They would therefore retain even their erroneous additions to the truth, which by a proper use of Scripture they might be induced to reject; because they saw that an attempt was made to contradict them, where truth was manifestly on their side."1 1 Tübingen gelehrt. Anzeigen, für 1790, S. 143. BOOK III. OF CREATED RATIONAL BEINGS. PART II. OF MAN. SECTION 1. OF THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF MAN, THE FALL AND ITS CON- $53. Primitive state of man. Experience teaches us that all human bodies are subject to mortality, and that we have no sooner arrived at a sense of duty (1), than we violate (2) its obligations, i. e. we sin (3), in various ways. But the Scriptures inform us that this twofold evil of the human family did not exist originally, but is an incidental evil (4). Those first individuals, whom God intended to be the progenitors of the whole human family (5), viz. (6) that one individual man (7) and the woman who was subsequently (8) produced by the agency of God, were, like every thing else, created good and perfect (9). Agreeably to the object of the Creator, the peculiar superiority of man, consisted in his similarity to God (10). And this superiority, as far as (11) it was to be evinced by the dignity, the power, and the dominion, of man over other terrestrial creatures (12), resulted from his rational and moral nature (13). But a being possessing a moral nature in perfect maturity, as was immediately the case with our first parents (14), could not possess that degree of moral perfection with which our first parents are said (Gen. 1: 31) to have been endowed, without also being morally good and free from sin. Hence the likeness of our first parents to God, consisted principally in the circumstance (15) that they were pure from sin, and by virtue of their natural faculties (16), were able to avoid sin and fulfil the obligations of duty Gen. 3: 2, 3. Had they preserved this moral purity, they would not have been subjected to the necessity of dying (17), an evil introduced into the world by the guilt (18) of man (19). For God had given them means for the perpetual preservation of their lives, and in the possession of these they would have ever remained, if they had had not sinned against their heavenly Father (20). ILLUSTRATIONS. I. Rom. 7 : 8, 9, ελθούσης εντολης ή αμαρτια ανέζησεν when the commandment came, sin revived. II. Rom. 3: 9–20, 22, 23, παντες ήμαρτον και στη ρουνται της δόξης του θεου all have sinned and come short of the glory of God [are deficient in similarity to God, or have lost his image, or his happiness, or have come short of glory before God, viz. the glory of perfect obedience]. Gen. 8:21, the thoughts of the heart of man are evil, from his youth. III. 1 John 3: 4, ǹ quaqtia eotiv ǹ avoua sin is the transgression of the law. IV. Rom. 5: 12 &c, δι' ένος ανθρωπου ἡ ἁμαρτια εις τον κοσμον ειςήλθε, και δια της ἁμαρτιας ὁ θανατος by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin. V. Gen. 1:28, God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Acts 17:21, εποιησε εξ ένος αἱματος παν εθνος ανθρωπων κατοικειν επι παν το προςωπον της γης he hath made of one blood (descended), all nations of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth. VI. Gen. 1:27. Matth. 19: 4-6, he made them from the beginning, male and female. VII. Gen. 2: 7, comp. v. 18 &c. 3: 6 &c. Bruns, in an Investigation of the most ancient sayings concerning the origin of the human family,' has attempted to prove from Gen 1: 26 &c. 5:1-3, that God originally formed several persons of each sex. Yet he admits that it is impossible to find evidence of more than two individuals, namely, one male and one female, in the 2d and 3d chapters, without doing violence to language. But the passages in the 1st and 5th chapters, are perfectly consistent with those in the 2d and 3d, if they are not wrested from their natural meaning. I admit indeed, that in both cases DN is an appellative noun [man] and not a proper name [Adam], which is the circumstance to which Bruns appeals; but it by no means follows, that in either of these passages (1: 27. 5: 2), the translation must be given thus: "God created them," viz. men, who, agreeably to what preceded, were like him [ or , comp. ch. 6: 1], men and women; but it may be given thus: "When God created human beings in his own image, he created a man and a woman, and blessed them (namely, the man and the woman) and called them men [human beings], when they were created." Thus, in the expression εποιησεν avtovs (Matth. 19: 4), avtovs is a pleonasm which, we may re 1 Paulus' Neues Repertorium, Th. II. S. 197 ff. 2 mark, is found in all cases in which the noun to which avtos refers, is not in its proper place. The same pleonasm is found in Matth. 21 : 41, κακους αυτους. Other examples taken from profane writers, are given by Kypke (on Acts 19: 38), Elsner (on Rev. 2: 7), and Schleusner.1 Justi, in a work the object of which is to refute the hypothesis of Bruns, grounds his argument, in part, on the fact, that in Gen. ch. 1 and 5, the very same word (D) is used to designate the person spoken of, which is used in ch. 2 and 3, and that consequently they must be the same; and partly, on the circumstance that the writer of the book of Genesis, as he mentions nothing about the gender of the other animals whose creation he narrates (ch. 1: 20—25), would not have specifically mentioned the creation of the man and the woman, if he had not intended to attract particular attention to the remarkable circumstance, that God determined that the earth should be peopled from a single couple.3 Moreover, we are expressly told in the New Testament, that one man, together with the woman who was dependent on him, was the progenitor of the whole human family,-that man (Rom. 5: 12--15), who on account of his priority to Eve in point of existence (1 Tim. 2: 13), is called the first man; and who, on account of his superiority to his helper (1 Cor. 11:9), received the general name man [DN Gen. 5: 2] in a peculiar sense [xar' εon]. This truth is presupposed in the discussion of the important doctrine of the redemption of the human family (§ 59). VIII. Gen. 2: 18 &c. 1 Tim. 2: 13, Adam was formed 1 Lexicon art. avtos, No. 12. 2 Paulus' Memorabilia, Vol. 5. No. 2. 4 3 See Eichhorn's Urgeschichte, Th. 2. B. 2. S. 43 ff. See, on the opposite side, Reinhardt's Dogmatischen Vorlesungen, p. 245. 4 Gen. 2: 18, It is not good for man to be alone. 5 Gen. 2: 7, DNT 5:3. Rom. 5: 14. 1 Cor. 15: 22, 45. 1 Tim. 2: 13. In all these passages DN is a proper noun. |