May the mumbling commence!
The human story continues. Shame and fear have been introduced. The judgment of God has been pronounced. Now the immediate effects of disobeying God
become clear. Read from the end of
Genesis chapter three. From Peterson’s The Message:
The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve
because she was the mother of all the living.
God made leather clothing for Adam and his
wife and dressed them.
God said, “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing
everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the
Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never – this cannot
happen!”
So God expelled them
from the
Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which
they’d been made. He threw them out of
the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of
it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life. (Genesis 3:20-24)
Now read from the NIV translation:
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would
become the mother of all the living.
The Lord
God made garments of skin for Adam and his
wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, "The man has now
become like one of us, knowing good and
evil. He
must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life
and eat, and live forever."
So the Lord
God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he
had been taken. After he drove the man
out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming
sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
(Genesis 3:20-24)
As I have been thinking about the
differences between the phrases “knowing good and evil” from the NIV and “knowing
everything, ranging from good to evil” from Peterson’s The Message, I begin to like the Peterson version less and
less. I’ve already approached the idea
of knowing everything.
But what about this notion of things
ranging between good and evil? That seems
to imply that there is a spectrum in between good and evil. For humanity, this range between the two
seems impossible to deny. But, from the
divine perspective, there is good and there is evil. There is nothing in between. We, as humans, cannot rightly distinguish
between the two – but that does not mean it’s not so.
I am also not sure about the change
in emphasis in Peterson’s work that paints God as angry and vehement – “Never –
this cannot happen”. I like the sadness and
disappointment evident in the NIV translation –“He must not be allowed”.
Finally, there is the difference in
the pronouns of banishment and expulsion.
In the NIV translation, the pronoun is singular male. In Peterson’s work, the pronoun is
plural. In the Hebrew, the pronoun is
masculine singular – literally. But I
think God did not leave Eve out of the banishment. I think, in this case, the singular masculine
was to represent humanity. So, I like
Peterson’s work, in this case, better than the NIV.
It’s a sad immediate consequence of
disobeying God. It means separation from
God. It means life is diminished and
death is at the door.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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