Timothy Bertolet!

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Genesis 1-3 & the Kingdom; ! Draft 11/4/10

Genesis 1-3 as the Foundation of the Kingdom of God.

Introduction

! It is well recognized that the primary teaching and preaching of the ministry of

Jesus centered on the message of the kingdom of God. This is the central message of

the New Testament as even Paul has now been recognized to do “nothing but explain

the eschatological reality which in Christʼs teaching is called the Kingdom.” 1 It is

generally recognized that the structure of the Bible itself is grounded in eschatology as

the unfolding of Godʼs history of redemption moves towards a climax. This is especially

pronounced especially by those within the Reformed tradition who follow the insights of

Geerhardus Vos, Herman Ridderbos, and Meredith Kline. The history of redemption

unfolds in a postlapsarian context. However Vos and his followers have always been

quick to note that eschatology precedes soteriology.2 As such, we can find the roots of

what would unfold in the climax of the kingdomʼs coming embedded in the prefall

creation as a seed ready to germinate.

! This paper will seek to demonstrate several ways in which Genesis 1-3 lays the

foundation for the Kingdom of God and the vice-regency that the Lord Jesus

1 Herman Ridderbos When the Time Had Fully Come, 48-49.

2 Depending of when and where the phrase is used it can denote for Reformed writers either a logical
priority or a temporal priority. The former is grounded in the latter. Geerhardus Vos writes “It would be far
more accurate to say that the eschatological strand is the most systematic in the entire fabric of the
Pauline thought-world. For it now appears that the closely interwoven soteric tissue derives its pattern
from the eschatological scheme, which bears all the marks of having had precedence in his mind” The
Pauline Eschatology (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1994) 60. See also Michael Horton
Lord and Servant: A Covenant Christology (Louisville, Kent.: Westminster John Knox, 2005) 95 where he
speaks of the temporal priority: “Thus eschatology is prior to soteriology: creation began with a greater
destiny lying before it.” Eschatology should have not only a conceptual prominence in our minds but a
historical precedence in our understanding of history as God created it. The offer of an eschatology is
given to Adam prior to his fall and thus has come before the subsequent necessity of history to be a
redemptive history. In a postfall context, redemptive history not only ʻundoesʼ the curse but ushers in the
original eschatological offer to humanity.
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accomplishes in that kingdom. We will do this by proposing that three tracts of evidence

establish the basics of what we find in fully realized in the Kingdom of God. First, the

kingdom of God properly denotes the reign of God that is manifest through human vice-

regency. The conception of reign is found first in Genesis 1 where humanityʼs coronation

is for the function of prosecuting and establishing Godʼs kingly reign within creation on

behalf of God. Second, this paper proposes Adam is established to carry out priestly

functions in the garden of Eden as a function of the anticipated eschaology of the

Kingdom. The exercise of priesthood is not limited to a redemptive context. Third, this

paper will follow the insights of Meredith Kline and Michael Horton in order to argue that

humanity is created in the garden to be a prophetic witness to God in the glorification of

God. Our objective is to demonstrate that the roles of prophet, priest, and king which

are carried out in the Kingdom of God by the Messiah for redemption are roles that were

first laid down for humanity in a prefall condition for an eschatological end.

The Kingdom of God: A Brief Definition.

! It is widely recognized that the ʻkingdom of Godʼ is not referencing a region but a

reign.3 The kingdom of God is described as the reign of God. While God has always

been sovereign and reigning over all creation, what is unique about the Biblical concept

of the kingdom of God is that it is the establishment of Godʼs reign through human vice-

regency. So Dan McCartney states, “It is called Godʼs reign because the proper created

order of his sovereign rule on earth is with man as vicegerent.”4 The dawning of the

3 George Eldon Ladd The Presence of the Future (Revised Edition; Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans,
1974) 122-148.
4 Dan McCartney “Ecce Homo: The Coming of the Kingdom as the Restoration of Human Vicegerency”

WTJ 56 (1994) 14. Italic original. This is why in 1 Corinthians 15, Jesus reign focuses not on his deity but
on his role as Second Adam where he will then hand the kingdom back to the Father once the
sovereignty as been established on Godʼs behalf.
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reign of God in the New Testament is “the reinstatement of the originally intended divine

order for earth, with man properly situated as Godʼs vicegerent.”5

" The purpose of the coming of the Kingdom of God is the redemption of Godʼs

people in order to bring them back to God and establish what was originally intended for

humanity in Godʼs creation. But the kingdom of God is not merely the reinstatement of

Edenic condition where man was innocent and ʻable not to sin.ʼ The purpose of the

kingdom of God is to launch creation into that eschatological state which was to be

accomplished by Adam had he not failed. Thus while Adam was created innocent and

ʻable not to sin,ʼ the consummation held to him was glorification whereby he is ʻnot able

to sin.ʼ So the Messiah, the eternal Son of God, comes as one who is truly human to do

two things in bringing Godʼs reign near: (1) to release those held captive to sin and

suffering the effects of the curse and (2) to bring the eschaton to completion.

! There is a sense in which the fall of man seems to derail the eschatological goal

for which God created man. However, now with the inbreaking of the Kingdom by the

one who is both truly God and truly man we see not only the curse removed but the

eschatological dawns. Thus, Christ who is the eternal image of God takes on the from

the incarnation the functional role of image barer given to humanity 6 and carries out this

5Italic original. McCartney, 2.

6Seyoon Kim, The Origin of Paulʼs Gospel (Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf & Stock, 1981) 137-268, especially chart
on 268. David Garner “The First and Last Son: Christology and Sonship in Pauline Soteriology”
Resurrection and Eschatology (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2008) 255-279.
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role by operating as kingly, priestly, and prophetic. To establish that the original image 7

entails all three functions we shall turn our attention to Genesis 1-3.

Image as Royal Function.

Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds
of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God
blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

! It readily and easily acknowledge by most Bible scholars today that the concept

of manʼs creation in the image of God establishes his functional sonship which entails

regal imagery as a vice-regent under God but over Godʼs created world. Yet, it is

important to emphasize that the role humanity is established to is one of kingship, albeit

a delegated kingship under the authority of the highest King. In this, the early chapters

of Genesis fit strongly within an Ancient Near Easter setting.

The first two key words in the passage are image (‫ )צלמ‬and likeness (‫)דמת‬. The

two terms should be seen as near synonyms not as describing two different aspects of

7 We certainly acknowledge that the preincarnate Christ is the original ʻimage of Godʼ in the archetypal
sense and that humanity in Genesis 1 is created as the ʻimage of Godʼ in an ectypal sense. However, we
are using the words “original image” in a strictly historical sense that the ectypal image of God is the first
appearance in history of an image bearer. On the the achetypal and ecytpal see, Garner, Muller Post
Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca.
1725 Volume One Prolegomena to Theology (Second Edition. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2003)
229-238, and Meredith Kline Images of the Spirit (Eugene, Ore.: Wipf & Stock, 1980). If man was not
created in an ectypal sense it would be impossible for Christ as the archtype to take on human nature and
display the eternal divine glory of the archtype in human nature. Obviously God has planned this before
the foundation of the world that the eternal Son would be able to redeem humanity as one like them in all
things because humanity is a created sonship/image. To explore this further takes us beyond the scope of
this paper.
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humanity.8 The word ‫ צלמ‬is often used to denote a statue or an idol (1 Sam. 6:5; Num.

33:52; 2 Kings 11:18). Idols would stand as proxies for the divine being they

represented. In the Ancient Near East, kings were considered to be ʻsonsʼ of the gods

so that they were considered visible manifestations of the rule of the God.9 Furthermore,

it is recognized that earthly kings themselves would erect images of there regal power in

lands they had conquered. Gerhard von Rad connects this to the implications for adam

as Godʼs image:

Just as powerful earthly kings, to indicate their claim to dominion, erect an

image of themselves in the provinces of their empire where they do not
personally appear, so man is placed upon earth in Godʼs image as Godʼs
sovereign emblem. He is really only Godʼs representative, summoned to
maintain and enforce Godʼs claim to dominion over the earth.10

The fact that manʼs function is royal becomes even more clear when we

recognize that man is subdue (‫ )כבשׁ‬the earth and have dominion (‫ )רדה‬over creation.

These are regal words that are reminiscent of what conquering nations or kings would

do over enemy territories. For example, Leviticus gives instructions on how a slave

should be ruled over (‫ ;רדה‬Lev. 25:46, 53; 26:17). ‫ רדה‬can also describe the dominion

of a king (1 Kings 5:4), or of a nation over a region (Isa. 14:6). In language that surely

echoes a creation mandate, when Israel enters the promise land she is give charge to

8 It is beyond our scope to review the long history of interpretation. Suffice it to say, in earlier centuries it
was frequent to assign different aspects to humanity based the different words. The use of image and
likeness in Gen. 5:1,3; and 9:6 lead most scholars to assume they are near synonymns. See for example
Eugene Merrill “Covenant and Kingdom: Genesis 1-3 as Foundation for Biblical Theology” Criswell
Theological Review 1.2 (1987) 299 and Antony Hoekema Created in Godʼs Image (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1986) 13.
9 Gordon Wenham, Genesis (Waco, TX: Word, 1897) 30. Phyllis Bird “Male and Female He Created

Them”: Gen 1:27b in the Context of the Priestly Account of Creation” HTR 74:2 (1981) 137-44. J. Richard
Middleton The Liberating Image (Grand Rapids, Mich: Brazos, 2005) 93-145.
10 Gerhard Von Rad, Genesis, (E.T.; OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961) 60.
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subdue it (Num. 32:22, 29; Josh. 18:1). This will entail not only bring nature under itʼs

realm but also the nations presently occupying the land.11 The point for us that humanity

is given this charge in its creation as part of a regal function.

This imagery is even more vivid when we consider Psalm 8 as expansion of the

concepts found in Genesis 1:26-27. Man is crowned with glory and honor. Man is made

a little lower “‫”מֵאֱלֹהִ֑ים‬. It is not that man is a little lower than angelic or heavenly beings

but he is a little lower than God himself having being crowned in vice regency. It is his

installment under the high King but in exaltation over all the creation. The vice-

sovereign exercises dominion on Godʼs behalf over everything that God has made.

While Psalm 8:6a does not use the same word for dominion as in Genesis 1:26-28, it

uses the hiphil form of ‫ משׁל‬which means not only to give someone dominion but to

make them a ruler or lord.12 In Psalm 8:6b, the notion of God putting all under manʼs

feet is the idea that God has set, ordered or determined that this man should have

dominion. It entails imagery of a vice regency receiving his installment to royalty and

sovereign by the authority of the high sovereign.13

11 We might note the interesting typology here. The promised land of Israel functions as a type or a
shadow of the future eschatological inheritance. It is no surprise then to see an echo to the protological
Garden of Eden and charge given to Adam. In advance of the true Second Adam, Israel and her Davidic
King often function in a Second Adam type role. Equally, it should be no surprise that the prophets when
describing the eschatological frequently use imagery of the bounty of creation over flowing.
12 CHALOT, 219. See also Daniel 11:39 “He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a

foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many
and shall divide the land for a price.”
13 It would be interesting to explore the implication for the notion of a covenant and suzzerain-vassal

treaties, but this is beyond our immediate scope. Meredith Kline has often explored this to some decree in
other passages, it may be possible to suggest that covenant is not far from the authorʼs though in Psalm 8
given the ordering and setting of a viceroy in place.
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Taking a line of argument other than our reflection, Doug Green reaches similar

conclusions that Psalm 8 is first about the royal identity of David more specifically but

argues this is precisely because Adam had a royal identity:

There is a stream of theological reflection in the Old Testament...that speaks

of Israel and her kings using what may be called second-Adam imagery: the
godlike (or near-divine) human, the son of Man crowned with divine splendor,
who rules over the animal kingdom, and by extension the animalized
humanity of the Gentile kingdoms. Psalm 8 floats in this stream. Read in
context of the Psalter, and read in the context of Israelʼs story, Psalm 8 is less
interested in the dignity and worth of humanity in general, and more
concerned with the dignity and worth, the glory and honor, of the true
humanity, Israel, and the true human, David (and his descendants).14

Doug Greenʼs paper deserves careful attention in its own right. Our content here

for Genesis 1-3 is that this later royal imagery for David as a Second Adam can only

“work” because it rooted in Godʼs original purpose for man. Upon the fall, Godʼs plan is

to recreate His people. This plan begins first in Abrahamʼs seed, then more narrowly in

David and Davidʼs descendants which finally is narrowed to the one Jesus Christ

Himself.

It is no surprise that Psalm 8 becomes in Hebrews 2 an identification of Christ

and His crowning with glory and honor in his exaltation. It is the kingdom of God that

was anchored in Genesis 1 that connects through unfolding redemption and revelation

until Christ in His humanity takes on that regal capacity as the true human.15 To use

more Pauline language when Jesus becomes the installed King in the Kingdom of God

14 Douglas Green “Psalm 8: What is Israelʼs King that You Remember Him?” 7. http://files.wts.edu/
uploads/pdf/articles/psalm8-green.pdf accessed 11/4/10.
15 Consider the New Testament quickly and easily links Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 (clearly kingly/Messianic

Psalms) with Psalm 8. Douglas Green explores this in his paper.

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at His resurrection and exaltation He is designated Second Adam or Last Adam

precisely because the original Adam has a royal function.16

Image as Priestly Function.

" The second aspect of the image of God is the priestly function of humanity in the

Garden of Eden. Prior to the fall the priesthood does not contain any redemptive

significance but instead administers worship and service to God. The image of the

temple in the Garden of Eden enhances the royal ideology of the Genesis 1-3 that we

see developed later in the kingdom of God. It is important that Adam functions not only

as king but as a priest in this temple. Vice-regency entails both kingly and priestly

functions.

! G.K. Beale has ably proposed and defended the thesis that the Garden of Eden

is established as a temple.17 While Beale defends this thesis to new depths, it should

not really surprise that we find in the structure of creation a shadow of the heavenly

temple that will be fully realized in the eschatological with the dawning of the kingdom of

God.18 It is easily recognized that in the garden Godʼs presence is uniquely enjoyed as

Adam is able to walk with God. According to Beale, this same language is used to later

describe Godʼs presence in the temple.19

16 1 Cor. 15 especially vv.20-27 and 45.

17 G.K. Beale The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God
(Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity, 2004) 66-80.
18 Geerhardus Vos The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Eerdmans, 1965) 55-68. Vos connects

the heavenly tabernacle as archtype or ʻheavenlyʼ to the shadow in the Old Testament. It is in the New
Covenant that the heavenly is utilized as a culmination of eschatology. While Vosʼ focus is on the
typological and the eschatological tabernacle/temple. Our focus is to say that Garden of Eden as a temple
is a protological and is based upon the heaven pattern just as the typological is. Vosʼ charts on pages 56
and 57 could be modified slightly to demonstrate this.
19 Beale, 66.
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Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden
[‫ ] יְ ה וָ֧ ה אֱ לֹ הִ֛ י ם מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בַּגָּ֖ן‬in the cool of the day,20 and the man and his
wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of
the garden.

Leviticus 26:11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not
abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you [! ‫ ] וְ הִ תְ הַ לַּ כְ תִּ י֙ בְּ ת֣ וֹ כְ כֶ֔ם‬and will
be your God, and you shall be my people.21

Deuteronomy 23:14 [15] Because the Lord your God walks [ ְ‫ ]מִתְהַלֵּ֣ך‬in the
midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you,
therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent
among you and turn away from you.

2 Samuel 6:6!For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the
sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving [ ְ‫]מִתְהַלֵּ֔ך‬
about in a tent, even in a tabernacle.

! The imagery is clear enough: just as God walked with Adam in the garden of

Eden so later he also walked with the Israelites by moving about amongst the people in

a tabernacle. The garden of Eden is a prototype temple/tabernacle and a place where

God regularly manifested His presence to Adam. Of course, Adam was driven out of the

garden and entry was walled off at the fall in the same way entry into the tabernacle

was restricted for later Israel.

20 We take the Hebrew here to be a picture not of gentle breeze but of judging associated with the
concept later developed as the day of the Lord. Here we have a prototype of Godʼs inbreaking judgment
where he must cleanse the temple. The final realization of this Biblical theological motif is when upon
cleansing the earth the heavenly temple descends so that Godʼs presence is able to be with humanity
without mediation.
21 Here we would simply note that Israel is beginning to function as a ʻsecond Adamʼ since she is told in

verse 9 “I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.”
She, of course, fails miserable at this task so that the true Second Adam does not come until Christ takes
on this role.
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! The Garden of Eden is associated in later Biblical passages with Zion, the temple

mountain of God. The reader is left to understand that what Eden once was, Zion will

one day be.22 Being in Eden is coterminous with being on the mountain of God.

Ezekiel 28:13-14 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious
stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the
onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the
gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day
that you were created They were prepared. “You were the anointed cherub
who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God
[repeat in verse 16]; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

! The rich jewelry described here of Eden is temple imagery--descriptive of both

the heavenly temple and ornate riches describe in the earthly temple (Genesis 2:12,

Ezekiel 1:26). The link between Zion as temple and Eden as temple could not be more

clear:

Words like “ideal,” “perfection,” and “unblemished,” [used to describe the

Temple] suggest that that the Temple was, in fact, a paradise. A biblical
tradition, in common with the stories of origins found in many cultures,
maintained that human experience began in paradise, called the “Garden of
Eden,” the last word denoting Hebrew “luxury” or “delight.”...What is most
revealing about Ezekielʼs oracle is that it makes an identification of “Eden, the
garden of God” (Ezek. 28:13) with “Godʼs holy mountain” (v.14). In Ezekiel (or
his school), the vocabulary of the Temple mount Zion, is common to the old
story of the Garden of Eden. This becomes clear in the oracle against Tyre in
28:2-5. Here, the riches of vv.4-5 are in parallel with the wondrous gems of vv.
13-14...The same language describes life in Eden, the Garden of Delight, and
Zion, the Temple mount, in which the primal perfection of Eden is wonderfully
preserved.23

22 It should then not surprise us that after the author of Hebrews discusses the heavenly tabernacle in
some detail in chapter 9, he can come back in chapter 12 and say we have “come to Mount Zion, and to
the city of the living God” and that we “receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken.” Kingdom and Temple
intertwine themselves in Biblical revelation in the protological of the garden and the final realization of the
eschatology (see also Revelation 19-22).
23Jon Levenson Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible (San Francisco, Cal.: HarperSanFrancisco,

1987) 128-129. Further evidence can be marshaled for our case when we consider the origin of
primordial rivers in both Zion and Eden, see Levenson, 129-131 and Beale 72-73.
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More important for our discussion is not what Eden is but what Adam does in Eden. So

we read in the Biblical text:

Genesis 2:15-17 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of
Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man,
saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of
it you shall surely die.”

Adamʼs two main roles are to work and keep the garden. G.K. Beale has successfully

argued that the garden of Eden is a temple where Adam is ʻcultivateʼ (‫ )עבד‬and

ʻkeepʼ (‫ )ׁשמר‬the garden words that usually refer to the priestly role of serving or

guarding in the tabernacle.24 The imagery of a temple enhances the royal ideology of

God since “sitting in the temple is an expression of his sovereign rest or reign.”25 The

conclusion for Adamʼs role could not be more clear:

“Thus, the implication may be that God places Adam into a royal temple to
begin to reign as his priestly vice-regent. In fact, Adam should always best be
referred to as a ʻpriest-kingʼ, since it is only after the ʻfallʼ that priesthood is
separated from kingship though Israelʼs eschatological expectation is of a
messiah priest-king (e.g., see Zech. 6:12-13)”26

! In short, God in His sovereignty actively creates and then sits down in Sabbath

rest. Adam is established (more literally ʻrested,ʼ 27) in a human vice-regency that offers

priestly service to God over the creation while offering an eschatological Sabbath rest

24 Beale, 67. What will do not explore here is that in the Ancient Near East it was a royal function to keep
gardens. Kings in their opulence could afford the luxury to building and maintain massive gardens as a
sign and exercise of their stately power and regality. Consider as example the hanging gardens of
Babylon.
25 Beale, 63. Meredith Kline also emphasizes the priestly role of man in the garden arguing: “Priesthood is

manʼs primary office. It was with the priestly experience of beholding the Glory of the Creator in his
Edenic sanctuary that human existence began” (Kingdom Prologue, 87; see pp 87-90).
26 Beale, 70.
27 Genesis 2:15, ּ‫וַיַּנִּחֵ֣הו‬. Beale, 69-70.
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once the eschatological is ushered in.28 Adam being allowed to eat of trees in the

garden suggests echoes to the priest who were later allowed to partake of the sacrifice

offered in the temple. In other words, the priest in the temple can eat of the food which

he finds within the temple.

! Reformed theologians have associated the tree of life with the eschatological

hope that still awaited Adam had he served and kept the garden in obedience.29 The

tree of life was held out to Adam and appears against in Biblical theology as an

eschatological sacrament to be enjoyed only upon glorification.30 The placement of the

temple on Earth in Eden and Godʼs descent to that temple to walk with Adam suggests

that the remains a hope for Adam whereby if his role is carried out the heavenly temple

will come down as human vice-regency is consummated. In short, the garden is a

temple which holds out eschatological promise if Adam serves as priestly king.

! One more line of evidence is not merely what Eden is or what Adam is to do in

Eden but what Adam is as the bearer of Godʼs glory. Meredith Kline has argued that the

Aaronic priesthood is given priestly garments to represent the original establishment of

man as the bearer of Godʼs glory.31 Part of the function of priesthood then is not merely

to mediate away manʼs sin but to mediate Godʼs glory into creation. The goal of the

eschatological has always been the overflow of Godʼs glory into His creation. It is man

28 The work of Meredith Kline explores such themes of eschatology and Sabbath rest. In particular see his
Kingdom Prologue (Overland Park, Kansas: Two Age Press, 2000) 34-38. He stress the enthronement
aspects of Sabbath rest.
29 See Geerhardus Vos Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1948) 27-38; Meredith Kline,

Kingdom Prologue, 91-117. Francis Turretin Institutes of Elenctic Theology Volume 1 (Phillipsburg, N.J.:
Presbyterian & Reformed, 1992) 578-582. Michael Horton, Lord and Servant, 94-95.
30 See n. 29. We might equally suggest that the confrontation in Genesis 3 is a test of Adamʼs vice

regency in its royal and priestly functions. Would he establish the reign of God by guarding and keeping
the garden by bringing a ʻday of the Lordʼ against the serpent, thus subduing the creatures? See Horton,
Lord and Servant, 122-123.
31 Images of the Spirit, 42-47.
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as the apex of creation who would mediate that glory out into the creation so that God

might be ʻall in all.ʼ

! This then is why Jesus as high priest must be who mediates from the position of

having indestructible human life (Heb. 5:10; 7:16). Hebrews in not merely offering

another recapitulation of priesthood that just happens to be of a different line than

Aaron. Hebrews is offering an eschatological priesthood whereby the human priest

offers his ministry now that he himself has entered a qualitatively superior state, namely

the glorification of the resurrected humanity.32

! In a prefall context, Adamʼs role as priest will be to serve God in the temple and

usher in the eschatological promise. Christ will take on this priestly role as the Second

Adam with the added assignment of redeeming fallen humanity by being their priest and

sacrifice. Our tendency, given that the mass treatment of priesthood in the Biblical

context is in a postfall context, is then to associate priesthood almost exclusively with

redemption. Yet we are suggesting that the Biblical evidence leads us to apply axiom

“eschatology precedes soteriology” to the priesthood itself since it is a function of image

bearing. 33

32 Gerhardus Vos has shown that the priesthood in Hebrews in connected to Christʼs heavenly ministry so
that for Hebrews this priestly ministry of heavenly intercession did not begin until after Jesusʼ resurrection
and exaltation, “The Priesthood of Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews” Redemptive History and Biblical
Interpretation (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed , 1980) 126-60. While Christʼs work is clearly
redemptive with the purpose of bringing many (adopted) sonʼs to glory. Our contention is that priesthood
of Christ is carried out not only in the eschatological place (the archetype of the heavenly which was the
pattern for all temples and Edens in redemptive history) but also as the eschatological man. We can link
priesthood in the later chapters of Hebrews with exaltation a theme powerfully testified to with the
Christological use of Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2. Christ is the captain of salvation by being the obedient Son
who moves from a state of innocence to the eschatological perfection state by ʻlearning obedienceʼ
through his act on the cross. It is redemptive but is equally anchored in fulfilling the eschatological which
precedes soteriology.
33 Put another way: just as the function of kingship is expanded after the fall to entail leading Godʼs

people out of bondage, so the role of priesthood is expanded from serving God and keeping the Temple
to include redeeming Godʼs people and mediating on their behalf.
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Image as Prophetic Function.

" There is very little direct evidence from Genesis 1-3 that Adamʼs role is prophetic.

It is tempting to think that we are squeezing this role into humanity to find a nice

correspondence to Christʼs office as ʻprophet, priest and king.ʼ We will suggest however

there is indirect lines of evidence that allow us to argue for the consideration of man in

his creation as a prophet.

! First, Adam is entrusted with the word of God in Genesis 2:16-17. He is given a

command that pronounces sanctions of life and death that echo the later Deuteronomic

covenant sanctions. Preachers and commentators often note that this commission is

given in Genesis 2 to Adam and in Genesis 3 the serpent approaches Eve with respect

the commands given by God. While Eve is approached she recounts the sanction as

“do not touch” rather than “do no eat,” the reasonable explanation is that Adam had the

responsibility (and failed?) to communicate Godʼs Word to Eve since it had been given

to Adam prior to Eveʼs creation. Perhaps, if Adam and Eve had children in a prefall state

it would have been there responsibility to pass on in a prophetic fashion the sanction

that God had pronounced. This is to a degree of speculation and it taken alone is not

enough by itself to suggest a prophetic role in man.

! Second, Adam is described as one who “walks with God” (Genesis 3:8). In

Genesis two other men are described as walking with God: Enoch in Genesis 5:22,24

and Noah in Genesis 6:9. Both of them received prophetic revelation from God. Enoch

receives direct revelation from God as a ʻwitnessʼ before He is taken up into the
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presence of Godʼs glory (Hebrews 11:5).34 Similarly Noah, receives revelation of Godʼs

impending judgement in much the same way God imparts such revelation to prophets

prior to judgment coming from on high.35 Meredith Kline goes on to note places where

ʻwalking the earthʼ denote searching out for judging and judicial activity (for angels:

Zech. 1:10-11; 6:7; for Satan: Job 1:7; 2:2; for Samuel: 1 Samuel 12:2). Kline

concludes ,“It therefore appears that Genesis 5:22,24 and 6:9 portray Enoch and Noah

as prophetic figures, who had access to the counsel of the heavenly court and who

shared with the Lord God in his judicial oversight of the earth, acting as messengers in

the publishing of his decrees and judgments.”36 If walking with God, although a rare

description in the Biblical text, is descriptive of prophet like function, then Adam as well

plays a prophetic role. Of course, where he should have serve as Godʼs judicial

proclaimer against the serpent, he falls victim to the proclamation of judgement and has

to hide when God comes to walk with Him.

! Third, in the prophets there is a close association between Glory and the Spirit

and the prophetic ministry. Meredith Kline has argued that the same Spirit offered as an

eschatological goal in Genesis 1 and endowed upon humanity in 1:26-28 in humanityʼs

image bearing function is the same Spirit which the prophets must encounter in order to

conduct their ministry. The most significant prophet in the Old Testament and the

34 Similarly it is the prophet Elijah who is also taken upon in glory. And both the prophets Elijah and Moses
who are fit to come down in glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. There is a close association between
glory and the office of prophet as we will explore below. Our point is that Enoch and Noah seem to
experience that by walking with God.
35 This is especially important when we consider that walking with God in Genesis 3:8 is with ʻthe Spirit of

the Day.ʼ English translation often translate this ʻcool of the dayʼ assuming the spirit denotes wind. It is
more like that Spirit in association with ʻthe Dayʼ foreshadows what later prophets used to describe the
eschatological judgment of “the Day of the Lord.” See Jeffrey J. Neihaus “In the Cool of the Day?” in
Basics of Biblical Hebrew (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001) 397-99 and Meredith Kline Kingdom
Prologue, 128-29.
36 Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 206.
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prophet which Jesusʼ prophetic ministry is the ultimate successor to is Moses. Moses

clearly experiences what Kline has labeled the Glory-image:

This process of reproduction of the prophetic Glory-image is most plainly

observable in the experience of the human paradigm prophet, particularly in
the illumination of Mosesʼ countenance. The disclosure of the divine Glory
immediately associated with Mosesʼ initial transfiguration experience was one
that involved not simply the descent of the Glory-cloud but the appearance of
a glorious figure whom Moses might see from the back...And by the creative
power of this visible confrontation with Moses in the Glory theophany, the
Angel-prophet transmitted to Moses the likeness of his own prophetic
glory...From what is expressly stated of the Angelʼs intermediary functioning in
the history of the foundation of the prophetic figures, Moses and Elijah, those
whose lives most dramatically exhibit the re-creation and glorification of the
imago Dei, we may gather that he had a similar part in the rapture of the other
prophets into the Spirit-council, where they were endowed with the Spirit and
made partakers of the likeness of the Glory.37

! Meredith Klineʼs Biblical theology tends to progress where ʻGlory-angelsʼ fear to

tread as he often leaps at a sort of Biblical-theological “hyper-speed”.38 His connections

and leaping through themes often link images and structures there are not frequently

appropriated in the same conceptual frameworks. While not necessarily wrong, caution

and more exegetical saturation is warranted. Several elements hang together that

should allow us to agree with Kline.

! Kline draws particular attention to the hovering of the Spirit in Genesis 1:2.

Theophanic Glory found throughout redemptive history is foundational for creation itself

as the Spirit in divine glory hovers over the creation, just as it later hovers over Godʼs

people for redemptive purposes.39 Thus, in the Exodus we have the appearance of the

Glory cloud that appears to designate the Holy Spirit in Neh. 9:19-20, Isaiah 63:11-14,

and Haggai 2:5. But this Spirit-Glory-cloud first appears then in Genesis 1:2 according

37 Kline Images of the Spirit, 79-80.

38 I am indebted to Peter Enns for this term.
39 Genesis 1:2b ʻhoveringʼ with Deut. 32:11 and Exodus 19:4. Kline, 14-15.
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to Kline. This Spirit-Glory serves than as an archtype and man is created in the image of

God in sonship to God:

Man as created was already crowned with glory and honor, for made in the
likeness of the enthroned Glory, a little lower than angels of the divine council
[with ʻdivine councilʼ we disagree slightly, see above], man was invested with
official authority to exercise dominion as priest-king in Godʼs earthly courts.
Yet, the glory of manʼs royal functioning would be progressive as he
increasingly fulfilled his historical task of subduing the earth, his ultimate
attainment of functional glory awaiting the eschatological glorification of his
whole nature after the image of the radiant Glory-Spirit.40

! If in the history of redemption the Glory-Spirit is constantly working to recreate

the fallen world in order to move it to an eschatological state and this recreation entails

endowing men with the Spirit for a prophetic role which entails (as in Moses) reflecting

the glory of God, then it is easy to see that the endowment of humanity with glory in

creation is also a given of prophetic office when man is entrusted with Godʼs Word.41

The giving of Godʼs glory is held in close proximity to the prophetic office throughout

Scripture. Adam is given Godʼs glory. Therefore Adam is expected to function

prophetically.

! Fourth, we noted above that the notion of image is standing for representation.

We can see aspects of this representation that are prophetic when we consider that as

man is re-created in the image of God through the work of Christ, his role is to be a

witness and proclaim Godʼs Word. For Kline, this is because re-creation in glory entails

following the pattern of the Eternal Logos who is a messenger so that just as the eternal

messenger was sent, the servants are sent. As Horton writes, “The Son witnesses to

40Kline, 31.
41As in all things, the redemptive role of this office in a postfall world expands the prophetic function from
pronouncing sanctions of Law and proclaiming gospel.
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the Father and both the Father and the Spirit witness to the Son, as the Spirit sent by

the Son makes of fallen office-bearers a resurrected prophetic priesthood.”42 If we see

aspects of prophetic sending when the Archtype comes and in what Archtype recreates,

then is is acceptable to follow the eschatological clues back to the original in the garden

of Eden. Combined with the sanction giving to Adam and Adamʼs walking with God, it

seems we can appropriately designate Adam as a prophet.

! In review, our contention is that there are four lines of indirect evidence that

Adam was created in to have a prophetic function. First, this is why Adam is a vehicle to

whom God entrusts His word and announces a covenant sanction for disobedience.

Second, Adam walks with God, a designation that is associated with receiving Godʼs

Word. Third, Adam is endowed with glory and in later Biblical revelation it is the

prophets who witness Godʼs Spirit and are endowed with glory. Finally, it is the Second

Adam who is the eternal Son who manifests the role of prophet and recreates his

adopted sons as prophets. This creation is suitable and fitting only if in the eschatology

we are seeing again something that is present from the prefall state. It is worth quoting

Kline at length so that we recognize the Biblical connection between Godʼs glory, imago

Dei and the trifold function of humanity in its office:

At the creation, Godʼs image in man came to functional expression through

manʼs royal-priestly office. As priest standing before the face of God, man
received the glory of God in Godʼs self-revelation in his Glory-Spirit and he
returned glory to God in adoration. And as royal priest (kingship being
ancillary to priesthood), man exercised dominion over Godʼs holy world in the
name of God and to his glory. The prophetic office, according to the specific
biblical conception, belongs to the postlapsarian, redemptive situation, when
certain men are separated out to stand over against other men as mediators
of divine revelation. As seen in the prophets of Israel, the prophetic office
involves priestly functions (e.g., altar ministry, intercession) and royal

42 Horton, Lord and Servant, 111.

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functions (e.g., judicial government). Thus, along with the conventional cult
and court, along with Aaronic priest and Davidic king, a suprapriestly and
suprakingly office existed in the prophet. The prophet possessed his royal-
priesthood with a total commissioning that included his distinctive function as
mediator of the covenant word from the heavenly council to Israel. But it was
those elements of the prophetic office that paralleled the institutional office of
priest and king that the prophetic likeness to the Glory-Spirit consisted.
Hence, the office of the priest of the central sanctuary and the office of the
priestly prophet both comprehended the priestly substance of the image of
God, and accordingly the priestly and prophetic models were harmonious.
The prophet and the highpriest were the two figures privileged to experience
that personal confrontation with the Glory-Spirit that is creative of the divine
likeness. The highpriest beheld the Glory on the occasion of his annual entry
into the council-court. The prophetʼs Glory experience was his characteristic
rapture into the heavenly council. The incorporation into the divine council in
which manʼs divine likeness comes to eschatological perfection was then only
symbolically portrayed in the priestly model of the imago Dei; but in the
prophetic model, that eschatological destiny of redeemed mankind was
proleptically anticipated in pneumatic reality.43

! It is worth noting that this exercise of sovereignty and dominion over Godʼs holy

world and as a function of image bearing is precisely what the New Testament calls “the

Kingdom of God.” Not only is viceregency restored in this kingdom but Christ has the

office of priestly-king and prophet-king. Such offices, scattered as seeds through

redemptive history, are once more reunited in one man. He in turn takes on a prophetic

function of anointing with the Spirit those adopted sons who are his brother made by

him to be co-heirs/kings and co-prophets. It is no small coincidence that it is the Old

Testament it is a prophetic function to lay the Spirit on others and in the New Testament

the Second Adam “becomes a Life-Giving Spirit.”44 The Second Adam is prophet, priest

43 Kline, Images of the Spirit, 89-90.

44 Numbers 11:24-30. Deuteronomy 34:9; 1 Samuel 1:12-13; 1 Corinthians 15:45, where ʻlife-giving Spirit
refers to the giving of the Holy Spirit see Richard Gaffin Resurrection and Redemption (Second Edition.
Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1987) 78-92 where this giving of the Spirit entails the
future hope of glory in resurrection and Spirit is an eschatological gifting.
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and king after the pattern of the first Adam but also in order to recreate redeemed

humanity into a community of prophet-priest-kings.

Conclusion

! Heirs of the Reformation following John Calvinʼs summation have rightly been

taught to think of Christʼs offices a prophet priest and king. These offices are ones in

which the eternal person carries out primarily in his incarnated state. So for example,

while Christ as the eternal Son of God is rightly the King with eternal sovereignty, he

steps into creation and is crowned a king with glory and honor as one who is now truly

man. Christʼs work in the kingdom is that of the Second Adam. He ushers in the reign of

God in human vice-regency. He brings both salvation and the eschaton.

! Following an approach to Biblical theology that has its roots in Gerhardus Vos

and Meredith Kline, it is our contention that careful treatment of Genesis 1-3 lays the

foundation for the Biblical concept of the kingdom of God. While further revelation

expands and clarifies this concept, the seeds which germinate were planted in a pre-fall

context. Image bearing is a function that precedes redemption and so also the offices

we find Christ take up for redemption precede the need for redemption. As such,

Adamʼs office as imago Dei was once of prophet, priest, and king.