Covered Grace
For Adam and for his wife the LORD God made coats of skins and clothed them. Genesis 3:21
Coats Of Skins – The Hebrew combination of labash (to clothe) and kotnot (garments) appears in other important Hebrew Scriptures. The use in these other verses suggests something quite startling about God’s provision for Adam and his wife; something that we would never imagine for two people who have just disobeyed God’s explicit command. But this is no accident. What it implies tells us a great deal about the status and role of human beings – and about what isn’t lost as a result of the fall.
Evangelical theology usually understands God’s actions as a sign of the coming sacrifice of Yeshua for forgiveness. God slays an animal in order to cover Adam and Eve. God’s act is the first sacrificial death, a life substituted in order to restore the disobedient couple. In this view, the garments are reminders of sin and the necessity of death accompanying sin. Nothing positive is associated with this act of mercy.
But when we look a bit deeper, we find something else. We find the combination of labash and kotnot in Leviticus 8:7 and 13 and Numbers 20:28. Those verses describe God’s provision of the holy garments for Aaron and his sons. In other words, this very special phrase is used exclusively for those whom God dresses as priests. Jacques Doukhan notes, “The rare occasion where God clothes humans in the OT always concerned the dressing of priests . . . Adam and Eve were, indeed, dressed as priests.”[1] When God clothed Adam and his wife, He did more than cover their nakedness. He installed them both as the world’s first priests.
Two amazing implications can be drawn from the intentional use of labash and kotnot. First, the role of Adam and Havvah as priests commissioned by God is not erased by the fall. In fact, the only thing that changes is the clothing. Once they were clothed in light and glory. Now they are clothed in the symbol of redemption – just as we are clothed in the blood of the Redeemer. But their function as priests to God isn’t abandoned as a result of their disobedience. Just think about that. What does it mean in relation to the image of God in Man?
Second, and perhaps even more importantly today, Adam and Havvah are clothed as priests. In an age where there is considerable controversy concerning the role of women in the “church,” this little insight from Genesis is incredibly important. After her disobedience, Havvah is still commissioned as a priest by God Himself. If Genesis is the foundation for our understanding of who we are and who God is, can there be anything more important than the recognition that He does not “punish” women in their role before Him? We report. You decide.
Topical Index: clothed, garments, priest, labash, kotnot, Genesis 3:21
[1] Jacques Doukhan, “Women Priests in Israel: A Case for Their Absence,” in Women in Ministry: Biblical and Historical Perspectives (Andrews University Press, 1988), p. 36.
Greetings
One point that could be interesting is how the words “light” and “garments” are related by the words “alef” and “ayin” and how this relation play a role in the interpretation of these verses.
Couple of mistakes: must be written “letters” instead of “words” And, since I don’t have my Hebrew Text at hand I think that the words relation is between “light” and “skins” instead of “garments.”
Thank you….
Hi Skip,
Amazing that this is today’s word, as my husband and I were studying this last night!!! Great timing! Jewish writings seem to suggest that this was not ‘sheep skin’, and if it is a priestly garment, then it wouldn’t be wool. We were reading Rashi, who says “shirts of skin: Some Aggadic works say that they were as smooth as fingernails, fastened over their skin (Gen. Rabbah 20:12), and others say that they were a material that comes from the skin, like the wool of rabbits, which is soft and warm, and He made them shirts from it (Gen. Rabbah ad loc., Sotah 14a).” And Sarna says that the Targum suggests that it was the slough of the serpent. I know you’ve studied Sarna at great depth and would be grateful for any insights. Also, I was wondering if there was anything in the pictographs that would give us any clues? Thanks for all you do! Tara
Hi Tara,
I have been trying to remember Sarna’s name for some time; thanks for reminding me!
Skip mentioned his name one time and when I looked him up in Wiki I was very impressed by some of his concepts, which were new to me.
Speaking of names, your name is not that common; have you ever worked on Service Provider technology?
Mike
There was never any indication that an animal had been sacrificed. Some time ago it came to me that Adam & Chava were light beings in the garden of Eden. Perhaps, when they fell they lost their light and the coats of skin Elohim made to cover them was human flesh.
Hello!
The light was not lost, it is just cover with our skin. We can find this perspective in Sefer Ha Zohar. There we can find that when Adan sinned, his garment of light (“Or”, in Hebrew, written with alef, vav, resh) is transformed in a body or “skin garment” written with ayin instead of alef (ayin, vav, resh). Interestingly, “Or”, (ayin, vav, resh) when is written with ayin also means “blind.”
Very interesting Yishmael. I have purposefully avoided Kabbalah so as not to be influenced by its teachings. I have just immersed myself in Torah for the past 6 years after a near fatal horseback riding accident. I had one of those near death experiences–14 pelvic fractures, both broken hip joints, fractured sacrum and internal injuries. Young horse I was training reared up and flipped over and came down on me. After the accident I became obsessed with the Torah. I was bed ridden and found it was the only thing that calmed my post traumatic stress syndrome. I was laid up for almost a year. Since that time, while studying the Scriptures, I believe Elohim has revealed some rather unusual and profound things. I have hesitated to share these revelations because some of them are too much to bear. One such revelation was about Adam and Chava being light beings. Others have to do with where we were with Elohim before earth was created. By the way, Adam and Chava weren’t the only ones on the holy mountain in Eden Ezk 28:13. But you knew that…
Keep on searching Robin, because Kaballah and Torah are not mutually exclusive. It is like twins brothers/sisters. May HaShem bless you!!!!
PD One more comment: Rabbi Ibn Ezra points out that Moses’ face radiated after receiving the Second Tablets, a phenomenon that did not occur with the first tablets. Moreover, Rabbi Ibn Ezra utilizes the word Zohar to describe the Light on Moses’ face.
Later on Rabi Levi Ben Gershom confirms Rabbi Ibn Ezra’s remarkable insight, Gersonides designates the illumination on Moses face as Zohar. So, too, does Rabbi Don Isaac Abarbanel, who further mentions that the word Zohar, being used for the purpose of describing the luminosity of Moses’ face, connects to a very deep secret. Finally, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi), famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentaries on the Torah, points out that the word used in the Torah to describe the veil that conceals this beaming Zoharic radiance of Moses countenance is actually an Aramaic word (masveh)–not Hebrew…This reinforces the kabbalistic though that the Zohar is none other than the Or HaGanuz (the Hidden Light) that was lost when the first Tablets shattered and the second Tablets were hidden away in the Ark of Covenant….
As a remarked to Robin’s comment, this idea depends on adoption of the mystical interpretation that supports it. The ancient documents of Genesis Rabba and the Sotah do not suggest such a view. It seems to me that one of the real difficulties of this position and the tradition that generates it is the necessity of embracing a theory of interpretation that is not commensurate with the plain reading of the text. In other words, such a tradition assumes that the Word of God cannot be properly understood by the ordinary man but must be apprehended by those who have been illuminated with this deeper view. This smacks of gnosticism and makes the Word inaccessible to the ordinary person. Furthermore, it violates the first principle of hermeneutics – what did the words mean to the audience that first heard them.
While the text does not directly suggest animal sacrifice, the use of kutonet does suggest clothing, not loss of “light.” It seems to me that the interpretation of light as the original covering depends on a commitment to mystical tradition and is not obvious from the plain reading of the text. In fact, kutonet is found often in Scripture for a kind of shirt generally made of wool or linen. The idea of “light” being is fascinating, but maybe it reads too much into this verse.
“Adam and Eve were, indeed, dressed as priests”
Some old philosopher once said that only the rational is real and that only the real is rational.
The statement above does not seem rational to me. Seems to me that:
– before the fall Adam and Eve were naked and after the fall they were clothed
– before the fall Adam and Eve were innocent and after the fall they were guilty
– before the fall Adam and Eve were in paradise and after the fall they were not in paradise
For me it does not make sense to say that before the fall they were laymen and after the fall they were priests.
Aaron was an extremely articulate and powerful man; Adam was an inarticulate fool.
The one thing Havvah has going for her is that she is the mother of all Levites.
According to the Bible as I understand it, you must from the family of Levi to be a priest.
Rabbis, Priests, and Other Religious Functionaries
Level: Basic
Rabbi: Teacher and decider of matters of religious law
Chazan: Cantor, who leads congregation in prayer
Gabbai: Volunteer who assists with Torah readings
Kohein: Descendant of Aaron, the original High Priest
Levi: Descendant of the biblical Levites
Rebbe: The leader of a Chasidic communith
Tzaddik: A righteous person with spiritual power
Rabbi
CORRECTION
I was thinking Rabbis were priests, but apparently they are not. And it was the kohein (Cohens) who descended from Aaron, the first priest. I guess it was the Rabbis who descend from the tribe of Levi. I found the following info from content related to 613:
A rabbi is not a priest, neither in the Jewish sense of the term nor in the Christian sense of the term. In the Christian sense of the term, a priest is a person with special authority to perform certain sacred rituals. A rabbi, on the other hand, has no more authority to perform rituals than any other adult male member of the Jewish community. In the Jewish sense of the term, a priest (kohein) is a descendant of Aaron, charged with performing various rites in the Temple in connection with religious rituals and sacrifices. Although a kohein can be a rabbi, a rabbi is not required to be a kohein.
A rabbi is simply a teacher, a person sufficiently educated in halakhah (Jewish law….
Let me suggest some clarification. First, the philosophical claim that only the rational is real might be true, but it cannot be the exclusive standard of reality from a human perspective. Why? Because we don’t have all the facts. We don’t have all the facts about anything. Our rationality is limited by the finite nature of being human, so even if only the rational is real, we are not in a position to determine what the rational really is. Our situation is like the scientists who claimed that the atom could never be split since it was the smallest building block of all matter. It seemed very rational – until Hiroshima.
Now, what about the idea of being a priest. Well, there is more than one kind of priest. After all, not everyone in Israel is a Levite yet all of Israel is called a “nation of priests.” The distinction between “layman” and “priest” is a Christian anachronism and is not part of the Hebrew idea of priesthood. Being a priest means being an intercessor, and that applies to all those who stand between God and someone else. So, the Levities are priests before God as intercessors between God and His people, but everyone called into the Kingdom is a priest between God and the goyim (the pagans). In the same way, Adam and Havvah can be priests between God and the earth. Their job of acting as His regents in the world does not change because of the fall. They are still commanded to fill the earth, subdue it and act as stewards. Only now that prime directive must be accomplished in the midst of ‘atsav (sorrow). The distinction between layman and priest doesn’t apply here, or anywhere else in the Bible. You must thank the Church for that mistake.
Finally, I don’t think you can claim Adam is an “inarticulate fool.” He presents a carefully considered argument to shift blame from himself to both Havvah and God. Fools are not quite so clever. That fact that his argument is fallacious does not make it inarticulate.
Hi Skip,
Thanks for the clarification. Your points are well taken.
Right now I have one copy of your book “Spiritual Restoration, Vol. 1” I would like to praise HaShem because of your spiritual evolution, Dr. Moen. Why I’m writing these sentences? Well, because I’m comparing what you wrote in pages 77-78 with the content of this message. I really enjoy this contrast. Praise be HaShem.
Hello
These two letters alef and ayin, which have the same phonetic origin in our vocal organs, are like light (the alef) and the vessel that contains that light (the ayin). The most explicit example of this relationship is found in the verse, “God made Adam and his wife clothing of skin.” But the sages relate that in the Torah scroll written by Rabbi Meir, one of the greatest sages of the Mishnaic period, this verse was written as, “God made Adam and his wife clothing of light.” In Hebrew, “skin” (עוֹר ) and “light” (אוֹר ) have the same relationship as omer (עֹמֶר ) and “utter” (אֹמֶר ). “Skin” begins with the letter ayin and “light” begins with the letter alef. Rabbi Meir’s variation on this verse suggested that had Adam and Eve not transgressed God’s commandment not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, their skin would have appeared radiant, allowing the inner light of the soul to luminously be seen through it (and so it was indeed before the primordial sin).
What we called today mystical interpretation of the Torah is what belongs to the fourth level of Pardes: Sod (Secret). Kaballah is to Torah what Philosophy is to Science.
Blessings to all….
“Kaballah is to Torah what Philosophy is to Science.”
Hi Yishmael,
I like your comparisons and was just thinking about them while walking my dog Max.
From a laymen’s perspective, and just for fun, I would say that science is the most “objective” of the four subjects, but as the sub-atomic physicists tell us, even science must account for a certain amount of its own subjective impact on the object of knowledge; because our consciousness of physical reality changes physical reality, at least in mathematical terms.
By the same token, I would say that the Kaballah is the most “subjective” of the four subjects, and that it seems to seek satisfaction in the pure play of consciousness, recognizing patterns in flows of information and experience; in many ways analogous to art or fiction.
my 2 cents
Quite interesting!!! One more point: every human being define his/her reality based on its own level of consciousness.
Shalom Michael
–the LORD God made coats of skins and clothed them–
Thank you LORD G-d. for the covering You provided for the created ones. Thank you Father for the atonement you gave.
Hi again,
Found this link whilst doing some more reading, thought it might be of interest. http://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/48936397.html
Hi Michael – Just to answer your question, no, I’ve never worked in Service Provider technology (I hope my name sake was helpful!!)
Hi Tara,
Okay thanks! BTW I just applied for a job, which must be related to the service provider industry because one of the requirements was knowledge of Google’s Android.
Don’t know much about Google’s Android, but I did work on Mobile Devices with Tara at VeriSign on a part time contract about this time last year, until they sold the service provider piece of the business to another company which looks like it could be this one.
Too bad you’re not the same Tara 🙂
I read the info on your link and always like to read about the girdles. It reminds me of the scene in Cat Ballou, where Lee Marvin makes his ritual transformation from alcoholic bum back into a true hero/gun-fighter. He prefigures the early Clint Eastwood movies. But very funny 🙂
PRIESTLY GARB
There is, however, another usage of the term k’tonet — in relationship with the priestly garb:
And for Aaron’s sons you shall make coats, and you shall make for them girdles, and turbans shall you make for them, for glory and for beauty. And you shall put them upon Aaron your brother, and his sons with him. And shall anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister to Me in the priest’s office. (Exodus 28:40-41)
Another example Steven is said “his countenance was radiant” a few verses before he was stoned….Is this something about constantly being in the presence of YHWH ( he also saw Yahshua at YHWH’S right hand before death) Yahshua also had a shiny countenence when he came down from the mountain….of couse Moses also…a connection here…. when/ if we learn how to stay in YHWH’S presence
( every thought into captivity, will we shine also ….if /when we can do this?are we able to stay in his presence will we also “shine countenence”?