6. MARCO REFERENCIAL
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6.3.1 Desarrollo Normativo Internacional
idea that God clothed Adam and Eve in garments of light, which were removed when they sinned.31In addition to these exegetical issues in Gen
2–3, there is the text of Ezek 28:14, which implies that Eden was filled with fiery stones. This latter text no doubt contributed to the popular mythic idea that Adam and Eve had nail-like skin before they sinned.32
In Exod 33:4–6 a similar motif can be seen in the removal of the orna- ments after Israel’s great sin. The ambiguity regarding whether the Israelites stripped themselves (Exod 33:4, 6) or were prohibited by God from putting on their ornaments (Exod 33:5) resembles the duplication of the making of garments by humans and then by God in Gen 3.33 While 29This rabbinic belief is found in Gen. Rab. 18:6; 85:2 and is discussed in detail by Rashi in his comment on Gen 3:20.
30 An additional factor is that both the rabbis and the church fathers seem to have been hesitant about the possibility that humans were really naked in the gar- den and that eating the fruit only resulted in a change in their perception but not in their actual physical/spiritual state.
31This interpretation is found in Gen. Rab. 20:12.
32This motif is clearly stated in Pirqe R. El. 14, as well as implied in the popular belief that the ritual of holding one’s fingernails up to the light cast by the havdalah candle after Sabbath is done as a symbolic reminder that the fingernails are the last remnant of Adam’s “horny” skin. For references, see Louis Ginzburg, The Legends of
the Jews (7 vols.; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1913–1938),
5:113; and the Byzantine source Shoshan Sodot 77a: “One gazes on the nails to arouse compassion, for prior to Adam’s sin, his garment was made [of nail],” cited in Elliot K. Ginsburg, The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 281 n. 29. Additionally one wonders whether the blunting of Adam’s teeth described in Pirqe R. El. 13 is connected to the loss of these protective garments.
33I have not found many of the same links in the church fathers between Eden and the Sinai–golden calf stories, but Gregory of Nyssa does use the removal of the ornaments in Exod 33:4–6 to connect these two stories. “At the first entrance of sin the advice to disobey the commandment removed the earrings. The serpent was regarded as a friend and neighbor by the first mortals when he advised them that it would be useful and beneficial to them if they transgressed the divine com- mandment, that is, if they removed from their ears the earring of the command- ment” (Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses [trans. Abraham Malherbe and Everett Ferguson; New York: Paulist, 1978], paragraph 213). The motif of the first sin involving the use of the ear is taken up in a variety of interesting exegeses that see
this seems like a slender basis for importing this motif into the Sinai mate- rials, the many thematic similarities between the two narratives discussed above, along with a host of other mythic ideas (see below), support the possibility that Israel at Sinai, like Adam in Eden, once had garments of glory. Of particular importance is the notion that those close to God require some type of protection because proximity to the divine can be dangerous or fatal (Exod 33:20; Lev 10:4; Isa 33:13–16).34 Exodus 19 is
filled with images of the potential danger posed by God’s proximity to the people of Israel. One must also remember that Sinai symbolizes the cos- mic mountain or mountain of the gods and that some images of Eden evoke cosmic mountain symbolism.35Furthermore, the biblical text draws
interconnections between the temple, paradise, and Mount Sinai. Thus Ps 29 links much of the Sinaitic pyrotechnics with God’s presence in his holy temple, and other texts like Ps 46:5 and Ezek 47:1–12 imagine the temple with Edenlike36 fertility images. That the tabernacle design, which also
includes a detailed description of the garments worn by those who approach God, is inserted in the middle of the Sinai–golden calf episode no doubt further contributed both to the idea that Israel must have worn special garments during the Sinai encounter (note Exod 19:10), as well as to the growing propensity to homologize Sinai and the Jerusalem temple.
Mary’s conception of Jesus through her ear as an undoing of this first sin. I am indebted to Nicholas Constas for sharing his insightful unpublished paper, “The
Conceptio per Aurem in Late Antiquity: Observations on Eve, the Serpent, and
Mary’s Ear.”
34The Isaiah reference is particularly germane to our subject. In it God is por- trayed as a consuming fire, but righteous behavior acts as a protection against being consumed by God. A rabbinic extension of this idea is found in b.Rabb. 88b
in which Moses is fearful of being consumed by the fiery breath of the ministering angels until God spreads the divine presence over him as a kind of protection.
35Ezekiel 28:14–17 clearly connects the images of Eden and the mountain of the gods. For a good discussion of this motif in biblical and apocryphal literature, see Gary Anderson, “The Cosmic Mountain: Eden and its Early Interpreters in Syriac Christianity,” in Genesis 1–3 in the History of Exegesis: Intrigue in the Garden (ed. Gregory Allen Robbins; Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1988), 187–224. General back- ground on this motif in the Hebrew Bible and its ancient Near Eastern setting can be found in R. J. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972). For an investigation of this motif focused specifically on the biblical text of Gen 2–3, see Howard N. Wallace, The
Eden Narrative (HSM 32; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985), 65–99.
36On this motif, see Jon D. Levenson, Theology of the Program of Restoration of
Ezekiel 40–48 (HSM 10; Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1976), 7–53; and Michael
Fishbane, “The ‘Eden’ Motif/The Landscape of Spatial Renewal,” in Text and
The connection between paradise, temple and Sinai can be found in texts such as 2 Bar. 4, which dates from sometime shortly after 100 C.E.
It is not this building that is in your midst now; it is that which will be revealed, with me, that was already prepared from the moment that I decided to create Paradise. And I showed it to Adam before he sinned. But when he transgressed the commandment, it was taken from him—as also Paradise. . . . Again I showed it to Moses on Mount Sinai when I showed him the likeness of the tabernacle and all its vessels. Behold, now it is preserved with me—as also Paradise.37
It cannot be conclusively proven that all these mythic themes are operative in this one midrash; however, it should be noted that the rab- binic attempt to link Adam’s prelapsarian garments to those worn by Israel at Sinai is just one item in a large inventory of homologies that the rabbis drew between Gen 2–3 and Exod 19–34.38 The citation of a proof-text
does not necessarily mean that the rabbis deduced an idea on the basis of a particular verse. Such a citation may simply be providing further sup- port for an already widely held rabbinic belief. The rabbis were probably firmly convinced that the Sinai and Eden episodes were linked together in innumerable ways. Hence, they presumably set off in search of scriptural clues that would enable them to ground their extrascriptural beliefs in the biblical text.
Israel’s Experience at Sinai Parallels Adam’s in Eden
The next passages to be considered are two midrashim from Eccl. Rab. 8:2–3 that comment on Eccl 8:1, “Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? Wisdom makes one’s face shine, and the hardness of one’s countenance is changed.”39
37J. H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols.; Garden City N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983, 1985), 1:622. The translation and estimated date are from A. F. J. Klijn.
38While this paper focuses on the ways in which the rabbis see Israel’s experi- ence at Sinai as similar to Adam’s in Eden, the homology can work in the reverse as well. There is evidence of an ancient Jewish propensity to import the revelation at Sinai back into Eden, as indicated by texts like Sir 17:11–13. For a more in-depth discussion of this issue, see John J. Collins, “Wisdom, Apocalypticism and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Jedes Ding Hat seine Zeit. . . (ed. Anja Diesel et al.; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996), 21–26.
39There is an almost identical set of midrashim that use Eccl 8:1 in a similar man- ner in Pesiq. Rab Kah. 4:4, Pesiq. Rab. 14:10 and in Midrash Tan˙umab, zn tqx.
Another interpretation of Who is as the wise man? This alludes to Adam of whom it is written, Thou seal most accurate, full of wisdom . . . thou
wast in Eden the garden of God (Ezek 28:12ff.). And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? Because he gave distinguishing names to all
things. A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine: his beauty made his face shine. R. Levi said: The ball of Adam’s heel outshone the sun. . . . And after all this glory, Dust thou art and unto to dust shalt thou return (Gen 3:19). And the boldness of his face changed: When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, Have you eaten of the tree? (Gen 3:11), the anger of the Holy One, blessed be He, caused the boldness of his face to change and He expelled him from the Garden of Eden.40
Another interpretation of Who is as the wise man? This alludes to Israel of whom it is written, Surely this great nation is a wise and understand-
ing people (Deut 4:6). And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing?
Because they knew how to explain the Torah. . . . You find that when Israel stood at Mount Sinai and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will
do, and obey (Exod 24:7), there was granted them something of the lus-
tre of the Shechinah41of the Most High. [They are commenting on how wisdom makes the face shine, although this verse fragment is not cited explicitly.] When they sinned, however, they were made haters of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written And the boldness of his face
changed, and the anger of the Holy One, blessed be He, changed the
words applied to them into what is written, Nevertheless you shall die like
men (Ps 82:7).42
The first midrash, which attempts to read Eccl 8:1 as a short history of Adam, is reasonably accessible, even to the untutored reader. After all, Adam was in the garden of Eden and did eat of the tree of knowledge. Furthermore, the notion that the first man was perfect in wisdom and beauty is amplified in the quote from Ezek 28, which describes the king of Tyre’s rise and fall in mythic terms that reflect a variant form of the Eden story. The midrash then turns to the expression, “wisdom makes a man’s face shine,” which uses the Hebrew word
~da
, evoking the image of Adamclothed in garments of light, a symbol of his angelic/divine status as well as of his immortality (Ezek 28:11–14; Dan 12:2–3).43 Finally, the rabbis
40 Midrash Rabbah, Ecclesiastes (trans. A. Cohen; 3d ed.; London: Soncino, 1983), 213–14.
41The Shechinah is the rabbinic term for the presence, glory, or indwelling of God.
42Midrash Rabbah, Ecclesiastes, 214–15.
43Morton Smith persuasively argues that ancient Jews believed the light associ- ated with certain exalted human beings indicated their divine status (“The Image of God,” BJRL 40 [1958]: 473–512).
proceed to the end of the verse, which in their mind describes how God changed (here reading an active tense rather than the Bible’s passive one) Adam’s “bold face” and expelled Adam from Eden.44On the one hand, the
change in Adam’s face is linked to its loss of light, signaling a loss of his immortality. On the other hand, the rabbinic attempt to link Adam to the expression
~ynp z[
“bold of face,” a term that elsewhere carries the conno-tation of pride, arrogance, or insolence (Prov 7:13 and perhaps Deut 28:50; Dan 8:23), may suggest that the church fathers were not the only ones who thought that Adam’s sin was one of hubris.45
In a strikingly similar fashion the next midrash applies this same midrashic reading to Israel at Sinai before and after the sin of the golden calf. However, several variations at the end of this passage are worth high- lighting. In this midrash the rabbis are troubled by the final
a
in the lastword rather than the expected