In his book The Temple and the Church’s Mission
(IVP/Apollos, 2004), G. K. Beale argues that the Garden of Eden was the
“first archetypal temple.” He provides 14 conceptual and linguistic
parallels between Eden and future tabernacle/temple structures. My brief
summary:
1. The Garden as the unique place of God’s presence. Eden was the place where God walked back and forth with man, paralleled this with later references to the Tabernacle (Gen. 3:8 with Lev. 26:12, Deut. 23:14; 2 Sam. 7:6–7).
2. The Garden as the place of the first priest. Adam was placed in the garden to “cultivate and keep it” (Gen. 2:15).
Taken alone, “cultivation” has obvious agricultural meaning. But this
pair of terms (“cultivate/keep” also translated “serve/guard”) is used
elsewhere in the OT to describe the work of the priest (Num. 3:7–8; 8:25–26; 18:5–6; 1 Chr. 23:32; Ezek. 44:14). Thus “the task of Adam in Genesis 2:15
included more than mere spadework in the dirt of a garden. It is
apparently that priestly obligations in Israel’s later temple included
the duty of ‘guarding’ unclean things from entering (cf. Num. 3:6–7, 32, 38; 18:1–7),
and this appears to be relevant for Adam, especially in view of the
unclean creature lurking on the perimeter of the Garden and who then
enters” (p. 69).
3. The Garden as the place of the first guarding cherubim.
After sin was introduced into the garden, Adam and Eve are barred from
the tree of life by cherubim. This reveals that Adam’s work included
more than gardening—he was to protect the garden from evil and
uncleanness. (Gen. 3:24 with Ex. 25:18–22; 1 Kgs. 6:29-35, 8:6–7; Ezek. 28:14–16, 41:18). Keep Reading...
No comments:
Post a Comment