You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's 5 minute Bible
Recognising irony in Genesis 3:22
In this post
i'm going to explore for a bit
why we might think that Genesis 3:22 is ironic
and you'll notice that there are some similar issues here to that I
explored with respect to humour
in the podcast "Signs of humor: especially written texts across cultures"
Chris Heard at Higgaion
recently posted a proposal
suggesting
in "Divine sarcasm in the Eden story?" that we read God's statement
in Gen 3:22 "see the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil"
as sarcasm
a sharp put down
for the uppity human
certainly as Chris argues these words make little sense when read
in a straightforward way
well, for a start, it means that the snake has told the truth
in verses 4-5
Thisd poses some difficulty for the believing reader
especially if the dnake is identified as satan the father of lies
Chris goes on to citethe 4th century 'father', Ambrose, as also teaching in this way
and moves on to consider Ambrose's reading
but what are we to make of God's statement?
Firstly
we can note that
God's statement is a reference back to the serpent's
in verse five
and we can note that God says that the human being has become
like one of us
by implication
especially since the serpent used that language
like one of the 'elohim
the divine beings
in biblical language like God and the angels
see for example the opening of story of Job for a description of the divine court
with God's ministers
perceived by later readers as angels
back in verse 5
the snake said
"You will become
ke'lohim
like 'elohim
the snake implies
that he's using 'elohim here to mean God
because
just earlier he's talked about 'elohim
clearly meaning God
but that needn't be how God understands the expression
So, in chapter 3 verse 5
the snake
offers to Eve
the tempting prospect of being like God
verse 4
But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows
that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God
knowing good and evil."
You see, the two uses of God in that verse clearly imply
that the snake
means God when he says 'elohim
or at least means Eve to infer that ;)
but in verse 22
God clearly is not meaning
'God' when he says 'elohim
or other when he says "like one of us"
for the 'elohim that means God is not plural
apart from Genesis one twenty seven
which is a case that needs to be discussed separately I think
when 'elohim means God
it is
singular
so there is irony here
The snake to Eve, "You will become like 'elohim" that is God
knowing good and evil
that is, knowing everything, the whole range from
good to evil
God in verse 22
"They have become like one of us"
i.e. like members of the 'elohim
knowing good and evil
i.e. capable of acting in good and/or evil ways
and so of course God goes on to say that in view of this capacity for evil
their life span must be limited
in order to limit their potential for evil
there is clearly irony going on here
and we don't need to read God's words as sarcastic
in order to get that
Should we read them as sarcastic?
Well, i think Occam's razor applies we take the simplest solution
taking the words purely at face value doesn't quite work
reading them as sarcastic
requires quite a effort of reading
reading them as ironic
requires little effort
and makes good sense of the words
that's my conclusion anyway, for now
bye for now
God bless