

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis 3:11 NASB

Have you eaten – God asks Adam two questions. Neither one of them makes any sense. “Who told you that you were naked?” But no one told him he was naked. In fact, the subject of nakedness never even comes up. Adam should have been nonplussed. What kind of question is this? There isn’t any answer. The second question is even more shocking. Can you imagine that God didn’t know if Adam had eaten from the Tree? Isn’t it obvious? Furthermore, is God suggesting that He is clueless as to the events that occurred while He was off tending to the Pleiades? If by some exegetical miracle we can find a way to address these two seemingly absurd questions, we are still left with the unasked biggest one. “What about sin?”

The word for sin never occurs in this story. In fact, the story seems to be more about punishment than about transgression. The majority of the dialogue is about the curses on the serpent and the land and the results for the man and the woman. Following God’s prescriptive and descriptive announcements, the story seems completely disjointed since the very next action is Adam’s naming the woman. Something seems to be implied but never spoken, that is, a consciousness of sin. Why doesn’t the story ever actually address this?

The answer might be that sin as transgression of divine commandment was already part of ancient thought. Consider the following:

“Who is there who has not sinned against his god, who has constantly obeyed the commandments? Every man who lives is sinful.”

“A sinless child was never born or its mother.”

“”Forgive my sin, my iniquity, my wickedness and my offence. Loose my fetters, secure my deliverance. Let my prayers and my supplications come to you (and) may all your grace be with me. Those who see me in the street will glorify your name.”

“It is the nature of the servant to commit sin, it is the nature of the Lord to be gracious.”[1]

All of these are Sumerian or Egyptian texts. Clearly the idea of sin existed long before Moses and the people left Egypt. Perhaps the Genesis account of the “fall” doesn’t mention sin because it was already part of the assumptions of the people. Perhaps the story is important for its explanation of the relationship between God, man and woman rather than its account for the origin of something unnamed.

It’s fairly common among believers to think that the Genesis story is the beginning of God’s interaction with men. The story purports to be just that. But the story relies on unwritten assumptions; assumptions that were already in place when the story was developed. Making sense of the story requires prior understanding of these concepts. This is but one more reason for viewing this story as it would have been understood by the children of Israel after Egypt. As a standalone, the story just doesn’t make sense, but coupled with centuries of cultural assimilation, the story fills in what other legends leave out.

God has been at work among men for a very long time. We might not always see His hand in the development of spiritual awareness in pagan cultures, but it seems to be there nonetheless. Consciousness of trespass and sin is much older than the writing of the Genesis text even if the text casts its explanation back to the beginning. Can you deal with that? Can you allow God to be at work in cultures far older than the Hebrews? Can you reconcile Sumerian and Egyptian texts with Hebrew explanations? Or do you need to insist that everything had to begin with “In the beginning?”

Topical Index: sin, Genesis 3:11, beginning

[1] Terrence Fretheim, God and the World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation (Abingdon Press, 2005), p. 72.

TRAVEL:  As you read this, I will be heading for the airport (again) to fly to Athens and pick up the Azamara Journey for a three week lecture series.  As a result, internet access will be severely limited until I return.  Have fun without my comments.

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Alan McCord

No comments from Skip for 3 weeks??? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Oh well, enjoy your Greek excursion! I wish I could be there with you)

George and Penny Kraemer

Bon voyage Skip, we first met in the middle of the Med exactly four years ago and our lives have never been the same. May you do the same for many others once again.

laurita hayes

We don’t know how long the pair of people walked with God in the cool of the evenings before the fall. Could it have been hundreds of years? They started out in perfect synch with their Creator, and without doubt the early patriarchs had access to vast stores of knowledge that got passed down. The understanding of substitutionary sacrifices for sin were well understood and the Sabbath was not ‘new’ either. The Ten Commandments were not ‘new’ knowledge or revelation: they were given more as reminders. “Remember” the Sabbath sounds like they were already supposed to know, too. Moses did not spring a ‘new’ religion: he codified a familiar one. I get impatient with people who try to make out that people were either innocent or savages before Sinai because of what it implies about God. Why would He have left people in the dark about what would provide them with life for so long? Answer: He wouldn’t have.

Teresa

Laurita, excellent points. I keep thinking one of the reasons Yeshua will reign for a millennia is because it will take that long for HIm to straighten out bad theology. 🙂

Seeker

Laurita let us assume God provided everything with very clear instructions. Lets accept they were innocent. Reminds you of another relationship? Parenthood. Innocent babies. Then what happens… Knowledge is gained not wisdom. Knowledge without wisdom results in informed attitude… How did Don phrase… Experience through application. Life skill lesson 101 we only learn through experience when too protective we set life learners up for failure. For this reason we jump forward to God s intervention with Cain… Sin is there and its desire is to you, and must rule over it… This is the lesson I find most referenced in the NT and may be our lesson to serve God s purpose in taking me from Gnostic view to action orientated view. God s advice through the ages Shama to create conviction which will result in faith… Process is tell, show then remind. People are innocent until they learn from a bad experience. No matter how much we say we can never know what is in others minds… Nor can we force them to accept my view. They must want to change and take control. If through Christ I can do all, what is stopping me from doing the Torah…

laurita hayes

He will do everything you don’t RESIST. We all have all these great justifications ‘why’ Torah cannot happen through us. I have to be in agreement, but before I can do that, I have to turn around (teshuva) from that wrong direction (my own way) I was already heading in. He is not going to step on my gas pedal as long as I am still heading off the cliff: instead He is going to be applying all the brakes He can (curses) to slow me down and convince me to want to try another way before the one I am on kills me for real.

Seeker

So Laurita as Yeshua told Nicodemus he must be born again… Are you saying this has to happen with us as well.. Hosea 6…

laurita hayes

Yes, but before you are born, you have to die. Rebirth into His image (sanctification) is His part. Dying to self (repentance) is mine. He already made all the first moves (salvation), and His part has been ‘finished’ for a good while (some of it even “before the foundation of the world”), but I still have to do my part of that salvation. Step by step we work together on this. Definitely a most active process!

Judi Baldwin

Yes, “God has been at work among men a very long time.”
And, sadly, we never seem to learn much from His grace.
It’s from His judgement that we learn.

Seeker

Out of curiosity we are reborn by His spirit the word of truth. And only those anointed can speak these words… Both OT and NT guidelines. So if no rebirth occurs the one speaking is not sent or anointed…

Seeker

No lets rephrase that one. We are reborn through Spirit and water. As you said Laurita two persons process. Spirit is Gods will or truth and water implies what? Wisdom, baptism, teaching or life style?

Ester

Seeker, to your query on baptism….it is a washing away, a bath, a cleansing, signifying a purifying and a consecration, by complete immersion, or submersion in water.
Baptism is for the purpose of cleansing from the impurity of idolatry, and the restoration to the purity of a new-born man
Circumcision, like baptism, is a “seal /sign” . But as circumcision was discarded by Christianity, and the sacrifices had ceased, Baptism remained the sole condition for initiation by Christiandom.
Elisha tell Naaman to bathe seven times in the Jordan, in order to recover from his leprosy (II Kings v. 10). The powers ascribed to the waters of the Jordan are expressly stated to be that they restore the unclean man to the original state of a new-born “child”

Bear in mind that baptism was a Jewish practice of consecration for Gentile proselytes and for penitent sinners,
Baptism represents the real crossing over into the Promised Land. This is the crossing over from death into life and the resurrection of new life.
Shalom!

laurita hayes

Baptism (but there is more than one of those). Baptism is our way of telling ourselves that we are committed as well as admitting it to others in front of witnesses, which is important when you realize that we are supposed to be becoming one Body. Baptism also symbolizes that we understand that our sins (fractures from that Body) are now washed away. We may choose to take them back in the future, but at least we wanted them to be gone. Sin is a bad habit, but righteousness is one, too. Practice is what makes it real. Baptism is the frontier where we meet that Spirit and start the birthing process. Baptism is where the dream becomes the reality. We wake up spiritually when we are formally admitted into the Body. Spiritual movement is not really possible until the transformers get all hooked up together and baptism throws that switch. I am not myself if I am all by myself. I am myself when I am with you. Its been fun, Seeker! As usual.

Darrel Palmer

In Hebrews it says He created the worlds. Could some of the knowledge been carried over from a previous world

Seeker

Paul said baptism is not the cleaning of the body but purifying of the heart and Peter came and explained that it is a prayer for a clean conscience… Discussion on a later block. Thank you nice reference that baptism was a Jewish rite for proselytize… Yet Yeshua was also baptized…

Ester

it is a washing away, a bath, a cleansing, signifying a purifying and a consecration, by complete immersion, or submersion in water, in a SPIRITUAL aspect.
Yeshua was consecrated, anointed, not in baptism as you, or Christianity understands it.

Seeker

Darrel would this not refer to the temporal and permanent words. Born in one to grow into the other. In which case some connection between the two would be needed. To measure and guide… Feed and Heal…