poros depomos 6) אדם הקדמון of the first man with

1

'Adáμ, 1 Cor. xv. 45) is old Jewish, so also is the designation of the serpent which led man astray with j7pm win: (0 öpis ỏ ȧpxaîos, Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2); (2) the Palestinian Targum testifies that in Gen. iii. 15 there is promised a healing of the bite in the heel from the serpent, which is to take place "at the end of the days, in the days of King Messiah." In the Palestinian Midrash to Genesis1 we read: "The things which God created perfect since man sinned have become corrupt (ppm), and do not return to their proper condition until the son of Perez (i.e. according to Gen. xxxviii. 29, Ruth iv. 18 ff., the Messiah out of the tribe of Judah) comes.' According to this the Messiah is Saviour and Restorer, as the apostolic word says of Jesus (1 John iii. 8), that He has appeared, va λúon τὰ ἔργα τοῦ διαβόλου.

§ 5. First Effects and Verifications of the Primitive Promise.

A first echo of the divine word, received in faith concerning the victory of mankind, is the name (Septuagint, Swń), which Adam gives his wife; for— as the narrator explains (iii. 206) the meaning and propriety of this name-she became "the mother of all living;" that is, in spite of death, the mother of each individual of the race, which is destined to live, to whom the victory over the power of the evil one is promised, and hence as mother of the Seed of the woman who is to crush the head of the serpent. 1 Bereshith rabba xii.

We consider as a second echo the language of Eve when she became mother for the first time. Although

this cannot possibly be understood as an expression of the belief that her first-born was the incarnate Yahweh, -for the terms of the primitive promise do not give any occasion for such an expression,-but must rather indicate that, with Yahweh as helper and giver, she has brought forth a man-child, which she has received as her own, nevertheless her exclamation stands related to iii. 15, since she designated God with the name of Yahweh, and in any case as the God of the promised salvation, for this Hebrew name of God belongs to the later period of the origin of the peoples. Through the marvel of this first birth she is placed in a joyful amazement, which is powerfully increased, because that thus the promise of the victory of the Seed of the woman appeared to be realized. But her first-born was the murderer of his brother; Cain was ÈK TOÛ Tovηρoû (1 John iii. 12), he took his position on the side of the seed of the serpent. The religious congregation which was formed at the time of Enosh, the son of Seth, could already name one of their members as a martyr. When it is said, iv. 26, that at that time men began to call on and to call out the name of Yahweh,-that is, to pray together to God as Yahweh, and publicly to recognise Him as such,-this, too, stands in connection with iii. 15, for this historical notice is designed to indicate that men at that time joined a congregation which worshipped the God of the promised salvation. But if mankind is ever to be free from the bondage of

sin, as is promised in iii. 15, they must likewise be free from the curse of death. The end of Enoch's life, the seventh from Adam in the line of Seth, shows that man, if he had proved true in the probation of free will, could have gone over into another stadium of existence without death and corruption. Death is, indeed, since the fall a law of nature; but God, who has enacted this law of nature, can also make it inoperative when He will through the exertion of His almighty power. The translation of Enoch, as well as of Elijah, is a prophecy in act of the future end of death (Isa. xxv. 8; 1 Cor. xv. 54). The primitive promise includes this end of death in itself, for the crushing of the serpent is the disarming of him "who has the power of death" (Heb. ii. 14).

Remark 1.-The impression that

in

iv. 16, indicates the definite object, as vi. 10, xxvi. 34, is so strong that the Jerusalem Targum translates: "I have gotten a man, the Angel of Yahweh." But this interpretation cannot be maintained, for the reason that the Angel of Yahweh first enters into history and consciousness after the time of the patriarchs.

Remark 2.-Enoch announced, according to Jude, ver. 14, the parousia of the Lord in judgment. It is indeed in itself probable that Enoch, since he walked with God,—a commendation which only Noah shares with him, vi. 9,—also knew about the ways of God; but his prophecy, which Jude quotes, belongs to the "sage" (Haggada), and serves the author of the Epistle a didactic purpose. That it refers to the coming of the Lord in judgment, although the history of mankind

had not begun so very long ago, is strange in itself. Not long after the beginning of the Church, the parousia of Christ as judge was longed and hoped for. The corruption through sin was so great at all times, that the believers longed that God, through a judicial interference, might help the Seed of the woman to a victory over the seed of the serpent.

§ 6. The Expected Comforter.

While in Lamech, the seventh from Adam within the Cainitic line, the worldly tendency of this line rises to blasphemous arrogance, there appears in Enosh, Enoch, and Lamech, the third, seventh, and ninth of the Sethitic line, an indigenous tendency toward the God of the promised salvation. Lamech, the Sethite, when his first son was born, hoped that in him, the tenth from Adam, the period of the curse would come to a comforting conclusion. This is evident from his elevated words when he says (v. 29): “This one shall comfort us for our work and for the toil of our hands [according to the signification of the Hebrew word: comforting, to make one free from painful work], because of the ground [i.e. that which the ground renders necessary] which Yahweh hath cursed.” In this hope he calls him Noah, i.e. breathing out, rest (connected with D, to comfort, by causing to breathe out). The comfort which he expects from God through him is not comfort in words, but the comfort of an act of salvation. This comfort was also fulfilled through him, although not fully and in entirety, but in a way

preparatory to the completion. The rainbow after the flood was a comfort, the blessing of which extended from that time on until the end. It pledged mankind, after the wrathful visitation in judgment, of their continuance, and of the dawn of a better time, in which, instead of wrath, a blessing predominates, a time of favour, patience, and long-suffering of God (Acts xvii. 30, xiv. 17; Rom. iii. 26). Noah is the first mediator of the sacred history, a mediator of comfort. Comfort (nechama) is one of the pregnant words in which all that is hoped from the God of salvation is combined. Yahweh, as Redeemer of His people, is called their Comforter, Isa. xlix. 13, lii. 9. And the Servant of Yahweh, the Mediator of salvation, explains it as His calling to comfort all that mourn, Isa. lxi. 2. Noah is a forerunner of this great Comforter, in whom all who labour and are heavy laden find rest to their souls.

Remark. Comforter, D, is an old synagogical designation for the Messiah; compare Schoettgen, De Messia, Dresdae 1742, p. 18. Jesus Himself is called πарáκληтоs, Comforter, for His promise, "He shall send you aλov таρáкληтоν” (John xiv. 16), presupposes that Christ Himself is πapákλntos (?).

§ 7. The Promise of the Blessing of the Nations in the Seed of the Patriarchs.

In Gen. ix. 24-27 we read how Noah in spirit penetrated the moral and fundamental character, and