Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

Adam As the First Priest in Eden As the Garden Temple [1]

by G. K. Beale

The first sanctuary was in Eden. But how could we possibly know this, since there was no architectural structure in Eden nor does the word “Temple” or “sanctuary” occur as a description of Eden in Genesis 1-3? Such a claim may sound strange to the ears of many. A number of scholars recently have argued this from one angle or another. [2] The following nine observations, among others that I do not have space to mention, shows that Eden was the first holy sanctuary.

First, later in the Old Testament the Temple was the unique place of YEHOVAH God’s Presence, where Israel had to go to experience that Presence. Israel’s Temple was the place where the priest experienced YEHOVAH’s unique Presence, and Eden was the place where Adam walked and talked with YEHOVAH God. The same Hebrew verbal form (hithpael) used for YEHOVAH’s “walking back and forth” in the Garden (Genesis 3:8), also describes YEHOVAH’s Presence in the Tabernacle (Leviticus 26:12; Deuteronomy 23:14 [15]; 2 Samuel 7:6-7; Ezekiel 28:14). [3]

Second, Genesis 2:15 says YEHOVAH God placed Adam in the Garden “to tend and keep it.” The two Hebrew words for “tend and keep” (respectively, 'abad and shamar) are usually translated “serve and guard.” When these two words occur together later in the Old Testament they have, without exception, this meaning and refer either to Israelites “serving and guarding/obeying” YEHOVAH’s word (about 10 times) or, more often to priests who “serve” YEHOVAH God in the Temple and “guard” the Temple from unclean things entering it (Numbers 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 18:5-6; 1 Chronicles 23:32; Ezekiel 44:14). [4]

Ezekiel 28 and Adam

Adam also is portrayed as wearing priestly attire in Ezekiel 28:13, though some identify this figure as Satan. That this figure is Adam is pointed to by analyzing the description in Ezekiel 28:13. The jewels that are said to be his “covering” in Ezekiel 28:13 are uniquely listed in Exodus 28:17-21, which describe the jewels on the ephod of Israel’s high priest, who is a human and not an angel. In fact, either the Ezekiel list is an allusion to the human priest’s bejeweled clothing in Exodus 28 or Exodus 28 has roots in an earlier tradition about Adam’s apparel, which is represented by Ezekiel. [5]

The traditional association of this passage with Satan arose, presumably, because in the Hebrew Masoretic Text the king is also said to be an “anointed guardian cherub,” an angelic figure. But if the Hebrew were unpointed, we would naturally read verse 14a thus: “With a winged guardian cherub I set you”; and verse 16b: “the guardian cherub banished you from the habitat of the blazing gems.” This is what we have in the Septuagint: "From the day you were created, I placed you with the cherub in a holy, divine mountain…, and the cherub drove you from the midst of the fiery stones." So the identification of the prince of Tyre with Satan renders the passage incoherent.

Also, in rabbinic literature we find a number of traditions that connect the text with Adam. In the ancient Palestinian liturgical reading cycle the lament in Ezekiel 28 was connected with Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, but the majority of rabbinic literature concerns itself not so much with Adam's downfall but with his superabundant wisdom, righteousness, and glorious appearance prior to this.

Furthermore, since the figure in Ezekiel 28:11-19 is addressed to a figure standing behind “the king of Tyre” (v. 11), who has sinned like the human king, it is more likely that the figure in Eden is also human. [6] Therefore, Adam was to be the first priest to serve in and guard YEHOVAH God’s temple.

Adam As the First Priest in Eden

When Adam fails to guard the Temple by sinning and letting in an unclean serpent to defile the Temple, Adam loses his priestly role, and the two cherubim take over the responsibility of “guarding” the Garden Temple: YEHOVAH God “stationed the cherubim...to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). Their role became memorialized in Israel’s later Temple when YEHOVAH God commanded Moses to make two statues of angelic figures and station them on either side of the “ark of the covenant” in the “Holy of Holies” in the Temple. Like the cherubim, Israel’s priests were also to “keep watch” (same word as “guard” in Genesis 2:15) over the Temple (Nehemiah 12:45) as “gatekeepers” (2 Chronicles 23:19; Nehemiah 12:45).

Third, the “tree of life” itself was probably the model for the lampstand placed directly outside the “Holy of Holies” in Israel’s Temple: it looked like a small tree trunk with seven protruding branches, three on one side and three on the other, and one branch going straight up from the trunk in the middle.

Fourth, that the Garden of Eden was the first Temple is also suggested by observing that Israel’s later Temple had wood carvings which gave it a garden-like atmosphere, and likely were intentional reflections of Eden: 1 Kings 6:18, 29 says there was “cedar...carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers” (v. 18); “on the walls of the temple round about” and on the wood doors of the inner sanctuary were “carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers” (v. 29, 32, 35); beneath the heads of the two pillars placed at the entrance of the holy place were “carved pomegranates” (1 Kings 7:18-20).

Fifth, just as the entrance to Israel’s later Temple was to face east and be on a mountain (Zion, Exodus 15:17), and just as the end-time Temple of Ezekiel was to face east (Ezekiel 40:6) and be on a mountain (Ezekiel 40:2; 43:12), so the entrance to Eden faced east (Genesis 3:24) and was situated on a mountain (Ezekiel 28:14, 16).

Sixth, the ark in the Holy of Holies, which contained the Law (that led to wisdom), echoes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (that also led to wisdom). The touching of both the ark and this tree resulted in death.

Seventh, just as a river flowed out from Eden (Genesis 2:10), so the post-exilic Temple (Letter of Aristeas 89-91) and the end time Temple in both Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Revelation 21:1-2 have rivers flowing out from their center (and likewise Revelation 7:15-17 and probably Zechariah 14:8-9). [7] Indeed, Ezekiel generally depicts latter-day Mt. Zion (and its Temple) with descriptions of Eden in an attempt to show that the promises originally inherent in Eden would be realized in the fulfillment of his vision. [8]

Fertility and “rivers” are also descriptions of Israel’s Temple in Psalm 36:8-9: They drink their fill of the abundance of your house [Temple]; And you give them to drink of the river of your delights [literally, “the river of your Edens”!]. For with you is the fountain of life; [9] In your light we see light [perhaps a play of words on the light from the lampstand in the Holy Place].

Jeremiah 17:7-8 also compares those “whose trust is the LORD” to “a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream,” with the result that “its leaves will be green” and it will not “cease to yield fruit” (cf. also Psalm 1:2-3). Then vv. 12-13 refer to “the place of our [Israel’s] sanctuary” and virtually equates it with “the fountain of living water, even the LORD.” [10]

Eighth, like Israel’s later Temple, the Garden of Eden may be discerned to be part of a tripartite sacred structure. In this respect, also in connection with the presence of water, it may even be discernible that there was a sanctuary and a holy place in Eden corresponding roughly to that in Israel’s later Temple. The Garden should be precisely viewed as not itself the source of water but adjoining Eden because Genesis 2:10 says, “a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.”

Therefore, in the same manner that ancient palaces were adjoined by gardens, “Eden is the source of the waters and [is the palatial] residence of YEHOVAH God, and the garden adjoins YEHOVAH’s residence.” [11] Similarly, Ezekiel 47:1 says that water would flow out from under the Holy of Holies in the future end time Temple and would water the earth around. Similarly, in the end-time Temple of Revelation 22:1-2 there is portrayed “a river of the water of life...coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb” and flowing into a garden-like grove, which has been modeled on the first paradise in Genesis 2, as has been much of Ezekiel’s portrayal.

If Ezekiel and Revelation are developments of the first garden-Temple, which we will argue later is the case, then Eden, the area where the source of water is located, may be comparable to the inner sanctuary of Israel’s later Temple and the adjoining Garden to the Holy Place. [12] Even aside from these later biblical texts, Eden and its adjoining garden formed two distinct regions. This is compatible with our further identification of the lampstand in the Holy Place of the Temple with the tree of life located in the fertile plot outside the inner place of YEHOVAH God’s presence.

The "Bread of the Presence" or "Showbread"

Additionally, “the bread of the presence,” also in the Holy Place, which provided food for the priests, would appear to reflect the food produced in the Garden for Adam’s sustenance. [13] In our article, Mystery of Mysteries -- What Is the Showbread? we show that the Showbread, or Bread of Presence, is a symbol of the people of YEHOVAH God -- the "Israel of God." We of Israel are all "one bread." Therefore, we are pictured by the loaves of Showbread which stand before YEHOVAH's Presence continually!

They were twelve in number -- six in a row. So on the shoulders of the high priest there were the names of six tribes on the one, and the names of six tribes on the other. The loaves equally point to the twelve tribes of Israel. The number twelve signifies administrative perfection of government in man, and hence there were twelve tribes, twelve apostles, twelve gates, and twelve foundations in the holy city, New Jerusalem. (See for an illustration of this meaning Matthew 19:28.) The twelve loaves may then be taken to represent Israel in its twelve tribes.

The priests ate the Bread of the Presence on each Sabbath day and replaced the loaves with freshly baked loaves. The showbread evidently remained fresh for the whole week. This typifies the fact that the Word of YEHOVAH God never becomes stale or outdated -- on the contrary, it is the source of life itself and sustains all things; It is as “fresh” and relevant to us today as it was to the holy men and women of past generations.

Additionally, the frankincense was a part of the Table of Showbread. Frankincense was a symbol of the prayers of our Intercessor, and it was also a symbol of the prayers of YEHOVAH’s people Israel covered with the righteousness of the Messiah (Revelation 8:3-4). This frankincense was burnt as a memorial before YEHOVAH God when the Showbread loaves were changed each Sabbath.

When the showbread was changed, it was to be eaten by the priests (Leviticus 24:9). It was holy bread and it was to be eaten by holy men of YEHOVAH God in a holy place. This symbolized that YEHOVAH would feed His servants with His bread, both temporal and spiritual, while they did His service. YEHOVAH wants us to have the assurance that He was consistent in the past, the present, and the future, and that He is fully able to care for His people Israel under all circumstances, especially as they were doing service for Him.

Ninth, in the light of these numerous conceptual and linguistic parallels between Eden and Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple, it should not be unexpected to find that Ezekiel 28:13-14, 16, 18 refer to “Eden, the garden of God...the holy mountain of God,” and also allude to it as containing “sanctuaries,” which elsewhere is a plural way of referring to Israel’s Tabernacle (Leviticus 21:23) and Temple (Ezekiel 7:24; so also Jeremiah 51:51). The plural reference to the one Temple probably arose because of the multiple sacred spaces or “sanctuaries” within the Temple complex (e.g., courtyard, Holy Place, Holy of Holies). [14]

It is also probable, as we saw above, that Ezekiel 28:14 views the glorious being who had “fallen” to be Adam. Thus, Ezekiel 28:16 is also referring to Adam’s sin: “you sinned; therefore, you have been cast down wounded from the mount of God [where Eden was].” That Ezekiel 28:13 pictures Adam dressed in bejeweled clothing like a priest (28:13, alluding to Exodus 28:17-20) corresponds well to the reference only five verses later to Eden as a holy sanctuary. Ezekiel 28:18 is probably, therefore, the most explicit place anywhere in canonical literature where the Garden of Eden is called a Temple and Adam is viewed as a priest.

After Adam’s “Fall” and expulsion from the Garden-Temple, the line of Adam became worse and worse, and only a small remnant of Adam's line were faithful. YEHOVAH God eventually destroyed the land they lived in by a Flood because it had become so thoroughly wicked. Only Noah and his immediate family were spared. As a result, YEHOVAH God starts the creation of the Adamic line over again. It is possible that YEHOVAH God started building another Temple for His people to dwell in and to experience His presence during Noah’s time. [15]

Noah and his sons, however, were not faithful and obedient, so that if YEHOVAH God had begun another Temple building process, it was immediately stopped because of the sin of Noah and his sons. They followed in Adam’s sinful footsteps. In fact, Noah’s “fall” is reminiscent of Adam’s “Fall:” they both sin in the context of a garden: Genesis 9:20-21 says that “Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine and became drunk,” and then this led to further sin by his sons. After the disobedience of Noah and his family, YEHOVAH "starts over again" and chooses Abraham and his descendants, Israel, to re-establish his Temple.

Adam’s Commission As a Priest-King is Passed On to the Patriarchs

Commentators apparently have not noticed, however, something very interesting: that the Adamic commission is repeated in direct connection with what looks to be the building of small sanctuaries. Just as the Genesis 2:15 commission was initially to be carried out by Adam in a localized place, so it appears to be not accidental that the restatement of the commission to Israel’s patriarchs results in the following:

(1) YEHOVAH God appearing to them (except in Genesis 12:8; 13:3-4);
(2) they “pitch a tent” (literally a “Tabernacle” in LXX),
(3) on a mountain;
(4) they build “altars” and worship YEHOVAH God (i.e., “calling on the name of the LORD,” which probably included sacrificial offerings and prayer) [16] at the place of the restatement;
(5) the place where these activities occur is often located at “Bethel” -- the “House of God” (the only case of altar building not containing these elements is Genesis 33:20).

The combination of these five elements only occurs  elsewhere in the Old Testament in describing Israel’s Tabernacle or Temple! [17]

Therefore, though “occasions for their sacrifices were usually a theophany and moving to a new place,” [18] there seems to be more significance to the construction of these sacrificial sites. The patriarchs appear also to have built these worship areas as impermanent, miniature forms of sanctuaries that symbolically represented the notion that their progeny were to spread out from a divine sanctuary in fulfillment of the commission in Genesis 2:15.

Though they built no buildings, these patriarchal sacred spaces can be considered “sanctuaries” along the lines comparable to the first non-architectural sanctuary in the Garden of Eden, which may be enhanced by observing that a “tree” is often present at these sites. It will also be important to recall later that a holy piece of geography or a sacred area can be considered a true “sanctuary” or “temple” even when no architectural building is constructed there.

These informal sanctuaries in Genesis pointed then to Israel’s later Tabernacle and Temple from which Israel, in reflecting YEHOVAH’s presence, was to branch out over the immediate earth. The patriarch’s commission, like Adam’s in Genesis 2:15, also involved the building of a Temple.

That these miniature sanctuaries adumbrated the later Temple is also suggested by the facts that “before Moses the altar was the only architectural feature marking a place as holy” and that later “altars were incorporated into the larger [structural] sanctuaries, the Tabernacle and the Temple.” [19] The small sanctuary in Bethel also became a larger sanctuary in the northern kingdom of Israel, though it subsequently became idolatrous and was rejected as a true shrine of YEHOVAH worship (see Amos 7:13; cf. also 1 Kings 12:28-33; Hosea 10:5).

The result of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob building altars at Shechem, between Bethel and Ai, at Hebron, and near Moriah was that the terrain of Israel’s future land was dotted with shrines. This pilgrim-like activity “was like planting a flag and claiming the land” [20] for YEHOVAH God and Israel’s future Temple, where YEHOVAH God would take up his permanent residence in the capital of that land. Thus, all these smaller sanctuaries pointed to the greater one to come in Jerusalem.

The preparations for the re-establishment of a larger scale Tabernacle, and then Temple, begin at the Exodus, where again YEHOVAH God brings about chaos on a small scale and delivers Israel from Egypt to be the spearhead for His new chosen people. Upon them is placed the "serving and guarding" commission originally given to Adam in Genesis 2:15.

Israel’s Tabernacle in the Wilderness and Later Temple Was a Re-establishment of the Garden of Eden’s Sanctuary

Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple was an organic development of the earlier garden sanctuary in Eden. There is much to say here, but we cannot elaborate further, except to say that Israel’s Temple was a foreshadowing of the Messiah and his Israelite brethren as the new, end-time Temple, which was inaugurated at the Messiah’s first appearance and will be consummated at his final appearance.

The Problem of Revelation 21:1 is Now Solved

The mystery of Revelation 21-22 we believe is significantly clarified by our preceding survey of the purpose of Temples in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:1-22:5 is now described as a Temple because the Temple -- which equals YEHOVAH God’s Presence -- encompasses those of Israel because of the work of the Messiah. At the very end of time, the true Temple will come down from heaven (as Revelation 21:1-3, 10 and 21:22 affirm). The New Jerusalem is equated with an escalated Edenic garden-Temple because now the Messiah has finally caused the garden-Temple to be expanded over the whole city of Jerusalem.

In John’s portrayal of the consummated condition of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:22, he says, “I saw no temple in it, because the LORD God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple.” Whereas the container for the Divine Glory in the Old Testament was often an architectural building, in the new age this old physical container will be shed like a cocoon and the new spiritual container will be the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God. The ultimate essence of the Temple is the glorious Divine Presence. If such is to be the case in the consummated form of the New Jerusalem, would this not begin to be the case in the inaugurated phase of the latter days? The glorious Divine Presence of YEHOVAH God and His spirit among His people Israel comprise the beginning form of the end time Temple.

The Ethical Imperative of Being the Eschatological Temple of YEHOVAH’s Presence Is For Christian-Israelite Priests to Expand That Temple

In contrast to the first Adam, the Messiah, the Last Adam and true king-priest, perfectly obeyed YEHOVAH God and  "served and guarded" YEHOVAH's people Israel (in fulfillment of Genesis 2:15). In this respect, note that at the climax of the last vision of Revelation YEHOVAH God’s “throne” is also now in the midst of YEHOVAH’s people Israel (Revelation 22:1, 3), whereas previously the “Holy of Holies” (or, more specifically the Ark therein) was the “footstool of YEHOVAH’s heavenly throne,” and only the High Priest could come before that “footstool” (Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:49; cf. also Psalm 99:5). Now all those of Israel called by YEHOVAH God are high priests and all are victorious “overcomers” (21:7), who “shall reign forever and ever” with the Messiah and YEHOVAH God in the eternal "Temple" of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:5).

These inextricably linked themes of kingship, priesthood, Temple and New Jerusalem, as we have seen above, have their primary roots in, and are a consummate development of, the same constellation of themes in Genesis 2. We of Israel are to continue the priestly task of mediating YEHOVAH’s presence to others of Israel until the end of the age, when YEHOVAH God will cause the task to be completed and the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God will be under the roof of YEHOVAH’s Temple, which is none other than saying that YEHOVAH’s Presence will fill the New Jerusalem in a way it never had before. This priestly and cultic task of "serving and guarding" the Presence of YEHOVAH God is expressed strikingly in Revelation 11. There the Church is portrayed as dwelling in a “sanctuary” (vv. 1-2), as being “two witnesses” (v. 3), and as being “two lampstands” (v. 4), the latter image of which, of course, is an integral feature of the Temple.

The mission of the Church or Ecclesia as YEHOVAH God’s Temple is to shine its lampstand-like light of witness into the dark world of Israel. The mention that the witnessing church is also “two olive trees” indicates their priestly and kingly status: [21] the exercise of their witness is also how the church exercises it mediatorial priesthood and kingly reign. In surprisingly similar fashion, this mission is expressed in 1 Peter 2:4-5, where Peter calls the Messiah a “living stone” in the Temple and his Israelite brethren are “living stones” are “being built up as a spiritual house.”

The "Royal Priesthood"

Furthermore, as they are “being built up” and thus expanding, they are a “royal priesthood” (allusion to Exodus 19:6 in 1 Peter 2:5 and 9a!) and are to “proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9b). As in Revelation 11 and 21:1-22:5, so also in 1 Peter 2 the notions of YEHOVAH God’s people Israel exercising their roles as kings and priests in the end-time Temple highlights again that the idea of Temple is an essential facet of the new creational Kingdom of YEHOVAH God.

Ephesians 2:20-22 asserts that the Church has “been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy Temple in the LORD; in whom you are also being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit.” The Church is growing and expanding in the Messiah throughout the present age (cf. also Ephesians 4:13-16) in order that YEHOVAH’s saving Presence and “the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known” even “in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10). And it is through the exercise of her gifts (Ephesians 4:8-16) that this expansion takes place. [22] Such gifts are given because all Israelite believers are priests in the end-time Temple, as the Old Testament prophesied (Isaiah 56:3-7; 61:6; 66:18-21).

The various gifts enable them to exercise their eschatological priestly positions. How do we first experience YEHOVAH God’s tabernacling Presence? By believing in the Messiah: that he died for our sin, that he rose from the dead and sits at the right-hand of YEHOVAH God. YEHOVAH’s spirit comes into us and dwells in us in a similar manner that YEHOVAH God dwelt on His throne in the sanctuary of Eden and Israel’s Temple.

How does the presence of YEHOVAH God increase in our lives and in our church? How was this to happen with Adam? This was to occur by Adam’s trust in YEHOVAH God and His word. Likewise, YEHOVAH’s Presence will become increasingly manifest to us as we grow by grace in our belief in YEHOVAH God and His word and by obeying it. Do we come to YEHOVAH’s word habitually, as did the Messiah, in order that we may be strengthened increasingly with YEHOVAH’s Presence in order to fulfill our priestly task of mediation by spreading that Presence to others of Israel who don’t know the Messiah?

YEHOVAH’s Presence grows in us by knowing His word, by obeying it, and then we spread that Presence to others of Israel by living our lives faithfully in the world. For example, a persevering and joyous faith in the midst of trial is an amazing witness to the unbelieving of Israel. In so doing, the body of the Messiah during this age “follows the Lamb wherever he went” (Revelation 14:4) as a walking tabernacle during this epoch on earth.

We are to realize that the Church’s place in the eschatological redemptive-historical story is that of being the inaugurated Temple and being priests in that Temple, which is designed to spread YEHOVAH’s Presence throughout the nations of Israel. Israelite believers are images of YEHOVAH God in His Temple, who are to reflect His Presence and glorious attributes in their thinking, character, speech, and actions. It is this reflection of YEHOVAH’s glorious Presence that extends out through Christian-Israelite priests and infects others of Israel who do not know YEHOVAH God and the Messiah so that they come to be part of this Kingdom Temple.

How does the notion of the expanding Temple of YEHOVAH God’s Presence fit into the New Testament storyline? I have argued that this storyline is the following: The Messiah’s life, trials, death for sinners, and resurrection by the spirit has launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already and not yet Kingdom of YEHOVAH God reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in the commission of Genesis 2:15 by the faithful of Israel to extend that Kingdom and resulting in judgment for the unfaithful, unto YEHOVAH God’s glory.

Thus, the Temple forms that part of the biblical storyline in which the role of Christian-Israelite “witness” and “missions” is to be understood. The Temple is an organic aspect of the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God. Accordingly, the imperative to expand YEHOVAH’s tabernacling presence throughout the nations of Israel is a priestly imperative and is the main way that the “serving and guarding" (Genesis 2:15) to the faithful of Israel (a crucial part of the storyline underlined above) is to be carried out.

The focus of this article has been that our priestly task as a Church in being YEHOVAH God’s Temple, so filled with His Presence, is that we expand the Temple of His Presence and fill the nations of Israel with that glorious Presence until YEHOVAH God finally accomplishes this goal completely at the end of time! The first Adam failed in this mission, but the Last Adam succeeded and we will succeed in him. This is our common, unified mission. May we, by YEHOVAH God’s grace, unify around this goal.

-- Edited by John D. Keyser.

Footnotes:

[1] This article is a summary of G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 614-648.

[2] For a good overview of these works, see Richard M. Davidson, Flame of Yahweh (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007), 47-48.

[3] The precise hithpael form that is used is in Genesis 3:8 is a participle (mithallek), which is the precise form used in Deuteronomy 23:14 [15] and 2 Samuel 7:6. Outside of these three uses, the hithpael participial form occurs only in five other passages, which have nothing to do with the Tabernacle or Temple.

[4] Cf. Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue (Overland Park: Two Age Press, 2000), 54,who sees that only the “guarding” has any priestly connotations, particularly with respect to the priestly “guarding” of the Temple from the profane (e.g., Kline cites Numbers 1:53; 3:8, 10, 32; 8:26, 18:3ff.; 1 Samuel 7:1; 2 Kings 12:9; 1 Chronicles 23:32; 2 Chronicles 34:9; Ezekiel 44:15ff.; 48:11).

[5] Nine of twelve jewels in Ezekiel 28 overlap with those in Exodus 28. In the LXX, eleven of the jewels in Ezekiel overlap with the Greek version of Exodus 28 (though the Greek of Ezekiel has a total of fourteen jewels).

[6] There are additional indications that this figure in Eden is Adam. Not only does the Greek Old Testament clearly identify Adam as the glorious figure dwelling in the primeval Eden in Ezekiel 28:14 (as does the Targum in Ezekiel 28:12) but plausibly so does also the Hebrew text as well (as argued, e.g., by D. E. Callender, Adam in Myth and History [HSS 48; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2000], 87-135, 179-189). The phrase in the Hebrew of Ezekiel 28:14a, attᵉ-kᵉrûḇ mimšaḥ hassôḵeḵ ("you were the anointed cherub who covers”), could well be understood as a mere metaphor, which is a suppressed simile: “you were [like] the anointed cherub who covers,” similar to such metaphorical statements as “the LORD is [like] my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). What further points to this figure being Adam in Eden is that Ezekiel 28:18 says that the sin of the glorious figure in Eden “profaned” Eden. The only account that we have that Eden became unclean because of sin is the narrative about Adam in Genesis 2-3. Cf. also Daniel I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 25-48 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 115, and M. Hutter, Adam als Gärtner und König (Gen 2:8, 15),” BZ 30 (1986): 258 262. For later Jewish traditions referring to the jewels of Ezekiel 28 as “coverings” or “canopies” for Adam and Eve, see G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 1087-1088.

[7] Later Judaism understood that from “the tree of life” streams flowed (Midr. Rab. Genesis 15.6; 2 En. [J] 8:3, 5).

[8] J. D. Levenson, Theology of the Program of Restoration of Ezekiel 40-48 (HSM 10; Missoula: Scholars Press, 1976), 25-53.

[9] See Levenson, Ezekiel 40-48, 28, who sees this phrase as an allusion to the “flow [which] welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the soil” from which Adam was created in Genesis 2:6-7.

[10] Among other commentators, D. E. Callender, Adam in Myth and History, 51-52, especially cites Psalm 36 and Jeremiah 17 as examples of Israel’s Temple being likened to Eden.

[11] J. H. Walton, Genesis, (NIVAC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 167, citing others also for sources showing that ancient temples had gardens adjoining them.

[12] Discussion of the distinction between Eden and its Garden is based on Walton, Genesis, 167-168, 182-183.

[13] So Walton, Genesis, 182.

[14] There were even smaller sacred areas in the Temple complex, e.g., of Solomon’s Temple (1 Chronicles 28:11) and of the Second Temple (1 Maccabbees 10:43). Philo can refer to “the Holy of Holies” as “the Holies of Holies” (Leg. All. 2.56; Mut. Nom. 192) or “the innermost places of the Holies” (Somn 1.216).

[15] That this is plausible is apparent from, among other reasons, the affinities of Noah’s altar building and associated activities with that of the subsequent similar patriarchal activities, which can actually be viewed as inchoate or small-scale temple-building (on which see further the following section).

[16] A. Pagolu, The Religion of the Patriarchs (JSOTSup 277; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 62.

[17] The combination of “tent” ('ohel) and “altar” (mizbeah) occur in Exodus and Leviticus only with respect to the tabernacle and associated altar (e.g., Leviticus 4:7, 18). “Altar” (mizbeah) and “house” (bayit) occur 28x in the Old Testament with reference to the Temple and its altar. Rarely do any of the words in these two combinations ever refer to anything else other than the Tabernacle or Temple. The building of these worship sites on a mountain may represent part of a pattern finding its climax in Israel’s later Temple that was built on Mt. Zion (the traditional site of Mt. Moriah), which itself becomes a synecdoche of the whole for the part in referring to the Temple. We do not mean to say that “tent” in the patriarchal episodes is equivalent to the later Tabernacle, only that it resonates with tabernacle-like associations because of its proximity to the worship site.

[18] Pagolu, Religion of the Patriarchs, 85.

[19] T. Longman, Immanuel in Our Place (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2001), 16. While some commentators acknowledge that some of these patriarchal episodes involve the construction of small sanctuaries, they do not associate them with Israel’s later large-scale Temple (so, e.g., H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis II [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1942], 781, 918, with respect to Genesis 28 and 35).

[20] Longman, Immanuel in Our Place, 20 (and, similarly, Pagolou, Religion of the Patriarchs, 70).

[21] That the “two olive trees” represent a priestly and kingly figure is apparent from recognizing this as an allusion to Zechariah 4, where they represent a priestly and kingly figure (see Beale, Revelation, 576-577).

[22] Note the virtual verbatim parallel wording in Ephesians 2:21-22, “in whom the whole body being fitted together grows...in the Lord...you are being built together,” and in 4:15-16, “we should grow in him...from whom the whole body is being fitted together...causes the growth...unto the building up of itself.” The latter passage appears to develop the former passage on the Temple (I am grateful to one of my research students, Brandon Levering, for this insight).

Also the Psalm 68:18 quotation in Ephesians 4:8, which introduces the list of gifts, is part of a context in which YEHOVAH God defeated Israel’s enemies and dwelt in His Temple in Zion (Psalm 67 [68]:17-19 [LXX]), a passage applied to the Messiah as the Temple in Colossians 1:19 (see G. K. Beale, “Colossians,” in A Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament [ed., G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007], 855-857). This enhances the link with the Temple in Ephesians 2:20-22. The Psalm in Ephesians 4:8 appears to be typologically applied to the Messiah. Could the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 also be linked to the Church as a Temple in 3:16-17 and 6: =15-19 (there is not space to explore this question)?

-- Edited by John D. Keyser.