Exegesis of Genesis 2-3 the Pre-Modern Interpretation Essay

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Exegesis of Genesis 2-3

The pre-modern interpretation of the fall of man was primarily explained by Augustine and Calvin and was accepted as fact. In this exegesis, Adam and Eve, prior to the fall, walked with God and communed with Him, but after God discovered that they had disobeyed Him, cut off this communications and they entered what many have believed was a depraved state. Calvin says that man "became entirely changed and so degenerate that the image of God, in which he had been formed, was obliterated (Calvin, 2001, 41). This is the basis of his doctrine regarding the total depravity of man. This interpretation has also been at the forefront of much modern exegesis which, though not completely dismissing older theologians such as Calvin, looks deeper into the how the wording can be reinterpreted using this and other parts of the Bible.

The modern interpretation looks at the words themselves to see where the pre-modern can be restructured. In many of these interpretations it is easy to see that scholars are taking the writer (presumed to be Moses) much more literally than did Calvin and his contemporaries.

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Most readers of these passages have come to believe that the serpent is either directly Satan, or, at the very least, is indwelt by him. A careful reading of the text reveals that this is not the case (von Rad, 1972, 87). The text mentions that the serpent is more subtle (some versions say cunning) than any other beast, but it does not say anything about the snake being a form of the Devil (Bratcher, 2011). Thus, the first departure from the pre-modern interpretation. Most recent authors see the text as focusing on Adam and Eve and not the serpent (Bratcher, 2011).

Since this telling focuses on the people of the story and not on the serpent, it can almost be dismissed (until the end). Westerman (1994) explains that this event is a separate event from the rest of the Bible, it can be seen as a "preimeval" event, thus the interpretation that this is the beginning of human history is false (276). He states that "One should avoid therefore a description which differs so much from the text and is so inaccurate.....

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