The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 123

is Rfterwar<ls more exactly defined (vers. 10, all, it being "for thoir good to have their 14). In the menn time it is simply noted wits shnrpcnrd" (WillEt); or in what I'll• thnt, this enchanting paradise having been spect they suffered lo~s through listening sperinlly prcpnro<l by Jehovah, there he put to the tempter, and did not rnther gain the ma.n (Adnm) whom he ha.d formed. (Rabbi Moses) ; or wherein, being desti- Yer. 9.-And out of the ground ma.de the tute of both intellectual and mornl discern- Lord God (Jehovah Elohim) to grow every ment, they could be rcgnrded as either ~uilty tree tha.t ie pleaeant to the sight-literally, of transgression or responsible for obedience. lovely to see ; i .. c. beautiful in form and Incapacity to know good and evil may be. colour-and good for food. In the preparation a characteristic of unconscious childhood and of man's pristine abode respect was had to unreflecting youth (Dent. i. 39 ; Isa. vii. 16 ; ornamentation as well as utility. E,·ery Jonah iv. 11 ), or of debilitated nge (2 8nm. ~pecies of vegetation that could. minister xix. 36), but is not conceivable in the case of 1 o his corporeal necessities was provided, one who was created in God'e imege, invested Flowm-s, trees, and shrubs regalecl his senses l\;th world-dominion, e.nd himself constituted l\;i11 their frngrance, pleased his eye with the subject of moral government. Unless, their exquisite forms nnd enchanting colours, therefore, with ancient Gnostics and modem nnd grntifie<l. his palate ,dth their luscious Hecrelians, we view the en tire story of the fruits. Hence the garden of the Lord became probation as an allegorical representation of the highest ideal of earthly excellence (Isa. the necessary intellectual and ethical deve- Ji. 3). In pnrticular it was distinguished by lopment of human nature, we must believe the presence of two trees, which occupied a that Adam was acquainted with the idea of central position among its multifarious 1)ro- morn! distinctions from the first. Hence the ductions. The tree of life also in the midst conclusion seems to force itself npon our of the garden, and the tree of knowledge minds that the first man was possessed of of good and e~i.l. That these were not two both immortality and knowledge irrespective separntc trees, but only one tree distinguished altogether of the trees, and that the true by different names, has been maintained, charac;ter which belonged to these trees was though mth no weightier reason than the symbolical or sacramental, suggestive of the statement of Eve in eh. iii 3. The opinion conditions under which he was placed in of 'Witsius, Luther, Kennicott, and Heng- Eden. "Arbori autem vit:e nomen indidit, sten berg, that classes of trees, and not indi- non quod vitam homini confe1Tet, qua jam vidual trees, are meant by the phrases "tree ante prreditus erat ; sed ut symbolum ac of life " and " tree of knowledge," is pre- memo1;a1e esset vital divinitus acceptre " dudccl by the bnguage of Jehovah Elohim (Calvin). For a further exposition of the iu eh. ii -I 7 and eh. iiL 24. As regards their exact significance of these trees see below significance, consistency requires that they on vers. 16,17. should both be explained on the same prin- Ver. 10.-The precise locality of Eden is ciple. This, accordingly, disposes of the idea indicated by its relation to the great water- that the tree of life (literally, the tree of the courses of the region. And a river (literally, lives: cf. (v~ov Tijc ,wik, Rev. ii 7; :x::x. 19) a flowing water, applicable to large oceanic is simply a Hebraism for a living tree, as by floods-Job xxii 16; Ps. xxiv. 2; xlvi. 6; 110 sort of ingenuity can the tree of know- Jonah ii. 4-as well as to nnn·ow streams) ledge be transformed into a k1w10ing tree. went out (literally, going out) of Edon to Jt likewise militates against the notion that we.ter the garden. To conclude from this the two trees were styled from the peculiar that the river had its source within the limits effects of their fruits, the one conferring of the garden is to infer more than the pre- physical immortality on Adam's body (Scotus, mises will warrant. Nothing more is implied Aquinas, Fairbairn, Kalisch, Luther), and in the language than that a great water- the other imparting moral and intellectual course proceeded through the district of intuitions to his soul (Josephus, Kalisch). Eclen, and served to inigate the soil. Pro- But even if the life-giving properties of the bably it intersectetl the garden, thus occa- one tree could be demonstrated from eh. iii. sioning its remarkable fecundity and benuty. 24, proof woulcl still be required with regard And from thence (i. e. either on emerging to the other, that the mere physical processes from which, or, taking IO in its secondary of manclucation and digestion could be fol- sense, outside of, or at a distance from which) lowed by results so immaterial as those of it was parted (literally, divided itself), and "rousincr the slumberiug intellect, teaching became into four heads. Roaltim, from rosh, HRsou t; reflect, and enabling the judgment that which is highest; either principal waters, to distinguish between moral good and moral arms or branches (Tayler Lewis, Alford), or Evil" (Kalisch). Besides, if this was the im• beginnings of rivers, indicating the sources mdiate effect of eating the forbidden fruit, it of the streams (Gesenius, Keil, Macdonald, is ditfkult to perceive either why it should Murphy). If the second of these interprete- han 1,een proJi;Hted to our first parent.Ii at tions be adopted, Eden must ho looked for CII. JI. 8--17.] nm BOOK OJ!' GENESIS. 45