SCRIPTURE – Genesis 2:1-4
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
COMMENT
God finished his work of creation by resting on the seventh day.
Why does God rest on the seventh day?
It is not because He needs the rest but because He knows we will need it.
He becomes our Father and we become His children.
Remember our Lord said “the Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for the Sabbath”.
God blessed and made holy the seventh day.
You have to understand God’s purpose for resting.
By sanctifying or making holy, God wants us to set the seventh day apart from the other days.
God uses the seventh day to reveal to Man his ultimate destiny. Man was made on the sixth day along with all the beasts. We work like all of the animals/beasts, but unlike the rest of the animals we have been created with the capacity that is divine. We are able to pray to God, we are able to love God as children love their father.
The sixth day is not enough for us. God knows that we are not made for work but for worship. We are not made to labour or for kingly dominion. We are not made for the earth but for heaven.
The Sabbath is the seventh day and the Hebrew word for “seven” is sheba. Yet sheba stands for not only for a number. Sheba is also a verb, and it means to swear a covenant oath – literally, to “seven oneself”. (see for example Abrahams covenant oath in Gen 21:27-32) The number seven is the unmistakable sign of a covenant. With the seventh day, God was making a covenant with mankind. God took Adam and Eve into His family. God made them His children.
With this shift in relationship comes a corresponding shift in language. In the first chapters of Genesis, we read of God as “Elohim”, a formal name, usually translated into English as “God”. Elohim evokes the divine power in the act of creation. In the second chapter, however – immediately in the wake of the seventh day – God appears as “Yahweh Elohim”, which is usually translated into English as “the Lord God”. “Yahweh” –which only appears after the seventh day, is a personal name, a family name.
God is not just our creator but our Father.
Source: Scott Hahn
Professor of Scripture and Theology at Franciscan University
Book and/or Audio Interview on: First Comes Love
Showing posts with label Adam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adam. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Romans 5:12-14 - Adam is a type of Christ
SCRIPTURE Romans 5:12-14
Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned - sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
COMMENT
In the above verse Paul calls Adam a type of Christ – a foreshadowing of Christ –a dim image that Christ would later perfect and fulfil.
This is an example of typology.
A simple definition for typology is where the stories in the Old Testament and New Testament match.
To illustrate the definition - the Old Testament contains the ‘shadow’ and the New Testament contains the ‘real thing’.
The Old Testament is the ‘negative’ whereas the New Testament is the ‘full colour photo’.
Typology is found throughout the Bible. From the first century to today, typology has been used to better understand God’s Word.
Saint Augustine (354-430 AD) aptly put it “the New Testament is concealed in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New.”
The Two Adams
Unfortunately, by far the best explanation I have ever heard of understanding about what Jesus did in the New Testament by looking at what the first Adam failed to do is a little long (2 pages). So I have decided not to include it. Should anyone want a copy emailed to them just let me know.
Below are two other interesting examples of typology, as it relates to Genesis.
The Two Trees
Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.
Eating of the fruit wounded them, it killed them spiritually speaking. It wounded the human race with the poison of sin
The second tree was the Tree of Calvary, upon which Christ hung on the Cross.
And the fruit of that tree, the Tree of Calvary, the Holy Eucharist, is the antidote to the poison that was introduced into the world through Adam and Eve.
The word "Eucharist" comes from the Greek noun εὐχαριστία (transliterated, "eucharistia"), meaning thanksgiving. (Definition from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist)
The Two Eve’s
Adam did not act alone, for Eve cooperated substantially in the Fall of man.
In one garden, the Tree of Life brought about death and in another garden the Tree of Death brought about Life.
Eve, the first mother of the living was at the foot of the first Tree and Mary, the New Eve, is at the foot of the second Tree
The Apostle John goes out of his way to inform us that the Cross and the Tomb were in a garden.
For the first Christians, Mary was also seen as the Second or New Eve, the woman who undoes by her obedience the sin that Eve brought by her disobedience.
The first Eve listened to a fallen angel and succumbed to temptation bringing sin into the world.
Mary listened to an unfallen angel and thus brought about, through Jesus, our redemption.
Christ was conceived in Mary’s womb, and therefore is “bone of (her) bones and flesh of (her) flesh.” We read in Genesis 2:23 Adam exclaim, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”.
Source: Typology observations from Steven Ray and Patrick Madrid
Transcribed from a radio show titled “Typology of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus”
Additional observations from Scott Hahn
Note: The typological observation in regard to the title New Eve above is not to be confused with the title the Bride of Christ which refers to Us, the Church.
Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned - sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
COMMENT
In the above verse Paul calls Adam a type of Christ – a foreshadowing of Christ –a dim image that Christ would later perfect and fulfil.
This is an example of typology.
A simple definition for typology is where the stories in the Old Testament and New Testament match.
To illustrate the definition - the Old Testament contains the ‘shadow’ and the New Testament contains the ‘real thing’.
The Old Testament is the ‘negative’ whereas the New Testament is the ‘full colour photo’.
Typology is found throughout the Bible. From the first century to today, typology has been used to better understand God’s Word.
Saint Augustine (354-430 AD) aptly put it “the New Testament is concealed in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New.”
The Two Adams
Unfortunately, by far the best explanation I have ever heard of understanding about what Jesus did in the New Testament by looking at what the first Adam failed to do is a little long (2 pages). So I have decided not to include it. Should anyone want a copy emailed to them just let me know.
Below are two other interesting examples of typology, as it relates to Genesis.
The Two Trees
Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.
Eating of the fruit wounded them, it killed them spiritually speaking. It wounded the human race with the poison of sin
The second tree was the Tree of Calvary, upon which Christ hung on the Cross.
And the fruit of that tree, the Tree of Calvary, the Holy Eucharist, is the antidote to the poison that was introduced into the world through Adam and Eve.
The word "Eucharist" comes from the Greek noun εὐχαριστία (transliterated, "eucharistia"), meaning thanksgiving. (Definition from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist)
The Two Eve’s
Adam did not act alone, for Eve cooperated substantially in the Fall of man.
In one garden, the Tree of Life brought about death and in another garden the Tree of Death brought about Life.
Eve, the first mother of the living was at the foot of the first Tree and Mary, the New Eve, is at the foot of the second Tree
The Apostle John goes out of his way to inform us that the Cross and the Tomb were in a garden.
For the first Christians, Mary was also seen as the Second or New Eve, the woman who undoes by her obedience the sin that Eve brought by her disobedience.
The first Eve listened to a fallen angel and succumbed to temptation bringing sin into the world.
Mary listened to an unfallen angel and thus brought about, through Jesus, our redemption.
Christ was conceived in Mary’s womb, and therefore is “bone of (her) bones and flesh of (her) flesh.” We read in Genesis 2:23 Adam exclaim, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”.
Source: Typology observations from Steven Ray and Patrick Madrid
Transcribed from a radio show titled “Typology of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus”
Additional observations from Scott Hahn
Note: The typological observation in regard to the title New Eve above is not to be confused with the title the Bride of Christ which refers to Us, the Church.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)