Association of Hebrew Catholics Lecture Series The Mystery of Israel and the Church Spring 2013 – Series 11 Typology, How the Old Testament Prefigures the New Talk #6 Typology in Genesis 2-11 © Dr. Lawrence Feingold STD Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri Note: This document contains the unedited text of Dr. Feingold’s talk. It will eventually undergo final editing for inclusion in the series of books being published by The Miriam Press under the series title: “The Mystery of Israel and the Church”. If you find errors of any type, please send your observations [email protected] This document may be copied and given to others. It may not be modified, sold, or placed on any web site. The actual recording of this talk, as well as the talks from all series, may be found on the AHC website at: http://www.hebrewcatholic.org/Studies/MysteryofIsraelChurch/mysteryofisraela.html Association of Hebrew Catholics • 4120 W Pine Blvd • Saint Louis MO 63108 www.hebrewcatholic.org • [email protected] 6. Typology in Genesis 2-11 Eden Is a Type of Heaven The tree of life indicates the gift of physical immortality, Last week we looked at the typology of Adam and Eve given in Eden as a preternatural gift, and lost by original as types of Christ and His Mother. This typology of the sin. It also represents the sharing in the divine life made creation story in Genesis 2 also extends to Eden itself. possible by sanctifying grace, and which will be perfected As the first Adam is a type of the New Adam, so the first in glory. dwelling place of Adam in the Garden of Eden is a type In both respects, the tree of life prefigures the Eucharist, of heaven (and the Church). Like most types or figures, which is both the pledge of the future Resurrection and a the reality far surpasses the type. Heaven will transcend present provider of the nourishment of sanctifying grace. Eden as much as Christ transcends Adam. 1 Corinthians The access to the tree of life that was lost after the original 15:44–49 develops the contrast: sin is restored through the Eucharist—the bread of life. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual Christ brings out this aspect of the Eucharist in the bread body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became of life discourse in John 6:50–51: a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving This is the bread which comes down from heaven, spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual which is first but the that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those St. Ignatius of Antioch, in one of the first post-biblical 49 who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image reflections on the Eucharist, brings out the parallel of the of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the Eucharist with the tree of life, speaking of it as a “medicine man of heaven. of immortality, the antidote we take in order not to die but In Eden there were supernatural and preternatural gifts, to live forever in Jesus Christ.”2 St. Justin, writing in the but glory—consisting in the vision of God—was not yet middle of the second century, likewise sees the tree of life given. in the Garden as a type of Christ,3 who vivifies His Church 4 A key element of the typology of Eden concerns the with Himself in the Eucharist. tree of life in the center of the Garden, and, secondarily, a This typology is brought out in the prophet Ezekiel and river watering the Garden and flowing out of it. Genesis the book of Revelation. The prophet Ezekiel sees a vision 2:8–10 describes it: of water coming out of the Temple and flowing toward And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, the Dead Sea. Where the river reaches, it brings life, and in the east; and there he put the man whom he had the further it flows, the deeper it gets. On either side of formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to the waters of this river “there will grow all kinds of trees grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there be for food, and their leaves for healing” (Ez 47:12). The it divided and became four rivers. resemblance with the Garden of Eden is clear. The river running from the Temple recalls the river in Eden watering After the original sin, God expelled man from the Garden of Eden so that he could no longer eat from the tree of life, for he had deserved to experience death by his sin: Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has 2 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians 20, in The Ap- become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and ostolic Fathers, 199. This analogy between the tree of life and the now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree Eucharist is found, for example, in St. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 86.1, and in the ninth century in Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et of life, and eat, and live for ever” -- therefore the Lord sanguine Domini 1.6, PL 120:1272. God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the 3 St. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 86.1, in ANF 1:340: “ “Hear, ground from which he was taken. He drove out the then, how this Man, of whom the Scriptures declare that He will come man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed again in glory after His crucifixion, was symbolized . by the tree of the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every life, which was said to have been planted in paradise.” way, to guard the way to the tree of life.1 4 This analogy between the tree of life and the Eucharist is found in the ninth century in Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine 1 Gen 3:22–24. Domini 1.6, PL 120:1272. 2 AHC Lecture Series 11: Typology, How the Old Testament Prefigures the New –– Lecture 6: Typology in Genesis 2-11 the Garden, and it works healing, thus giving supernatural So when you renounce Satan, you trample under- life and “extending” Eden, as it were.5 foot your entire covenant with him, and abrogate your Jesus implicitly identifies Himself with the river of liv- former treaty with Hell. The gates of God’s Paradise ing waters in John 4 and 9. In John 4:10–14, Jesus says to are open to you, that garden which God planted in the the Samaritan woman: east, and from which our first parent was expelled for his transgression. When you turned from west to east, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is the region of light, you symbolized this change of al- saying to you, `Give me a drink,’ you would have asked legiance. Then you were told to say: “I believe in the him, and he would have given you living water. Ev- 14 Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and in one baptism ery one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but of repentance.”8 whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become The typology of Eden and the Church is also present in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” in the ancient practice of the Church to face east in all liturgical prayer. The east represents both Eden restored If there were any doubt about the identity of this “living and Christ, the Light of the world, who will come from the water,” it is clarified in John 7:37–38, where Jesus says: east in His second coming. St. John Damascene explains “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who this venerable tradition: believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John then explains the It is not for simplicity nor by chance that we pray meaning of the “living water”: “Now this he said about the turned toward the regions of the east.... Since God is Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; intelligible light (1 Jn. 1:5), and in the Scripture, Christ for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was is called the Sun of justice (Mal.