Genesis 3-4, Moses 4-5
“The Fall of Adam and Eve”
January 19 - January 25
scripture
commentaries
Moses 5:2–3
<p>In a significant expansion of the biblical text, Adam and Eve bear multiple unnamed sons and daughters who themselves bear the couple’s grandchildren before the birth of Cain, who in the biblical account is the first named son of Adam and Eve (Genesis 4:1).</p>
Pearl of Great Price Study Edition by Stephen O. Smoot
Adam and Eve Keep the Law of Sacrifice and Receive Its Explanation
<p><strong>5:4. “Adam and Eve . . . called upon the name of the Lord.” </strong>Here, we are told that Adam and Eve “called upon the name of the Lord”—meaning Jehovah. Later they will receive the more explicit instruction to “call upon God in the name of the <em>Son</em>” (verse 8; emphasis added).</p> <p>William Clayton, a clerk for Joseph Smith that kept a daily journal of the Prophet’s activities, wrote that the “first word Adam spoke” was “a word of supplication, [a] key word by which the heavens are opened.”<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> The threefold repetition in some versions of the story may symbolize the tradition that holds that it was on the third day when Adam’s urgent and persistent request for additional knowledge from the Lord was at last answered. In ancient tradition, Adam and Eve prayed with upraised hands, and that practice is mentioned more generally in scriptures such as Isaiah 1:15–16. In some Jewish traditions, the angel who came to instruct Adam is said to have brought a book that “teaches [those who are wise and God-fearing] how to call upon the angels and make them appear before men, and answer all their questions.”<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a> Likewise, the Prophet Joseph Smith was anxious to teach the Saints the manner by which they could “pray and have [their] prayers answered.”<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a></p> <p><strong>5:4. “for they were shut out from his presence.”</strong> Lacking knowledge of the conditions by which they could receive the blessings of the Atonement, Adam and Eve experienced a temporary state of spiritual death—the “first death, even that same death which is the last death” for the wicked (Doctrine and Covenants 29:41).</p> <p><strong>5:5. “He gave unto them commandments.” </strong>“What was the reward for diligence in prayer?” asked BYU professors Richard D. Draper, S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes. “The answer is more commandments.”<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4">[4]</a> These were among what Alma termed the “second commandments,” given because Adam and Eve had transgressed the “first commandments” that forbade them from eating from the tree of knowledge and that instructed them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth (Alma 12:31–37). Hugh Nibley explained, “Now he gives them commandments. He gives them the law of God. He gives them the <em>law of obedience</em>. He gives them <em>the law of sacrifice</em>, and he gives them <em>the law of the Gospel</em> . . . , which they follow. They are starting on the way back now.”<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5">[5]</a></p> <p><strong>5:5. “offer the firstlings of their flocks.”</strong> Jewish and Islamic traditions recount how God taught Adam the practice of animal sacrifice. The ordinance of animal sacrifice given to Adam and Eve (Moses 5:5–9) corresponds in our day to the sacrament (see Doctrine and Covenants 59:8–14). Significantly, Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained that three ordinances—baptism, sacrifice, sacrament—are associated with one and the same covenant.<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6">[6]</a></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Brent M. Rogers, eds., <em>Journals, Volume 3: May 1843–June 1844</em>, vol. 3 of the Journals series of <em>The Joseph Smith Papers</em>, ed. Ronald K. Esplin and Matthew J. Grow (Salt Lake City, UT: Church Historian’s Press, 2015), 334; spelling and grammar modernized.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> See, for example, Louis Ginzberg, ed., <em>The Legends of the Jews</em>, 7 vols., trans. Henrietta Szold and Paul Radin (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 1:92.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> “Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” <em>Juvenile Instructor</em> 27, no. 11 (June 1, 1892): 345. Compare Joseph Smith Jr., April 28, 1842, in Joseph Fielding Smith, comp., <em>Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith</em> (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1969), 226.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> Richard D. Draper, S. Kent Brown, and Michael D. Rhodes, <em>The Pearl of Great Price: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary</em> (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2005), 58.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> Hugh W. Nibley, <em>Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price</em> (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies [FARMS], 2004), 233; emphasis added.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6">[6]</a> Bruce R. McConkie, <em>A New Witness for the Articles of Faith</em> (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1985), 293.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author:</strong> Jeffrey M. Bradshaw<br /><strong>General Editor:</strong> Taylor Halverson<br /><strong>Associate Editor:</strong> Morgan Tanner<br /><strong>Senior Editor:</strong> Sarah Whitney Johnson<br /><strong>Assistant Editor:</strong> Sam Lofgran<br /><strong>Assistant Editor:</strong> Verlanne Johnson</p>
Old Testament Minute: Genesis by BMC
The Law of Sacrifice Is Explained
<p><strong>5:6. “after many days.” </strong>According to Jewish and early Christian traditions, Adam and Eve had a forty-day penance period after the Fall. From the text of Genesis, Bible scholar Terje Stordalen concluded that the law of sacrifice was given as “a test of being faithful while not perceiving (fully) the reason behind an instruction.”<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> The additional light and knowledge that Adam sought did not come immediately. However, wrote Hugh Nibley, “[the Lord] doesn’t keep you waiting forever. Give your test sufficient time, enough to show your integrity, and you will get your answer.”<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a></p> <p><strong>5:6. “an angel.”</strong> The description in Alma 12:28–35 of the instructions given to Adam and Eve by an angel implies that Alma was aware of the material in the book of Moses—either through direct revelation or through his study of the brass plates. Latter-day Saint scholars Jeff Lindsay and Noel B. Reynolds have identified many other examples where the prophets of the Book of Mormon seem to have been aware of events and teachings in the book of Moses.<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a></p> <p><strong>5:6. “I know not, save the Lord commanded me.”</strong> Nibley commented on the practical implications of the example of our first parents, writing, “I doubt not that when we know the reasons for some of the things we do now on faith, the practical value of the actions will be so plain that we will wonder how we could have missed it, and then we shall be heartily glad that we did what we were told to do.”<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4">[4]</a></p> <p><strong>5:7. “This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father.” </strong>About this symbolism, Joseph Smith taught: “Certainly, the shedding of the blood of a beast could be beneficial to no man, except it was done in imitation or as a type, or explanation of what was to be offered through the gift of God Himself, and this performance done with an eye looking forward in faith on the power of that great Sacrifice for a remission of sins. . . . [W]henever the Lord . . . commanded [men] to offer sacrifices to Him, . . . it was done that they might look forward in faith to the time of his coming and rely upon the power of that Atonement for a remission of their sins.”<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5">[5]</a></p> <p><strong>5:8. “Do all that thou doest in the name of the Son.”</strong> Nephi similarly taught, “But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul” (2 Nephi 32:9).</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Terje Stordalen, <em>Echoes of Eden: Genesis 2–3 and the Symbolism of the Eden Garden in Biblical Hebrew Literature</em> (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2000), 226.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> Hugh W. Nibley, <em>Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price </em>(Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies [FARMS], 2004), 234.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> Noel B. Reynolds and Jeff Lindsay, “‘Strong like unto Moses’: The Case for Ancient Roots in the Book of Moses Based on Book of Mormon Usage of Related Content Apparently from the Brass Plates,” in<em> Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities</em>, ed. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, David R. Seely, John W. Welch, and Scott Gordon (Orem, UT: Interpreter Foundation; Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central; Redding, CA: FAIR; Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Books, 2021), 315–420.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> Hugh W. Nibley, “Prophets and Ritual,” in<em> The World and the Prophets</em>, ed. John W. Welch, Gary P. Gillum, and Don E. Norton, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 3 (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1987), 149.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> “The Elders of the Church in Kirtland, to Their Brethren Abroad,” <em>The Evening and Morning Star</em>, March 1834, 143. See also Nibley, <em>Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price</em>, 233.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author:</strong> Jeffrey M. Bradshaw<br /><strong>General Editor:</strong> Taylor Halverson<br /><strong>Associate Editor:</strong> Morgan Tanner<br /><strong>Senior Editor:</strong> Sarah Whitney Johnson<br /><strong>Assistant Editor:</strong> Sam Lofgran<br /><strong>Assistant Editor:</strong> Verlanne Johnson</p>
Old Testament Minute: Genesis by BMC
Adam Rejoices
<p><strong>5:9. “the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam.” </strong>The explanation of the law of sacrifice in Moses 5:6–8 sets the stage for the baptism of Adam. However, contrary to expectation, that event is delayed until later in the Moses narrative within the sermon of Enoch (6:51–64). The mention of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in this verse recalls the modern baptismal prayer and thus hints at the ordinance.</p> <p>With no human administrator available to perform the baptism, it was accomplished in an exceptional manner by Adam’s being “caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and . . . carried down into the water” (6:64). Similarly, in the Mandaean account of Adam’s baptism the ordinance was completed by divine means through the Mandaean redeemer figure.<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> (The Mandaeans are a religious group with Jewish Palestinian roots that go back to the first century AD). After giving the account of Adam’s baptism, Enoch affirmed that Adam also received the Melchizedek Priesthood and all the additional, higher ordinances necessary for him to be called “a son of God” (6:67–68).</p> <p><strong>5:10. “Blessed be the name of God, for . . . in this life I shall have joy.”</strong> Adam’s words are phrased in elegant parallels to Eve’s words in verse 11. Adam and Eve’s individual expressions of newfound understanding and joy meld to form a harmonious dual psalm of gratitude.</p> <p><strong>5:10. “because of my transgression my eyes are opened, . . . and again in the flesh I shall see God.”</strong> The second part of Adam’s parallel expresses a significant insight: the crowning moment and the supernal reward of the opening of Adam’s eyes (first mentioned in Moses 4:13 after Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge) is that one day he shall again see God. References to the opening of eyes in scripture signify gaining sudden knowledge or insight of divine origin.</p> <p><strong>5:10. “Transgression.”</strong> As in the second article of faith, the term “transgression” is deliberately used instead of the more common word “sin.” Despite the fact that the two words are near synonyms in ordinary English speech, Elder Dallin H. Oaks saw an instructive parallel with “a familiar distinction in the law. Some acts, like murder, are crimes because they are inherently wrong. Other acts, like operating without a license, are crimes only because they are legally prohibited. Under these distinctions, the act that produced the Fall was not a sin—inherently wrong—but a transgression—wrong because it was formally prohibited.”<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> E. S. Drower, ed., <em>The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans</em> (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1959), 30.</p> <p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> Dallin H. Oaks, “The Great Plan of Happiness,” October 1993 general conference, online at churchofjesuschrist.org.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author:</strong> Jeffrey M. Bradshaw<br /><strong>General Editor:</strong> Taylor Halverson<br /><strong>Associate Editor:</strong> Morgan Tanner<br /><strong>Senior Editor:</strong> Sarah Whitney Johnson<br /><strong>Assistant Editor:</strong> Sam Lofgran<br /><strong>Assistant Editor:</strong> Verlanne Johnson</p>
Old Testament Minute: Genesis by BMC
