With the prohibition of one of the two trees (2:17), God confronts man with a test, an important but surprisingly neglected feature of the text. The Hebrew text of the Eden Narrative does not use the specific term for testing (Hebrew nsh in the Piel). One might therefore hesitate to speak of a test in the present text. The important thing, however, is not whether we have the precise terminology but whether the plot confronts us with what may be denoted as a test, and I believe this is precisely the case. God arranges an experiment with the first humans: he proclaims his divine commandment in the form of a prohibition, and then he waits to see whether the two humans will obey or not.—Mettinger in The Eden Narrative, page 23
<idle musing>
Interesting view, isn't it? Changes the way you look at the whole thing.
</idle musing>
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3 comments:
Though it seems to me that as an experiment or test it is a little wanting. The creator presumably understands the creature even better than we understand each other. Yet anyone I know given the scenario Genesis paints in 2-3, even without the snake's influence, will predict that they try the forbidden fruit.
Either humans have changed for the worse since God's "experiment" or it was not an experiment, but rather a "natural" consequence of the creation of beings with free will who are not part of the Godhead...
Tim,
You are reasoning from this side of the fall. Before the fall, it was not inevitable that they would choose the wrong way.
James
You could well be right. "The other side of the fall" is one of thoise areas that I have to leave with God, having as yet no knowledge. I still have problems with the idea of this as an experiment or test...
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