Featured Implications of the Garden

For the record, Jon brought this into a conversation on another thread. I have never heard of this or thought about when exactly Adam was placed in the garden. I have no opinion or feeling on what would be the truth of this issue nor do I have any idea why it would matter. I don't object to Jon mentioning me in this thread but I want everyone to know this. Now carry on.

 

This is where problems easily arise. ('In and around Eden?' No, not what I meant. But an intriguing point. )

It is one thing to note a particular incident in scripture. It is quite another to use it to create doctrine.

If there is already a clear doctrine in scripture, then an incident might be significant as an illustration.

However, making more of a mention in scripture than is warranted can easily lead to division among brothers where none should be. ('Where no brothers should be?' No, where no division should be. The brothers should stay together. The division should go. )

 

The chapter is not strictly chronological, or else its chronology does not match the previous chapter, or the previous chapter is not strictly chronological.

Given the inexact chronology of the chapter, there is no reason to insist on an order for this particular aspect.

If elsewhere in scripture that particular order were of essence, that would be another matter.

 

Nothing wrong with this claim-


"man of dust from the ground" "Man" is the Hebrew term, Adam (BDB 9), which meant

a pun on the term "red" (BDB 10, cf. Exod. 25:5; 28:17; Num. 19:2; Isa. 63:2; Zech. 1:8)
"ground" (adamah, BDB 9, cf. Gen. 2:6), possibly alluding to "red clay clods" of the Tigris, Euphrates rivers
"Dust" (BDB 779) reflects the lowliness and frailty of humanity. There is a dialectical tension between mankind's exalted place (made in the image and likeness of God, cf. Gen. 1:26,27) and his lowly frail condition! Animals are formed the same way in Gen. 2:19. It is also possible that it refers to mankind's origin from the dust (BDB 779, cf. Gen. 3:19; Job 4:19; 8:19; 10:9; 34:15; Ps. 103:14; 104:29; Eccl. 3:20; 12:17). This imagery is similar to mankind as "clay" and God as potter (cf. Isa. 29:16; 45:9; 64:8; Jer. 18:6; Rom. 9:20-23).

"breathed. . .the breath of life" The VERB "breathed" or "forceful blast" (BDB 655, KB 708) is a Qal IMPERFECT with waw). The NOUN PHRASE "breath of life" (BDB 675) shows that God took special care with the creation of mankind. It is surprising this is not ruah (BDB 924, cf. Gen. 1:2). However, humans still physically function, as do all the animals on the planet (i.e., breathe, eat, excrete, and reproduce). Humans uniquely can relate to God, yet we are intricately bound to this planet. There is a dual aspect to our nature (spiritual and physical).

"man became a living being" Humans become a nephesh (BDB 659, KB 711-713, see note at Gen. 35:18 and Lev. 17:11; also see John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the OT, pp. 213-214), but so do the cattle (cf. Gen. 1:24; 2:19). The uniqueness of humanity is God's personal forming and breathing. Humans do not have a soul, they are a soul! We are a unity of the physical and the spiritual. We will always have a bodily expression except for the intermediate state between death and resurrection (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13-15).

Was Adam a primitive man or a modern man? How is he related to other hominids of antiquity? Stone-age men were present in the Mt. Carmel region 200,000 years ago. When was Adam created? Is he the end of development or is he first of a special creation? See note at Gen. 1:26. Also see note online at 1 Thess. 5:23.

Special Topic: Body and Spirit

2:8 "The Lord God planted a garden toward the east" YHWH does several creative acts in these early chapters.

made earth and heaven (Genesis 1)
had not sent rain upon the earth because there was no human to cultivate
formed humanity from the dust (i.e., Gen. 3:19)
planted a garden for mankind
caused the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to grow
"garden" This term (BDB 171) is used in the sense of an enclosed park. The Septuagint translates it with a Persian word, "paradise."

"toward the east" The direction of the rising sun, the source of life along with water. Israel's tabernalce and temple (along with almost all ANE temples) faced east.

"in Eden" In Hebrew Eden means "delight" or "happy land" (BDB 727 III, KB 792 II; see Special Topic: Eden). Notice the garden is not called "Eden," but located in or next to Eden. This is obviously a geographical location, a place name. The related Sumerian term can mean "fertile plain." The description in Gen. 2:8, 10-14 is very detailed which is meant to convey its precise location but its geographical location is unknown. Commentators place it

at the mouth of the modern Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
at the head waters of these rivers
as the island of Bahrain
It is possible to see God's dwelling place as Eden and the Garden is connected to it. The waters/rivers flow from the Divine Place and provide all that is needed for humanity (cf. Rev. 22:1-5). It is in this protected, special place that humanity, in God's image, is placed for fellowship and service. See John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the OT, "Garden of Eden," pp. 124-125 and The Lost World of Adam and Eve, pp. 116-118. It is this genre of interpretation that allows me to postulate a later Garden of Eden with Adam being a homo sapien, not a primitive, bipedal humanoid (see Walton, p. 227, #4). Specifically, Genesis is the creation of mankind as a species but Genesis 2 is a special later event, where Adam and Eve become special occupants of God's garden. This speculation is an attempt to

take the Bible seriously as God's word
relate the OT to its own day (ANE)
acknowledge the insights from modern research without the atheistic biases of naturalism and randomness (i.e., a godless, purposeless, temporary, physical universe)
However, the names of all the rivers in Genesis 2 do not fit modern geography. How much of the earth was changed by the Flood is uncertain. The similarities of the Mesopotamian and biblical accounts would logically put the garden in Mesopotamia but this is only speculation. See Who was Adam? by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross, p. 46.

Johann

 

So the point is that Adam was created and put in the garden.

Or simply put, the garden was made for Adam to live in.

Rob

 

A garden is a place of special protection, a place of rest.
In the garden, Adam walked/communed with God.

Scripture does not say God created the heaven and the earth perfect.
The world was no longer tohu wabohu, formless and void, chaotic and unproductive.
The creation performed exactly as it was designed to perform, "good, very good".

There was no second creation following Adam's fall.
Thorns and thistles existed in this creation, probably not in the garden though.

Rob

 

and there he put the man whom he had formed; not as soon as he had planted the garden, but as soon as he had made man; and from hence it is generally concluded, that man was made without the garden, and brought from the place where he was formed, and put into it...it is most probable that it was not far from the garden...for the putting him into it may signify the appointing and ordering him to be there, and fixing and settling him in it, for the ends and uses mentioned, see Genesis 2:15.

- from John Gill's Bible commentary on Genesis 2:8.

 

A couple of observations: Genesis 2:8. 'The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed.' The word does not, at this point, speak of 'the Garden of Eden.' God planted a garden 'in Eden,' from which we may suppose that Eden was a bigger place than merely the garden. The meaning of 'Eden' is uncertain, but it may have to do with 'luxury' or 'delight.' Hence the writers of the LXX used the Greek word paradeison, from which obviously we get our word 'paradise.'
So it seems likely that Adam was created in Eden on the Sixth Day, and that God formed the garden on the eight, ninth or tenth day and moved Adam into it to 'tend and keep it' (v.15). But we know that the whole of Creation at that time was 'very good' (Genesis 1:31) so Adam was moved from one very good place to another for the purpose of work.
In Genesis 3:23-24, we learn that after the Fall, God drove Adam and Eve out of the 'Garden of Eden,' but then the rest of Eden was no longer paradise (vs. 17-19). From Genesis 4:16, we learn that apart from Eden there was at least one other part of the pre-Flood world, called 'Nod.'

 

Gill nails it!

 

Even if order is irrelevant, interpretation is required to get the man someplace on land besides Eden or the Garden, made from ground outside the Garden and Eden.

One must imagine that God used the ground not only as his modeling clay for man, but also as the stand on which he fashioned that clay into man. The text does not specify this. If it were doctrinally important, then it would have been much more specific, or expounded elsewhere in scripture.

One must imagine that God used ground not taken from Eden or from the Garden from which to fashion man. The text does not specify this. If it were doctrinally important, then it would have been much more specific, or expounded elsewhere in scripture.

My point is not that one cannot speculate on this, but that it is speculation and not something to make into doctrine. Scripture does not make a doctrinal point of this.

 

Yes.

No.

But it seems to be where Eve was formed out of Adam.

 

In summary, my post says scripture does not say where the man was prior to that statement. It only says he was made, and generally from what, but not where. The where is doctrinally irrelevant to the passage.

We might also speculate on there being a journey to the Garden. If there was one, what did it entail? Just how did the man get there. What does scripture mean by saying, "the Lord God took the man"? The passage does not address this. If it were doctrinally important, then the text would have specified.