The Cool of The Day reference in Genesis

CaitL

Hi there! I hope this is ok to ask. First time posting here! I read the Logos article by Joshua Jensen that walks through interpreting the passage in Genesis that references the 'cool of the day'.

I read through it after some personal reflection this morning on this verse in particular. Having heard no one expound on this before, through looking at the verse on my own it surprised me that the Hebrew word 'ruah' was used and it led me on a goose chase trying to figure out why it was translated as 'cool of the day'.

I liked how the article walked through careful interpretations and presented two different ways to look at the verse. Here is the link, by the way: Did God Come to Eden “In the Cool of the Day”? (logos.com)

I am not an academic, just a hungry Christian with lots of questions. When I read this verse today, it struck me as God walking in the garden, in the spirit. And, this 'garden' we know was the place He designed to share His spirit with mankind. Adam and Eve were hiding, and through their conviction they were unable to participate in this fellowship with His spirit in this dwelling place He made for them.

That is just a simple surface level reading of course. 

So naturally I have been reading the interpretations that see this reference to the 'cool of the day' as an implication of coming judgement. That the 'ruah' of God was coming in a wind to judge sin. I can understand and value this position and it seems to make sense and consistent with other uses of His judgement coming, and of course I love how looking at it through this lens shows that there may be more going on here than a simple walk during cooler temperatures.

But this is something that struck me this afternoon: in Acts 2:2-3 we read: "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting."

Could it be worth considering that this sensation of a mighty wind...would have filled the New Testament believers with fear because of their familiarity with OT writers using such descriptions to signify coming judgement? And yet, we see here that the Lord did not pour out judgement in Acts 2, but he poured out His spirit on the people instead. Kind of beautiful to think about, really, the potential expectation of judgement but instead receiving His Holy Spirit. 

Can we look at Genesis 3 and God 'walking in the ruah of the day' as a glimpse of Him walking in the spirit He wanted to share with humanity, but humanity was unable to because of the conviction of their sin? And can we look at the outpouring of His spirit in Acts 2 as God restoring our ability to walk with him once more, in the 'cool of the day' i.e. walk with Him sharing in His presence, once more? 

Probably a stretch from a non-scholar, but these were simple thoughts, and I was curious if anyone else had seen these parallels or had insight, or maybe context to prove that this might not be an accurate impression from the scriptures. 

Thanks for your time!

Brian Leathers

Here is one interesting insight on "the cool of the day":

Mike Binks

Greetings Cait

Welcome to the forums. Here you will find many volunteers ready to help with difficulties using the Logos program and handling resources including mistypes and miss-labelling. For the former one would want to post in the Desktop App forum and for the latter in this General forum.

There are Forum guidelines - they are the first post in the list of threads. In broad terms we are asked to stick to 'using the program' or 'making use of resources' as acceptable subjects.

Nobody is going to jump up and down in despair at your post but in the future posts that encourage an open ended discussion on interpretation are not acceptable. Too often, in the past, these have led to acrimony and hurt among users who all want to make the best of Logos for their studies but have firmly held theological views that no amount of human discussion will shake.

It would have been great to post asking if anyone knew of any resources that discussed the 'cool of the day' in figurative terms and if folk could point you to them. On the whole we let the resources do the discussion and the forum members point the way to the discussion.