Genesis: Adam & Eve
Tuesday 28th July 2020
Last week we read the creation narrative found in
Genesis 1:1 – 2:4, but did you know that there are actually two creation
stories in Genesis? The second one, written earlier than the first, is our
reading for today.
Prayer
before (or after) reading the Holy Bible
+
Come,
O Holy Spirit,
and
fill us with the gifts of knowledge and wisdom.
Strengthen
us, we pray, with heavenly grace,
so
that we may grasp with our minds,
treasure
in our hearts,
and
carry out in our deeds,
all
the teachings of your Holy Book
which
lead to salvation.
Amen.
‘The
Lord God fashioned man of dust from soil…’ (Gn
2:7)
The Hebrew
word for soil/earth is ‘adamah’ and this is where we get the name
Adam from. What makes Adam unique from other living creatures is that God
breathes life into him.
‘Then
he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life,
and
thus man became a living being.’ (Gn 2:7)
It wasn’t just fresh air that God put into Adam’s
nostrils that gave him life. God breathed His own breath into man, he breathed
His own Spirit. The Spirit of God gave Adam both physical life, ‘bios’,
and supernatural life, ‘zoe’. The early Church Fathers chose to
use the Greek word ‘zoe’ in their translation of Genesis because
it conveyed that Adam was given more than just physical life, he was given
supernatural life. The biblical scholar and Catholic theologian Scott Hahn
writes:
‘God
didn’t just breath air into Adam’s nostrils; he breathed life – spiritual life,
eternal life, divine life. He breathed his own life into Adam. He gave Adam the
life that from all eternity the Father is always communicating to the Son and
that the Son is receiving and communicating right back to the Father’.
(Scott Hahn from his book ‘Hope to Die’)
Human life is so sacred for us as Roman Catholics
because we believe that at the moment of conception God breathes life into our
very bodies. Life that doesn’t just animate us in a physical sense, but life
that allows us to be in communion with our Creator. What separates us from the
chimpanzee is ‘zoe’, the Lord our God’s Spirit living within
us.
In this second creation narrative, we encounter
God’s commandment regarding the Tree of Knowledge.
‘Then
the Lord God gave the man this admonition,
‘You
may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless, of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you
shall most surely die.’ (Gn 2:16-17)
The above quote is very often misinterpreted. Some
people assume that God wants to limit human beings’ knowledge and keep them in
ignorance. This is not the case. Why would God, who has given Adam life from
His own breath, want to imprison His creation in darkness? ‘The knowledge
of good and evil’ in this context is a divine commandment from God
reminding humanity not to take upon itself the arrogance to decide what is
right and wrong. However, as we know Adam ignores his Creator and makes himself
an equal of God therefore mistakenly assuming that he knows what is just and
unjust, what is truth and what is false. It is only God who can judge, not the
modern world with its distorted values and misconceived beliefs.
‘The
Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a help
mate.’ (Gn 2:18)
Adam is incomplete. God sees this and creates Eve
to be his partner so that the gift of love can be experienced by man and woman.
Love can only truly be born in relationship with another and manifests itself
in giving and receiving. Now Adam and his equal partner Eve, whose name means ‘mother
of all living’, establish the beginnings of marriage.
‘This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from
my flesh!... This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself
to his wife, and they become one body.’
(Gn 2:23-24)
Adam and Eve are living in a state of original
holiness. They are complete, the world is perfect, family life rooted in love
is established and all is well. However, as we will read next week a serpent
enters this world and there are consequences!
God Bless and keep praying
Fr. O’Brien