The Fourfold Interpretation of Scripture; Part 3

The Sleep of Adam; Genesis 2

Anyone familiar with film technique might have come across the Kuleshov Effect. This is a technique used in cinematography where two images are juxtaposed, and the idea is that one image imbues the other with new meaning.  So, for example the first image could be a man's face. We'd see a close up shot. The face would have no particular emotion. That's shot 1. Then you see a plate of food; shot 2. Imagine its a steak dinner. Now we think back to the man from shot 1, we believe him to have had a hungry look on his face.  In reality, it was an emotionless face, but the second shot of the food changes the interpretation of the first. We could have the same man's face and the second shot could be a photograph of a woman in a wedding dress. We'd then think maybe he was missing his wife. The shot is the same, it’s the same face, but the second shot, which comes later, helps us to interpret the first one.  We see the first shot through an entirely new lens. Importantly, it doesn't change the meaning into something different, there is no contradiction. Rather, the former shot develops a deeper meaning by virtue of the latter.

This is in someway the technique we employ when reading the Old Testament in the era of the Church. The New Testament is the 'second shot' of our Kuleshov. It is the second 'image' which changes, without contradicting, the original meaning. What do we mean by 'changing'? The original meaning is not obscured, but the older is filled with a newer, richer, deeper meaning. As God progressively reveals more of Himself, we are able to revisit what we first knew and come to new and improved conclusions.

In the previous post we looked at John 2 and the evangelist's writings came in the New Testament era. As we noted, the Church was established 50 years prior to the proudction of this gospel, so there was not a lot, if any, new revelation to inform our reading. Reading the Old Testament this way requires a little more work. Our text here is Genesis 2:21-25; the Sleep of Adam, and we'll be seeing how we can read the allegorical, eschatological and moral senses of this text. To do this we'll be looking not only at Genesis 2, but also at parts of John 19 and Ephesians 5. These are three passages that on the surface have no relation but in reality are intrinsically linked. Genesis 2 is about the sleep of Adam and the creation of Eve; John 19 is about the crucifiction; Ephesians 5 is about husbands loving their wives. All three are linked.

The literal meaning

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become one family. The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.

This text is obviously a little strange.  Here, God is creating a partner to Adam. Prior to this, God noticed that man was alone and so He creates the animals. God then notices that Adam himself has no partner. So He sends Adam into a deep sleep, and while Adam sleeps, God opens up Adam's side and removes a rib. From this rib, God makes a woman. This is the first marriage; Adam and Eve become one flesh as she was taken from his side. We all know that men (and women) come from their mothers. We are made from the flesh and bones that our mothers made for us in the womb. The raw materials which make up our bodies were crafted from our mother. Obviously we share the DNA from both of our parents, but our flesh and bones come from our mothers. But Genesis 2 sets up the opposite. The first woman in the garden is made from the man. Not her mother, or her father, but her husband. Her flesh and bones come from him.  Then they are commanded to be fruitful and multiply, to make more humans. This is what happens when they become one flesh. The two, become a pair, and through this pair, more can come. They make Cain and Abel, which don't come from Adam, but from Eve. From Adam came Eve, and from Eve came everything else. She is the mother of all other humans.

Now, what we've looked at so far has been the literal meaning. The original human author and the people reading or hearing this before Jesus, would have understood exactly what we are saying so far. These ideas will become important soon. For the allegorical interpretation of this text we're going to leap forward to John 19.31-34

The allegorical meaning

Then because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs broken and the bodies taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men who had been crucified with Jesus, first the one and then the other. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out immediately.

The allegorical interpretation of Old Testament texts shows how they point to Jesus, and to salvation, and to the Church. So we're reading John 19 and how it comments on Genesis 2, to see how Genesis 2 talks about Jesus. So the scene here is the crucifiction; Jesus is on the cross. He's already said 'It is finished' in v30. He is dead. So they pierce His side, and from His side comes blood and water. By itself, this might not seem like it's significant, but having just read Genesis 2 I hope we can see a few important details.

Jesus, in the New Testament is often compared with Adam. He's the new and better Adam. And John's Gospel uses lots of Genesis imagery, for example, it starts with 'In the beginning'. Jesus and Adam here  are being compared:

• in Genesis 2 Adam sleeps; in John 19 Jesus dies (a kind of sleep)

• while Adam sleeps, his side is opened; while Jesus 'sleeps', His side is opened

• from Adam's side comes a rib ; from Jesus's side comes blood and water

This seems like a nice parallel, but what's the point of the parallel? John is comparing the two for a reason. The thing that comes from Adam's side, his rib, makes Eve, his wife. Likewise, the things that comes from Christs's side, the blood and water, make the Church, His bride.  Blood and water are the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist. The water is baptism, the blood is the eucharist.

In the early church, which was already around when John was writing this, those who had been converted went through discipleship and then they were baptised. Only after this could they take the eucharist (this is the case in many churches today, but by no means all). This meant that baptism was the moment when new coverts entered into the Church. Although they might have sat in it through meetings, they couldn't share in the Lord's table until they were baptised. So baptism was when they were welcomed in, it was the beginning of their new creation. Then they could have the bread and wine, the sustaining, nourishing, element. By the water they are reborn and by the blood they are nourished.

To take this further, the Church is the bride, the new Eve. We noted in the literal meaning that from Adam came Eve, and from Eve came everything else, and so she is the mother of all other humans. In this parallel, we can see the same relationship with Christ and the Church. From Christ came the Church, and through the Church comes all other (new) life. Eve is the mother of all living beings, the Church the mother of all who have new life. Like Eve from Adam, the Church is born out of Christ. And so like Eve, we are 'bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh'. Just as Adam and Eve were one flesh, so is the Church with Christ.

The eschatological meaning

It ought to be noted that while Eve was the wife of Adam, the Church is the bride of Christ; the marriage has not yet taken place. This is an eschatalogical event that will happen at the 'end'. Here the Church will be presented as a bride before Christ and we will be one flesh. Like Eve, we were taken from his flesh, as a rib from his side, and we will be raised in new bodies with Him. After Christ's death He rose again in glory. His body, while still physically bearing the marks of crucufiction was a new one. Not merely another of the same, but a new kind of body. And we too will be adorned in this new kind of body. We will rise in new life with new flesh. So we really will be one flesh with Christ.

Clearly, the original reader of Genesis 2 wouldn't be thinking any of this. The orginal human author would not have been thinking of Jesus on the cross as he was writing, certainly not the Church. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't see it. We read it with new eyes;  through the lens of John 19, and through the lens of Christ. This reading is actually used by the author of Ephesians. The passage in Ephesians 5 is a reading of Genesis 2 (at times the author even quotes directly) and there is an allusion to John 19. It is from Ephesians 5.22-33 that we can see these passages applied to our ethical lives.

The moral meaning

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church (he himself being the savior of the body). But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body, but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is great—but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Here husbands are called to participate in Christ's love for the Church by loving their wife. We often read this the wrong way round, but it's not that Christ's love for the Church is like a husbands love for his wife, rather the love of a husband to a wife is to copy Christ's love for the Church. Christ's love is the example. And notice what its talking about, Christ's love here is Christ's death. Love is self sacrifice, love is pouring yourself out, loving the other as your own flesh. In other words, treating them as an extension of your own body, that you'd do anything to protect. For your spouse there is no distance you won't travel, no pain you won't endure, no burden you won't carry, and no sin you won't forgive. That is Christ's love for the Church. He cherishes and cares for the Church because it is His own flesh.

The author of Epehsians is using the language of Genesis 2 in verses 30-31. Ephesians 5 interpreting Genesis 2 here. The reading of Genesis 2 is that husbands should pour themselves out for their wives because they are one flesh. Christ is the example of this.

Notice that Christ's sacrifice wasn't just a futile loss. There's a change that comes about as a result of it; 'so that he may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless'. We've seen the water and blood that come from his side, His bride is made from his sacrifice, and His bride is perfected through His sacrifice. The Church's growth is perfected by His love, and the same is true with marriages. The spouses are perfected in their love for one another. When the husbands love is selfish or cold or half-hearted so will her attitude to her husband be. Love perfects.

We ought to make a wider application here to all people. This is specific to married couples, who are made one flesh through their marriage union. But Christ calls all Christians to love one another as Christ loved us.  We are all the Bride of Chirst, and together make up one body. Our love for one another, although displayed differently than a husband and a wife, should be as committed. We ought to love our brothers and sisters as Christ does. And even beyond this, we ought to love our enemies. Christ loved us when we were enemies.  When we were still sinners Christ gave himself for us. In fact, it is by His love that we are one flesh with Him and with one another.  Christ's died for the Church before she was the Church. It was in loving her, in dying for her, that she began to exist. What does that mean for us? That we ought to love even those outside of the Church with this same love. It is by this very love that we came to Christ, and by the same love that the world will.