The Fall

 

Original Sin, Hugo Van der Goes, late 1400's

It has been quite a long time since I posted one of the Bible study lessons!  I have been thinking about it, though, quite a lot and now I feel ready to discuss the second part of my lesson on the Fall of Adam and Eve--the nature of the temptation.  Why did Eve eat the forbidden fruit and succumb to Satan's suggestions to turn from God?  Why did Adam go along with her?   

First of all, let's look at the seven capital sins.  Sometimes called the seven deadly sins, they are really a set of attitudes that are the basis for all of the sins we commit.

A capital sin is one that is the "head" or source of many other sins.  "Capital" comes from the Latin word capitalis, meaning head, chief, or first.  From the capital sins, all other sins flow forth.  These sinful attitudes generate sinful actions.

Envy,  Hieronymus Bosch

The seven deadly sins are: pride, anger, greed, envy, sloth, lust, and gluttony.  Scripture tells us that it was through the capital sin of envy that death entered into the world, in the very first text of the Bible that equates the serpent in Genesis 3 with the devil:

For God formed us to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made us.  But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are allied with him experience it.  
                               Wisdom 2:23-24

The devil, filled with envy of God's wisdom, power, and creative glory, enters the garden and approaches Eve.  He wants what God already has:  the worship, fear, and devotion of mankind.  But God desires the glory of man, while the devil desires only his own glory, caring little for man's fate, even longing to make mankind as miserable as his own miserable self.  He is the Father of Lies (John 8:44), and so he begins his attack with an insidious lie:

 And he [the serpent] said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? Genesis 3:1

First of all, the serpent engages the woman.  He gets her wondering about the motives of God and she begins to question in her heart the reasons behind God's restrictions. She questions the goodness and love of God. She is no longer trusting God, but she is trying to understand God.  She is, in a sense, setting herself up to judge God:  Are His reasons valid? Is He right (as if God could ever possibly be wrong) in placing this restriction upon her? Is He even telling her the truth? 

Pride, Hieronymus Bosch

At this thought, pride enters into her heart.  She has placed herself in a position of superiority over God Himself; she has made Him less, and herself more.  She has usurped His authority and put in its place her own judgement and reason. She has determined that God owes her an explanation. She has doubted the truthfulness of Truth Itself.  All of these thoughts enter into her mind.  Sin begins first in the thoughts, and here Eve conceives in her mind not truth, but a lie, not humility, but pride.

So, Eve replies to Satan:

And the woman answered him, saying:  Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.  Genesis 3:2-3

It is clear that Eve knew the commands of God, and the consequences of disobedience.  And so do we.  How often do we commit sins which we not only know to be wrong, but which we know will have disastrous consequences?  We know we will suffer guilt, hurt our loved ones, damage our relationship with God, but we go ahead and disobey His commands anyway.  Aren't we really thinking, in our heart of hearts, that maybe God is wrong?  Maybe we know better than He does?   So, too, Eve has already begun to question the validity of God's commandments.  Who is God to tell her what she can and can't eat? What she can and can't do?  What she can and can't know?

Now, the devil moves in for the decisive blow:

And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3: 4-5

Pride, envy, and now greed begin to grow in Eve's heart.  You shall be as Gods!  Eve sees before her eyes the shimmering lure of being like God.  She is being "dragged away by [her] own evil desire and enticed. (James 1:14)" But, wait! Isn't she already like God?  Scripture tells us that "God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them."-Genesis 1:27 

Greed, Hieronymus Bosch

Eve  was created in the image and likeness of God, but now Satan has convinced her that she must try to somehow grab from behind God's back, as it were, that which, in fact, she already possesses.  She becomes blinded by her own prideful thoughts and greedy desires and can no longer see the blessings of God.  In truth,  the only thing she does not possess is the experience of separation from God.  The only knowledge God could not give her is the knowledge of shame, of sorrow,  and of guilt.  

 And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat.  Genesis 3: 6

The last, tragic step in the Fall occurs when Eve's thoughts and desires, her embracing of Satan's lies,  become sinful actions.  She takes the fruit and eats it.  The deed is done, and it cannot be undone until Jesus hangs suspended on the rough wood of the Cross.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;  but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  James 1:13-15 (NIV)

Eve persuades her husband Adam to join her in her disobedience.  She has moved from pride, envy, and greed, into gluttony ("fair to eat") and lust ("fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold").  I wonder if there is a hint here, also, of anger.  How did she convince Adam to eat?  Did she become angry with him?  We are not told.  But we do know, from our own experiences with sin, the compelling need a person in sin has to validate themselves by convincing others to join them in their folly.  And we know, too, how often that "convincing" takes the form of angry coercion.

We will never know what might have happened if Adam had refused to eat the fruit.  Perhaps death would not have entered the world, for we do know that it was through Adam's participation in Eve's sin that death did enter:

Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.  Romans 5:12  (emphasis added)

 Eve's fall began in her prideful thoughts and misplaced desires, then  was finalized by her sinful actions.   From being the "mother of all living", she becomes the mother of a race of men condemned from the moment of birth to a certain death. 

The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.  Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.  CCC 390 .

Thanks be to God, this is not the end of the story!  As we read through Genesis 3, we will see the great hope of a future salvation, the great promise of a Savior to come and of a new Eve who will participate in restoring what once was lost by the first Eve long ago.

The Pentateuch, Day 7: The Fall of Man

The Fall of Man, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

The Fall of Man

     There is so much to consider in Genesis 3 that I have had to break it down into three posts:  

           1.  The Ancient Serpent
           2.  The Nature of the Temptation
           3.  The Consequences of the Fall


Even these barely scratch the surface, but hopefully you will glean some insight and food for thought from these topics as we discuss them.
 

I.  The Ancient Serpent 

A few years ago, when I was out weeding in my garden, I noticed a strange shape up in one of the crabapple trees.  I went closer to investigate and I found that a large black snake had crawl up into the tree.  I was startled to find this snake draped along the branch;  why was it there?  Three large lumps that ranged down its body and an empty robin's nest at the end of the branch told the tale.  The snake had climbed the tree in order the eat and destroy the robin's eggs.  

In Genesis 3, we also see a snake in a tree.  This snake is attractive and does not seem to be very intimidating;  it is persuasive and does not seem to be evil.  The next time this same word for serpent is used in Scripture is in the Revelation to St. John. When we see this serpent again in the last pages of the New Testament, it's true nature is fully revealed.  It has grown to enormous proportions and is a being of unimaginable wickedness, cruelty, rebellion, and evil.  Not only is the serpent's identity as the Evil One clear, but its purpose and plan are plainly seen.  It is intent upon only one end--destroying Christ:

And another portent appeared in heaven;  behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.  His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.  And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron...Rev 12:3-5

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman, William Blake

Genesis uses the image of the serpent to portray the deadly evil lurking in the trees of the Garden of Eden.  This serpent is intent on one thing--the destruction of the children of Eve.  More specifically, the destruction of the Son who will be descended from Eve and will ultimately defeat him.  He climbs into the tree, just as the snake in my garden did, to devour Eve's offspring.  If he can tempt her to sin, then he can introduce sin and selfishness into the world and, he hopes, eventually destroy the possibility of the Messiah's birth.

It is interesting that the serpent is portrayed as "subtle", in fact, "more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made." In the ancient world, the serpent was usually a symbol of wisdom and healing.  The great statue of Athena in the Parthenon in Athens was accompanied by a large serpent (just to the left of her shield).  The healing god Asklepius also was depicted with  (or even sometimes as) a serpent  Even today we see this positive representation of serpents  in the caduceus, which is a commonly used symbol of medicine.

In the surrounding Sumerian culture, snakes were also worshipped.  The god Ningizzida, who was a Sumerian god of the underworld, was represented as two snakes entwined around a rod.  His name means literally, "lord of the good tree".  Perhaps it is an echo of the true memory of man's original encountered with the serpent that in these and in many mythologies the snake is associated with a tree of some kind.

In the Hebrew writings, however, the snake is not a positive element. It is not wise, it is subtle.   It is deceitful, a bringer of temptation and death.  It is a usurper of God's rightful place, persuading Eve to turn from her proper relationship with God.  It speaks with a wisdom which is not from God and which ultimately, fueling our pride and rebellion, leads to rupture in our relationship with God and to death.  Throughout the Bible this worldly wisdom, which counsels us to seek fame, glory, and power of various kinds for ourselves, is contrasted with the "foolishness" of God, which calls us to lay down our very lives for the sake of others:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God..  For it is written,  
     "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
     and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart."

Where is the wise man?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe...we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men... Let no one deceive himself.  If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.  For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."  --I Cor 1:18-25; I Cor 3:18

So, the pagans who surrounded Israel deified snakes, seeing in them the source of that wisdom which would bring them power and domination over their fellow man and would make them craftier even than the gods.  In the Hebrew Torah, however, the true nature of this deceiver is portrayed, along with the real consequences of rebellion against the God of Life.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed?  The end of those things is death...For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of god is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Rom 6:20-21, 23 

To deify means to exalt something or someone to the position of a god, to imbue them with god-like qualities and powers.  It comes from the Latin words deus, meaning "god, and facere, which means "to make."


The Church teaches us that behind this "wisdom" and these serpent images lies a reality--a spiritual being who is himself in rebellion against God:

The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God:  "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing." (Lateran Council IV)--CCC 391

These defiant angels rose up against God, attempting to be like God and assume His power and reign.  St. Michael, whose very name means "Who is like God?", defeated Satan and his minions and cast them out of heaven.  These rebellious angels, which we call demons, continue to "act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus"--CCC 395.  But their power is limited and they can only operate in the world by permission of the Divine Providence, which "with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history.  It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but 'we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him."--CCC 395

 

Altarpiece of St. Michael defeating Lucifer,  Gerard David

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

'"May prayer strengthen us for the spiritual battle we are told about in the Letter to the Ephesians: 'Draw strength from the Lord and from His mighty power' (Ephesians 6:10). The Book of Revelation refers to this same battle, recalling before our eyes the image of St. Michael the Archangel (Revelation 12:7). Pope Leo XIII certainly had a very vivid recollection of this scene when, at the end of the last century, he introduced a special prayer to St. Michael throughout the Church. Although this prayer is no longer recited at the end of Mass, I ask everyone not to forget it and to recite it to obtain help in the battle against forces of darkness and against the spirit of this world."'--Blessed John Paul II

Next lesson:  The Nature of  the Temptation

The Pentateuch, Day 6: The Sacrament of Matrimony

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Illuminated Manuscript

The Sacrament of Matrimony

I.  God Instituted Matrimony

 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it..." Genesis 1:27-28

Here, in the very beginning of all things, we see God instituting the first sacrament, the sacrament of marriage.  Marriage is a primordial sacrament, for not only is it the first instituted chronologically, but it is foundational in a very real and tangible sense to all the other sacraments.  In bringing forth children from their union, Adam and Eve will participate in bringing forth their own Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Without their faithful participation in the sacrament of matrimony,  there would be no need for or possibility of the other six sacraments.

[ETA:  When I say "no  need for", I do not mean that Adam and Eve did not need redemption. If the ravages of sin only affected them, Christ would still have died to redeem them, and they would still have need of the Holy Eucharist, Baptism, Confession, etc.   I mean instead was that there would be no other people who would need the sacraments...because there would just be no other people at all! To avoid confusion, I deleted "no need for" above.]

Scripture presents marriage in the very beginning as an integral part of our human nature and purpose. When God created us, male and female, he willed marriage and family as positive goods and as institutions that would reflect His glory, help us understand our relationship to Him and our final destiny in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and fulfill His plan for the entire human race:

Blessed John Paul II

Willed by God in the very act of creation, marriage and the family are interiorly ordained to fulfillment in Christ and have need of His graces in order to be healed from the wounds of sin and restored to their "beginning", that is, to full understanding and the full realization of God's plan. --Familiaris Consortio, 3

Marriage is not only a participation in God's beautiful plan of salvation, but it is also the God-ordained institution that mirrors and reflects the image of the communion of Persons and the life-giving love which is the Triune God.  When we think about comparing a family to the Trinity, let us remember that this is not a comparison that is "made up" by the Church, or stumbled upon as a teaching tool by Christ, or thought up in a fit of inspiration by some theologian.  God created marriage to PURPOSELY image Himself...we are made "in His image and likeness"...and also to INTENTIONALLY image His Church's relationship with Him.  I think this is an important point to bear in mind!  Marriage as an image of God and as a type of the relationship of the Church to her Lord and Bridegroom is part of the original plan of God, not a later human-invented institution.

The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been establihed by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws...God himself is the author of marriage.  Gaudium et spes, 48

 The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator.  Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures...God who created man out of love also calls him to love--the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being...Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. ---CCC 1603-1604

The Marriage of Joseph and Mary.

II.  Unity and Procreation

When God instituted marriage, He intended it to fulfill two essential purposes.  The first was to create a community of love and self-giving that imaged Himself :

God is love and in Himself He lives a mystery of personal loving communion.  Creating the human race in His own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion.  Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.-- Familiaris Consortio, 11


Secondly,  the marriage union is ordained to bring forth new life.  The married couple participates with God in the creation of a new human being.  The marital act generates the body of the new person, and God Himself creates a new soul (the souls of children do not pre-exist the conception of their bodies) to indwell the body. Scripture consistently refers to children as a "blessing"; they are never seen in a negative light:

Lo, sons are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
                are the sons of one's youth.
                Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them!
                                                                           --Ps 127:3-5  

In our modern day Western culture, children are often seen as a burden, an added cost and responsibility which can be avoided by the use of contraceptives.   This is contrary to the teachings of the Church and to Catholic understanding.  In the Catholic understanding,  each and every marital act is to be open to life.  The purpose of unity can not be separated from the purpose of procreation, for both purposes together image and glorify God. 

By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory.--CCC 1652

Pope Paul VI, in the encyclical Humanae Vitae, clarified and reiterated the teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to contraception.  In this great teaching, he states:

The sexual activity, in which husband and wife are intimately and chastely united with one another, through which human life is transmitted, is, as the recent Council recalled, "noble and worthy.''  It does not, moreover, cease to be legitimate even when, for reasons independent of their will, it is foreseen to be infertile. For its natural adaptation to the expression and strengthening of the union of husband and wife is not thereby suppressed. The fact is, as experience shows, that new life is not the result of each and every act of sexual intercourse. God has wisely ordered laws of nature and the incidence of fertility in such a way that successive births are already naturally spaced through the inherent operation of these laws. The Church, nevertheless, in urging men to the observance of the precepts of the natural law, which it interprets by its constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life. --Humanae Vitae, 11.


Dear readers, each of us have two paths open before us, whatever our state in life.  The path of obedience and love, or the path of self-will and self-actualization.  The path of love will require us to die to self, to offer up our own plans and hopes to God, trusting that He is good and will ultimately bring us to a joy-filled banquet in Heaven with Him.  St. Augustine lays these two paths before us in his great work, The City of God:

Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves:  the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.  The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.  For the one seeks glory from men; the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience.  The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, "You are my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all. The one delights in its own strength...the other says to its God, "I will love You, O Lord, my strength."  --St. Augustine, The City of God, Bk XIV, ch. 28.

For us who are married, the path of love and obedience means a willingness to trust God as we choose to be open to life with each conjugal act.  

III.  Marriage Images Christ and the Church

Throughout Scripture, God will again and again use the image of marriage to communicate to His people the reality of His love and faithfulness for them, as well as to reveal to them the seriousness of their own sinfulness and faithlessness.  While we can only mention here a few of these references, as we go through the Scriptures we will see the glorious picture of Christ our Bridegroom coming into ever sharper focus until it is perfectly presented to us in the final chapters of the New Testament.  

Here are a few highlights of this imagery in the Bible:

1.  The Old Testament book of the Song of Solomon (also called the Song of Songs) tells the story of a kingly bridegroom and his lowly, but beautiful, bride.  This tale of love is intimate and touching.  And where is it set?  In a garden!  This reminds us of the Garden of Eden, where God dwelt intimately with man before the Fall, as well as of the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus submitted Himself to the ultimate sacrifice so that He could obtain us as His bride, so that we could once again enter into an intimate relationship with Him.  This relationship we have with God is so intimate that we become one with Him, a oneness mirrored by the man and wife becoming one flesh.  The Song of Solomon describes in terms we can understand how deep is the desire of  God for us, His beloved:

You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes...How sweet is your love...how much better is your love than wine!  --Song of Solomon 4:9-10 

In this inspired book, God also has the soul, represented by the bride, speak of her longing for God:

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave.  Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame.  Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.--Song of Solomon 8:6-7 

No human longing can compare with the desire God has for each soul; no human love is a great as the love He bears for you.

2.   After the days of Solomon, Israel strayed from God and began to worship the false idols of the surrounding Canaanite people.  God raised up the prophet Hosea as a sign to His people of His unfailing loving-kindness and mercy.  Hosea (whose icon appears at the left) was commanded by God to take a prostitute as a wife.  She was unfaithful to Hosea, and yet Hosea continued to love and support her, even when she did not know who was providing the money for her food and clothing. Through the life and words of this prophet, God called His people to repentance and to return to their nuptial relationship with Him:

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.  Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, "Take away all iniquity, accept that which is good and we will render the fruit of our lips"...I [God] will heal their faithlessness; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.  I will be as the dew to Israel; he shall blossom as the lily, he shall strike root as the poplar, his shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon.  They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden...--Hosea 14:1-7

God longs for His Bride as a loyal husband longs and prays for the return of an unfaithful wife; there is no sin too great for Him to forgive.  His mercy and faithfulness are unfailing.

3.  The last image of God as the Bridegroom we shall consider today is from the New Testament.  In Revelation, we see fully revealed the ultimate plan of God.  Here, in technicolor, is the fulfillment of all the types and of all the images that God presented in a hidden way throughout the ages.  The sacrament of marriage is shown to be a sign pointing forward to the marriage of Christ and His Bride, the Church:

And I [John] saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men.  He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them.--Revelation 21:2-3 

 Throughout Scripture,  Christ is again and again revealed as the loving Bridegroom, the One Who at any price will redeem His bride, willing to suffer even death so that she could be holy as He is holy, and so enter into union with Him.  The sacrament of matrimony, faithfully lived out with the strength His grace gives us,  testifies to the world of His Love, His Sacrifice, and His Life.  

How can I ever express the happiness of the marriage that is joined together by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels and ratified by the Father? !!! How wonderful the bond between two believers, with a single hope, a single desire, a single observance, a single service! They are both brethren and both fellow servants; there is no separation between them in spirit or flesh. In fact they are truly two in one flesh, and where the flesh is one, one is the spirit--Tertullian

Main Idea:  The sacrament of matrimony was instituted by God for the purposes of unity and procreation; it is a sign pointing ultimately to Christ's union with His Bride, the Church.

Your Assignment

1.  Read Genesis 3.

2.  Take some time this week to make a list of all of the qualities you admire in your spouse.  When you are tempted to think critical or negative thoughts, read the list and choose one positive trait to think about instead.

3.  If you have time, or maybe someday in the future, read Blessed John Paul II's encylical Familiaris Consortio.  It is an insightful and inspiring work on the beauty, purpose, and value of marriage and family life.

Next lesson:  The Fall 

Giveaway!

Giveaway!

     In honor of my 100th post, I am sponsoring a giveaway here at my blog.  Leave a comment below to enter or email me with your information.  Be sure I have contact info for you so I can contact you if you win!  I'd especially appreciate it if you have read any of the posts and could leave me feedback on how they might be improved to meet your needs/wants.  I am giving away a copy of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Genesis.  This fantastic resource will really help you go into Genesis in more depth!


The contest will be open until midnight, April 23rd.  I will announce the winner on Wednesday, April 27th.  Hope it's you! 

The Pentateuch, Day 5: Creation of Man

A modern icon of the Creation of Man (Russian Orthodox)

The Creation of Adam and Eve
     
We could spend weeks, months, even years on the first chapter of Genesis, but we have decided that this is an "overview" and so we must move forward.  Before we discuss the account of the creation of man, let's take a moment to put man's creation in its ordered place within the entire breadth of God's works.

One way to think about God's work of creation is to divide it into three stages.  Initially,  God creates formless matter in a formless void.  Then,  during the first three days, this totally formless void was partitioned in three, creating the vastness of space, the firm land of the earth, and the depths of the sea.  During the last three days, God "adorned" His creation.  First, He created the sun, moon, and stars for the heavens,  secondly, birds for the air and fish for the sea, and thirdly, animals and man for the land.

St. Thomas Aquinas

 
     ...three things are recorded as created, namely, the heaven, the water, and the earth; and these three received their form from the three days' work of distinction, so that heaven was formed on the first day, on the second day the water were separated, and on the third, the earth was divided into sea and dry land.  So also is it in the work of adornment:  on the first day of this work, which is the fourth of creation, are produced the lights, to adorn the heaven by their movements; on the second day, which is the fifth, birds and fishes are called into being, to make beautiful the intermediate element for they move in air and water, which are here taken as one; while on the third day, which is the sixth, animals are brought forth, to move upon the earth and adorn it.--Summa Theologica, I, Q.70, Art. I

Creation of the World, Giusto de Menabuoi

Thus, St. Thomas helps us to place man in his proper role as the climax and final adornment of all of God's natural, visible creation.  Man is, as Venerable John Paul II has said, "the crown of creation...the creature made in [God's] own image" (Dies Domini, 11).








The Image and Likeness of God
     
Scripture recounts two different versions of the creation of man.  We will not consider here why there might be different accounts, but it is good to notice that each account has a slightly different focus.  The first account, in Genesis 1, gives a brief statement of man's creation which highlights man's relationship to God and to the rest of the natural world.  It also focuses light on the common humanity of man and woman, revealing them to be both the same kind of being.  Unlike the surrounding cultures which thought male and female to be different and even opposed, here we see that both are fully human, both are created "in God's own image."

Guetenberg Bible

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it,  and have dominion over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves upon the earth.--Genesis 1:27-28 

The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

 In what way is man created in the "image and likeness" of God?  This expression highlights for us the uniqueness of man.   He is not an animal; there is a definite distinction between Adam and the animals:

Of all the visible creatures only man is "able to know and love his creator."  He is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake," and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life.  It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity:

St. Catherine of Siena

What made you establish man in so great a dignity?  Certainly the incalculable love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself!  You are taken with love for her;  for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being capable of tasting your eternal Good.--Dialogue 4, 13 "On Divine Providence" --CCC 356


Adam and Eve are created by God as a father creates his son.  We read in Genesis 5:3 this use of "image":  

Gutenberg Bible

When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

So we see the words "image" and "likeness" here associated with the notion of sonship--Adam is God's son; his relationship to God shall be as the loving, mutually self-giving relationship of a father to his son.  Because he is the son of God, Adam is given a sort of royal dominion over creation.  Man's unique relationship to God gives him a dignity which can not be defaced and is the basis of the Church's teachings on the sanctity of human life.  

Male and Female He Created Them

Garden of Eden, Jacob de Baker

In the second account of the creation of man,  we are given much more detail about the creation of woman and the relationship of man and woman.  In this account, the inspired author uses many symbols to convey the holiness of man's original state of blessedness.  Man is given an elevated relationship with God which places him in the role of mediator between the earth and its creatures and God.  Adam is, in essence, the first High Priest of the human race.


"The setting is the garden of Eden, which represents the state of grace.  Man, who is created outside the garden, is placed there by God (2:8) to show that he is raised to a level of divine blessedness that is above his natural state (CCC 374-78).  The sacredness of this original situation is underscored by indications that Genesis imagines paradise as a primeval sanctuary.  Like the Tabernacle and Temple of later times, the garden is (1) entered from the east (3:24;  Ex. 27:13; Exek 47:1), (2) home to angelic guardians called cherubim (3:24; I Kings 6:23-28, (3) adorned with trees (2:9; Josh 24:26; 1 Kings 6:29-32), (4) the source of sacred waters (2:10; Ezek 47:1-12; Joel 3:18), and (5) the place where God dwells with his people on the earth (3:8; Lev 26:12; 2 Sam 7:6)"--Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Genesis, p. 20

In this second account, we see not only the relationship of Adam to God and to creation, but also the relationship of Eve, mother of all living, to Adam:

Gutenberg Bible

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." ...So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  Then the man said,
     "This at last is bone of my bones,
          and flesh of my flesh;
       she shall be called Woman,
          because she was taken out of Man."
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.  And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.--Genesis 2:18, 21-25

 In this account, we have the foundations of the sacrament of marriage. Next lesson will discuss in more depth the sacrament of matrimony and the holy Truths it images, but perhaps this week we might just read this wonderful quote by Venerable John Paul II:

  

By reflecting on the whole account found in Gen 2:18-25, and by interpreting it in light of the truth about the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27), we can understand even more fully what constitutes the personal character of the human being, thanks to which both man and woman are like God. For every individual is made in the image of God, insofar as he or she is a rational and free creature capable of knowing God and loving him. Moreover, we read that man cannot exist "alone" (cf. Gen 2:18); he can exist only as a "unity of the two", and therefore in relation to another human person. It is a question here of a mutual relationship: man to woman and woman to man. Being a person in the image and likeness of God thus also involves existing in a relationship, in relation to the other "I". This is a prelude to the definitive self-revelation of the Triune God: a living unity in the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.--Mulieris Dignitatem, 7

What We Must Believe

The Church teaches several important points with regard to this account of the creation of man.  These are the dogmas we must hold to be true:

1. Human beings are a special creation of God; God breathed a human soul into Adam.

The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual.  The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that "then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." (Gen. 2:7)  Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.--CCC 362

2.  Woman is formed from the body of man; from his very self.

[Among the fundamental Christian teachings which must be believed by Catholics are]...the creation of all things which was accomplished by God at the beginning of time; the special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from man; the unity of the human race; the original happiness of our first parents in a state of justice, integrity, and immortality... Pontifical Biblical Commission, 1909, emphasis added.

  

3.  All humanity is descended from Adam and Eve (there are not multiple progenitors of the human race).

Pope Pius XII

For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now, it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own--Humani Generis 37 

Pope Benedict XVI

The unity of the whole human race becomes immediately apparent...We are all one humanity, formed from God's one earth.  It is precisely this thought that is at the very heart of the creation account and of the whole Bible.  In the face of all human division and human arrogance, whereby one person sets himself or herself over and against another, humanity is declared to be one creation of God from his one earth....The Bible says a decisive "no" to all racism and every human division.--In the Beginning, p. 43-44.
 

4.  Adam and Eve were created without sin.

The first man was not only created good, but was also established in friendship with his Creator and in harmony with himself and with the creation around him, in a state that would be surpassed ony by the glory of the new creation in Christ. The Church...teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice."  This grace of original holiness was "to share in ...divine life."--CCC 374-375

(Source of these dogmas:  Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Ludwig Ott)

Main lesson:  God created man and woman in a state of original innocence as bearers of His image and likeness to enter into relationship with Him.

 

Your Assignment

1.  Read Ephesians 5:21-33.  In what ways does marriage symbolize the relationship of Christ to His Church?

2.  Why is marriage considered a covenant?  What is a covenant?

3.  Reading John Paul II's words above, how do you think marriage represents the Blessed Trinity?  In what ways are marriage and the union of the Three Divine Persons analogous?

Next lesson:  The Sacrament of Marriage