The Bible is filled with vivid images rendering abstract concepts as concrete realities. One of the first such images is found in Genesis 4:7 where God confronts Cain regarding his attitude after his sacrifice was rejected:
“If you do well, will you not be accepted? But if you do not well
sin is lurking at the door
its desire is for you
but you must master it.” (NRSV)
God's warning words appear to be rather straightforward even if they employ two word pictures for “evil”: a carnivorous beast and a slave-owner. But often in the Bible, things are not always as simple to understand as they appear to be. And concerning this particular passage, Procksch calls it “the most obscure verse in Genesis.” Hamilton echoes this opinion: “It is fair to say that this is one of the hardest verses in Genesis to translate.” The Jerusalem Bible offers only what it calls an “approximate translation of a corrupted text.” In spite of this, Ellison states, “The Heb. of v.7 is difficult, but we need not doubt that the general sense has been given by NIV...when it sees sin personified as a ravenous beast.” But not all scholars agree with that assessment as you will see below. Even the general meaning of the verb translated above as “lurking” is in doubt. Hamilton notes that “Gen. 49:9 is the one other clear instance, besides Gen. 4:7, that permits the translation 'lie in wait for, lurk.'”
The causes for this difficulty in understanding the Hebrew text of Genesis 4:7 are many, some of which I am too ignorant to comment on. But suffice it to say that problems include the possible accidental transposition of some of the parallel lines shown above in the process of transmission over the centuries, improper vowel markings for some of the Hebrew words, uncertainty regarding the intended gender of “it” and what “it” refers to, and the exact translation of the words “sin” and “lurking.” Opinions regarding these various issues have given rise to some alternative understandings such as:
Sin is pictured as relaxing “at the door like a predatory monster that through long habitude has become domesticated.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)
The Hebrew word robes (“couching, lying”) “is cognate to an Akkadian term used of a type of demon...The first edition of the Jewish Publication Society's Torah offered the translation: 'Sin is the demon at the door.' If such a translation is legitimate, then there is a connection with the oracle about the seed of the serpent [see Genesis 3:15].” (A.P. Ross) Speiser in his Anchor Bible translation takes this same approach, as does NEB.
“Interestingly, the Hebrew language uses the same word for 'sin sacrifice' (Lev 4) as it does for 'sin.' The one word describes both the problem and the solution.” (Hamilton) Because of that ambiguity, it is possible to take Genesis 4:7 as God telling Cain that the solution to his problem is already close at hand, simply make a sin sacrifice.
Minority opinions aside, the probable image of sin as a predatory beast in Genesis 4:7 has a strong echo in the New Testament in I Peter 5:8 in which “the devil prowls around like a lion, looking for someone to devour.” So in a way, Satan himself becomes the personification of evil.
Other word pictures for the abstract concept of evil appear throughout the Bible:
Isaiah 5:18 talks about those “who drag sin behind you as with cart ropes.” Blenkensopp comments: “Bearing the burden of sin is represented vividly as dragging along a large and recalcitrant animal.” One could picture a mule that has set in his heels and refuses to budge. One can't make any progress in life with such an impediment.
Proverbs 5:22: “The wicked man is caught in his own iniquities and held fast in the toils of his own sin.” Waltke notes that in “1:18 the wicked lie in wait for their own blood, now, personified, the iniquities themselves set and spring the trap leading to death.”
Isaiah 59:2 reads, “Our transgressions before you [God] are numerous, and our sins give evidence against us.” In this case, the prophet pictures sins as witnesses for the prosecution in the case.
I Corinthians 15:56: “O Death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin...” In this passage, Death is personified as a stinging insect such as a wasp, and the sting itself is sin. “Once the sting is removed the power to conquer is gone. That will be so when immortality has been ushered in.” (Grosheide)
Galatians 3:23: “But Scripture has declared the whole world to be prisoners in subjection to sin, so that faith in Jesus Christ may be the ground on which the promised blessing is given, and given to those who have such faith.” (NEB) “Only in the present verse...does Paul use this expression [“subjection to”] to speak of two active powers. One of these, the scripture, does not itself enslave, but merely conveys everything to the slave master Sin.” (Martyn)
Hebrews 3:13: “But exhort one another every day...that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” “The expression sin's deceitfulness describes sin as a seducer, and may be an allusion to that first sin when Eve was seduced by the serpent.” (Hawthorne)
James 1:13-15 Here in this vivid word picture we have the whole story of Sin presented as the life history of a living being. The final image of sin giving birth to death is especially striking:
1. One's own desires lure and entice
2. Desire conceives
3. Desire gives birth to sin
4. Sin becomes fully grown
5. Sin gives birth to death
Closely related to the above personifications is the way the concept of Evil is sometimes treated in the Bible. However, keep in mind that there are really two separate concepts related to this word. In some passages, “evil” refers to unpleasant things that happen to people, with no necessary moral component attached. In other cases, however, the word is practically synonymous with “sinful deeds.”
Job 30:26a: “But when I sought good, evil came instead.”
Job 31:29: Job speaks of his enemies having evil overtaking them.
Psalm 34:21: Evil brings death.
Psalm 40:12 “For numerous evils have surrounding me.”
James 3:8: “No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Note the similarity of the imagery with that in I Corinthians 15:56.
But the highest frequency of living images for “sin” is found in Romans 5-7:
5:12 It enters into the world through one man.
6:6,17,20; 7:14 Sin is a slave owner.
6:12-14 It exercises dominion over our bodies.
6:23 The wages of sin is death.
7:5 “While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.” This statement is quite similar to the last clause of James 1:15.
7:8 “Sin seizes an opportunity in the commandment to produce covetousness.”
7:9 “I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came back to life.”
7:13 Sin works death in Paul.
7:17,20 Sin lives within him.
Finally, tying personified Evil and Sin together as well as providing a strong echo to Genesis 4:7 (see the italicized phrase below) is Romans 7:21-23:
“So I find it a law [basic principle] that whenever I wish to do good, evil lies close at hand...making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments