Thanks again guys! I will certainly read the statements from St. Mark and check out the podcast. If y’all don’t mind I would like to ask a specific theological question regarding some of the teachings I’ve heard from Lazar. I realize that I’ve been sufficiently warned that he may not be the best representative of Orthodoxy, so with that in mind I’m wondering if his teaching regarding of the two trees in the Garden of Eden is in line with traditional Orthodox thought.
Although I’ve looked at these passages from various theological viewpoints over the years, when I watched Lazar’s video explaining the meaning of the Creation narrative, the fall of man and the two trees in the Garden, it was a perspective that I had not encountered before. While I am aware that the eastern and western branches of Christianity tend to work from different theological paradigms, and as a consequence often speak past each other and have difficulty understanding each other, I have tried to educate myself on those fundamental differences. So I am wondering if this is something that I’ve missed until now or if it is really just Lazar’s personal interpretation and isn’t necessarily shared by other EO believers.
He described the two trees in the garden as a prophecy about the Cross of Christ. He used the thief on the cross next to Jesus as an example of how this worked. For the thief who recognized who Christ was and that he was being executed unjustly, the cross became the Tree of Knowledge. When that thief then cried out to Christ in repentance and faith, it became the Tree of Life. The Cross is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because it is what separates the light from the darkness in all of us. To those who believe in Christ and partake in the life of the church, the Cross then becomes the Tree of Life as we feast on the Eucharist. According to Lazar, the actual occurrence of the events described in the garden narrative is almost irrelevant because it is a theological prophetic statement, not an account of primordial history.
Does this description reflect a proper EO understanding of the narrative?
Thanks,
Ken
I do not quite understand what Lazar is saying but re the fall fo Adam & Eve, here is apostolic doctrine preached by St. Irenaeus who received the faith from disciples of St. John the apostle. He notes the greater role of Satan in causing the fall while noting Adam & Eve's cause of the
ancestral sin, it is Cain's slaying of Abel that cemented moral depravity (although we are never totally depraved):
16. This commandment the man kept not, but was disobedient to God, being led astray by the angel who, for the great gifts of God which He had given to man, was envious and jealous of him,
47 and both brought himself to nought and made man sinful, persuading him to disobey the commandment of God. So the angel, becoming by his falsehood the author and originator of sin, himself was struck down, having offended against God, and man he caused to be cast out from Paradise. And, because through the guidance of his disposition he apostatized and departed from God, he was called Satan, according to the Hebrew word; that is, Apostate:
48 but he is also called Slanderer. Now God cursed the serpent which carried and conveyed the Slanderer; and this malediction came on the beast himself and on the angel hidden and concealed in him, even on Satan; and man He put away from His presence, removing him and making him to dwell on the way to Paradise
49 at that time; because Paradise receiveth not the sinful.
17. And when they were put out of Paradise, Adam and his wife Eve fell into many troubles of anxious grief, going about with sorrow and toil |85 and lamentation in this world. For under the beams of this sun man tilled the earth, and it put forth thorns and thistles, the punishment of sin. Then was fulfilled that which was written:
Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain;
50 and after him
she bare Abel, Now the apostate angel, who led man into disobedience and made him sinful and caused his expulsion from Paradise, not content with the first evil, wrought a second on the brothers; for filling Cain with his spirit he made him a fratricide. And so Abel died, slain by his brother; signifying thenceforth that certain should be persecuted and oppressed and slain, the unrighteous slaying and persecuting the righteous. And upon this God was angered yet more, and cursed Cain; and it came to pass that everyone of that race in successive generations was made like to the begetter. And God
raised up another son to Adam,
instead of Abel who was slain.
51
18. And for a very long while wickedness extended and spread, and reached and laid hold upon the whole race of mankind, until a very small seed of righteousness remained among them: and illicit unions took place upon the earth, since angels were united with the daughters of the race of mankind; and they bore to them sons who for their exceeding greatness were called giants. And the angels brought as presents to their wives teachings of wickedness,
52 in that they brought |86 them the virtues of roots and herbs, dyeing in colours and cosmetics, the discovery of rare substances, love-potions, aversions, amours, concupiscence, constraints of love, spells of bewitchment, and all sorcery and idolatry hateful to God; by the entry of which things into the world evil extended and spread, while righteousness was diminished and enfeebled.
19. Until judgment came upon the world from God by means of a flood, in the tenth generation from the first-formed (man); Noah alone being found righteous. And he for his righteousness was himself delivered, and his wife and his three sons, and the three wives of his sons, being shut up in the ark. And when destruction came upon all, both man and also animals, that were upon the earth, that which was preserved in the ark escaped. Now the three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth, from whom again the race was multiplied: for these were the beginning of mankind after the flood.
Irenaeus, The Proof of the Apostolic Preaching (1920) pp. 69-151.
The preaching of St. Irenaues is held as authoritative by the Roman Catholic church also but this particular writing was lost for centuries, wonder if it was lost very early on since it was only recovered within less than 200 years ago I believe?
