"The Voice of the Lord" in Genesis 3:8 as an Appearance of the Son of God in the OT

 

One of the most interesting verses in the book of Genesis in the context of early Jewish-Christian debates was Genesis 3:8

"And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." (ESV)

When things begin to get interesting is when we look at the wording of some of the Targums:

"And they heard the voice of the Word of the Lord God walking [קַל מֵימְרָא דַיְיָ אֱלהִים] in the garden in the repose of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from before the Lord God among the trees of the garden." (Targum Jonathan, compare with Targum Jonathan on Gen. 3:10)

"Walking in the garden in the strength of the day...And the Word of the Lord God called to Adam" (Targum Jerusalem)

Many Christians have traditionally interpreted this "Word of the Lord" (or the Memra of the Lord) as referring to none other but the Lord Jesus in this verse. Here is an example of this interpretation from the famous Puritan preacher John Bunyan:

John Bunyan

"And they heard the voice of the Lord God.” This voice was not to be understood according, as if it was the effect of a word; as when we speak, the sound remains with a noise for some time after; but by voice here, we are to understand the Lord Christ himself; wherefore this voice is said to walk, not to sound only: “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking.” This voice John calls the word, the word that was with the Father before he made the world, and that at this very time was heard to walk in the garden of Adam: Therefore John also saith, this voice was in the beginning; that is, in the garden with Adam, at the beginning of his conversion, as well as of the beginning of the world (John 1:1)" (John Bunyan, An Exposition on the First Ten Chapters of Genesis, pg. 25)

One of the ways that is commonly gotten around by Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah and as the eternal Son of God is to instead insist that the participle "walking" [מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ] here refers back to the word "voice' rather than to "LORD God". This standard form of argumentation can be seen in Ibn Ezra:

"AND THEY HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LORD GOD WALKING. They heard the voice of God walking toward evening, at the time of the day when the breeze blows. Scripture employs the term holekh (walking) when referring to a voice as seen in The sound thereof shall go (yelekh) like the serpent’s (Jer. 46:22), and And when the voice of the horn waxed (holekh) louder and louder (Ex. 19:19). However, the Spanish grammarian, Rabbi Jonah ibn Janah, says that this verse is to be interpreted as follows: And they heard the voice of God as man was walking in the garden." (Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra)

(Note that Ibn Ezra cites a testimony from another Rabbi saying that Gen. 3:8 should be interpreted in terms of God as man walking in the garden of Eden)

The great Puritan doctor John Owen gives a masterful answer to this sort of argumentation:

"The Jews discern that לּךֵהַתְמִ ְ , "walking," relates in this place immediately to ולֹק" ,the voice," and not unto אלֱ ";God LORD the, "יְהֹוָה ִהים ֹ and therefore endeavour to render a reason for that kind of expression. So Aben Ezra on the place giveth instances where a voice or sound in its progress is said to walk: as Exod. 19:19, לךֵהוֹ ְ השּׁ ַפ ֹר ָולֹק קֵהזְָו"—;The voice of the trumpet went and waxed strong;" and Jer. 46:22, לךֵֵי ְ חשָָׁכּנּ ַלהָוֹק"—;The voice thereof shall go like a serpent." But these examples reach not that under consideration; for although לךַה ְ ָmay sometimes express the progression or increase of a voice, yet it doth not so but where it is intimated to be begun before. But here was nothing spoken by God until after that Adam had heard this Word of God walking" (John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Volume 1: Concerning the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Messiah, and the Jewish Church, pg. 218, link via Google Books)

Furthermore, the famous Jewish commentator Rashi says the following:

"What did they hear? They heard the voice of the Holy One, blessed be He, which was going in the garden." (https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8167/showrashi/true)

And finally, a more modern and scholarly commentary says the following:

"ךֵּ ְלַהְתִמ .Theme: experiential / Behaver > ptc ms / Process > hitpael ךְהל .The antecedent of the relative clause is the Behaver Elohim Yahweh" (Barry Bandstra, Genesis 1-11: A Handbook on the Hebrew Text, pg. 185)

All of these things put together offer a very good argument in favor of this being an appearance of the pre-incarnate Son of God.