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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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Knobel (strongly Rationalistic): "This passage (Gen. iii. 22) teaches that<br />

man, after partaking of the tree of life, would have become immortal." Dr.<br />

Bush, both in his earlier <strong>and</strong> later notes on Genesis (1833, 1852), says:<br />

"Adam might frequently have eaten (ed. 1859, 'undoubtedly often ate') of<br />

the tree of life before the Fall--sacramentally, as Christians eat of the Lord's<br />

Supper. In regard to the driving from Paradise, ‘lest he also eat of the tree<br />

of life <strong>and</strong> live forever,' Irenaeus said: 'God has so ordered it that evil might<br />

not be immortal, <strong>and</strong> punishment might become love to man.'" Dr. Bush,<br />

who, had his judgment been in the ratio of his other endowments, would<br />

indisputably have taken the first rank among American commentators on<br />

the Old Testament, says, Gen. iii. 22, 23: "<strong>The</strong> language, it must be<br />

acknowledged, seems to imply, that had man tasted of the tree of life, even<br />

after his rebellion, he would have lived forever, <strong>and</strong> that he was expelled<br />

from Paradise to prevent such a consequence." <strong>The</strong> conclusion, however, is<br />

so little in keeping with Dr. Bush's theology, that he undertakes to reason<br />

it away in a very feeble <strong>and</strong> rationalistic manner, in the face of what he<br />

concedes to be the obvious meaning of the passage.<br />

2. Flesh <strong>and</strong> blood.<br />

Another hint toward the true view of the sacramental mystery is<br />

given us in the divine declaration, Gen. ix. 2. 4: "But flesh with the life<br />

thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Literally: "But flesh<br />

with its soul (i. e. life), its blood, ye shall not eat." Still more literally: "in its<br />

soul." At the root of this prohibition lay a great typical idea, which can be<br />

fully understood only in the light of the finished sacrifice of our Lord Jesus<br />

Christ, <strong>and</strong> in the light of His sacramental Supper, in which we participate<br />

in, or have communion with that sacrifice. <strong>The</strong> comm<strong>and</strong> was repeated<br />

again <strong>and</strong> again, <strong>and</strong> the reason most generally assigned was that the<br />

blood is the life of the flesh. But this reason seems itself to require an<br />

explanation, <strong>and</strong> this we find fully given in Leviticus, the book in which<br />

there is the amplest display of the typical element of sacrifice. In Lev. xvii.<br />

10-14, we have a full explanation of the meaning of the reservation of the<br />

blood. It is especially the 11th verse in which the

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