新约的印记A Seal of the New Covenant
摘自《神国序言》(Kingdom Prologue), pp. 148-153,克莱恩(Meredith G. Kline)著,王霄星译
上帝对亚当和夏娃所作的宣判(创3:16-19)是针对全人类的,他们将要共同承担神所宣告的咒诅。然而,创世记3:21讲述了一个插曲,其中耶和华是以亚当和夏娃的个人身份来对待他们的,他们已经在上帝对撒旦的司法判决中,听到了关于救赎性审判的福音,并且以信心回应了。这种视角的转变发生在第20节,这一节经文中止了神的判语,并且通过讲述亚当出于信心的行动,为21节提供了一句前言。这句经文告诉我们,亚当实际上对创世记3:15的应许,就是通过女人的那位后裔使人从死里复生,发自内心地献上了“阿们”。他通过为女人起名为“众生之母”(夏娃),将这点表明了出来。第21节接着讲述了耶和华是如何回应亚当的信仰告白的,祂藉着一件具有象征意义的事情,再次肯定了自己的救赎目的,进一步坚固并且引导了亚当的信心。只有做完了这件事之后,耶和华才接着将堕落族类的代表从神圣的园子中赶了出去。
God’s
words of judgment on man (Gen 3:16–19) were directed to the generality of
mankind who would experience in common the curse pronounced. But Genesis 3:21
relates an episode in which the Lord dealt with Adam and Eve in their own
individual identities as those who had heard the gospel of redemptive judgment
in the judicial sentence against Satan and had responded in faith. This shift
in perspective takes place in verse 20, which breaks off the account of God’s
judicial words and provides an introduction to verse 21 by relating an act of
faith on the part of Adam. It tells us that Adam in effect declared his
confessional “Amen” to the Genesis 3:15 promise of restoration from death to
life through the woman’s seed. This he did by naming the woman “Life” (Eve).
Verse 21 then narrates how the Lord responded to Adam’s confession of faith by
strengthening and instructing that faith further through a symbolic transaction
in which he reaffirmed his redemptive purpose. Only after this did he proceed
with the banishing of the representatives of the fallen race from the holy
garden.
令人感到羞耻的赤身露体,尽管不是人类与上帝疏远的真正原因(像亚当闪烁其词宣称的),却是人类堕落境况的一个表征。因此,通过为亚当和夏娃提供一件遮盖物来掩盖他们赤裸的身体,耶和华向他们表示了(相比于祂在审判蛇的时候所要表达的,这样做显得更直接,也更加个人化)自己想为人类的疏远提供一种补救。那件皮衣只是一种象征性的标志,并不是对人类犯罪境况的实际补救,不过它确实是一个标志,证实了上帝的救赎目的,就是完成必要的工作来掩盖人类可耻的污秽,并且将他从躲藏之处重新带回到与神和好的美好关系之中。耶和华提供给亚当和夏娃的皮衣,其所用材质的经久耐用,与他们试图自我掩盖时所用的无花果叶子的无法持久,形成了鲜明的对比,也因此表明真正的救赎只能从耶和华而来。
Shameful
nakedness, though not the actual cause of man’s alienation from God (as Adam
had evasively claimed), was a symptom of man’s fallen condition. Hence, by
providing Adam and Eve with a covering for that nakedness the Lord signified to
them (more directly and personally than he had in his words of judgment on the
serpent) his intention to provide a remedy for man’s alienation. It was only a
symbolic sign, not the actual remedy for man’s sinful condition, but it was
indeed a sign that confirmed God’s purpose to do what was necessary to cover
man’s shameful defilement and bring him out of hiding back into fellowship with
his now reconciled God. The enduring quality of the material the Lord used to
clothe Adam and Eve contrasted with the impermanence and inadequacy of their own
attempted self-covering and thus signified that true salvation must come from
the Lord.
在创世记第3章的叙述中,巧妙地形成了一个复杂的双关语,表明了耶和华所提供的衣服具有的特殊象征含义。“赤身露体”这个词在这里充当着三角文字游戏的核心。我们之前已经提到过,“赤身露体”与“狡猾”这两个词的希伯来文的发音相似,它们之间形成的双关含义表明了,当人类失去在创世时被赋予的神的样式时,同时披上了蛇的样式。现在我们要指出的是——此时不考究词源——“赤身露体”的希伯来语也与“兽皮”这个词发音相似。在这个三角文字游戏对应的框架里,其中人类赤身露体的状态一方面关联着神所提供的兽皮衣服,另一方面又关联着堕落的人类具有的蛇的样式,看起来兽皮衣服正如与魔鬼形象相对立的形象,要被理解为以神形象的荣耀作为装扮的符号。(比较一下之后在帐幕遮盖物中也用到了动物皮,它们是象征着神的荣耀(Glory)的复制品。)
A
complex pun, artfully developed in the Genesis 3 narrative, points to the
particular symbolic meaning of the clothing provided by the Lord. The term
“naked” serves here as the center of a three-cornered word-play. We have
previously noted that the narrative puns on the similarity of the sound of the
words for naked and subtle, so indicating the likeness to the serpent taken on
by man when he lost the likeness to God with which he had been invested at
creation. It is now to be noted that the Hebrew word for naked is also linked
to the word for skin (used for the clothing) by similarity of sound, if not by
etymology. Within the framework of correspondences in this triangular
word-play, in which man’s nakedness connects on one side to the divine covering
of skin and on the other to fallen man’s likeness to the serpent, it would appear
that the skin coverings, as the antithetical counterpart of the image of the
devil, are to be understood as symbols of adornment with the glory of the image
of God. (Compare the later use of animal skins among the tabernacle coverings
that were symbolic replicas of the divine Glory.)
如果当时上帝给亚当和夏娃穿衣服,就象征着授予他们神的形象,那么随之而来的就是,神的这种作为也应该被视为重新许下了约誓。(对这一点的讨论,尤其是在以西结书16章关于西奈之约的寓言中,对婚誓的意象和穿上神的形象之间关系的讨论,参看我的Images of the
Spirit,50页及后面内容。)
If
then God’s clothing of Adam and Eve was symbolic of investiture with the divine
image, it will follow that this divine act should also be viewed as a renewed
plighting of covenantal troth. (For a discussion of this point and particularly
of the combination of the imagery of marriage troth and the clothing with God’s
image in the allegory of the Sinaitic Covenant in Ezekiel 16, see my Images of
the Spirit, pp. 50ff.)
如果我们从另一个角度来看待这个事件,我们仍然会将创世记3:21理解为圣约承诺的一种印记。在引诱事件和后续的审问过程中,我们已经看见男人和女人将神所结合的拆散了,并且实际上是他们离婚的状态,解释了他们为什么会因为赤身露体而感到羞耻。从这种关联之中我们观察到,在圣经内以及圣经之外,赤身露体的状况都在法律层面上代表着离婚的标记。赤身露体将我们始祖的离婚境况广而告之,所以对上帝而言,遮盖他们裸露的身体就等于使他们复婚了。
We
arrive at this same understanding of the Genesis 3:21 event as a sealing of
covenantal commitment if we approach the episode from yet another perspective.
We have seen that in the course of the temptation and subsequent interrogation
the man and the woman had put asunder what God had joined together and that it
was in fact their state of divorce that accounted for the shame that had come
to attach to their nakedness. In that connection we observed that the condition
of nakedness figures in biblical and extra-biblical legal symbolism as a sign
of divorce. For God to cover the nakedness that publicized our first parents’
state of divorce was to reunite them in marriage.
实际上,且不说离婚的情况,男人将一件衣服披在女人身上,就构成了一个象征性的婚姻承诺。这个事实有助于我们在两个层面上认识圣约的认可仪式,这正是我们对创世记3:21所要论述的。在神人之约的层面上,上帝以一件衣服来遮盖人类这个立约方,其本身(即使抛开兽皮衣服象征着神的形象这一点)将直接象征着上帝恢复了祂与人类之间所立的约(参看结16:8)。而在人类的层面上,以皮衣来遮盖亚当和夏娃象征着——不考虑离婚的背景——缔结婚姻的仪式。(“兽皮”这个词是单数,这一点或许意义深远,他们所穿戴的象征两人合二为一的衣服,恰如其分地来自同一张兽皮。)
In
fact, quite apart from the situation of divorce, a man’s spreading of a garment
over a woman constituted a symbolic pledge of marriage. This fact is
instructive at both levels of covenant ratification that we find ourselves
dealing with in Genesis 3:21. At the level of the God-man covenant, God’s
covering the human covenanting party with a garment would itself (even apart
from the identification of the skin-garments as symbolic of the imago Dei)
symbolize directly God’s renewal of his covenant with man (cf. Ezek 16:8). And
at the human level, the covering of Adam and Eve with garments of skin would
then serve, irrespective of the divorce background, as a marriage ratification
ceremony. (The fact that the term for skin is singular might then be
significant—the garments symbolic of their oneness being appropriately derived
from one skin.)
因此,第21节被认为是对亚当和夏娃复婚的记载,就恰当地构成了第20节的后续。从神与人所立之约的层面上来看待第20节,我们将亚当所作的,解释成一篇信仰告白。不过,亚当为夏娃起名这件事显然也表明了,他们在婚姻上恢复了对彼此的委身,那么21节描述的婚姻仪式就自然而然地紧跟其后了。
Thus
recognized as the record of the remarriage of Adam and Eve, verse 21 forms the
appropriate sequel to verse 20. Viewing verse 20 at the level of God’s covenant
with man, we have interpreted Adam’s statement as a confession of faith. But
obviously implicit in Adam’s naming of Eve was also a resumption of their marital
commitment to one another, and the ceremony of marriage described in verse 21
then follows after that in natural sequence.
如果创世记3:21作为婚约的印记在立约的两个层面上回应了第20节,那么不容置疑的就是,这两个层面应该在象征的意义上保持着彼此对应的关系,人类的婚姻描绘了神与人之间立约的事实。以下事实证明了这种象征性的对应关系,即确认男人和女人破镜重圆,就等于扭转了他们的离婚状况,后者正是他们对赤身露体感到羞耻的原因。在创世记第3章的叙述里,这种赤身裸体的状态证明人类违背了与耶和华所立的约,是通过上帝给他们提供衣服才得到解决的具体问题。因此,在为亚当和夏娃举行的复婚仪式上,耶和华通过一种非常恰当的象征作为,表征了祂要恢复神与人之间婚约的目的。
If
now Genesis 3:21 answers to verse 20 at two levels of covenantal engagement as
a sealing of troth, it can hardly be doubted that these two levels are intended
to be seen as sustaining a symbolic correspondence to each other, with the
human marriage providing a picture of the divine covenanting. This symbolic
interrelationship is corroborated by the fact that to confirm the marital
reunion of the man and the woman was to correct the condition of divorce
responsible for the sense of shame over nakedness which serves in the Genesis 3
narrative as evidence that man had broken his covenant with the Lord and which
was indeed the concrete problem directly addressed by God’s provision of
clothing. Accordingly, in performing the ceremony of the remarriage of Adam and
Eve the Lord was signifying through an eminently apt symbol his purpose to
renew the divine-human marriage covenant.
总结来说,多方面的释经结果都汇聚到了一起,将创世记3:21中的穿衣行动解释为神的誓言,回应了20节描述的人类在信仰上的委身。神与人之间互相公开宣称建立了圣约关系,这种具有象征意义的仪式是对救赎性盟约的认可。因为耶和华的圣约妻子犯了淫乱之罪,所以耶和华使她赤身露体,说道:“她不是我的妻子,我也不是她的丈夫。”(参看何2:2、3)但是如今藉着饶恕人的恩典,耶和华应许要重新聘她永远归自己为妻(参看何2:19、20),承认她是属自己的,那时她必承认道,“你是我的神”(参看何2:23;申26:17、18)。
Summing
up, several lines of exegesis have converged on the interpretation of the act
of clothing in Genesis 3:21 as a divine pledge answering to the
faith-commitment of man described in verse 20. This symbolic ritual of mutual
divine-human avowal of covenantal relationship was a ratifying of the
redemptive covenant. Because of her whoredom the Lord had set forth the wife of
his covenant naked, saying, “She is not my wife and I am not her husband” (cf.
Hos 2:2, 3). But now in forgiving grace he promised that he would betroth her
to himself anew and forever (cf. Hos 2:19, 20), acknowledging that she was his
as she confessed, “You are my God” (cf. Hos 2:23; Deut 26:17, 18).
耶和华为人类赤身露体的境况提供补救的另一个特征就是,这种补救不得不通过牺牲生命才能获得。尽管经文并没有把重点放在这一点上,甚至都没有特别提到要宰杀动物,然而一提到用来做衣服的兽皮时,出现死亡的事实会不可避免地浮现在读者的脑海之中。因此,创世记3:15中的福音—应许的这种象征性的印记,就照应着后面关于受苦的预言,这是那位弥赛亚后裔必须承受的,为了使人与神之间重新和好并且恢复圣约。兽皮衣服源于动物的牺牲,从这个角度来看待衣服,我们不得不将之视为预言中的公义长袍的标记,是救主藉着自己的死,遮盖祂百姓的罪孽后获得的。这一点完全符合将穿衣服解释为象征性地赋予神的形象,因为公义是神的形象的一个组成部分,确实与神形象中的道德荣耀有关,在我们将衣服解释为象征着神的样式时,这个方面是最引人注目的。当亚当和夏娃离开伊甸乐园时,上帝在伊甸园东边安设了基路伯和发火焰的剑,为了抵挡动物祭牲所替代的人类,这一点也预示了他们有一天会重返伊甸园。
Another
feature of the remedy the Lord provided for man’s condition of nakedness was
that it had to be procured through a sacrifice of life Though the biblical text
lays no emphasis on this and does not even mention the slaying of the animal
specifically, the fact of the sacrificial death that took place inevitably
arises in the reader’s mind at the mention of the skin used for the clothing.
This symbolic sealing of the gospel-promise of Genesis 3:15 thus echoes the
latter’s prophecy of the sufferings which the messianic seed must endure to
secure the reconciliation with God and the renewal of the covenant. Viewing the
clothing in terms of its derivation from an act of sacrifice, we cannot but
regard it as a prophetic sign of the robe of righteousness the Savior obtains
through his death to cover the sins of his people. This is entirely compatible
with the interpretation of the clothing as a symbolic investiture with the
imago Dei since righteousness is a component of that image and appertains,
indeed, to the aspect of the image—its ethical glory—that has been most
conspicuous in our interpretation of the clothing as symbolic of the divine
likeness. When Adam and Eve left paradise they did so bearing a sign of
restoration, a sign obtained by God’s wielding the fiery sword of the cherubim
against a sacrificial animal substitute.
正如在创世记3:21中叙述的,献祭成了最早认可恩典之约的一部分。在人类堕落后的情况下,如果耶和华要与一群百姓立约,将祂神圣的国赐予他们,就必然要通过献祭才能实现。在耶和华委身于圣约的这些应许之前,为了实现圣约的目的,就是兑现救赎的应许,必须预先做好安排。因此,立约的先决条件就是献祭性的代赎,藉此罪人可以得到赦免成为圣洁,接受圣约所应许的荣耀。也就是说,圣父与作为第二亚当的圣子之间的约,是耶和华与教会所立的恩典之约的基础,而前者有一项要求,对于成为肉身的圣子而言,祂必须顺服以至于死在十字架上。因此,最终对新约的实施要在基督的血里正式生效(太26:28;来10:29; 13:20),并且在确立新约的时候,正是基督的代赎这个先决条件,在预表的层面上体现在了具有象征意义的献祭之中,因此从创世记第3章开始,藉着这种具有预表意义的献祭,在弥赛亚降临之前揭开了实施恩典之约的帷幕。
Sacrifice
was then a part of the earliest ratification of the Covenant of Grace as
narrated in Genesis 3:21. In the postlapsarian situation, if the Lord is to
enter into covenant with a people to bestow his holy kingdom on them, it is
necessarily by sacrifice that this is done. Provision must be made to secure
the fulfillment of the proper purpose of the covenant expressed in its
redemptive promises before the Lord commits himself in covenant to those
promises. Prerequisite to such covenant-making, therefore, is the sacrificial
atonement whereby guilty sinners may become the forgiven, holy recipients of
the covenanted glory. That is, the covenant of the Father and the Son as second
Adam, with its requirement of obedience unto the death of the cross on the part
of the incarnate Son, was foundational to the Lord’s Covenant of Grace with the
Church. Accordingly, the new covenant, the ultimate administration of that
covenant, was ratified in the blood of Christ (Matt 26:28; Heb 10:29; 13:20)
and it is this prerequisite role of Christ’s atonement in the establishment of
the new covenant that is prototypically expressed in the symbolic sacrifices by
which the premessianic administrations of the Covenant of Grace were
inaugurated from Genesis 3 onward.