The Adamic Covenant

[Deacon]

Well I took a round-a-bout trip in my biblical studies to Hosea yesterday.
I’ve been developing a study of 1 Timothy for a future class.

In 1 Timothy 1:7-8, it mentions the law, “desiring to be teachers of the law” [1:7] and “the law is good” [1:8].
So I began by researching the law of Moses.
I wondered if perhaps the term “law” might have a broader context and began looking into various covenants.

And up popped Hosea 6:7 and the Adamic Covenant.

I’ve heard the Adamic Covenant mentioned before but was never convinced there was one.
This is the strongest evidence for there being an Adamic Covenant… or is it???

Look at various translations of the verse.

There are three variations:

1. like (the man) Adam (NASB,ESV, Wycliffe, others)
2. like men [or humans, or mankind, etc.] (“adam” being translated as it is in Genesis 1) (Septuagint, KJV,
3. like (the town of) Adam (Goldingay)

וְהֵ֕מָּה כְּאָדָ֖ם עָבְר֣וּ בְרִ֑ית שָׁ֖ם בָּ֥גְדוּ בִֽי׃
Hosea 6:7 (BHS)

But like Adam they have violated the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously with Me. (NASB)

But they like men have transgressed the covenant: There have they dealt treacherously against me. (AV 1873)

But they like humankind breached the covenant, there they betrayed Me. (Robert Alter 2019)

But they—as at Adam they transgressed the pact; there they broke with me. (John Goldingay 2018)

~~~~~~~~~

αὐτοὶ δέ εἰσιν ὡς ἄνθρωπος παραβαίνων διαθήκην· ἐκεῖ κατεφρόνησέ μου. (LXX-Gottingen)

But they are like a person transgressing a covenant; there he despised me. (New English Translation of the Septuagint - NETS)


Can you see what's going on in this verse?

Rob

 

[Martin Marprelate]

The Hebrew word for Adam is the same as the word for man and there was also a place called Adam (Joshua 3:16).
However, to say, 'Like men they transgressed the covenant' doesn't make much sense: they were men!
The covenant with Adam is more often referred to as the Covenant of Works, and it can be found in Genesis 2:16-17.

 

[Deacon]

Rather than translate it as “men” a modern translation would use “mankind” or “humankind”.
In which case ‘Covenant’ would be used in a broad metaphorical sense… somewhat like saying, ‘all have sinned’ The generic “man” was how the translators of the Lxx understood the word.

The case for ‘Adam’ being a location or town is not as weak as might be presumed. The immediate context contains many locations, Gilead, Shechem, Ephraim, Israel, Judah, and Samaria.

I was fascinated by the various ways a simple word could be translated, totally changing how the verse was understood.

Rob

 

[kyredneck]

I wondered if perhaps the term “law” might have a broader context....

18​	Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold Wondrous things out of thy law. Ps 119

 

[kyredneck]

The covenant with Adam is more often referred to as the Covenant of Works, and it can be found in Genesis 2:16-17.

Yes, a unilateral one:

16​	And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17​	but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

 

[Jope]

Well I took a round-a-bout trip in my biblical studies to Hosea yesterday.
I’ve been developing a study of 1 Timothy for a future class.

In 1 Timothy 1:7-8, it mentions the law, “desiring to be teachers of the law” [1:7] and “the law is good” [1:8].
So I began by researching the law of Moses.
I wondered if perhaps the term “law” might have a broader context and began looking into various covenants.

And up popped Hosea 6:7 and the Adamic Covenant.

I’ve heard the Adamic Covenant mentioned before but was never convinced there was one.
This is the strongest evidence for there being an Adamic Covenant… or is it???

Look at various translations of the verse.

There are three variations:

1. like (the man) Adam (NASB,ESV, Wycliffe, others)
2. like men [or humans, or mankind, etc.] (“adam” being translated as it is in Genesis 1) (Septuagint, KJV,
3. like (the town of) Adam (Goldingay)

וְהֵ֕מָּה כְּאָדָ֖ם עָבְר֣וּ בְרִ֑ית שָׁ֖ם בָּ֥גְדוּ בִֽי׃
Hosea 6:7 (BHS)

But like Adam they have violated the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously with Me. (NASB)

But they like men have transgressed the covenant: There have they dealt treacherously against me. (AV 1873)

But they like humankind breached the covenant, there they betrayed Me. (Robert Alter 2019)

But they—as at Adam they transgressed the pact; there they broke with me. (John Goldingay 2018)

~~~~~~~~~

αὐτοὶ δέ εἰσιν ὡς ἄνθρωπος παραβαίνων διαθήκην· ἐκεῖ κατεφρόνησέ μου. (LXX-Gottingen)

But they are like a person transgressing a covenant; there he despised me. (New English Translation of the Septuagint - NETS)


Can you see what's going on in this verse?

Rob

Hello!

A few things here...
1. There is only one passage in all of scripture that mentions a covenant with Adam, and it is an ambiguous text, which ambiguity you have shown.
2. Covenant theologians also debate about the existence of a covenant with Adam, some claiming they believe in one, others saying they don't.
3. I'm inclined to believing this verse doesn't specifically mention Adam, and that it is describing the way in which mankind is inherently evil. The reason being, why didn't this covenant appear in primitive chapters of Genesis? And if there was a covenant of works, why did it take until the much later prophet, Hosea, to mention it? Clearly whether there was or wasn't a covenant of works with Adam, it made no difference to the plan of God in the big picture. In the particulars it would subvert or change the plan of God. To say there is a law when Romans 5 tells us there wasn't (more on this below), would confuse the order of future things. Acts 3:21 and Matthew 25:34 tell us there is a remedial act to follow Christ's second advent, in that he restores all that was damaged in epochs past.

Acts 3:21 NIV
Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Mt 25:34 NIV
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

This would include the antediluvian epoch, when men almost lived to be 1000 years old, and there was freedom, with no law. The cosmos was also arranged differently, according to Peter (2Pet 2:5; 3:6).
Mt 25:34, already mentioned, deserves another comment in that it shows the divine arrangement of God's epochs in that Jesus is telling the Gentiles (Mt 25:31), that they had a kingdom prepared for them in Adam, in Genesis 1-3, separate from Abraham.
4. The Sinaitic covenant was still different from the Abrahamic covenant, and the Sinaitic Covenant was not made with any man prior, including Adam and the antediluvians (Deut. 5:2-3).

Deut 5 NIV
2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

5. Romans 5 makes it clear that men died after the similtude of Adam who didn't sin after Adam's similtude, the tree not being available for the antediluvian people to choose whether or not to eat from. Romans 5 is pretty explicit about there being no law for these antediluvian peoples to break.

Rom 5 NIV
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

 

[Martin Marprelate]

Genesis 5:1-3. 'This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man. He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness after his image, and named him Seth.'

Romans 5:19. 'For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.'

1 Corinthians 15:22. 'For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.'

Something happened as a result of Adam's disobedience. That something is being put right through the Lord Jesus Christ. The covenants of works and grace are the best ways to understand this properly.