Character of Adam (Genesis 1-3)

Intro to the Old Testament

Historical

• Adam (about 4000 BC)
• Noah
• Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (about 2000 BC)
• Joseph (takes Israel to Egypt as less than 100 people)
• Moses (takes them out of Egypt after 400 years as a half million people)
• Joshua (takes them into the Promise Land)
• Judges concluding with the last judge who is Samuel the Prophet
• People ask Samuel for a King and he gives them Saul so they become a kingdom
• Saul, David, Solomon (about 1000 BC)
• After Solomon, the kingdom is split in half (Israel in the north, Judah in the south)
• All of the kings of Israel are evil, Most of the kings of Judah are evil
• This is a time of spiritual darkness and distance from God for Israel and during this time is when God sends all the prophets to try and guide the people back (800-400BC)
• Then Israel and Judah are both taken captive – Israel by Assyria and Judah by Babylon
• After 70 years, they return and rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem
• Then there is the period of the Maccabees when a guy named Judas Maccabeus leads several revolts against the Roman empire
• The last 400 years BC are silent without any prophets and the people are eagerly waiting the Messiah
• The Old Testament concludes with the birth and ministry of John the Baptist who is the forerunner of Christ and receives Christ

Books

• Torah/Pentateuch/Books of Moses/Law of Moses – 5 books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
• History – Joshua, Judges, Ruth, ½ Samuel, ½ Kings, ½ Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Tobit, Judith, ½ Maccabees
• Prophets – 4 major, 12 minor
  • Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel
  • Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

Genesis

• Genesis is the key to understanding the rest of the Bible – in it we see the relationship of God and man, the fall of man, the plan of salvation, etc.
• Genesis is split in two parts – Ch 1-11 is called Prehistory, 12-50 History
• For easy remembering you can say 10 chapters of prehistory, 10 Abraham, 10 Isaac, 10 Jacob, 10 Joseph. Even though it’s not exactly that.
• Author is Moses – even if other scholars now have different theories, Christ Himself said the author was Moses when He quotes it and says “Moses said” or “Moses wrote”
• How did Moses know?
• Everyone back then would pass down their story to their child.
• Revelation of the Holy Spirit – Moses did not write these books alone but was guided by the Holy Spirit. We cannot say that the Holy Spirit wrote these books without Moses or that Moses wrote them without the Holy Spirit

Genesis 1

• “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
  • this is the main message or the main truth of this chapter. Some people will say “oh he said God created heaven and earth but then in verse 2 He creates heaven…” but that’s not how it works. Verse 1 is not talking about how or when or days – it’s revealing to us a truth. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
  • St John continues on the words of Moses. Moses says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and John gives us the secret behind it – Who actually made the world.
  • “In the beginning God created…” – means God was there before the beginning.
    “In the beginning was the Word” – means that the Word already existed at the beginning
  • Many people these days do not believe this one basic truth. I’ll tell you a story – a Christian guy invited over an Atheist guy for dinner. And he made him a beautiful deek roumi. And he said “let me tell you something? No one made this deek roumi.” So the guy says “what do you mean?” – “No one made it. No one cooked it or roasted it or anything.” – “Oh so you bought it from the store…” – “No I didn’t buy it, it’s just like this” – “You didn’t make it, nor your wife, nor did you buy it… you want me to believe that? That’s ridiculous!” – “You’re surprised because someone HAD to have created the deek roumi, and this whole entire universe you say that no one created it? Then your words are ridiculous.”
  • If you believe that this world was created, then there must be a creator and He must be God. Who is God? That’s what Genesis will answer for us.
• “The earth was without form, and void”
  • he is not talking about the physical earth (since that comes later) but rather the entire universe. This is all before there is heaven, earth, stars. There was nothing
• “and darkness was on the face of the deep”
  • He says something about everything Moses said, now scholars write books affirming it. For example, scholars nowadays agree that light came after water (as this verse indicates). “That by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that existed perished, being flooded with water” (2 Peter 3:5) – So this is attested to by Moses, by modern scholarship, and by St Peter
• “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
  • Water and Spirit? Baptism. In baptism, when the Holy Spirit descends on the water, new life emerges.
• “Then God said”
  • God spoke a word, and Who is the Word of God? “Co-creator with the Father” (Liturgy of St Gregory)
• “Let there be light”
  • the first thing of Creation is Light – billions of years before the land, before the Creation of the Sun even.
• “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
  • This is the reconciliation between religion and science. Religion says “God created light” – science says “light came at a certain time” – but this is the reconciliation. That God said “let there be light” and there was light. Science might say “there was light and then from the light we got planets and from those we got…” – our Bible says the same thing, but at every step it has “God said.”
• “And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
  • Since the Sun is not created yet, it cannot be that these days are 24hr. The word “day” here means “period of time” In 2 Peter, he says “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” – God’s time is different.
  • How about the words evening and morning? Scholars nowadays agree that in the history of the universe, there was probably million of years of darkness followed by millions of years of light followed by millions of years of darkness, etc.
• “Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’ Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.”
  • that means water was already there… again, scholars agree with this statement and state that water was always there
• “Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”
  • As we know today, on earth, all of the water is connected and the land seems to have come up out of it. The seven oceans are all one large body of water.
• “Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.”
  • We still don’t have a sun!!! The grass and trees were important because they release oxygen. Without them, there cannot be life (whether animals or humans).
  • The way that God created the trees is in a way that He doesn’t need to physically form each one – but each tree has fruits and those fruits have seeds and when the fruit is ripe it falls off the tree and its seeds plant a new tree. And the whole world can be populated with trees.
• “Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so.”
  • So that means there was still chaos between day and night. They needed to be divided. Instead of millions of years of darkness, millions of years of light, etc. Now we will see days, years, seasons, etc.
• “Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
  • This is a little bit of an old language to call sun the “greater light” and moon the “lesser light”
• “Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”
  • So the first of all animals were fish and sea creatures. Scientific scholarship agrees with this
  • Then there were birds
  • “Kind” refers to classifications now (kind, domain, species, etc)
  • Even within the animals, they are like the trees – they can multiply on their own
• “Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind’; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
  • Now the land animals (after the water animals)
  • Again, multiply on their own
  • Before Adam, were billions of years. Adam is the most important of all these things – and Adam is the most important to God (as the Gospel says – Adam, son of God). It’s like when a husband and wife find they are pregnant, they spend all these nine months preparing for the baby – doing a shower, getting lots of gifts, preparing the nursery, buying diapers and baby food and toys. And THEN the baby comes. The earth, sun, moon, stars, seas, plants, animals, fish were all prepared and THEN Adam was created.
  • Remember the Liturgy of St Gregory “Because of the multitude of Your tender mercies, You have brought my into existence when I was not. You have raised heaven as a roof for me, and established the earth for me to walk upon. For my sake, You have bound the sea. For my sake, You have manifested the nature of animals. You have subjected all things under my feet. You have not left me in need of any of the works of Your honor. You are He who formed me, and laid Your hand upon me, and inscribed in me the image of Your authority. You have placed in me the gift of speech, and opened for me Paradise to enjoy” – This is the story of Genesis 1 and 2 (and keeps going to Genesis 3)
• “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’”
  • Us and Our. This is interesting because Hebrew is like English where if I am speaking I will say “Let me make”
  • I cannot say, as an individual, “Let Us” or man in “Our” image. So we see the Trinity right here in Genesis 1.
  • The image and likeness of God was not mentioned in any other Creation
• “’let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
  • So God created man as having dominion over all animals and earth. God created man as king over all of creation. Nowadays, people are scared of animals – scared of a mouse! But back then, man had dominion.
• “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
  • This is very hard to understand, but St Paul helps when he writes “[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:15) – St Athanasius says it too
  • Who is older? Adam or Christ?
    • Christ, of course, in His divinity and timelessness.
    • But, in the flesh, Adam is older
  • But God, in His foreknowledge, knew how Christ would be incarnate, and so created Adam in the image of Christ. We usually say “Christ came in the image of Adam (of man)” but in reality, Christ is older and Adam was created in the image of Christ.
  • This is why St Paul always juxtaposes Adam and Christ
  • We call Christ the Second Adam
  • As Christ said “before Abraham, I AM.”
  • The image of God is more well understood in the New Testament
  • According to Our likeness
    • Likeness means “to be like” God
    • Image is different from likeness... image is what leads to likeness. We want to obtain His likeness.
    • When sin entered, it messed up the path to likeness. But the image was still there!
  • Why does he repeat it three times? “Let Us make man in Our image... so God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
    • This is something really big; really important
    • There is a fundamental difference between animals and humans, and this is it. So is it possible for animals to become human? How can an animal which was not created in the image of God become a human? Impossible.
    • Science rejects the idea of evolution of animals to humans. That’s why it’s still called “Theory” of Evolution.
    • Man alone is son of God, in the image of God
  • “male and female He created them” - creation of female was not an afterthought. It wasn’t a mistake. Moses is telling us “mankind” means male and female. Later he will explain to us HOW God made woman out of man, but for now he is affirming that male and female are part of the original design for mankind.
• "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food’; and it was so.”
  • This is one similarity between man and animals... “be fruitful and multiply” so you might say man is an animal... but the difference is the next part. “Fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over...”
  • In the Arabic/Hebrew/Greek, sometimes the “you” is plural and sometimes it’s singular... this is because Adam and Eve are two people, but because of marriage they are one flesh... similar to the Trinity. Three in one. And if you want to understand the Trinity, love your wife!
• “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
  • We can contemplate on nature and see God’s beauty and artistry, but if we contemplate on mankind, and look into ourselves we see that God is even more beautiful than we can know
• “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.”
  • From the perspective of creation, Creation is done. But from the perspective of progression, of course the creation will continue to grow and prosper and move around etc.
• “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”
  • Sabbath
  • The important word is “ended His work”
  • What is “Rested” - did God get tired? Everything the Bible told us is “God said” - did He get tired of talking? Of course not. Rested means “rejoiced” or “celebrated” - He stopped the work of Creation and started the work of Shepherding. So the day of the Sabbath is a day of God’s rejoicing and celebrating in His creation, and when does that day end? It doesn’t. We are living in the seventh day. See how long it has been since Adam? We’re still in the same day!
  • Moses will come and say “Keep the Sabbath holy” - what does that mean? Did God get tired? No! He is happy with mankind! So when Christ came and saw that the Jews understood it wrong, He said to them “My Father has been working until now, and I too am working.” (John 5:17)
  • God stopped the work of Creation because after creating man, there is nothing better! He created man in His own image! What can be better? He is happy with this and joyful in this.
  • It should have been in the OT the day that people take a day off and rejoice in God and pray and thank God. But the Jewish changed the Sabbath to be a day of work – working hard to not do any work.
  • When Christ healed on the Sabbath, He began the process of breaking the laws of man (of Pharisees) to restore the Sabbath to its former glory – a day of rejoicing.
    • “And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.” (Mark 3)
    • “Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” And they could not answer Him regarding these things.” (Luke 14)
    • Christ tried to appeal to their humanity – most of the Jews thought “Saturday Sunday any day of the week just heal him” and rejoiced when he was healed, but the Pharisees were mad.
    • Which of you if your ox fell would stop and think about the Sabbath or not the Sabbath? No one! Same when I see my children in pain
  • Mankind instead of making God happy and giving God rest on the Sabbath, he made God sad. So God told him fine – keep the Sabbath holy and I will fix your mistake.
  • The Prophecies say “in that day in that day” - Psalms talk about another day - “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” - but the Sabbath did not have rejoicing or being glad back then – it was a day of remembering sin, death, our problem. So the Sabbath had an issue – it was the day that sin and death entered the world. So God sent the Second Adam to give us a new day, a new creation, and a new celebration. So Saturday has rejoicing in the Creation, but sorrow over the entrance of death. And Sunday has rejoicing in God and His economy of salvation.
  • Coptic rite says – no prostrations or abstinence on Saturday and Sunday... why? Because Saturday and Sunday are days of rejoicing. Rejoicing in the Creation, rejoicing in the economy of salvation.
• “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
  • So the Seventh day God rested FROM Creation but He did not rest from the Shepherding of His people. Like a mother who after she gives birth she rests – she rests from pregnancy, but she has not rested from motherhood. She will still take care of her new baby.

Genesis 2

• “This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created”
  • So now Moses is going to review with us the Creation, but in a summarized way while also giving us some different details
• “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens”
  • This confirms for us that a “day” is not 24hr period. Because he JUST said that it was six days and now he’s saying “the day” – so it confirms for us that the word “day” just refers to a period of time
• “before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground”
  • So here we are getting a detail we didn’t have in chapter 1 - that the plants came and there wasn’t any rain yet
  • And the Fathers take this verse from a spiritual perspective – that if you want to bear fruit in your spiritual life, it requires rain from heaven (God’s grace) and it requires hard work on your part. Both are needed. So the rain symbolizes the grace of God coming from heaven and the tilling the ground represents man’s hard work.
• “But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground”
• “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being”
  • So in chapter 1 the focus was on God’s image – but now it’s the how. HOW did God create Adam.
  • Adam came from the dust of the ground and this is important for later
  • All animals came from the dust of the ground but only Adam received the breath of life from God. So even if Adam has similarities with animals (created from dust of the ground, called to multiply and fill the earth), there is still a fundamental difference (breath of life, image of God).
  • “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam was a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45)
    • There is a first Adam and a last Adam
    • The first Adam – his special feature is that he is a living being... he has life but in him is not the source of life. but what happened to this living being? Death entered it! So all of his children are dust and to dust they shall return.
    • The last Adam – a life-giving spirit. The authority of life is within Him. He is the source of life.
    • So we all have two origins – the dust like the animals, and the breath of life like Adam. But now we have a third origin – the spirit of God (Holy Spirit).
    • “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” (1 Corinthians 15:46-49)
• “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden”
  • Many people have argued about where Eden is, but the understanding now is that it’s in modern day Iraq near Babylon – a very fertile place, a place with lots of trees and green. Some say Eden was in heaven and Adam fell from heaven but that is not a Christian understanding. Eden was on earth and Adam was created on earth, and Adam was flesh.
  • Some people think that Marriage was the result of the fall – but that is not accurate because Adam and Eve were flesh and were called to multiply before any mention of sin. Marriage was called by God and holy (“be fruitful and multiply”) BEFORE the fall.
• “and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.”
  • God gave Adam many good things to eat
• “The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden”
  • This is the first mention of the tree of life, and the tree of life will be with us until the last chapter of the book of Revelation
  • The fact that life has a tree. Eat it and you live for eternity – don't eat it you die for eternity. Where is it? In the middle of the garden (the most beautiful part of the garden). And soon we’ll see that God does not allow them to eat from that tree after they sin. But then Christ comes and says “I came to you from heaven” - “I am the true vine” - “I am the bread of life” so those who understand will know He is the Tree of Life. And then in Revelation “You see the tree of life? It bore 12 fruits and the leaves of the tree were for healing!”
  • The Tree of Life was a symbol of Christ in the midst of the garden. Usually when we mention “in the midst” it references Christ “Emmanuel our God is now in our midst with the glory...”
  • Life is tied to the Source of Life which is Christ
• “and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
  • He doesn’t tell us where this tree was
  • Does this mean that Adam has no knowledge? Of course he has knowledge. He knows the animals and he knows their names and he knows his wife – but this tree distinguishes the knowledge of good from the knowledge of evil.
  • There is knowledge of evil that leads to death – any sin starts with the knowledge of evil.
• “Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden”
  • If you read Revelation 21, 22, you’ll find very similar imagery. A river that leads to the Tree of Life.
  • The river (water) typically represents baptism; tree of life represents Eucharist. So Adam from the beginning has the opportunity and the nomination for eternal life – baptism and Eucharist.
  • "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive” (John 7:37-39)
  • He who is searching for Adam’s river, come to Me and he will drink. And John explains it to mean the Holy Spirit
• “And from there it parted and became four riverheads”
  • Four represents four corners of the world (NSEW)
  • So this river of life will reach everyone in the world if they want to drink from it
• “The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stones are there.”
  • These represent the fruits of the Spirit – those who drink of the water will receive different virtues. Some gold, some bdellium, some onyx stones. All of these are precious stones.
• “The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.”
  • All of these are about the water reaching the whole world
• “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”
  • Adam is the one who tends and keeps the garden. It is his garden and he is like the “ruler” of the garden.
• “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
  • The first law is given here. Genesis is all “beginnings” – beginning of Creation, beginning of man knowing God, beginning of life, beginning of the law.
  • The first law is given in such an easy way… eat whatever you want… except this one tree. Sounds easy, right? And this tree brings with it a new word… evil. So far in Creation we saw that everything was good. And at the end everything was very good. But now we see this new word – evil. And unfortunately this word comes on the tail-end of the word “good.” The knowledge of good and evil. Like any sin that we do and we think it’s colorful “it has a good part and a bad part”
  • And the consequence of eating from this tree is death. So here in the beginning we see a link between the law and life. And we see it again when the man asks Christ what should I do to obtain eternal life? And Christ said “keep the law.”
  • When God gives a law, He gives it so that man can have eternal life. If Adam kept the law he would have ate from the tree of life, drank from the river and lived forever. The point of the law is not to punish those who break it. God created man to live not to die.
  • But God gave man the tree and the law so that he has free-will. He gave man free-will to reproduce. Free-will to rule the garden of Eden and name the animals. God is free and the image of God means free-will. For man to be free, he must have choices, and to have choices there must be a law. So that when man follows the law, he has responded to God’s love by his own free-will.
  • God wanted Adam and Eve to live with Him forever in the garden, eating and drinking and having kids and being happy
  • This is why Christ said “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
  • Law = Choice = Freedom = Love = Sonship
  • If he doesn’t follow the law, then he doesn’t love God and if he doesn’t love God, he separates himself from God, and if he separates from God, he separates from the Source of Life (remember that Adam did not have life on his own but from God) and this is death. Not following the law is what we now call SIN
  • God is an ocean of water. We made a hole in the sand or like a little tunnel/passage, and some water came into it. This is Adam. He has life (water). But if you took a rock and you blocked the tunnel, you block the source of the water; the source of life.
• “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone;’”
  • See how much God loves Adam? He gave Adam all these animals, and He, Himself is with Adam. God’s presence is there. And yet He says “it is not good that man should be alone?” But God – You are with Adam 24/7 and taking care of him… how is he alone? But God says “no he needs someone comparable to him. Someone of his own nature”
  • Eve was a gift from God. Marriage is a gift from God to mankind. God wanted Adam to learn sharing – sharing life, sharing garden, etc.
• “I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
  • Helper – not servant
  • Comparable – she is equal. Equal in rank, equal in value.
• “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”
  • The importance of marriage to the human nature… some may say “I don’t want to get married, I am married to my work” – but your work is not comparable to you. Adam worked in naming all the creatures, bringing each one and naming it, but the work was not enough. He needed someone comparable to him.
• “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept;”
  • Why didn’t God just create Eve out of the ground? Because God has already rested from the work of Creation! It’s the seventh day.
  • He wanted to convey the message to Adam that your wife is from you – she is a piece of you. You must love her because she is from your body.
  • If God created her from dust, she would be a separate creation. But God wanted her to be one with man.
  • Did Adam used to sleep before this? We don’t know. But this was a deep sleep so God could perform the surgery as they call it – they call it the first surgery.
• “and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.”
  • Arabic colloquial: They used to say “they took her from his ribs” because if he took her from his head, she would be “above his head” (Arabic colloquial meaning “higher than him”) and if he took her from his feet, she would be “below his feet” (ta7t regleh – Arabic colloquial meaning “lower than him” comparable to “he would walk all over her”) – but no, He took her from Adam’s rib so that she would be his equal. Neither above him, nor below him. They are equal. And the rib is closest to the heart, so she could be close to his heart and he loves her
• “Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”
  • We still do this today in the rite of the Crowning: Abouna, as ambassador or representative of Christ, takes the bride and presents her to the groom. As the hymn says “receive O bridegroom this bride who is yours, Jesus Christ has given her to you, at the hand of our father the priest he has presented her to you, and blessed you both in His holy name”
• “And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’”
  • See how the sacrament of marriage is made so clear to us from the beginning. If everyone understood this verse, there would be no marital problems.
  • If my hand is tired or injured, I’m not going to throw it away – I’m going to lift it up, treat it, care for it because it is weak or sick. If I and my wife treat each other in this way, there will be an understanding of love and unity and one-ness. We are one from the beginning from Genesis.
  • St Paul then uses this same word to describe Christ and the Church.
  • “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5:28-33)
• “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
  • Christ used this verse to defend against divorce and extended them with His own words “therefore what God has joined together let not man separate.”
  • Joined to his wife of course means physical relations, so God is blessing marital relations. Physical relations ONLY within marriage between a husband and wife
• “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
  • This is like when little children are naked – they don’t have any idea of shame, they just have an idea of love.

Genesis 3

• “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”
  • The serpent as an animal was not more cunning than other animals, but the devil used the serpent.
  • Revelation 20:2 calls Satan “that serpent of old”
• “And he said to the woman,”
  • This is the first interaction we see between man and animal; between man and devil.
  • It started with woman… why woman?
    • Because Eve was weaker?
    • Because Eve was away from her husband and the serpent took advantage?
    • Because Eve likes to talk and Adam doesn’t and the serpent wanted to talk?
    • We don’t know!
• “And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
  • First of all, the devil always starts with a lie… did God really say “don’t eat?” – God didn’t say that! God said “eat of everything except!” – but he says it in a way that makes you want to answer.
  • See how cunning the serpent is? Any response to that question would lead to more questions or continue the conversation. The only valid response would have been for her to flee!
  • When we have a thought of complaining, the best medicine is to flee. Not to dwell on it or try to answer it or try to justify it. This is why Christ said “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” – God’s law is not for discussion with the devil, with the dogs!
• “And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
• “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You shall not surely die.’”
  • He just told the woman the exact opposite of what God told them!
  • This happens to us every day
    • God says: “watch out this will make you sad” devil says “this will make you happy”
    • God says: “This leads to death” devil says “lead to death why?”
  • As soon as Eve heard this, she should have turned around. This is the opposite of what God said!
• “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
  • He made it seem as if God is afraid of Adam and Eve’s eyes being opened!
  • The devil is planting seeds of pride – pride is how the devil fell because he wanted to be higher than God. And this is how he wanted man to fall
  • Man always wants to take God’s place…
    • “I will decide what’s wrong or right”
    • “I will do” and “I will bring” and “I will take”
    • “I will run this place”
  • Three sins of man that Christ conquered at the Temptation
    • Sin of the stomach “eat it even though it’s not allowed” – “make this stone to bread”
    • Sin of the eye “woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes” – “See all these kingdoms? I’ll give them to you”
    • Sin of pride “you will be like God, knowing good and evil” – “throw yourself so the angels will catch you let the world see!”
    • Christ conquered all three whereas Adam fell in all three
• “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,”
  • Sin brings sin. Converse with the devil and you find grey areas or sin starts to look pleasant.
  • The tree was in the garden all along – how come they never saw it good for food or pleasant to the eyes?? Because there wasn’t a serpent, a complain, a temptation, a sin. This is why Christ said “the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” (Matthew 6:22-23)
  • Eve’s eye started to darken here
• “and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
  • Eve fell before Adam and Saint Paul makes this point clear (1 Timothy 2). And this is why we love and honor and venerate St Mary so highly. Because St Mary was the opposite of Eve!
  • Eve heard God’s commandment “you shall surely die” and said “ehhh serpent says I won’t.” But St Mary heard God’s commandment and said “Let it be to me according to your word”
    • And as sin entered through Eve, the incarnation and work of salvation came through St Mary
  • And we will see now how sin complicates and distorts and confuses EVERYTHING in the coming verses
• “Then the eyes of both of them were opened”
  • The devil said “your eyes will be opened!” and he said it like it was a good thing… but it was not a good thing
• “and they knew that they were naked;”
  • Their eyes started to have evil! Their simplicity as children left them.
  • There is “opening of eyes” that is good – like those who see saints or like
  • There is “opening of eyes” that is evil – to see evil everywhere… people who can find a dirty joke or make a sinful reference from any sentence
  • This is why Christ said “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin but because you see, you are guilty”
  • When their eyes were opened, they became blind – unable to see God
• “and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
  • Since then God hates the fig tree
  • They tried to solve their problem on their own with fig leaves as if these fig leaves will cover their sin – no! they are still naked! They are still blind! It’s a physical solution to a spiritual problem. It’s like trying to make the outside look good when the inside is ugly.
  • Our solution is in Christ, who is crucified to clothe us – “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27)
  • Christ cursed the fig tree – the tree that made Adam and Eve think they weren’t naked when they were naked.
• “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
  • The first time they encounter God after the fall, they hide from him… see what sin does? Before the fall, I’m sure every time they encountered God they were happy. But sin distances us from God
• “Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”
  • This is a very important question for all of us. Where are you? Are you hiding among the trees of the garden? Are you hiding behind some fig leaves? Are you hiding behind your wife? Where are you? Why don’t you want to sit with me? Why are you running from me?
  • Of course, God knows the answer. But this is the question for all of us
• “So he said, ‘I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid’”
  • Since when?
• “‘because I was naked’”
  • Since when?!?!?
• “and I hid myself.”
  • These are all the complications of sin. Sin complicates our lives. Makes us afraid of God, wanting to hide from God, gives us a feeling of nakedness.
• “And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked?’”
  • What does God want from Adam?
  • To Confess!!! Come on, confess!!! Confess and we’ll figure it out!
• “‘Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’”
  • Notice God didn’t give him the name of the tree. He gave him the law. Did you break the law? There was nothing special about that tree to make it sin – but breaking the law.
  • And all God wants is for Adam to confess. But unfortunately, Adam continues in his sin…
• “Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’”
  • A day ago you were saying “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” and now you are blaming the woman and not just the woman… the woman whom YOU gave me. He is trying to bringing God into the sin with him.
  • Before the fall, Adam loves his wife as himself and would give her everything. After the fall, he separates himself from her “the woman whom YOU gave me” and he blames her.
  • But in the New Testament we will see that the husband is the head of the wife and it is the same for Adam. Eve’s sin is not greater because she sinned first. Adam’s sin is greater because he was responsible for her – because he should have been her head and her guide to tell her “no we can’t do that” when she wanted to do something wrong. But he didn’t. This is why God went to Adam and not Eve.
• “And the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”
  • No one replies with “I have sinned forgive me” – no one is willing to take blame. Everyone is passing the blame around until it lands on the serpent
• “So the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.”
  • Serpents don’t eat dust… but who is dust? Mankind is dust! So you gave yourself to the devil, see now what the devil will do to you. And he’s about to tell man “dust you are and to dust you shall return”
• “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman,”
  • Enmity is between man and devil. Not between man and man. We should not have enmity with one another.
• “And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
  • Why didn’t He say “the seed of man?” because He will come only from woman
  • Christ will defeat the devil and sin and death
  • He who is living a spiritual and heavenly life, he will step on the serpents head. But he who lives a life in the cares of the world (i.e. his feet touching the ground), the serpent will bruise his heel.
• “To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children;”
  • Birth and reproduction was going to come either way – but here He is saying that birth will come with sorrow and conception and pain – as a reminder of sin. Sorrow because you know that you are bringing a child into death – the child that is born will grow up and die. Because she knows that death is in the world.
  • They say this is why babies cry when they are born – because they are coming into the kingdom of death. So she’s in pain and screaming and the baby is screaming and crying… and the moment of life becomes a moment of death. The moment of joy becomes a moment of sadness.
• “Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.”
  • After the fall, there is jealousy and there is envy – she wants to rule over him and he wants to rule over her. But God’s plan was not that. God’s plan was mutual love and joy and respect and equality.
• “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife,’
  • Adam’s sin was that he listened to the voice that told him to do something wrong
• “and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake;”
  • He did not curse Adam – because He loves Adam. If He didn’t love Adam He would just pronounce a curse on Adam. But what does God curse? First the serpent, then the ground.
• “In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.”
  • Every time a woman gives birth she is in pain in remembrance of the sin
  • But every time a man had to work he toiled and was in pain
  • You want to get kill this pain? Return to God and repent
• “Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.”
  • You’re no longer going to eat from the fruit of the trees that you didn’t have to work for, but now you will work and in your hard work you will get herbs with thorns and thistles
  • For Christ they made a crown of thorns and thistles (without understanding) from the ground that is cursed so that He would destroy the curse on the ground
  • When Christ was born the angels said “peace on earth” (or “peace on the ground”)
• “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken;”
  • But there are two origins! There is dust and there is the breath of life!
    • Well he already lost life with the fall
    • And now he will return to dust
• “For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
  • Signs of God’s love to them
    • He did not curse Adam or Eve – punished but not cursed
    • Sign of promise from the Seed of Eve
• “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.”
  • The name Eve “mother of all living” – even though she was giving birth to death
• “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”
  • When a father scolds his child but then takes the child in his arms and hugs them – this is what God was doing. He killed animals and took their skin to make tunics for them.
  • You can imagine Adam and Eve’s response – God do you still love us after all of this? You’re not disgusted by us? You’re still our Father?
  • God did not leave them in their nakedness. But instead showed them His love. And they saw an animal being killed instead of them and with his blood they are covered. They started to have hope – God will save us. God will fix it for us. My deeds were not enough – God will take care of it.
• “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.”
  • Has man become like God? No – but God knows evil in a way that He would never do it. But man knew evil in a way of experience.
  • So since Adam knows the way of evil, now, it would not be good for him to live forever.
• “And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”
  • Taking away the Tree of Life was a grace given by God, not a punishment. Taking it away because if Adam ate from it, he would live in death forever. But God wanted Adam to die in the flesh so that he could be saved and live forever. It was not a punishment, but a grace.
  • The same way that we do not allow someone who has not repented to receive the Eucharist. Not out of punishment, but out of grace – lest they receive it unwillingly.
• “therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
  • Like the little deacon who holds a candle next to the Eucharist these days (but of course, it should be an older deacon as if holding a sword to make sure no one who is not a Christian, and no one who was a heretic receives the Eucharist)
  • The question arises… who are the Cherubim? Where did they come from? The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings (even the word Genesis means “beginning”). So where is the beginning of the angels? When did God create angels? Many of the fathers say God created them on the first day when He created light. Since they are beings of light
• Romans 5:12-21 – now we can understand what St Paul was talking about
  • “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned –“
    • Adam messed up, sin entered world, spread to all men, all men are dead
  • “(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
    • Before Moses there was no Law, but all who sinned like Adam also receive Judgment of death. So before Moses there was sin, and after Moses there was sin.
  • “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”
    • So if by one man Adam, many died. So also by one man Christ, many will live.
  • “And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.”
  • “For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)”
    • Death reigned through Adam, life reigns through Christ
  • “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
  • “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”