The Use of Genesis 3 in Hebrew 5-6

Hebrews 5:11-6:8 is something of a digression from the author’s main argument, though this aside is still within the overall subject of apostasy, or the falling away from the Faith. Note these similarities with Genesis 3:

Hebrews 5:14

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

This could be a reference to the knowledge of good and evil from Genesis 2:9 and 3:5, 22 (although see also Deuteronomy 1:39, 2 Samuel 14:7 and 19:35, 1 Kings 3:9, and Isaiah 7:15-16).

Hebrews 6:4-6

“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away”

This could be a reference to the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and having one’s eyes opened (Genesis 3:1-7, 11-13).

Hebrews 6:8

“but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”

This also could be a reference to the results of Fall of Humanity in Genesis 3:18.

Hebrews 5:12 (6:1)

Finally, at the beginning of this digression, the author notes the need for someone to teach his audience the “elementary principles” (τὰ στοιχεῖα τῆς ἀρχῆς) about God. The word “elementary” is ἀρχή and often means “beginning” and is the first, famous word the Greek Old Testament uses for Genesis 1:1.

If this passage is a digression I suspect that the author used the word ἀρχή and the Genesis 3 story sprung to his mind since the threat of falling away is central to his point.

In the Genesis 3 story, humanity is given the ideal garden environment in which to thrive with its work. However, the serpent tempts humanity into tasting the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “Knowledge of good and evil” means being able to make decisions for oneself. It is about claims of self-determination and personal autonomy. As is evident in the citations above, kings and judges are given such autonomy. Children do not have such autonomy until they grow older. God never intended humanity to have autonomy apart from his care and provision. Humanity is not capable of such self-determination because it only leads to destruction. In the terms of Genesis 3, such autonomy apart from God turns a thriving garden into a cursed ground of thorns and thistles.

The author of Hebrews (probably Barnabas) is concerned that his audience is in the precarious position of considering abandoning their allegiance to Christ and returning to a pre-Messianic form of Judaism. Barnabas attempts to encourage them in their faith in many ways and with many arguments. Three of those ways are references to the superiority of Christ, the dangers of falling from the faith, and urging them to mature in their faith. In this passage, he pinpoints that the root problem of their danger of apostasy is there immature faith. He tells them in frustration that by now they should have matured to the point where they were teachers and spiritual adults rather than spiritual infants who don’t know the difference between good and evil. Instead, they should move beyond elementary (ἀρχή again) teachings about Christ (6:1) and press on to more advanced teachings about Christ. In an ironic inversion of the Genesis 3 story, Barnabas is encouraging his audience to gain more knowledge. Indeed, he implies that the tasting (this time of the Holy Spirit) is a good thing and brings proper, God-ordained enlightenment (6:4-5), but that abandoning that taste and enlightenment will lead to an irreversible situation (6:6). Indeed, such falling away from enlightenment brings the same curse as that of Eden (6:8). Basically, Barnabas is saying that falling away from faith in Jesus is equivalent to the Fall of Humanity in Genesis 3.           

There has been a strain of Christianity that has argued that apostasy, the falling away from the faith, is basically impossible for the true Christian. The argument is that if any self-professed Christian does fall away from the faith and reject allegiance to Christ, then they were never really a true Christian to begin with. The problem with this view is that it flies in the face of the New Testament teachings of the matter, particularly the dire warnings of Hebrews. These are not empty warnings of whistling into the wind to falsely scare Christians to shape up in light of a danger that could never really happen. Barnabas (along with other Biblical writers) obviously rejects this idea and notes that apostasy results from wavering in spiritual immaturity. He will continue with this idea throughout the letter, offering further examples of apostasy and its dangers and further ways of getting beyond that point of danger.