From Eden to the Temple: Signs of Things to Come

By Matthew A. Tsakanikas

Editor’s note: Part I of Dr. Tsakanikas’s entry, “Sinai as Interpretive Key to Genesis: Entering the Cult to Enter the Mind of the Author,” appeared in the January 2023 Bulletin.

The greatest Father and Doctor of the East, St. Gregory Nazianzen, is clear that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a boundary that the immature were not to cross until they had been properly prepared: purified and enlightened as on the slopes of Mount Sinai. St. Gregory is in agreement with the Father and Doctor, St. Ephrem the Syrian, who observes that the Tree of Knowledge was the part of creation that participated in God’s presence. By shrouding the Tree of Life like a veil, the Tree of Knowledge enabled immature man to be in God’s presence and take on God’s likeness in the gift of self that the tree enabled through the obedience of faith.

At the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, man was to surrender his will in obedience to the Truth: the Lord who promised freedom and fulfillment in the truth. The tree was where man clung faithfully to loving in truth (the likeness of God) by free choices to surrender to God in worship:

“And [God] gave [Adam] a Law, as material for his free will to act upon. This Law was a commandment as to what plants he might partake of, and which one he might not touch. This latter was the Tree of Knowledge; not, however, because it was evil from the beginning when planted; nor was it forbidden because God grudged it to men—let not the enemies of God wag their tongues in that direction, or imitate the serpent. But it would have been good if partaken of at the proper time; for the Tree was, according to my theory, Contemplation, which it is only safe for those who have reached maturity of habit to enter upon; but which is not good for those who are still somewhat simple and greedy; just as neither is solid food good for those who are yet tender and have need of milk.”1

Even before reaching the Trees at the center of the Garden and receiving “Contemplation” from God, man was being prepared by the other trees of the Garden to recognize God’s goodness and rightly understand a Holy of Holies when it was approached. Man was learning to love God with all his heart, mind, and soul, and be brought into a fuller union through love. Just before explaining that all the other trees probably also represented divine concepts, Nazianzen explained that God gave free will to man “in order that good might belong to him as the result of his choice, no less than to Him Who had implanted the seeds of it.”2 Man was to become like God through exercising his freedom as guided by the truths of heavenly conceptions.

As Part One of this essay argued that Exodus gave final

“Even before reaching the Trees at the center of the Garden and receiving ‘Contemplation’ from God, man was being prepared by the other trees of the Garden to recognize God’s goodness and rightly understand a Holy of Holies when it was approached.” form to Genesis, Nazianzen similarly followed an exegesis in which the Garden of Eden needed to be understood in light of the Tabernacle of Moses. Nazianzen refers to all the trees of the Garden as being signs given to Man and Woman to learn about the things of heaven and so Man and Woman were assigned “to till the immortal plants, by which is perhaps meant the Divine conceptions [θείων εννοιών ίσως or fortasse divinarum cogitationum], both the simpler and the more perfect.”3

Because of the assumptions involved in his exegesis, Nazianzen had not made an unjustified stretch in perceiving the meaning of the trees in Eden as being signs and communicating “divine conceptions [or thoughts, cogitationum].” He rightly saw them as partaking in the hidden εννοιών (intentions)4 and plans of God. If the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting (or Tabernacle) in Numbers were understood to be signs of the greater and more holy things of heaven (cf. Hebrews 9:24), then likewise the trees of Eden (the Garden of God) would be seen as divine and holy conceptions and Nazianzen was reading in accord with a proper historical exegesis and not just a spiritual one. His exegesis showed the same method for reading Genesis and the Edenic narratives through the historical cult that was established in Exodus and Numbers and as experienced at Sinai.5 Similarly, biblical scholar Margaret Barker argues that St. Basil the Great— Nazianzen’s closest friend—held to such an exegesis in following Origen.6

Perceiving that Genesis 1-3 is best read through the final

“ The Tent of Meeting was much more than a sign and symbol of Eden or pattern of union between heaven and earth. Its very presence and organized ritual gave hope that all mankind would again be granted entrance into the Holy of Holies.” form (or penultimate form) that the Exodus experience established (including the experiences in the Book of Numbers), then looking at the Tabernacle in the Book of Numbers gives explanation to Nazianzen’s mention of trees as “divine conceptions.” According to Numbers, servants who were not inside God’s original covenant of sonship—or the amended priesthood (the Levitical one)—were not only forbidden to touch the furnishings of the Tabernacle, they were not supposed to even look upon them: “they shall not go in [to the Tent of Meeting] to look upon the holy things even for a moment, lest they die” (Numbers 4:20). This is why the direct sons of Aaron had to wrap the Tabernacle furnishings before the Kohathites could touch or transport them. (It should be noted that “Man” and “Woman” of Genesis 2 were in the Garden and foreshadowed participation in divine filiation and sonship and so could look upon the trees, except the one that was shrouded.)7

Seeing with eyesight was viewed as a kind of touching with the eyes of that which is holy and pleasant and meant only for those in the Tabernacle to contemplate during their assigned service. The furnishings became holy once the kabod, or Glory, descended upon the Tabernacle as it had on Mount Sinai and Moses had arranged the furnishings according to the heavenly pattern shown to him. Those who were not priests by direct family lineage of Aaron were forbidden to see the arrangement or touch the “most holy” objects and furnishings involved with the Holy of Holies from that point forward (cf. Numbers 4:20). These furnishings (or “trees” as some lampstands like the menorah were called) were concepts of heavenly realities (even mysteries of creation)8 and not for the “immature” nor “greedy” who had not gone through purification rites and anointings of the Levitical priesthood. They were “divine conceptions” because they were sacramental signs which God showed Moses as representations of “heaven itself” (cf. Hebrews 9:24) and “powers of the age to come.” Those without the proper covenant and priesthood, those without the proper consecration or disposition, were not to touch these concepts and conceptions because—in the words of Nazianzen—the “immature” might then “greedily” seek to possess God’s holiness instead of receiving it as a gift gradually bestowed in contemplation of the goodness of the Christ which they foreshadowed. Only Christ can develop filial obedience and make humans into sons in the Son, children of Divine Wisdom:

“And we all, with unveiled face [like Moses in the Tent], beholding the glory of the Lord [through faith in Christ], are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit…. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:7).

Signs of Things to Come

The tent of meeting was made by human hands and was only a pattern based upon a higher and spiritual reality. As that higher reality was perceived through the representations on earth and contemplated, their fuller meaning inspired the religious leadership and laity under their guidance to hope for the eschatological kingdom which the Messiah would bring. Each of the Tent’s symbols were viewed as a part of an unfolding plan and purpose to unite men with God and reconcile heaven and earth (cf. Ephesians 1), God and man. They were not secrets to be controlled, or esoteric knowledge to use for manipulation and gain: they were holy and sacred pledges and revelations of the kingdom to come and of which the priesthood were a depository and prophetic promise.

The Tent of Meeting was much more than a sign and symbol of Eden or pattern of union between heaven and earth (per Part I of this essay). Its very presence and organized ritual gave hope that all mankind would again be granted entrance into the Holy of Holies. The day of atonement prefigured a son of God—wearing YHWH’s name on his forehead (Exodus 28:36-38)9—coming from heaven (as the matching high priestly garb and the coordinated temple veil symbolized);10 a representative of the people gaining access to the holy of holies by sacrifice and returning to share the blessings with the nation.

“On the first day of creation, I shall make the heavens and stretch them out; so will Israel raise up the Tabernacle as the dwelling-place of My glory. On the second day, I shall put a division between the terrestrial waters and the heavenly waters; so will he hang up a veil in the Tabernacle to divide the Holy Place and the Most Holy. On the third day, I shall make the earth put forth grass and herb; so will he, in obedience to My commands, eat herbs on the first night of the Passover, and prepare showbread for Me. On the fourth day, I shall make the luminaries; so will he make a golden candlestick for Me. On the fifth day, I shall create the birds; so will he fashion the cherubim with outstretched wings. On the sixth day, I shall create man; so will Israel set aside a man of the sons of Aaron as high priest for My service.”11

Writers such as Louis Ginzburg, Margaret Barker, and Jeffrey Morrow have reminded readers that the days of creation—which are also reflected and explained by the construction and set-up of the Tent of Meeting—not only reflect what was visually seen and shown on Mount Sinai, but the early Fathers help us to recall that they also symbolize the promised future in which all descendants of Man and Woman would be granted access to the Holy of Holies.