Genesis 3:8 - Was It Really Jesus Whom Adam Heard?

Genesis 3:8

And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden. -- American Standard Version.

And they hear the sound of Jehovah God walking up and down in the garden at the breeze of the day, and the man and his wife hide themselves from the face of Jehovah God in the midst of the trees of the garden. -- Young's Literal.

And they heard the voice of Jehovah Elohim, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim, in the midst of the trees of the garden. -- Darby Translation

They heard the sound of Jehovah God approaching in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God among the trees of the garden. -- Restoration Light Improved Version.

There is definitely nothing in this verse that presents "Jehovah God" as being more than one person, nor is there anything in the verse that says anything about God's Son.

Some make the claim that no one can see the first person of the imagined and assumed trinity, which they imagine and assume is being referred to in John 1:18; 5:37; 6:46; 1 Timothy 1:17, but that one can see the second person of the imagined and assumed triune Jehovah, and thus they imagine and assume that only their imagined and assumed first person of "Jehovah" was seen by Adam and Eve, and thus that it had to be their imagined and assumed second person of Jehovah that is spoken of in Genesis 3:8. Of course, none of this in the Bible; all of this has to imagined, assumed, added to, and read into the scriptures.

As can be seen, the Hebrew words are given several different meanings in different translations. Not many of the Protestant commentators see Jesus in this verse. 

BDB gives the meaning of the Hebrew word often transliterated as "qol" (Strong's H963) as sound, voice. BDB gives the meaning of the Hebrew word (often transliterated as "halak", Strong's H1980) rendered as "walking" as "go, come, walk". Obviously, the rendering of the word as "voice" would not agree with the idea of "walking". Have you ever heard a voice walk? A voice could be heard as coming or approaching, but a voice itself does not walk. If the word "voice: is used to render "qol", the word "halak" would best be rendered as coming, or proceeding. If "qol" should be rendered as "sound", the Hebrew word "halak" could be understood as walking, coming, going, etc.

The scripture, actually says nothing about Adam and Eve seeing Jehovah, although they evidently realized his presence (Strong's #6440, panim or paneh, literally meaning face, but often used to signify presence). Nevertheless, even if they had seen some manifestation of Jehovah, it would have been one of the "various ways" spoken of in Hebrews 1:2. He could have appeared by means of one of his angels, or even by means of his firstborn son (Colossians 1:15), but this does not mean that we need to imagine and assume that Jesus is a person of his God, etc.

The fact is that Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:14,15) is nowhere in the Bible presented as being more than one person. Jehovah is presented as only one person in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 and is distinguished from being Jesus, who is the prophet like Moses that the one person who is Jehovah promised to raise up among the children of Israel. Peter makes this plain by his words as recorded n Acts 3:13-26. Micah 5:4 tells us that the promised Messiah was to stand and feed the sheep in the name and strength of his God, Jehovah. The default reasoning should not be to imagine, assume, add to, and read into the scriptures that Jehovah is more than one person that the God of the Messiah is only the first person of Jehovah, etc., but rather that Jesus is not Jehovah his God.

See also our study: Jesus is Not Jehovah (Yahweh)