E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten
Alexander / Ortlund The City of God and the Goal of Creation
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4335-5577-0
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
E-Book, Englisch, 192 Seiten
Reihe: Short Studies in Biblical Theology
ISBN: 978-1-4335-5577-0
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
T. Desmond Alexander (PhD, The Queen's University of Belfast) is senior lecturer in biblical studies and director of postgraduate studies at Union Theological College in Belfast. Alexander is the chairman of the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical and Theological Research, served as coeditor of The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, and has written many volumes in the area of biblical theology. T. D. is married to Anne, and they have two adult children.
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Cities inspire very different emotions in people. For some they are a magnet, offering every opportunity and pleasure that a civilized person might desire. For others, cities are places from which to escape, the peace and tranquility of rural life being a more attractive alternative. Like them or loathe them, cities have been a pervasive feature of human life for millennia. Given their ubiquitous nature, it is no surprise that cities figure prominently in the Bible. Their presence, however, is not merely incidental. At the very heart of God’s plan for our world stands an extraordinary city.
Exiled to the island of Patmos in the first century AD, the apostle John experienced a series of visions. He later recorded these in the book of Revelation as a message of encouragement to the earliest followers of Jesus Christ. John’s final vision involves a city, but it is no ordinary metropolis. Its dimensions alone set it apart. Each side of its length, breadth, and height measures some 1,380 miles or 2,220 kilometers, far exceeding in size any known city, ancient or modern. Its enormity is matched by its grandeur. It is constructed of gold, with enormous walls of jasper decorated with twelve kinds of precious stones (Rev. 21:18–20). John’s brief description conveys something of the city’s opulence. Its magnificence almost places it beyond imagining.
Adding an altogether different aspect to this unique city, John observes that its citizens enjoy an environment transformed by the radiant presence of God himself. In this paradise city, peace, security, and wholeness are the nutrients of human flourishing. Evil is banished entirely, as humanity shares this idyllic conurbation with the divine Creator. This is a city like no other city.
This picture of an astonishing, other-world city is laden, like John’s other visions in Revelation, with symbolic imagery drawn from the rest of Scripture. The abundance of these allusions adds to the sense that this vision reveals God’s ultimate goal for humanity. This New Jerusalem is a fitting climax to the entire biblical story. As we shall explore in the chapters that follow, God has graciously and patiently been working to create this spectacular city, where he will dwell in harmony with humanity.
New Jerusalem and the Garden of Eden
New Jerusalem brings to completion what God intended when he first created the earth. Two acts of divine creation frame the Bible, and the links between them are far from superficial. The origins of New Jerusalem are to be found in the early chapters of Genesis. As we shall discover, the garden of Eden is located at the center of a green field site where God intends to construct a holy city upon the earth.
At first sight the garden of Eden does not appear to have much in common with New Jerusalem. Set side by side they seem to illustrate well a sharp contrast between rural and urban existence. Yet several features suggest that they are closely connected. First, and most unique, both locations are associated with the “tree of life.” In Genesis the “tree of life” stands in the middle of the garden surrounded by many other plants (Gen. 2:16–17). While little is said about this tree, it clearly had the potential to give immortality. After Adam and Eve betray God and are expelled from Eden, God deliberately prevents them from accessing this life-giving tree (Gen. 3:22–24). Revelation 22 presents a very different situation, for the leaves of the “tree of life” are freely available for the healing of the nations (v. 2). This life-changing tree is mentioned nowhere else in Scripture, strongly suggesting that the two locations are closely linked.
Second, only in the biblical accounts concerning the garden of Eden and New Jerusalem do God and humans communicate directly with each other, face-to-face. Throughout the rest of Scripture attention is drawn to the alienation between God and people. The divine-human relationship was tragically broken when Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden of Eden. The situation described in New Jerusalem involves the restoration of this relationship. Only in the garden of Eden and New Jerusalem do God and humanity coexist in perfect harmony.
These links between the garden of Eden and New Jerusalem offer a basis for exploring further the idea that God’s plans for humanity in Genesis 1–2 are orientated toward the creation of a unique city. Two lines of investigation offer additional support for this idea. First, there is among biblical scholars a growing recognition that the Eden narrative contains features that link it with later Israelite sanctuaries, especially the tabernacle and the Jerusalem temple. This is in keeping with the idea that God intends to dwell on the earth. Second, in Genesis 1 God instructs humans to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This points toward the eventual creation of a worldwide community. While the early chapters of Genesis do not explain why people should fill the earth, the expectation is created that God and humanity will subsequently live together on earth in harmony. But, as we shall see, a tragic event catastrophically undermines progress toward this end.
Before expanding on these two related topics, an important observation needs to be made briefly regarding the interpretation of Genesis 1–3. These chapters exhibit a concise narrative style and are limited in what they communicate. With minimum detail, the opening chapters of Genesis set the scene for all that follows. Consequently, these chapters contain examples of proleptic ambiguity; ideas are introduced briefly, with the expectation that these will be developed more fully in the subsequent narrative. The ongoing story clarifies what may initially be ambivalent or vague in Genesis 1–3. For this reason, it is important to read and understand the opening chapters of Genesis in light of what follows them. Unfortunately, too often scholars attempt to explain the subtleties of Genesis 1–3 without giving sufficient consideration to the remainder of Genesis.
Recent research on the opening chapters of Genesis has drawn attention to various ways in which the garden of Eden resembles later Israelite sanctuaries.1 The entrances to Eden and later sanctuaries are located to the east and guarded by cherubim (Gen. 3:24; Ex. 25:18–22; 26:31; 36:35; 1 Kings 6:23–29; 2 Chron. 3:14). When God commands the man “to work it [the garden] and keep it” (Gen. 2:15), he uses the verbs ?abad, “to serve, till,” and šamar, “to keep, observe, guard.” Elsewhere in the Pentateuch these verbs are used in combination to describe the duties of the Levites in the sanctuary (cf. Num. 3:7–8; 8:26; 18:5–6).2 Adam’s role in the garden has Levitical connotations; he is to be a guardian of sacred space and not merely a gardener.
Other features of the Eden narrative may also be linked to later sanctuaries, although these connections are more tentative. On their own they do not carry much weight, but cumulatively they offer a consistent picture. The Jerusalem temple is decorated with arboreal features. The tabernacle menorah (or lampstand) resembles in shape a tree, possibly representing the “tree of life” (Gen. 2:9; 3:22; cf. Ex. 25:31–35).3 The mention of gold and onyx in Genesis 2:11–12 may be linked to the fact that gold, in particular, was used extensively to decorate Israelite sanctuaries and priestly garments (e.g., Ex. 25:7, 11, 17, 31). Although the gold and onyx lie outside the garden of Eden, mention of their location indicates that there is a known source for these materials. The Lord God walks in the garden of Eden as he later does in the tabernacle (Gen. 3:8; cf. Lev. 26:12; Deut. 23:14; 2 Sam. 7:6–7). The concept of a river flowing out of Eden (Gen. 2:10) finds a parallel in Ezekiel 47:1–12, where a river flows from a future, idealized Jerusalem temple, bringing life to the Dead Sea. The garden of Eden occupies an elevated location, a feature that recalls how other sanctuaries associate God’s presence with an elevated location.
These parallels between the garden of Eden and later Israelite sanctuaries are hardly coincidental. Two possible interpretations may explain this. Either Eden is a protosanctuary, and other sanctuaries are modeled upon it,4 or each later sanctuary is a restored garden of Eden.5 If this latter option is adopted, the question arises, why replicate the garden of Eden? The most likely answer is that Eden recalls a time when humanity enjoyed an especially close relationship with God in an idyllic environment. Later sanctuaries replicate something of this experience as people come to the place where God dwells on earth. As a divine residence, the sanctuary enables God to live in close proximity to people. The text of Genesis does not state unambiguously that God dwells in Eden, but the impression is given that Eden is a place where potentially God and humanity will live together. In the beginning the garden of Eden has only two human residents and is clearly not a city. But as the...
