Thus, the world of the Bible and the personal world of the reader merge into one reality. Beale, A Biblical Theology of the New Testament: Unfolding the Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011). Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Biblical Theology of the Hebrew Bible, New Studies in Biblical Theology, vol.
I will begin by revealing the interplay between 'ādām and 'adāmāh' and how it reveals the full expression of the divine image and likeness and thus leads to bliss. This same interplay will also signal the loss of existential bliss as the curse of the earth renders the divine image and likeness unrealized to its full extent. Then, man's activity in the garden highlights the expression of the divine image and likeness as he exercises dominion over 'adãmāh' under God's guidance (2:15-17).
17-19; 22-24
The 'ādām -'adãmāh' motif reappears to drive the reader to the climactic expression of the divine image and likeness, as 'ādām exercises dominion over the animals that come from 'adãmāh' and then delights in his wife who comes from 'ādām (2:18-25).
The Psalter affirms Job's resurrection doubts by declaring that God causes living creatures to "return to their dust" ('āpār, 104:29) and then, in language borrowed from Genesis, posits that God renews from "the face of "adamah".
The Psalter confirms Job's suspicions about the resurrection by declaring that God causes living creatures to "return to their dust" ('āpār, 104:29) and then, in language borrowed from Genesis, asserts that God renews from "the face of 'adãmāh ' " (104:30).
In view of Isaiah's depiction of the earth giving up its dead, Paul focuses on the benefit that creation will experience with humanity's resurrection: the graduation from "uselessness" and "bondage to corruption". 8:21) now that it no longer harbors death nor endures improper rule.
BLISSFUL HUMANITY
Human Ontology
Further, to speak of the divine image and likeness is to speak of the ontological makeup of humanity. 18 Relationship and representation are not the divine image and likeness itself, but rather are the result of being in the image and likeness of God. 1:26 refer to the heavenly court, the theologically significant fact is that the passage establishes a clear connection between the human world and the divine world in the creation of ādam.
The Ground and Ontological Potential
This alternative perspective of the creation of man is when the 'ādām-'adãmāh' motif appears. However, there are several elements of the relationship that 'ādām has to 'adãmāh' that communicate the potential and realization of the original human ontology. Continuing with the vegetation on 'adãmāh', the next sequence is the creation of 'ādāma from 'adãmāh' and emphasizes the divine likeness.
The Contingency of Realized Human Ontology
Previously, this partnership was observed through man's gardening with 'adamah' alongside God's rain on 'adamah'. If Adam trusts God's sovereign partnership in the tree of knowledge, then he will maintain access to God's presence in the tree of life and succeed in his undertaking (1:28). So then, given man's duty over the garden and the observance of God's judgment in the tree of knowledge, both of which are already connected with.
The Climactic, Blissful Ontological Realization
LANGUISHING HUMANITY
Dereliction Inherits Death
Without identifying the significance of Adam's disobedience (3:1-7), the reader will miss the justification for God's cursing of the ground. But even in order to understand the meaning of Adam's disobedience, its depiction in Genesis 3:1-7 must be analyzed in light of the details of Genesis 2. First, 'ādām is to "do and keep" 'adãmāh' in obedience to God's instruction and judicial decree (2 ,15).
Man's work in 'adãmah' includes the protection of the garden.3 If he were to discover a field snake within the sacred space, his duty is to consult God on the tree of knowledge to obtain divine judgment regarding the snake.4 . Beale, The Temple and the Mission of the Church: A Biblical Theology of God's Dwelling Place, New Studies in Biblical Theology, vol. The second point is that ādām may have already expressed his dominance by naming every animal of the field, in addition to God's help: "The Lord God had formed every animal of the field and fowl of the air and brought it to man as he pleased to call them.
Third, since man's task as obedient manager of the garden temple is a task he initially performed alone, without the wife, it would be his duty to teach his wife the determined will of God regarding order in the garden. Since the snake approached the woman and she did not exercise dominion over it, it is plausible that 'ādām failed to faithfully teach his wife God's spoken will. Finally, in the act of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the human couple challenged God's law and asserted themselves as their own moral arbiter.
The passivity of 'ādām turns into betrayal by eating the forbidden fruit.
Death Inherits Difficulty
The curse of the earth removes the meaning of man's formation from 'adåmāh' and the telos of activity on 'adāmāh'. Therefore, it seems that when the author describes difficulties in life with the terms "trouble" ('āmēl) and "torment" ('a`wèn), he has in mind the human experience caused by the curse of the earth - the frustration of unrealized human ontology . Eliphaz is wrong; whatever man sows, he will reap frustration because of the inevitability of the curse of the earth.
In summary, the author of Job seems to rely on the curse of the ground episode to depict human suffering. In addition, the author of Ecclesiastes reveals that "trouble" or "misery" ('āmēl) is a description synonymous with what mankind has inherited in the curse of the ground. So the question and answer in Ecclesiastes 3:9-10 can be understood as a struggle with the reality of the curse of the ground.
Yet the writer of Ecclesiastes continues in 3:16-22 and again relies on the curse of the earth to. This play on words could lie behind the author of Ecclesiastes' treatment of the similar fate of man and beast. It is this paradigm that the writers of Job and Ecclesiastes would have noticed and been influenced by, thus interpreting the human experience through the curse of the earth in the same way that Moses did.
The shared language ('āmēl and 'ā`wèn) between Moses and the authors of Job and Ecclesiastes shows that there is an awareness of the curse of the ground as an explanation for existential dread.
Losing Ground
WORSENING HUMANITY
Like Father, Like Son
RESURRECTED HUMANITY
RECOVERING HUMANITY
Heaven Liberates Earth
After Paul spoke of the Holy Spirit's validation of the Christian's salvation (Rom 8:16) and eternal destiny (8:17), Paul turns his discourse to examine implications for the latter. The creation's part is then introduced as Paul writes that it "waits with eager longing for the revelation of the children of God" (8:19). Under these verses the curse of the ground (Gen 3:19) and its overthrow (Isa 26:19) work as a result of the restoration of humanity's original purpose.
Mankind was to exercise dominion and expand the borders of the garden all over the world, bringing all creation under God's dominion. Conversely, creation experiences "futility" (Rom. 8:20) because it will not reach its great telos under the care of sinful, violent mankind,21 and creation experiences "bondage to corruption" (8:21) because it decomposing bodies. of people who were never meant to return to dust.22 Furthermore, if the curse of the earth has negatively affected mankind and creation, then its overturning will affect both. The “liberty of the glory of the children of men” (8:21) will also be shared with creation.
That Paul intends to connect these passages can be proven by the use of the same word for "birth pangs" (root ōdin) that the LXX uses for "torment" and "pain" in Isaiah 26:17. The dust of the earth itself desires that this evil be corrected, that the earth be freed from its cursed condition as the recipient of Adam's children, that mankind be freed from the role of dung. Moo writes: "Indeed, the glory that men will experience, including, as it does, the resurrection of the body, necessarily requires an environment suitable for that incarnation." This is conceptually related to Ezekiel 37, where the world is described in garden-like terms, thus indicating that the resurrection life will have a favorable environment for it, thus allowing ontological potential to be realized.
Lamech longed for the day when the curse would be broken from the earth, and the prophets joined him in his lament.
Heaven Breaking into Earth
This then includes the curse of the earth - the existential angst due to unrealized ontological potential. In other words, the curse of the earth begins to lift as the believer gradually corresponds to the divine image and likeness perfectly expressed in Jesus. The veil has been removed from the believer's heart (3:17), and the Spirit has inaugurated one.
In particular, it is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that initiates the process of blessing. Preface to Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New, by Leonhard Goppelt, x. Nature in the New Creation: New Testament Eschatology and the Environment.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49, no.
Who Shall Climb the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus. Consequently, later OT authors use the curse of the earth (Genesis 3:17-19) as a framework for explaining suffering in life. Another possibility is that later OT authors also foresee the removal of the curse from the earth, especially through the resurrection.
However, the lifting of the curse is already underway because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
