PRE-FALLEN STATE OF MAN (Biblical Anthropology)

PRE-FALLEN STATE OF MAN

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. —Genesis 2:7

Delitzsch (Franz Delitzsch (Leipzig, 23 February 1813 – Leipzig, 4 March 1890) was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of Jewish poetry, and works of Christian apologetics.), commenting on this passage, says, "We cannot consider with sufficient care Gen. 2:7; for this one verse is of such deep significance that interpretation can never exhaust it: it is the foundation of all true anthropology and psychology.” (Delitzch, Biblical Psychology, p. 90.)

John Bickford Heard (Author of: The Tripartite Nature of Man) refers to Genesis 2:7 as a revelation of the material cause, the formal or efficient cause, and the final cause of man's threefold nature (Heard, Tripartite Nature, p. 41.). The material cause—the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground. The formal or efficient cause—God breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshamah) of life. The final cause—man became a living soul (nephesh).

The physical aspect of man was fashioned from the ground, of the earth, earthly. The “soul” of man, being the non-physical aspect is the inner man — the real self — created in God’s image and likeness. Both were without life until God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of the man and he became a living being; the king James says “soul.” Though the soul of Adam seems to have been created at the same moment as God’s breath entered his nostrils, we are not to think that they are the same. The soul is not an infusion of God’s essence, as was the breath of God, it is a separate substance created by God just for human kind. The dualism of Adam’s human-ness was animated by the breath of God. We call this breath of God (that was given to Adam and since then to every man) the god-spark; also known as the spirit of man, because it is particular to man; given to him as a grace from his creator. As with Genesis 2:7, other verses in the Old Testament directly correlate man's spirit (ruach) with God's breath (neshamah) (Job 27:3; 32:8; 33:4; 34:14). This ruach of God brought man into a kinship with God, because God is Spirit. Man is not a spirit—God is Spirit. Man is a soul that has been infused by and with the Spirit of God.  Now, this breath of God was, indeed, an element of deity that was infused into the man’s soul that Solomon called the “Lamp (KJV: candle) of the LORD”; Job said this “breath of the Almighty” gave understanding.

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The breath, or Spirit (ruach), of God that was breathed into man gave life to the soul, and thus by extension, to the body. The man brought forth on that sixth day of creation was a spiritual being, because the soul (the inner self) was infused and governed by the god-spark. Mankind was brought forth with his total potential in full bloom. Man walked with God and fellowshipped with the Creator in the cool of the day. The writer of the book of Proverbs wrote that the “spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD” (Prov. 20:27, NASB); and Job writes: “But it is the spirit in a person,” then the sacred writer defines that spirit as “the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding” (Job 32:8 NIV). The Psalmist would speak of this rectitude of man by writing “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts (soul): and in the hidden part (spirit) thou shalt make me to know wisdom” (Psalms 51:6). 

Watchman Nee wrote, “The spirit is the noblest part of man and occupies the innermost area of his being. The body is the lowest and takes the outermost place. Between these two dwells the soul, serving as their medium. The body is the outer shelter of the soul, while the soul is the outer sheath of the spirit. (Justin Martyr wrote, “As the body is the house of the soul, so the soul is the house of the spirit.”) The spirit transmits its thought to the soul and the soul exercises the body to obey the spirit’s order. This is the meaning of the soul as the medium. Before the fall of man the spirit controlled the whole being through the soul.” 

Moreover, Adam, had a enlightened intellect as a result of the rauch of the Almighty. He had complete understanding so that he understood the nature of every creature that the Creator had made, so that he could name each one according to its innate nature.

Adam’s position in the earth was to be the federal head of all that God had created. See God’s mandate to man: 

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”—Genesis 1:28

Adam and Eve were to reproduce, that much is clear. Though there has been some speculation about their possible pre-fall descendants, it is fairly certain that the command to procreate was never cared out before the expulsion from the Garden. The LORD’S instruction to be fruitful and multiply, given to the man and woman while yet in the Garden, holds a powerful image. What nature would their children have demonstrated? Surely, since the law of reproduction was that all things would reproduce after its own kind  (Genesis 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.), their offspring would have been as they: spiritual beings, with their inner persons governed by their god-spark that was their spirits. Therefore, we would expect that they would have been in full fellowship with their Creator and in total harmony with His creation.

Apostolically Speaking

☩☩ JLH

Read other essays from the Bishop on Biblical Anthropology:
Does the Soul Exist Separate From The Body?
https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2018/10/soul-and-spirit-is-there-difference.html

Economy of Man: Body, Soul and Spirit
https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-economy-of-man-body-soul-and-spirit.html

TRICHOTOMY OF MAN AND THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES
http://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2019/04/trichotomy-of-man-and-tabernacle-of.html

Sorting Out The Confusion: Difference between the Soul and Spirit
https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2019/04/sorting-out-confusion-biblical.html

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