Bible

 

Genesis 4

Studie

   

1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

2 And she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.

4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect to Abel, and to his offering:

5 But to Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

6 And the LORD said to Cain, Why art thou wroth? and Why is thy countenance fallen?

7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And to thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

9 And the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the ground.

11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield to thee its strength: A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

13 And Cain said to the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

14 Behold, thou hast driven me this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it will come to pass, that every one that findeth me will slay me.

15 And the LORD said to him, Therefore whoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bore Enoch: and he built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son Enoch.

18 And to Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

19 And Lamech took to him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

20 And Adah bore Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.

21 And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

22 And Zillah, she also bore Tubalcain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.

23 And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

24 If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold.

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

   

Komentář

 

Open

  

'To open,' as in Revelation 9, signifies communication and conjunction.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 537)

Komentář

 

Adam

  
The Creation of Adam, by Jan Breughel (II)

In a general sense, then, Adam represents the Most Ancient Church. In specific, when named as an individual, he represents that church as it first began turning away from the Lord. In both senses, though, his story is spiritual history, not natural history. Adam is a figurative character, not an actual individual human being.

The word "adam" is Hebrew for "man" or "humankind," and it is consistently translated that way in the first chapter of Genesis. In fact, in that chapter "adam" is plural, and includes men and women: "So God created man (adam) in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27, quoted from the King James Version of the Bible). Yet in later chapters – even including the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:38 – "Adam" is used as a name, and seems to refer to a specific person.

The first ripple in the relationship between God and humanity came as people began wanting a greater sense of life as their own, as they began to want to feel their love and wisdom as their own instead of things flowing in from God. The Lord gave them the power to feel as they wanted to, which is represented by the rib taken from the "man" Adam and formed into the "woman" Eve. This would, of course, lead to the downfall of humanity; because of that sense of self, people were drawn to the power of their own senses and their own minds – the serpent – instead of trusting the Lord. The Writings say the switch from "man" to "Adam" represents the change made in people when the Lord allowed them to have that sense of self. So what does this mean? The Writings tell us that the "man" created in Genesis represents the Most Ancient Church, which was the first church among early humans and was the purest ever to grace the earth. People of the church were motivated purely by the love of the Lord, and lived in peace, harmony, mutual love and inexpressible wisdom. This follows from the idea that the Lord is the one true human – and is, in fact, humanity itself. Since the Most Ancients were so close to the Lord, they are represented by "adam" in its meaning of "man" or "humankind." The common interpretation is that Genesis 1:26-28 is a general statement of the creation of people, and that the specifics of that creation are laid out in the next chapter when God first creates the man Adam and the woman Eve. But linguistically "adam" in the second chapter is the same as "adam" in the first chapter. In fact, while the King James Version of the Bible switches from "man" to "Adam" midway through the second chapter (Genesis 2:19), Young's Literal Translation – created to be as close to the original language as possible – does not use "Adam" as a named person until Genesis 4:25, long after the Garden of Eden. Eve, meanwhile, is simply "the woman" in all translations until Genesis 3:20, which is after she and Adam have eaten the forbidden fruit and been expelled from the Garden. Adam is one of the most crucial and most controversial figures in the Bible, dividing even the faithful into camps: those who believe he literally existed, created by God as the first human; and those who believe he is a figurative character, embodying spiritual and moral lessons but not an actual person.

In Genesis 2:19, Also that man was made from the ground, or from the non-man, by regeneration. (Arcana Coelestia 478, Arcana Coelestia 64, 313)

In Genesis 3:17, Adam's expulsion from Eden signifies the condemnation of those called Adam and Eve, the former of their intellectual part, the latter of their voluntary or will: in short of both degrees of their selfhood or proprium. Proprium is defined as "the love of self, and the derivative conceit of self-intelligence." (Doctrine Regarding Sacred Scripture 60, Divine Providence 313)