Tardemah
1) deep sleep, trance
There are many references to sleep in the Bible, the first being when God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep so He could take a rib from which Eve, the crowning masterpiece of Creation, was formed. The Hebrew word used here is tardemah and is only found six other times in the Bible. Tardemah literally means a deep sleep or trance, so it’s a bit different from everyday sleep which is called shehah.
Abraham also experienced this deep sleep when God made a covenant with him in Genesis chapter 15. He promised that Abraham’s offspring would be as plentiful as the stars in the sky and that he would possess the land he had been led to from Ur. After having Abraham provide a severed heifer, goat, and ram, plus a pigeon and a dove, God caused a deep sleep to fall on Abraham during which Abraham was told of the slavery his descendants would suffer for 400 years.
Dr. Henry Morris from the Institute for Creation Research pointed out that in the first instance of tardemah a bride was born. In the second, a nation. In Adam’s case, God placed him in a deep sleep to take what was needed from him to create Eve and I think, probably, to protect him from the pain of removing his rib. With Abraham, God used the deep sleep to take him to a place that was dark and dreadful, maybe somehow muting the sorrow of knowing that his children would suffer in slavery for 400 years.
A bride...a nation...Morris also says that as Adam and Abram are both types of Christ, these deep sleeps of theirs point us to Christ's 'deep sleep' of death on the cross. In His death, He gave life to His Bride and in His resurrection He gave birth to a new nation of the Redeeemed. On the cross and in the tomb, 'heaven and hell were judged and a new world was born.'
Morris' article can be found here.
1) deep sleep, trance
There are many references to sleep in the Bible, the first being when God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep so He could take a rib from which Eve, the crowning masterpiece of Creation, was formed. The Hebrew word used here is tardemah and is only found six other times in the Bible. Tardemah literally means a deep sleep or trance, so it’s a bit different from everyday sleep which is called shehah.
Abraham also experienced this deep sleep when God made a covenant with him in Genesis chapter 15. He promised that Abraham’s offspring would be as plentiful as the stars in the sky and that he would possess the land he had been led to from Ur. After having Abraham provide a severed heifer, goat, and ram, plus a pigeon and a dove, God caused a deep sleep to fall on Abraham during which Abraham was told of the slavery his descendants would suffer for 400 years.
Dr. Henry Morris from the Institute for Creation Research pointed out that in the first instance of tardemah a bride was born. In the second, a nation. In Adam’s case, God placed him in a deep sleep to take what was needed from him to create Eve and I think, probably, to protect him from the pain of removing his rib. With Abraham, God used the deep sleep to take him to a place that was dark and dreadful, maybe somehow muting the sorrow of knowing that his children would suffer in slavery for 400 years.
A bride...a nation...Morris also says that as Adam and Abram are both types of Christ, these deep sleeps of theirs point us to Christ's 'deep sleep' of death on the cross. In His death, He gave life to His Bride and in His resurrection He gave birth to a new nation of the Redeeemed. On the cross and in the tomb, 'heaven and hell were judged and a new world was born.'
Morris' article can be found here.
2 comments:
interesting...Adam the first anesthetized. I've often wondered if he had a physical scar.
Never really "caught" Abraham's deep sleep...
you're making me think, as usual ; )
miss you!
L.
I find it interesting that in Adam's case, we're never actually told that he "woke up". Adam being analogous with "mankind", one could easily postulate that we are STILL asleep.
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