Wow, I am really nervous about putting my thoughts here but maybe I will learn something! So here goes:
I have been studying about Adam and Eve and one time on the way home from the temple I had this thought: They were immortal before the fall, so were they still in spirit form? If so, could ONE (I know there can be many meaning for a word) of the meanings of coat of skin be literal? Did God give them their actual skin when their bodies were changed?
Now I doubting putting this here but I guess the key word in Mature Discussion, is MATURE. and the fact hopefully no one will make fun of me--even if it something everyone else already knows the answer too! But I have to say, I am hoping someone DOES know the answer.
Edited: AlaskanLDS on 20th Feb, 2008 - 11:08am
No one will laugh at you. In the Bible Dictionary (if I remember correctly) under "Adam" or "Eden" I think is an explanation of this, you may wish to check that out. However I can say that the coat of skins they receive were to cover their bodies (flesh), because they knew they were naked. The garment(s) you receive in the Temple are symbols of this.
I will have to read that and I was aware that the garments are a symbol. Do you know if the word naked meant naked as skin for sure? I have thought it could of meant exposed, maybe in a spiritual or other sense?
Naked as a baby! Remember that the endowment seeks to help you see what your parents went through, so you start naked! I believe the first endowments had you totally naked, not as it is now with a shield, thus giving you the feeling of the nakedness Adam and Eve felt, so that when you put on the garments and robes you truly are thankful for the covering. The words of the initiatory make it clear of Adam and Eve's nakedness.
Rather off topic, but... I once knew a Member who believed that being naked was a natural state for us in the Pre-mortal existence. |
You really amaze me with what you remember/know not being near a temple. I will have to let this one rest for now until I go do that work--soon, I hope. It has been some time since I have done initatories. It seems we do endowments or sealings. I am looking forward to going with a specific thought in mind. Thanks!
QUOTE (JB @ 20-Feb 08, 3:52 AM) |
In the Bible Dictionary (if I remember correctly) under "Adam" or "Eden" I think is an explanation of this, you may wish to check that out. |
AlaskanLDS:
QUOTE |
I remembered hearing somewhere that these skins were passed down along the patriarchs line. Has anyone heard of this?[ |
QUOTE |
Hugh Nibley discussed some of these ancient writings and their implications for the passage in Genesis: "Nimrod claimed his kingship on the ground of victory over his enemies [see Genesis 10:8-10; Reading 4-21]; his priesthood, however, he claimed by virtue of possessing 'the garment of Adam." The Talmud assures us that it was by virtue of owning this garment that Nimrod was able to claim power to rule over the whole earth, and that he sat in his tower while men came and worshiped him. The Apocryphal writers, Jewish and Christian, have a good deal to say about this garment. To quote one of them: 'the garments of skin which God made for Adam and his wife when they went out of the garden and were given after the death of Adam . . . to Enoch"; hence they passed to Methuselah, and then to Noah, from whom Ham stole them as the people were leaving the ark. Ham's grandson Nimrod obtained them from his father Cush. As for the legitimate inheritance of this clothing, a very old fragment recently discovered says that Michael "disrobed Enoch of his earthly garments, and put on him his angelic clothing," taking him into the presence of God. . . . |