Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to the Torah and Tanakh

by Seth D. Postell

The story of Adam is the story of Israel writ small

In this text-centered interpretation of Genesis 1-3, Seth Postell contends that the opening chapters of the Bible, when interpreted as a strategic literary introduction to the Torah and to the Tanakh, intentionally foreshadows Israel's failure to keep the Sinai Covenant and their exile from the Promised Land, in order to point the reader to a future work of God, whereby a king will come in & the last days & to fulfill Adam's original mandate to conquer the land (Gen 1:28). Thus Genesis 1-3, the Torah, and the Hebrew Bible as a whole have an eschatological trajectory.

Postell highlights numerous intentional links between the story of Adam and the story of Israel and, in the process, explains numerous otherwise perplexing features of the Eden story.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Biblical Studies

216 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2011

Reviews

[Jono Spear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gold! Another student of Sailhamer bringing clarity to the text of Scripture to magnify God in Christ from the texts themselves. Excellent overview of the history of interpretation, explaining the basics of what a text-oriented approach means and does not mean, and showing how the rest of the Tanakh draws upon Genesis 1-3 to point forward to the hope of the Messiah and the faith that should be produced in the reader. Genesis 1-3 is not just a history of the creation and fall of the world, but a presentation of the world from the real world, that is, Scripture. Though brief, with 74 pages on history of interpretation and methodology, and only 93 pages on the text of Genesis 1-3 and the connection to the Tanakh, this book is loaded with thoughts to chew on. It’s worth a read.

I think I’m going to work through Genesis 1-3 for the fall semester with the students at Gospel City. One cannot understand the rest of Scripture apart from Genesis 1-3.

[Micah Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made so many excellent points. It is rather too bad noonday thinks and writes quite like this unless they have had considerable influence from Sailhamer. It’s just refreshing for scholarship to dismiss the Documentary Hypothesis but also recognize Post-Mosaica. Postell’s confirmation and elaboration of the argument in Genesis Unbound has me much more thoroughly convinced that Sailhamer is ready Genesis 1 correctly. Because of my educational background and things like BibleProject nothing in this was groundbreaking but it still was a case well argued with some data I hadn’t seen pointed yet. The chapter on Methodology had some interesting parts especially criteria for intertextuality and Sailhamer’s contextuality but was primarily a major snooze fest. Overall the last three chapters were wildly more interesting than the first three.

[Michael Philliber · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a passel of approaches to Genesis 1-3 that come to disparate conclusions. There’s young earth or old earth; theistic evolution or punctiliar creation; divine guidance to order out of disorder or creatio ex nihilo. There is also the perspective that Genesis chapters 1-3 are strictly poetry, or an adaption of Ancient Near Eastern mythology, or an affirmation of creatio ex nihilo retold with a theological and literary structure rather than chronological specificity. A passel of approaches, indeed! Seth D. Postell, Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Israel College of the Bible in Netanya, Israel, has put forward his own analysis in “Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to the Torah and Tanakh”. To get the most out of this insightful and involved 204 page paperback will require some working knowledge of Hebrew, though the book can be managed without it by a persevering reader.

The direction of “Adam as Israel” is clearly laid out in its subtitle. Postell works diligently to prove that “when understood as the introduction to the Torah and to the Tanakh as a whole, Genesis 1-3 intentionally foreshadows Israel’s failure to keep the Sinai covenant as well as their exile from the Promised Land in order to point the reader to a future work of God in the “last days”” (3). For those not quite in “the know” Tanakh is an acronym for the three major sections of Hebrew Scripture: Torah (Law or teaching of Moses), Nevi’im (Prophets), and K’tuvim (Writings). The author’s exertions and efforts all pour into his assertions. He does this through what he denominates a text-centered, compositional analysis (2) of the three chapters, in distinction to other types of approaches.

Postell frankly states that “First, there are textual reasons for suggesting that the author of the final form of Genesis 1-3 intended to represent real historical events. Second, subsequent biblical authors apparently understood Genesis 1-3 to be about real historical events” (47). Though the author, as far as I can see, doesn’t affirm this as his own position or disaffirm, nevertheless it helps to clear the air of the clouds and smoke diffused by those who think these three chapters are strictly myth or merely poetry. As the author approvingly affirms, simply because literary artistry is employed, does not automatically relegate the account to historical fantasy (46).

The author carefully works out numerous ways in which “Genesis 1-3 prophetically foreshadows Israel’s exile…in order to wed the final form Pentateuch with a prophetic eschatology” (75). He also shows how the primal story fits within, shapes and is shaped by, the forward looking, hopeful structure and flow of the rest of Hebrew Scripture in its concluding configuration. “The final form Pentateuch leaves the door open to a future work of God…to the faithful God who will one day ensure the success of another “Adam” through whom he will accomplish all of his creation purposes” (148).

Obviously, this short review leaves unmentioned many and most of the details and deductions hammered out in “Adam as Israel”. Yet, whether or not one agrees with every conclusion, a foray into this volume will help to expand the reader’s recognition that the Hebrew Scriptures have canonical seams that not only stitch the main sections together, but expose a purpose and intent that is bigger than the individual episodes. Delving into the author’s thinking will give a thoughtful reader reasoned grounds for seeing layers of themes and theology in Genesis 1-3 that introduce the Hebrew Scriptures as a whole. And investigating this material will assist to attune the learner to hear the harmony humming through the Tanakh that is awaiting its finale. I highly recommend the book!

[Lindsay John Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end of the Bible mirrors the beginning. This is seen in parallels between Revelation 21-22 and the early chapters of Genesis. But what if it goes the other way? Seth Postell’s Adam as Israel is a sustained attempt to prove that Adam’s story foreshadows Israel’s. In fact, Postell concludes that Genesis 1-3 was intentionally framed to introduce the Torah and even the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).

Full review here:

http://mydigitalseminary.com/adam-as-...

[David Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really thought-provoking big-picture overview of the OT, and how the later history of Israel and her kings adumbrates Adam in Gen 1-3. A great forest to help makes sense of some of the trees, particularly the repeated failures in Israel’s history, and the narrowing focus on the line of David as the location for Israel’s future hope. This book made the Law feel very “New Testamenty”. Would love to read a second volume showing how the NT authors view Jesus in light of Gen 1-3.
One small quibble: the copious footnotes and extended and frequent block quotations made the read tedious at times. Otherwise, a very stimulating read.

[Rob Steinbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dude... amazing read! Not a book for someone who is new to Genesis/Pentateuch studies. Definitely a scholarly work, but one that any serious student or teacher of Genesis should read. This was paradigm shifting for me and one that I will revisit over and over into the future.

[Jonathan Ginn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be 5/5 if 40% of the book wasn't introduction and the section advancing the author's thesis wasn't a mere 90 pages long. Nevertheless, despite wishing that Postell had pursued his ideas in even greater depth, I found his superb text work to be filled with helpful insights.

I do have issues with his understanding of authorial intent when it comes to his construal of a post-Mosaica/final form Pentateuch and its relation to a Mosaic core. Fortunately, whether or not I agree with him on this point doesn't diminish the overall value of Postell's textually-rooted observations and connections, which remain quite persuasive.

This work would make for a great double-header alongside Dempster's phenomenal text, Dominion and Dynasty.

[Wesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic treatment of Genesis 1-3. His literary analysis is solid, focusing on a canonical approach. He also avoids getting caught up in the origins debate and allows the text to speak for itself.

[Ronald Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read!!!

[Nick Roark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal

[Michaela Weller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes read! Deeper into your studies.

[Jeremy Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful (but academic) exploration of the importance of Genesis 1-3 to understanding the Tanak. It is slow reading in many parts because the material is somewhat dense. But overall I enjoyed it.

[Josh Pannell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and convincing.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this book recalls Peter Enns's article 'Adam is Israel' on the BioLogos website. That article is frequently cited by those who, for whatever reason, do not believe that the Bible portrays Adam as the first human being. I strongly disagree with that viewpoint, and one of the main reasons for my reading this book. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately?) the author does not bring up the subject.

The author makes a pretty good case that the author of Genesis had Israel in mind when writing the account of Adam. I was particularly impressed with the idea that the emphasis on land in Genesis (garden of Eden) paralleled the idea of land in the conquest of Canaan. However the term "parallelomania" did cross my mind occasionally. Is there really a parallel between Genesis 2.10-14 and 1 Kings 4.21? Genesis mentions 4 rivers and 1 Kings mentions only the Euphrates. The connection is tenuous at best.

I was also unimpressed with the supposed connection between the serpent of Genesis 3 and the Canaanites. The author is very impressed with Genesis 3.15 being a prediction of a future ruler crushing the head of the serpent. I see the whole story as being little more than an etiological tale explaining why human beings fear serpents. Sometimes a snake is just a snake. It is significant for me that the Septuagint translators apparently agree with me because they translate "he will guard against your head" rather than "crush."

In my search for other material concerning Adam as Israel I spent a pleasant afternoon going through the bibliography in the back of the book and reading many of the articles listed there on the internet (for free. Isn’t the internet a great resource?) I really need to pay more attention to bibliographies. One article which especially helped me was at https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq.... It clarified for me Postell's parallel between the Adamic covenant (is there really an Adamic covenant?) and the Sinaitic covenant. After reading that article I concluded that, yes, there really is an Adamic covenant and, yes, it is very important to the biblical narrative!

[Marshall Janzen · Rating 4 out of 5]

God creates Adam as male and female and gives them paradise and a law – but they follow one of the inhabitants into rebellion and end up exiled. That recap is enough to convince most Bible readers that in some sense Adam’s story is another telling of Israel’s story. But Postell’s book doesn’t just gesture at a blurry intuition. He dissects the connection, leaking paragraphs of ink on the slightest parts. The true surprise, after all that, is finding he still feels the pulse of Adam’s story.

After forty pages on the wildness of historical exegesis, chapter 4 commends a “text-centered approach” that pays attention both to the words of Genesis 1–3 and how they’re positioned to frame the Pentateuch and whole First Testament. This approach centres the text’s meaning and purpose for existing. Reconstructions of what really happened become peripheral, but not ruled out. He accepts that many voices composed the text and deepened it through canonical echoes, but expects they all sung in unison. In particular, though he grants different origins for the seven-day and Eden accounts, he reads them as unified and sequential. This first half of the book throws pie in the face of critical scholarship and eats it too.

In the second half, Postell shows how his reading explains the presence of otherwise odd details, such as how Adam is formed elsewhere before being dropped in the garden. He also exposes subtle connections. For instance, humans disobey in Eden because of both a deceiver and taking what looks good in their own eyes; Israelites fail in Joshua’s conquest because Achan takes what looks good and the Gibeonites trick them. The book also moves beyond Adam, showing how the exiled ends of both Jacob and Moses’ lives reverberate with Israel’s story. It also moves beyond Genesis, showing the careful intros and conclusions to the Law, Prophets, and Writings which the Christian reshuffling of the canon obscures.

In the final sections, Postell becomes more clear about why Adam is portrayed as Israel. It isn’t to claim Adam as the first Israelite. It isn’t to preview the dangers of disobedience in order to warn Israel off that path. Rather than a warning, Genesis 1–3 serves, like the rest of the Hebrew Bible, as a testament to the certainty of human failure – and God’s stubborn drive to still see us home. Just as our evil inclination that precipitated the flood can’t be cured by a flood (Genesis 6:5 and 8:21), so also God knew it couldn’t be righted by the covenant with Israel (Deuteronomy 31:21). Eden ends with humans exiled. Israel’s canonical scriptures also end in exile, but a future hope remains. For Christians, its form takes on flesh with the turn of a page.

That move may smack of cultural appropriation, yet Postell reveals how the very shape of the Jewish canon invites outside appropriation. Through Adam, all humanity finds itself in Israel’s story. Their attested failures reflect our shared evil inclination. Just as Paul saw all nations in Abraham’s progeny because God recognized his faith before he made the Jewish cut, so also Israel’s scriptures are for us all because Adamity starts the melody that Israel later crescendos.

I’ll end with two points of disagreement, but even as I swerve away from Postell, I’m running with ideas lifted from him. First, he argues that the serpent prefigures the Canaanites as the dangerous present occupant of the land. This seems to miss that both day six and the Eden story list many occupants. All those animals occupy the land but aren’t fit to be Adam’s partner. What sets the serpent apart is that this beast has lofty pretensions – like the kings of old who claimed to come from gods, or the divine-human Nephilim a few pages on. Rather than smearing all Canaanites, the serpent makes a fitting prototype for these larger-than-life figures (especially since such giants also appear in the description of Canaan’s occupants).

Second, in some cases Postell’s insightful approach to the text seems to meet resistance he will not cross. For instance, his recognition of the framing purpose of Genesis 1–3 for the wider canon, when combined with the clear division between the seven-day and Eden accounts, leads naturally to the conclusion that the introduction of Adam on day six should frame our understanding of Adam in Eden. But Postell instead reverses direction, using the individual character of Genesis 2’s Adam to deflate the humanity-wide Adam of Genesis 1 to mainly a prototypical king. Much later he does the same thing with the Psalter, using the ruler of Psalm 2 to shift the measure of Psalm 1’s everyman to a portrait of the coming king. These moves preserve an individual Adam and point the Psalter more explicitly towards Jesus, but they seem to betray his central insight that beginnings – not secondlings – are crafted to guide our understanding of the wider text they introduce.

This book continues to provoke my thinking in good ways. I highly recommend it.

[John Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

For good or ill, interpretation of Genesis 1-3 is the most publicized area of Biblical studies. For many folks it has become a battleground. Some hold that anything save a literal seven day Creation event circa 10,000 years is tantamount to blasphemy. "Just another example of Liberals falling sway to godless science." While on the opposite end of the spectrum, yet, oddly holding the same hermeneutic, anti-theists see the Bible's ancient cosmology as "just another example of the vast error that plagues the Bible."

Though I have spent the last year dabbling in Biblical studies, I have yet to touch Genesis 1-3. When asked about it, I typically respond with agnosticism. I am more interested in the theological purpose of Scripture's opening chapters than its historical or scientific intent. However, my days of avoiding Creation week are over. I was enticed by a very provocative title to request a copy of Seth D. Postell's latest book from James Clarke & Co. publishing (distributed by the David Brown Book Company here), Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to the Torah and Tanakh.

Now, I have to confess from the get-go, Postell does not comment on Adam's historicity. He leaves that hot-button for others to push. However, as will be clear, he does provide, I think, a very compelling and rich interpretation of the opening chapters of Genesis that will likely prove significant for others who do choose to address the Biblical accounts compatibility with current scientific research.

Due to the nature of this volume as a thoroughly academic work, Postell sets forth his thesis in the introduction:
when understood as the introduction to the Torah and the Tanakh as a whole, Genesis 1-3 intentionally foreshadows Israel's failure to keep the Sinai Covenant as well as their exile from the Promised Land in order to point the reader to a future work of God in the "last days." Adam's failure to "conquer" (Gen. 1:28) the seditious inhabitant of the land (the serpent), his temptation and violation of the commandments, and his exile from the garden is Israel's story en nuce. (Postell, 3)
As is clear, Postell follows his teacher, John Sailhamer, in understanding the Tanakh as shot through with eschatology from beginning to end.

Postell then begins the discussion with a recounting of Creation account's history of Interpretation. Naturally, he addresses the pre-critical approaches first, taking a look at both Jewish and Christian exegetes, such as Jerome and John Calvin. Then the stage is set as he chronicles the critical approaches of the last five centuries, addressing recent studies (ie: within the last 50 years) in a separate chapter. Most significant to his thesis is the critical interpreters bifurcation between Genesis 1-2:4 as one source, and the rest of Genesis 2-3 as another, theologically contrasting source (which, if you've been following the web, has drawn attention here and here). A recent study that has questioned this picture of a disharmonious opening to Genesis is from, you guessed it, John Sailhamer. Evident from the first, Postell will follow Sailhamer's challenging of the consensus.

[Due to the length of the review, you'll need to visit my blog, FREEDOM IN ORTHODOXY, to view the rest]

[Samuel Rood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seth Postell successfully argues that Gen 1-3 forms the Introduction to the Torah (Pentateuch) and Tanakh (Jewish Bible). As such, he argues that we've been misreading the Torah by dividing it into five books primarily about Law. Building on John Sailhamer, Postell demonstrates that the Torah is a unified book with an author, and that he is trying to teach that the Sinai covenant failed to change the heart of the people of Israel because when the Law was given to the people of Israel they failed to live a life of faith, leading to certain exile. This is exactly what happens to Adam, who was placed in Eden (the Land), charged to subdue (read conquer) it, and given a conditional blessing: obey God's command. Adam failed, being deceived by the Serpent, the inhabitant of the Land, and then disobeying God's command. As a result he was sent out of the garden, "east of Eden." Eventually, his descendants found themselves in Babylon-the place the Jewish people would be exiled to.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This good is great for those interested in typology, especially Adam typology. Postell makes a great many interesting connections within the Pentateuch and succeeds in demonstrating a typological connection between Adam and Israel. In the process he argues (convincingly) for connections between Eden and the Temple, the Creation in Gen 1 and the land of Canaan, and many others.

However, Postell's understanding of typology is seriously problematic, in my opinion. He fails to integrate God's sovereignty and the Bible's divine inspiration into his view of typology, causing him to argue that Adam is Israel, as opposed to Israel being a Second Adam. In other words, the story of Adam was written with Israel's history (up to and including the exile) in mind.

Read a fuller review with my criticisms at http://wheatonblog.wordpress.com/2013...

[Lee Irons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really intriguing book. This is a recent dissertation that was done under John Sailhamer. Seth Postell was one of the last Ph.D. students before Sailhamer, sadly, was unable to continue functioning due to dementia. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are looking for more ammunition on the whole debate over republication. He does not seem to be aware of the current debate within our Reformed covenant theology circles, but he does provide a lot of textual evidence that Moses’ narration of the opening chapters of Genesis is intended to show the parallels between Adam and Israel. He makes four arguments:

First, the word “earth” in Gen 1-3 is the same word translated “land” in the rest of the Pentateuch, so that the “earth” of the creation narrative anticipates the promised land.

Second, Adam is pictured in Gen 1-3 as being under a prototypical Sinai covenant, complete with blessings promised for keeping the covenant and curses threatened for breaking the covenant.

Third, Adam’s failure and expulsion from the garden in Gen 3 is an anticipation of Israel’s breaking of the covenant and exile from the promised land.

Fourth, the “compositional strategy” of the Pentateuch demonstrate that Moses’ overall point is not to give the law in the hopes that Israel will keep it but with a pessimistic outlook in which Moses knows that Israel will not keep it, yet accompanied by an eschatological optimism which promises that, in spite of Israel’s failure, God will make a new covenant when he sends the Messiah in the latter days.

I also really enjoyed his last chapter, where he deals with the “canonical seams” of the Tanakh, which further reinforce the same point, particularly his demonstration of the connections between Joshua 1 and Psalm 1, relying on the brilliant article by Robert Cole [“An Integrated Reading of Psalms 1 and 2,” JSOT 98 (2002): 75-88], who argues that the Joshua-like “blessed man” of Psalm 1 is to be identified with the royal Son of Psalm 2.