80. Among older theologians, Nicolaus Hunnius interprets the verse as referring to the sufferings of Christ. See brief comment in Hunnius, Epitome Credendorum, 45. Also see Leupold, Isaiah, 2:342–43. Leupold understands these verses as referring to the exodus and not ahead to the incarnation.
81. Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, 3:351–53. Leupold agrees that this is a reference to Jubilee (Isaiah, 2:321).
Chapter 2: Mediation in the Old Testament, Part 2
Priestly and Kingly Mediation
Priestly Mediation
Within the history of Exodus, priestly mediation arises through the prophetic mediation of the Word of God. The prophetic word both reveals the chosen status of the Levites and the practices in which they must engage. The occasion of the election of the Levites as the priestly caste occurs during Moses’s reestablishment of order after Israel’s apostasy to the golden calf. The Levites (Moses’s own tribe) rally to support him and zealously exact vengeance on those who have fallen away from YHWH (Exod 25:32–39).82 Our discussion of priestly mediation will nonetheless not begin with this narrative, but rather with the description of the nature of creation in Genesis 1–3. As we will see, these narratives served as foundational to priestly mediation.83
Recent scholarship on Genesis 1 has gradually come to recognize that it contains strong liturgical themes. Early in the twentieth century, much of the critical scholarship on Genesis 1 revolved around attempts to connect the chapter with the Babylonian epic, the Enuma Elish, and the ancient mythological motif of the chaoskampf.84 Though parallels still continue to be recognized, critics have also come to appreciate the presence of significant cultic and liturgical themes as well.
P. J. Kearney’s work has been particularly important for its recognition of these themes. Kearney has shown that there are not only strong verbal similarities between Genesis 1 and Exodus 25–32, but also that the seven days of creation directly correspond to seven speeches God made concerning the construction of the tabernacle in those chapters.85 Similarly, although the Jewish scholar Jon Levenson has claimed that Kearney’s interpretation is not entirely persuasive, nevertheless he thinks that it is impossible to deny that the accounts of creation and the tabernacle/temple share significant themes.86 Levenson notes that in Exodus 40:2, the erection of the tabernacle occurs on the day of the vernal New Year, the same time Genesis tells us that Noah emerged from the ark into the new creation of the post-diluvium world.87 Similarly, 1 Kings 6–7 emphasizes that Solomon’s dedication of the temple occurred on the seventh month during the Feast of Tabernacles, a seven-day feast.88 This would appear to suggest a connection with the seven days of creation.
Returning to Kearney’s scholarship, the activities of each day of creation correspond to an aspect of the construction of the tabernacle. The tabernacle and the later temple are, therefore, intended to represent a microcosm of creation. Among the seven speeches establishing the tabernacle, the seventh speech concerns the Sabbath, directly paralleling God’s own protological Sabbath rest. It stands to reason that if, as Kearney has shown, creation’s formation directly corresponds to the erection of the tabernacle, then they must also serve the same purpose, that is, the worship of God. Evangelical scholar G. K. Beale generally agrees with Kearney and has argued that each major section of the temple/tabernacle represents a part of the created order.89 In both the original tabernacle and the Solomonic temple, the basin of water represented the sea, the courtyard represented the land, while the holy place and holy of holies represented the starry and celestial heavens (or possibly Eden, in that it is the locus of divine presence). This theory is further bolstered by the fact that the curtains covering the holy place and the holy of holies were woven to resemble the sky (Exod 25), something also mentioned by Josephus concerning Herod’s temple.90 With Levenson, Beale also mentions the importance of the number seven in the liturgical calendar of Israel (notably the seven-day week and the forty-nine-year cycle of Jubilee) and in the imagery of the tabernacle.91 He argues that the use of seven corresponds to the seven planets visible to the naked eye. In the tabernacle, the seven planets appear to be represented by the seven lamp stands.
The second chapter of Genesis continues the liturgical themes of the first chapter. The Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham has argued for a strong connection between the garden of Eden as it is portrayed in the second chapter and the later Israelite cult. Wenham notes similarities between Eden and the temple/tabernacle such as the opening of both to the east and each functioning as the locus of the divine presence (Gen 2:15).92 Wenham has also argued that the text’s descriptions of Adam’s activity in the garden possess verbal similarities with the ministrations of the priesthood elsewhere in the Pentateuch.93 This means that the author of Genesis describes Adam and Eve’s care for creation as a true act of grateful worship, making it a liturgical activity. In Wenham’s commentary on Genesis, he also notes that Adam’s reception of the first commandment in the garden parallels the storage of the book of the law in the Israelite tabernacle.94 Adding to all this, Beale has noted the verbal similarities between the arboreal imagery in Genesis 2–3 and in the description of Solomon’s temple in 1 Kings 6–7.95 Jon Levenson has demonstrated the verbal parallels between the description of Eden and the Temple Mount, particularly in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 28:14 locates Eden on a mountain much like Zion.96
From these parallel descriptions we can discern a unity of purpose between creation and the Israelite tabernacle/temple. What has been partially realized in the Israelite liturgy is the restoration of the original creation. Creation is an immense tabernacle dedicated to divine worship. Israel, according to the Pentateuchal narratives, has taken up the position abdicated by Adam and Eve.97 Israel is a liturgical community, a “priestly nation.” Not only do Adam and Eve and all faithful Israelites worship and praise God as a result of God’s creative Word, but there is some suggestion that the rest of the created order does as well. Each day of creation ends with the refrain, “And God saw that it was good.” Such a phrase implies that as a temple of divine worship, creation reflects divine goodness back to God in a manner of almost personified thanksgiving (“glory” one might say) for having received itself from the divine Word. The praise of creation as a response to the gracious giving of the divine Word is a theme present elsewhere in the Old Testament (Isa 55:11–2).
The embodiment of divine graciousness and its echoed praise have other implications for the interpretation of Genesis 1–3. The fact that Adam and Eve are engaged in liturgical activities in Eden (mentioned above) also suggests how the shape of the divine image spoken of in Genesis 1:26 should be understood. The divine image is spoken of in connection with ruling over and maintaining creation (1:28), which, as we have observed, is a temple of divine presence. Wenham’s interpretation of Adam and Eve’s activity in Genesis 2 allows us to see liturgical themes throughout the entire