Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation

by Martin Luther

PART III. THE JUDGMENT GOD HELD WITH OUR FIRST PARENTS AFTER THEIR FALL AND THE ACCOUNT OF THEIR STEWARDSHIP HE REQUIRED FROM THEM.

V. 8. And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool (breeze) of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden.

This is now the third evil of original sin, bearing its additional proof, that original righteousness was lost. But here again Lyra is entangled in the opinions of Rabbins, some of whom interpret the expression in the breeze of the day, ad auram diei, as referring to place, or to the climate between the south and the west, while others explain the expression as referring to time, holding that this sacred circumstance occurred in the evening. When the heat begins to subside, the winds commence their breathing.

My mind is however that we should receive breathing (spiritum) here, as simply signifying "the Word," and understand the passage as meaning that after the conscience of Adam and Eve were convinced by the divine law, they were terrified at the sound of a leaf. Just as we see to be the case with all fearstricken men, when they hear the creak of a beam, they dread the fall of the whole house. When they hear a mouse moving they are terrified lest Satan should be at hand with an intent to destroy them. For by nature we are so wholly filled with alarm, that we really fear even those things which are perfectly safe.

Adam and Eve therefore, as soon as their consciences are convinced by the law and they are brought to feel their turpitude in the sight of God, and of themselves having lost their faith and confidence in God, are so filled with fear and alarm that when they hear a breeze or breath of wind, immediately imagine that God is at hand as an avenger, and hide themselves from him. I believe therefore that by the voice of the Lord walking in the garden, Moses really means a breath or sound of wind which preceded the appearance of God before them. Hence Christ says in the gospel, when speaking of the wind, "Thou hearest the sound or voice thereof," John 3:8. For when Adam and Eve heard the rustling of the leaves as if shaken by the wind, they thought on a sudden within themselves, Hark! there is the Lord coming to take vengeance upon us!

When therefore Moses adds "in the breeze of the day" to the words "the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden," he seems to me to do so by way of particular explanation of the meaning he intended to convey. As if he had said by way of comment, This voice was like a breezy blast of the day; and as if he wished the emphasis of his expression to rest on the word day. For he does not speak concerning a wind in the night, in order to exaggerate the greatness of the terror which follows upon sin; as if he had said in further explanation they were so stricken with fear that they were alarmed at the sound of a leaf, even in the clear light of day. What therefore, he seems to intend to intimate, would have been the result if God had come to them in the night and in the solemn darkness? Then the terror must have been more dreadful still. For as the light gives animation, so the darkness increases dread. This terror therefore, with which Adam and Eve after their sin were struck in the very broad light of day, is indeed a manifest proof that they had fallen utterly from the confidence of faith.

This I believe to be the true sense of the present passage, and it fully agrees with that threatening of Moses, Lev. 26, where he is speaking of the punishments which should assuredly follow the commission of sin, that the sinners should be chased by the sound of a shaking leaf and that they should flee from it as from a sword, Lev. 26:36. For when the conscience is truly alarmed on account of sin, the man is so oppressed by it that he not only cannot do anything, but cannot even direct his thought to any purpose. And just as they say is sometimes the case in an army when the soldiers, overpowered by fear, cannot move a hand, but give themselves up in entire helplessness to be slaughtered by the enemy; in the same manner so horrible is the punishment which follows sin that the conscience of the sinner is struck with alarm at the sound of a leaf. Nay, that he cannot endure that all-beautiful creature, the light of day, by which all nature besides is enlivened and refreshed.

Here therefore you have another sight of the magnitude of that original sin which is born in us at our birth, and implanted in us by the sin of our first parents. And this sight, as I have said, enables us to understand negatively or by a comparison of contraries, what original righteousness was. It contained in it such a beautiful confidence in man toward his God, that he could not have feared even though he had seen the heavens falling in ruins upon his head!

With what complete confidence did Eve listen to the serpent? We do not talk to a little house-dog brought up in our family circle and to whom we have been accustomed for years, nor with a favorite chicken, more familiarly than Eve did with that then beautiful creature. Before their sin therefore Adam and Eve sought no hiding-places; but stood upright in all their created wisdom and righteousness, praising God with uplifted eyes. But now they are terrified at the sound of a shaking leaf. O! how awful a fall! To fall from the safest security and delight in God into fear and dread so horrible, that man can no longer endure the sight of his God, but flees from his presence as from the presence of the devil! For it is not the devil from whom Adam and Eve are now fleeing. They are rushing from the sight of God their Creator, whose presence is now more dreadful and intolerable to them than that of Satan; Satan is now more congenial to their feelings than the adorable God; for from Satan they flee not, nor are filled with his dread. This dread therefore, is actually a flight from and a hatred of God himself.