In a recent article in Bibliotheca Sacra (171, July-September 2014; 259-73), the theological journal of Dallas Theological Seminary, Douglas K. Stuart of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has provided us with a fascinating article. In it he challenges two traditional translations of well-known texts. Continue reading . . .

In a recent article in Bibliotheca Sacra (171, July-September 2014; 259-73), the theological journal of Dallas Theological Seminary, Douglas K. Stuart of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has provided us with a fascinating article. In it he challenges two traditional translations of well-known texts.

The first text is Genesis 3:8. In the ESV we read that following the sin of Adam and Eve, “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” As Stuart notes, “the traditional translation of Genesis 3:8 seems to suggest that God picked a pleasant time of day for a walk in the Garden of Eden when He visited Adam and Eve” (259). But Stuart believes that another translation is called for in which God is described as arriving “in fury” and “for the purpose of judgment.” This better explains why Adam and Eve hid from him.

Stuart cites the work of Jeffrey Niehaus who proposes we render the text: “Then the man and his wife heard the thunder of Yahweh God as he was going back and forth in the garden in the wind of the storm and they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden” (259). According to this rendering, “we learn that a loud storm, part of God’s self-manifesting presence in the garden, frightened Adam and Eve into hiding. Judgment, not a social call, becomes the purpose of God’s visit” (260).

I won’t burden you with the technical details of the Hebrew text on which Stuart and Niehaus base their conclusions. But I think they may well be justified in asserting that “this is a judgment visit, a legal inquisition, and [that Adam and Eve] react accordingly. The divine arrival and subsequent grilling by the Judge is theophanic, not a friendly meeting between Creator and creatures at a comfortable time of day” (265).