..for they are not permitted to speak (2)

By Amie May

Shifting Gears

In the book of Hosea, we find a dark and melancholy period in Israel's history. It was just before the captivity and their sins had brought upon them great national disasters. The symbols of marriage and adultery in the Old Testament writings commonly represent the spiritual relations between God and the people of Israel. In this book (Hosea), we also see the adultery of Israel and their punishment. As well we read of their future repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. Their fall was similar, Hosea points out, to Adam's transgressing the covenant (Hosea 6:7).

I would like now to glance back to "in the beginning", and to Adam and Eve as Paul did (1 Timothy 2:11-15), hopefully to gain a different perspective concerning the "contradiction" and a possible explanation for mention of Adam transgressing the covenant.

Key:
'adam= man, any man, men, mankind
ha-'adam= the man
'et ha-'adam= this same man

Genesis 1
26 ¶ And God said, let Us make man ('adam) in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth.
27 And God created the man (et ha'adam) in His own image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female.

"Adam" can be literally understood in this text as "mankind". "Them" is referring to "adam", and "they" are male (zakar) and female (N@qebah). This point is most clearly made in Genesis 5:2 which reads "This is the book of the generations of Adam: In the day that God created man. He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created."

"Their" name was "Adam". I am not implying that Adam was a literal hermaphrodite (for those of you who don't know, they are people born biologically with both male and female parts) and was split into two biological sexes later. I am saying that "adam" in Genesis 1 referred to all of mankind, men and women.

Genesis 1:28 reads that mankind was created to be fruitful, to multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over it. Basically, humanity was created to till, hrefine, nurse, cherish, nourish, and nurture.

Genesis 2
7 And Jehovah God formed the man (et ha'adam) out of dust from the ground, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and man ('adam) became a living soul.
8 ¶ And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden to the east; and He put the man ('adam) whom He had formed there.

So far in the story, there is no reason to believe that adam is not a group. A change however, will and does happen.

Genesis 2
16 ¶ And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Eating you may eat of every tree in the garden;
17 but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, dying you shall die.

We see that God has given his word, or covenant, that if mankind ate of the Tree of Knowledge, "dying they shall die".

Genesis 2
18 ¶ And Jehovah God said, It is not good, the man being alone. I will make a helper suited to him.

21 ¶ And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh underneath.

22 And Jehovah God formed the rib which He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.

Hebrew nouns are not defined as "person, place, or thing" as ours are, they are defined as the action of a person, place, or thing. Better put, they represent function. The word translated "cloud", for example, would be understood as "that which covers". It covers the sky, it covered the glory of God so that none would look on His face and die, it covered the magicians trick, and it covered the earth in the form of Israel. That said, a "rib", is not a "rib". It is "that which substains" or "holds up".

The word "ishshah", which is translated "woman" in verse 22, makes its first biblical appearance here. The word for "woman" meaning "female" again is "N@qebah". The word "ishshah" is synonymous with "wife", and it was "ishshah" that was formed from the "rib" of the man.

One group was given a function, the other retained one. For example: Imagine Adam, as in "mankind", as a folding chair. As soon as the legs are folded out, the spot on which we sit takes on the role of being "that which is being held up", while the legs take on the role of "that which holds up". The spot on a chair that we sit on was always "that which is being held up", but the legs offer helpful support. Though adam's role never changed, he was given relief from doing it alone. With or without the rib, adam was "that which is being held up", yet upon Eve's formation, she took on the role "that which holds up".

Ancient Hebrews thought connectively, and concrete concerning concepts and ideas. Their train of thought was in touch with the senses; it can be seen, touched, or tasted. The man was physically the stronger sex. Hebrew tents were divided into two parts. The main section was the men's section. The other section was the women's section, with a wall dividing the two parts. The only person allowed into the women's section, was the father over that house. The men's section was located behind the entrance for the purpose of protection. The idea was "If you want to get to my family, you will have to go through me first".

"Being held up" was a dominant role because it existed first. Anything dominant was assigned maleness. The seeming lesser role was assigned to the weaker sex. It was not about ego, it was about observation and life back then. So before that, adam was mankind, and after, adam is man --"iysh". "Iysh" is translated "man" as well as "adam" and is synonymous with " husband ".

"Husband" and "wife" are a covenantal language and their union represents their covenantal assurance. God said in Hosea 2:16 that Israel would one day call Him "husband" ("Iysh"). But I am jumping ahead..

For now, I hope that you consider that "wife" biblically is not always speaking of an individual and such a group is not consisting only of females (ie Israel and the Bride of Christ).

Genesis 2
23 And the man (adam) said, This now at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. For this shall be called Woman (wife/ishshah), because this has been taken out of man (husband/iysh).
24 Therefore, a man (husband/iysh) shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife (ishshah) and they shall become one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man (adam) and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

This marked the beginning of an alliance, a marriage, even a covenant , between the man and his wife. They were now in covenant to one another, and through adam, given a covenant by God. This is further demonstrated in Genesis 3 verses 1-5.

Genesis 3
1 ¶ And the serpent was cunning above every animal of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Is it true that God has said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
3 but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.
4 And the serpent said to the woman, Dying you shall not die,
5 for God knows that in the day you eat of it, even your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.


The woman/wife didn't exist when the covenant was given to mankind, yet here she clearly has knowledge of it. Death came through Adam (Romans 5:12) in that the covenant was delivered by Adam. That covenant again, was "And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Eating you may eat of every tree in the garden; but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, dying you shall die." Again, this consumption was a universally human condition. This was the beginning of death, though the ministration of it wasn't established until Moses.

The serpent is described as cunning, returning again to Gen 3:1-5. Even in looking at the root for the Hebrew word translated "serpent", we gain some insight as to his character. The root word "nachash" means "one who practices divination". They were sorcerers, and hid their tricks behind clouds of smoke. It isn't known who the serpent in the garden is yet, because of his cunning. It isn't until his head is revealed, that it is crushed.

Adam and his wife had been described as "naked" and "unashamed". There are a few words in Hebrew that can be accurately translated as "naked" and this one is "arowm". A look at its word of origin also gives us some added insight in that it is "aram" which interestingly enough means "cunning".

Genesis 3
6 ¶ And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed leaves of the fig tree, and made girdles for themselves.
8 And they heard the sound of Jehovah God walking up and down in the garden at the breeze of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the face of Jehovah God in the middle of the trees of the garden.

No change of character took place for Adam and his wife. Their becoming aware of their nakedness is synonymous with their "exposed cunning". The covenant with God had begun to expose a character flaw.. one that happened to be synonymous with that of the serpent, and one that inspired shame.

Genesis 3
9 ¶ And Jehovah God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?
10 And he said, I have heard Your sound in the garden, and I was afraid, for I am naked, and I hid myself.
11 ¶ And He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she has given to me of the tree, and I ate.
13 And Jehovah God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
14 ¶ And Jehovah God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all beasts, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.

The Serpent, Dragon, Satan, Devil, or Baal had changed his skin many times before his head was revealed. Consistently he represented that which tried to swallow Israel whole. From Pharaoh the Dragon (Ezekiel 29:3), to Lucifer the King of Babylon (Jer 51:34), and more; many other heads had revealed themselves before the head who was the adversary of God was finally destroyed. This would happen not long after failed efforts at thwarting redemption by crucifying Messiah and persecuting the followers of Jesus.

These ideas will hopefully come together in the following parts of this series.