Edward Taylor: What Feast is This.1

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Edward Taylor, Isaiah, Lord's Supper, Meditation, Puritan

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1 Corinthians 11:23-26, 1 John 4, Communion, Edward Taylor, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, incarnation, Isaiah, Isaiah 25, John 1, John 1:14, Lord's Supper, love, Marriage Feast, Marriage Supper of the Lamb, Matthew 25, Meditation, Poetry, Puritan, Puritan Poetry, Revelation 19, Self-Examination, Thankfulness, What Feast is This

What Feast is This?

Isaiah 25 is a poem of praise to God for reversing the power of sin and death. The power of wicked who use violence to crush the poor and powerless will be undone and also the power of death which animates the oppression will itself be destroyed (the poem is written in a “prophetic perfect” — that is, it represents a future state, but speaks of it in past time: it is a thing so sure as to be counted complete before it happens in time).

In place of death, God will raise a feast; rather than a funeral, there will be a marriage celebration:

6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

This image of a feast replacing death is used by Jesus to speak of the coming world (Matthew 8:11 & 25:1-13). The Bible ends with the invitation to a marriage feast (Revelation 19:9). Thus, the Bible opens (Genesis 2:24) and closes with a marriage. Death has intervened (Genesis 3), but God has overcome death in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Taylor takes this imagery of the feast in celebration of death being overcome and uses it to contemplate the Lord’s Supper (communion):

A Deity of Love incorporate
My Lord, lies in thy flesh, in dishes stable
Ten thousand times more rich than golden plate
In golden service on thy table,
To feast thy people with. What feast is this!
Where richest love lies cooked in e’ry dish?

Deity of love incorporate: The Son of God incarnate: John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. John 3:16, “For God so love the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1 John 4:9-10: 9 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Dishes stable/Where richest love lies cooked in e’ry dish: This is a reference to the communion service (the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper):

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

In short, Taylor sees himself before the Lord’s Table (another name for communion), where the feast is the Lord whose death overcomes death. By means this meditation, he is seeking to see “spiritually” (if you will) — to see the truth of thing, itself; and bring his heart to a state to relish it rightly.

Stable/table: The second lines contains 11 syllables, the fourth, 9.

My Lord, lies in thy flesh: the accent should fall on “lies” & “flesh” -“–`-`-`-

Some Points of Comparison Between Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:2

02 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Ecclesiastes, Genesis, John

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Adam, created, Death, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 6:10, Ecclesiastes 6:12, Genesis, Genesis 2, Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3, Genesis 3:19, Genesis 3:4, Genesis 5:5, image, Isaiah 41:21–24, John, John 2:24–3:1, John 3:12, name, naming, Psalm 39:6, shadow, shadow-image

1. Whatever has come to be has already been named (Eccl. 6:10).

Cross References: Genesis 2:19–20 (ESV): 19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field….

Notes: (1) All that exists has come to be from God’s effort – it all pre-exists Adam. God created, then Adam named. Ironically, it is the second Adam who created the first Adam’s world (Luke 3:23 & 38; John 1:3).

(2) Naming: Adam named everything – we all live in that world. Whatever Adam names the thing “that was its name.”

2. …and it is known what man is (Eccl. 6:10).

Cross-references: then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Genesis 2:7 (ESV)

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19 (ESV)

And: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

And: And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done” Genesis 8:21 (ESV). This point returns with Jesus: 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ²⁵ and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. ¹ Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. John 2:24–3:1 (ESV).

Notes: Bitter irony, Adam (male & female, Gen. 5:2) created in the image of God, raised from the dust by the breath of God return to the dust for their rebellion. Adam’s son Seth was born in Adam’s image (Gen. 5:3; there is some dispute concerning the full scope of the meaning here: the very least, we must recognize that Adam could convey nothing beyond what he possessed). The human being is corrupted – and God knows it.

3. And that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he (Eccl. 6:10).

Cross-reference: But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9 (ESV)

Notes: Adam could not dispute with God. Adam’s rebellion brought on Adam’s ruin. The serpent’s promise (Gen. 3:4-5) turned out to be utterly untrue. Scripture repeats this them: Job 38:1-2; John 19:11).

4. The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? Ecclesiastes 6:11 (ESV)

Cross-reference: Genesis 3:10, “And he [Adam] said ….”

Notes: We have never been able to talk our way out of our problem.

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Matthew 6:7 (ESV) Job 38:2. ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 7:21 (ESV)

5. For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, Ecclesiastes 6:12 (ESV)

Cross-references:

Genesis 2:10, “and God saw that it was good.” Etc.

Genesis 2:18, “It is not good that the man should be alone …..”

Notes: We do not know what is good, despite our eating from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Gen. 2:9, 27; 3:5 & 8. The irony that having sought to determine good – we can no longer determine good. Rom. 1:28. Why not relativism? How can claim a privileged place to actually understand the world? God knows what is good – but we no longer do.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 et seq answer these questions. Things have become so topsy-turvy, that now death is better than life! Note that before sin, death was solely the evil promised (Gen. 2:17, 3:19).

6. which he passes like a shadow? Ecclesiastes 6:12

Cross-reference: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

Notes: shadow, sel, sounds like image, selem. The words also bear a relationship to one-another:

Sel, comes from the root verb s-l-l, to be shaded or dusky.[1] The words by sound and concept are related to the word for shadow[2] – hence either an image or something insubstantial.[3] Hence a pun on the nature of Adam: He was created the image of God (selem) but became a mere shadow (sel). Man created for eternity becomes insubstantial and false (selem, a mere image, an idol).[4]

7. For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? Ecclesiastes 6:10

Cross-reference: Genesis 2:17 (ESV)

¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:4 (ESV)

⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

Genesis 3:19 (ESV)

¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 5:5 (ESV)

⁵ Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

Notes: God knows what will happen – even if we do not. God told us what would happen with sin – and we sinned nonetheless. God binds the future we death; we can know nothing beyond what discloses (John 3:12). Our attempts to gain knowledge around God leave us with idols:

Isaiah 41:21–24 (ESV)

21 Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. 22 Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. 23 Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. 24 Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.

Concluding notes:

The human being has become bound in and bound with death, with vanity. The human being created to be a selem, an image of God, is now a selem-sel, a mere image or shadow. The ideas are brought together in Psalm 39:6 (Heb. 39:7):

Surely a man goes about as a shadow [selem, “image” in Gen. 1:27] Surely for nothing [Heb., hebel, “vanity” in Ecclesiastes] they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

Indeed, Psalm 39 acts as a sort commentary on Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:14; or conversely, Ecclesiastes functions as a practical meditation on Psalm 39. Both are built around the rise and fall of Adam and our present status in this world. We cannot respond rightly to our circumstance until we take in starkly how painful we find our circumstance. Hence, the counsel which begins in Ecclesiastes7.

[1]

צֵל m. (f. Isa. 37:8, compare the form צִלָּה), with suff. צִלִּי (from the root צָלַל No. III) a shadow (Arab. ظِلُّ), Jud. 9:36; Ps. 80:11, etc. Metaph. Job 17:7, “all my members (are) like a shadow,” i.e. scarce a shadow of my body remains. Also—(a) used of anything fleeting and transient, Job 8:9; Psal. 102:12; Ecc. 8:13.—(b) of a roof which affords shade and protection (compare Lat. umbra); hence used for protection and defence; preserving sometimes however the image of a shadow, Psalm 17:8; 36:8; Isa. 16:3, “make thy shadow at noon as in the night,” i.e. afford a safe refuge in glowing heat. Isa. 23:4, “thou (O Jehovah) art a shadow in heat;” sometimes not retaining the image, Nu. 14:9; Ecc. 7:12. In plur. is used the form צְלָלִים.

Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2003), 709.

[2]

צֵל: probably a primary noun (Bauer-L. Heb. 454b), > III צלל; SamP. ṣål (Babylonian vocalisation צַל); MHeb., DSS (Kuhn Konkordanz 187); JArm. טֻלָּא, טוּלָּא, טְלָלָא; Sam. טל (Ben-H. Lit. Or. 2:578), טלל (see 3/2:240); טל and similarly in the comparable dialects of Aramaic, → BArm. parallel with טלל; Ug. ẓl (Gordon Textbook §19:1052; Aistleitner 2371; Fisher Parallels 1: p. 220 entry 270; on ẓlm (Dietrich-L.-S. Texte 1, 161:1) see Dietrich-Loretz UF 12 (1980) 382); Akk. ṣillu shade, covering, protection (AHw. 1101; CAD Ṣ: 189); cf. ṣillûlu cover (AHw. 1102; CAD Ṣ: 194) and ṣulūlu roof, canopy (AHw. 1111; CAD Ṣ: 242); Arb. ẓill; ? OSArb. ẓlt (Conti Chrest. 160b, uncertain) roof, roofing; Eth. ṣĕlālōt (Dillmann Lex. 1257); Tigr. ṣĕlāl (Littmann-H. Wb. 632a) shadow: shadow: sf. צִלִּי, צִלְּךָ, צִלֵּךְ, צִלּוֹ, צִלֲּלוֹ (Jb 4022, Bauer-L. Heb. 570t), צִלָּהּ, צִלָּם; pl. צְלָלִים (Bauer-L. Heb. 570t), cs. צִלְלֵי־; (Bauer-L. Heb. 570t), Is 388 and 2K 2011 (gloss) fem. :: 2K 209.10 masc. (THAT 2:223: 53 times); Bordreuil RHPhR 46 (1966) 372-387.

Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 1024-25.

[3]

צָלַם an unused root, Æth. ጸልመ፡ TO BE SHADY, Arab. ظَِاَِم to be obscure, ظامةُ darkness. Hence—

צֶלֶם m. with suff. צַלְמוֹ—(1) a shadow, Psalm 39:7; metaph. used of any thing vain, Psal. 73:20. Hence—

(2) an image, likeness (so called from its shadowing forth; compare σκία, σκίασμα, σκιαγραφέω), Genesis 1:27; 5:3; 9:6; an image, idol, 2 Kings 11:18; Am. 5:26. (Syr. and Chald. ܨܠܰܡܐܳ, צַלְמָא id., Arab. صَنَمُ an image, the letters נ and ל being interchanged.)

צֶלֶם, צְלֵם Ch. emphat. state, צַלְמָא m. an image, idol, Dan. 2:31, seqq.; 3:1, seqq.

צַלְמוֹן (“shady”), [Zalmon, Salmon], pr.n.—(1) of a mountain in Samaria, near Shechem, Jud. 9:48; this apparently is the one spoken of as covered with snow, Ps. 68:15.

(2) of one of David’s captains, 2 Sa. 23:28.

צַלְמוֹנָה (“shady”), [Zalmonah], pr.n. of a station of the Israelites in the desert, Nu. 33:41.

צַלְמָוֶת f. pr. shadow of death (comp. of צֵל shadow, and מָוֶת death), poet. for very thick darkness, Job 3:5; 10:21; 28:3; 34:22; 38:17, שַׁעֲרֵיצַלְמָוֶת “the gates of darkness.”

צַלְמֻנָּע (perhaps for צֵלמְמֻנָּע “to whom shadow is denied”), [Zalmunna], pr.n. of a prince of the Midianites, Jud. 8:5; Ps. 83:12.

Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2003), 710-11.

[4]

: I *צלם (Bauer-L. Heb. 458s; THAT 2:556f :: W.H. Schmidt WMANT 172 (1967) 1331: צֵל + מ‍); SamP. ṣā̊låm; MHeb. image, statue, idol; DSS (Kuhn Konkordanz 187; THAT 2:562); JArm. צַלְמָא; Sam.; Ph. (Jean-H. Dictionnaire 245; THAT 2:556); EmpArm. ṣlmʾ, ṣlmh the effigy, his effigy (Donner-R. Inschriften text 225:3, 6; text 226:2; Jean-H. Dictionnaire 245; Hoftijzer-Jongeling Dictionary 968: statue); Ug. ṣlm pny (Gordon Textbook text 1002:59 = Dietrich-L.-S. Texte 2, 31:61; Aistleitner 2319; cf. Gordon Textbook §19:2059); Akk. sbst. ṣalmu statue, figurine, image (AHw. 1078f; CAD Ṣ: 78): in particular: 1. the statue of a god; 2. the statue of a king; 3. a statue in general; 4. a figurine; 5. a relief, bas-relief; 6. metaphorical, a constellation, shape, likeness, representation; BArm. →צְלֵם; Syr. ṣalmā, ṣəlemtā; CPArm. ṣlm; Mnd. ṣilma (Drower-M. Dictionary 393b) image, idol, shape, form; Nab., Palm. Hatra ṣlm, ṣlmʾ and ṣlmtʾ statue (Jean-H. Dictionnaire 245; Hoftijzer-Jongeling Dictionary 968, ṣlm I; see also BArm. under צְלֵם); OSArb. ẓlm (Conti Chrest. 161a) and ṣlm (Conti Chrest. 224b) likeness, statue; Arb. ṣanam idol (Arm. loanword, see Fraenkel Fremdwörter 273): cs. צֶלֶם, sf. צַלְמוֹ, צַלְמֵנוּ, צַלְמָם; pl. cs. צַלְמֵי, sf. צְלָמָיו, צַלְמֵיכֶם: THAT 2:556-563.

—1. statue, inscribed column 2K 1118/2C 2317.

—2. idol Nu 3352 Ezk 720, Am 526 (text uncertain) צַלְמֵיכֶם probably meaning effigies of the Kēwān, Babylonian astral deities (see AHw. 420b kajjamānû; CAD Ṣ: 38a line 6ff kajamānu adj. b: “steady” as a name of Saturn) and sakkut (Sumerian dSAG.KUD, see E. Reiner Šurpu tablet 2 line 180; Rudolph KAT 13/2:207; Wolff BK 14/2:304; THAT 2:557).

—3. pl.: —a. images, figures: צַלְמֵיזָכָר effigies of men Ezk 1617, צַלְמֵיכַשְׂדִּים pictures of the Chaldaeans carved into the wall Ezk 2314; —b. replicas, likenesses of the boils and mice 1S 65.11 (see THAT 2:557f).

—4. a. transitory image Ps 397 (parallel with הֶבֶל), Ps 7320 text uncertain (parallel with חֲלוֹם) cj. for צַלְמָם prp. צַלְמוֹ (BHS) :: Würthwein Wort und Existenz 169: MT “their idol”; —b. the צֶלֶם of Ps 397 7320 belongs to II *צלם rather than to I, and so means silhouette, fleeting shadows, so e.g. Humbert Études sur le récit du paradis et de la chute 156; cf. Kopf VT 9 (1959) 272 and in general W.H. Schmidt WMANT 172 (1967) 1331.

—5. likeness: —a. of a man as the צֶלֶם of God Gn 126f 96: for bibliography see Westermann BK 1/1:203-214; see further Barr BJRL 51 (1968) 11-26; Stamm “Zur Frage der Imago Dei im Alten Testament” (in Humanität und Glaube. Gedenkschrift für Kurt Guggisberg 243-253); Mettinger ZAW 86 (1974) 403-24; O.H. Steck FRLANT 115 (1975) 140567; O. Loretz Die Gottebenbildlichkeit des Menschen; THAT 2:558-562: man, God’s likeness, God’s image, i.e. he is God’s viceroy, representative or witness among the creatures; —b. the son as the צֶלֶם of his father Gn 53. †

Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 1028-29.

Michael Horton on the Covenantal Image of God

22 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Genesis, Michael Horton, Psalms

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Autonomy, Covenant, Covenant Theology, Covenantal, Decartes, Environment, Genesis, Genesis 2, Gnosticism, image of God, Imago Dei, Michael Horton, politics, Psalm 24:1, Psalms, Revelation 11, Revelation 11:6, Self, servant, The Christian Faith A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way

Michael Horton (The Christian Faith) contrasts biblical anthropology with materialist/Decartes/enlightment understanding of the self on one side and a (neo)plantonic/Gnostic/pagan understanding on the other. Descartes, “arrived at his concept of the autonomous res cogitans (thinking thing) by abstracting himself from the world and his mind from his body in contemplative solitude” (379) [granted Descartes was not an absolute materialist in the strictest sense]. The materialist “locates human origins in primordial violence in the apparently meaningless lust for survival”. It reults in a sovereign, “a sovereign moral legislator and constructor of reality” (380).

The (neo)Plantonic/Gnostic worldview tends to pantheism (or panentheism) whereby human life follows from some break with a higher ideal, some sort of “primordial falling away from being caused by embodiment” (380); wherein the divine spark will make its way back through some means — such as secret “gnosis”. The body exists as some sort of tomb which must be escaped.

Few persons actually hold a consistent philosophical position. The worldviews create various tensions and points of contradiction, and thus most people hold their positions loosely and move between the poles as needed. Thus, someone like the “material magician” (perhaps Anaxagoras would fit the bill) mentioned in Screwtape Letters. A friend used the phrase “California Buddhism” to capture the reincarnation as a means to continued selfishness paradigm of California.

Tony Reincke in Lit! writes, “First, it’s important that we understand that each person’s worldview is assembled from many composite details….The worldview of an author – no matter how complementary or contradictory it appears – is informed by a collection of elements. This explains why at many points the Christian worldview can and will agree at times with the ingredients in a non-Christian worldvew” (58).

What these various worldviews hold in common “is what Charles Taylor calls disengagement — the tendency of modern anthropology not only toward individualism but toward a sense of selfhood that is inward and independent not only of God but of the world in which it lives. This trajectory toward the disengaged self surely begins already in the Platonic myth of the divine immortal soul striving to ascend above its imprisonment in the realm of appearances” (380).

This contrasts with the biblical worldview: God created Adam (the human being) into a relationship. The human being exists with a created spirit and body, a human being which partakes of the image of God, but is not a small bit of divinity (neo)Platonism, nor bare matter (materialism): “[T]he Bible places human beings in a dramatic narrative that defines their existence as inherently covenantal — fully engaged with God, with each other, and with nonhuman creation. Instead of drawing us deeper within ourselves, a convenantal anthropology draws us outward, where we find ourselves responsible to God and our neighbors. Since we were summoned into being by the powerful Word of the covenant Lord, this covenantal relationality is essential to our being human. There are not first autonomous individuals who then may (or may not) enter into covenantal relations” (380).

It is on this basis that Christians contend that certain moral standards exist independently of one’s determination to accept those standards are not. Meaning, ethics, exist inherently in the nature of the creation and are no more a matter of consent than gravity (Rom. 1:18; 2:15, 3:23, etc). Horton writes, “It is not, therefore, that unbelievers are no longer related to God…However faint, the sense of belonging to a covenant of creation is natural, a verbum internum ….”(385).

The Christian thus responds to the other human as one born with rights and obligations inherent in being a human being. The dignity which a Christian must confer about another human qua human derives from one’s bare existence. But such dignity derives from relationship of one as born into a status of relating to God and to man and to all Creation.

(The contention that such a statement is an “imposition” fails when given by a claimed position of autonomy: one’s “autonomy” can claim no knowledge beyond one’s immediate preference or taste. Moreover, by merely stating the position, the Christian does not “impose” anything.

One may assert that the Christian is position is “wrong”. As a Christian, I would unquestionably assert that any other comprehensive worldview is “wrong”. However, the autonomous self, which seeks a position of not being “judged” cannot claim that the position is correct.)

Politics

Horton draws out an interesting implication of one’s covenantal status by fact of Creation:

So every human person is born into this world as an image-bearer of God, installed into an office that, from conception, one holds as a traitor.…Because every person is created in God’s image, he or she is a dignified bearer of rights and a responsible moral agent, accountable before God for his or her response to his command. This why human rights do not derive from the authority of the individual, the majority, or the state, but from God alone. (385)

An implication here is that rights cannot be taken from an individual by any institution. This relates to the Reformed doctrines concerning freedom of conscience (a matter which took a substantial time to work out).

In addition, by depriving another being of the responsibilities inherent with existence in the status of an image bearer of God, the State (or other institution) dehumanizes another. I expect little from my dog and less from my fish than I do from my son, because my son is a human being and my fish is a fish. To expect less is to demean.

Environment

Commenting on the command to Adam to “work and keep” the Garden, Horton notes that the command is given to Adam to care for God’s creation. The command of dominion in Genesis 1 & 2

is not an autonomous exploitation or violent domination but a mandate ‘to work …and keep’ (Gen. 2:15) the sanctuary [the Garden] in its holiness, driving the serpent from the Garden and extending God’s reign of righteousness, justice, and peace.

Because the creation is neither divine nor demonic, neither something to be worshiped nor something to be despised and destroyed, violence of the human vice-regent against creation can be understood only as an alliance with Satan. To say that ‘earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof’ (Ps. 24:1) is to say two things: that the earth is not God and that it is not ours (399).

Revelation 11:16 promises that the Lord God [the Creation title of God in Genesis 2] will “destor[y] the destroyers of the earth.”

Solomon’s Labors, Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 & Eden

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Ecclesiastes, Genesis

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Creation, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 2, Fall, Genesis, Genesis 2, Solomon

Comparison of Solomon’s Work with Eden (the formatting came out strange):

Ecclesiastes 2:1 (ESV)

¹ I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”

But behold, this also was vanity.

Genesis 4:2 (ESV)

² And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

Ecclesiastes 2:2 (ESV)

² I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

Ecclesiastes 2:3 (ESV)

³ I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

First wine: Genesis 9:21

Ecclesiastes 2:4 (ESV)

⁴ I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.

Genesis 2:8 (ESV)

⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

First “house”: in the ark: Gen. 6:14

First vineyard: Gen. 9:20

Ecclesiastes 2:5 (ESV)

⁵ I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

Genesis 2:8 (ESV)

⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:9 (ESV)

⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Ecclesiastes 2:6 (ESV)

⁶ I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

Genesis 2:10 (ESV)

¹⁰ A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

Ecclesiastes 2:7 (ESV)

⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks [sheep], more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

Genesis 2:18 (ESV)

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Genesis 4:2 (ESV)

² And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep [flocks], and Cain a worker of the ground.

Ecclesiastes 2:8 (ESV)

⁸ I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure[1] of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women,

Genesis 2:11–12 (ESV)

¹¹ The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.

and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

Genesis 2:22 (ESV)

²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Ecclesiastes 2:9 (ESV)

⁹ So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

Ecclesiastes 2:10 (ESV)

¹⁰ And whatever my eyes desired [they asked] I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward [portion/inheritance] for all my toil.

Genesis 3:6 (ESV)

⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Ecclesiastes 2:11 (ESV)

¹¹ Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving[2] after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Fredricks:

His ordered gardens may have been relaxing, but even then they were a visual metaphor in the ancient world for the control a king had over his entire kingdom. Furthermore, with terminology reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, Qoheleth describes his achievements as those of one who took seriously God’s primary commission of earth’s management (Gen. 1:26-28). As Verheij notes, common words to both the End account and Eccelsiastes 2:4-6 include ‘plant’, ‘garden’, ‘trees of all fruits’, ‘to water’, ‘to sprout’, ‘to make or do.’ Just as the Edenic passage is the first manifestation of human sovereignty over and earthly domain, Solomon’s activities are a description of an aggressive management of an economic and political enterprise. Another Solomonic tradition, 1 Kings 4:33 at those the Genesis account of humanity’s primary commission where, in addition to being extolled specifically for his botanical knowledge, it is said, “he spoke of trees, a cattle, a fowl, of creepers and fish”, all in Hebrew terminology that in Genesis 1:26, 29. Furthermore, id., as a garden, was not a place for idle pleasure; it was a place of work and responsibility, even before the Fall (Fredricks, Ecclesiastes, 93).

[1] סְגֻלָּה (seḡǔl∙lā(h)): n.fem.; ≡ Str 5459; TWOT 1460a—1. LN 57.1–57.21 treasured possession, i.e., valued personal property, what is owned by someone, which the owner has special affection or holds special value (Ex 19:5; Dt 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; Mal 3:17+); 2. LN 57.25–57.35 personal wealth, i.e., a personal accumulation of values, as contrasted with a governmental treasury (1Ch 29:3; Ecc 2:8+) James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

[2] רעה: see II רֵעַ for the connection of this verb with that sbst., see also MHeb. vb. ריע hif., and Akk. râʾu; according to KBL basic meaning to have to do with one another; similarly J. Fichtner Gottes Weisheit 89: to associate with each other, keep company with one another. Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, M.E.J Richardson and Johann Jakob Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1999), 1262.