Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and The Fall

Our journey through Biblical History continues. This week we focused on the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and The Fall. Readings:
  • Chronological Bible: Genesis 3:1-24
  • Isaiah 11, 65
  • The Holman Bible Atlas: "The Garden of Eden" (p.33)
  • The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History: Lesson 2 "Adam and Eve" Discussion questions
  • Genesis: Finding Our Roots: Unit 2 "Book of Adam"
  • Grapevine Studies, Adam and Eve, The Fall
  • The Victor Journey Through The Bible: The Fall (p. 12-13)
  • Adam and His Kin: Chapter 3 "The Punishment"
  • "Secular Humanism", by Natan Lawrence
  • "B'reisheet (In the Beginning)", by Natan Lawrence
  • "B'reisheet," by Carl and Julie Parker
Notebooking Pages and Discussion: Draw a picture of how you imagine the Garden of Eden to look like and a map of Eden, the garden, and surrounding lands using the information from Genesis 2:8-14. Then discuss how the rivers from Eden flowed.
Garden of Eden
A river flowed from Eden to water the garden and then parted into four rivers. In our world today, a river flows into a bigger river to become one larger river, just the opposite. A mist watered the ground in Adam's day, and in our day, the ground is watered by rain. The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden parallels the Tree of Life in Revelations.
In Revelations 22:1-2, it says,
" . . . a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb . . . and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
On page 31 in Genesis Finding Our Roots, Ruth Beechick says,
"Adam and Eve saw the Tree of Life in the beginning of time in Eden, and all the redeemed shall see it at the end of time in the holy Jerusalem."
We will know the end from the beginning if we follow the patterns given in Scripture.
Adam and Eve
"So YHVH Elohim caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh." (Genesis 2:21)
Male and female he made them. Female is neqebah from the root word naqab, meaning: to puncture, pierce, strike through. Adam is a prophetic picture of Yeshua. He was pierced for our transgressions(Isaiah 53:5)!
The Fall
Here we learn about the curse. When Adam and Eve sinned, YHVH spoke a curse over the serpent, over the man and his wife, and over the earth. From Natan's article, we studied the "Big Lie." Natan presents that all lies against the truth of YHVH (Hebrew for the "LORD") originate from the lies that the serpent seduced Adam and Eve with at the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Lies that say:
  1. Man has the right to question the Word of Elohim (God); man cannot trust it; Elohim is a liar (Gen 3:1–4). {Did God really say?}
  2. Sin (disobedience to YHVH's Word) does not result in death; i.e., there are no consequences or and there is no future accountability for our sinful actions—there is no ultimate judgment seat (Gen 3:4). {You shall not die}
  3. Man can become like Elohim (Gen 3:5). {You will be like God}
  4. Disobedience to YHVH’s Word by sinning, casting off moral restraints, rebellion against absolute anddivinely revealed truth brings enlightenment or knowledge (gnosis) and puts one on a level with Elohim (Gen 3:5). {You will see as He sees}
Because man believed the lie of the serpant:
". . . Instead of conforming their lives to YHVH’s Word, Adam and Eve conformed YHVH’s Word to suit them. They made a suit of fig leaves (a fig tree is a Hebraic metaphor for YHVH’s Torah-Word) to cover the shame of their nakedness, which was the result of their sinning. This was man’s first attempts at constructing a works-based religion . . ."
I thought it was interesting that the fig tree represents Torah (i.e., YHVH’s instructions or teachings in righteousness as given to Moses and the Children of Israel and as recorded in the first five books of the Bible). When Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their naked bodies, they were trying to take YHVH's word and "fit" it to themselves. This is not acceptable to YHVH. There is only one way for man to atone for his sins and it is found in Lev 17:11. YHVH covering Adam and Eve’s nakedness is a picture of the work of Yeshua and the cross! This coming week we will focus on Cain and Abel, Seth to Noah and Corruption of Man.

3 comments

  1. Wonderful! And very educational as well. Love it!

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  2. Wonderful! And very educational as well. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Almost all the components of the Eden myth are older than the Old Testament, having circulated in Abraham's country of Mesopotamia in the second millennium BC. They are found in some of the world's oldest literature: the Gilgamesh epic. These ancientm stories were a form of history, but had to be interpreted as myth-history, not literal truth. In the light of its origins the story of the naked couple initially recorded an important and inspirational event in the human story - an uplifting and world- changing event. See Eden: The Buried Treasure, by Eve Wood-Langford.

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