Genesis 2
Adam in Paradise

1. The Sanctification of the Sabbath

KJV · Verses 1–3

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

What does “He rested on the seventh day” mean? Certainly, rest here does not mean ceasing to work. Rather, He rested in the rest of His creation. As Saint Augustine says:

God’s rest means the rest of those who rest in God. [79]

His rest as a heavenly Father consists in finding His beloved ones enjoying true inward rest. Therefore, Saint Augustine says:

We rest when we do good works. As an illustration, it is written that God “rested on the seventh day,” after He had made all His works and they were very good. He neither grew tired nor needed rest. Nor has He abandoned His work even now, for our Lord Christ clearly says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). [80]

The Lord concluded His account of creation by declaring His rest in His creation, which bore the marks of His love, especially the human being, who bore His image and likeness. God remains in His rest as long as the human being also rests in the embrace of his heavenly Father.

For this reason, many of the Fathers understood the commandment to keep the Sabbath, which in Hebrew signifies “rest,” as a symbol of abiding in the Lord Christ. He is the Father’s rest: in Him the Father finds His delight in us, and in Him we find our own rest as we enter the Father’s embrace. Thus, the Lord Christ Himself is our true Sabbath. [81]

This explains God’s concern for keeping the Sabbath commandment and His making it a central feature of His plan for His people’s salvation. Whoever breaks it has broken the divine covenant and deprived himself of membership in the holy community.

Let us therefore keep the true Sabbath by receiving the Lord Christ, risen from the dead, as the source of our true rest. Let us receive Him as risen from the dead, and thus keep the Sabbath throughout our lives, especially on the first day of the week. For the apostles gathered on the first day of the week, Sunday, to worship together around the Eucharist as the source of their true rest.

If the Lord Christ is the “seventh day,” or the true Sabbath, in whom we have been reconciled to the Father through the blood of His cross, then by abiding in Him we bear His characteristics within us and are filled with His righteousness. We ourselves become a place of rest and, through Him, are counted as a “Sabbath” or a “seventh day.” As Saint Augustine says:

We ourselves become the seventh day when we are filled to overflowing with God’s blessings and sanctification. [82]

Notice also that Scripture does not say of the seventh day, “And the evening and the morning were the seventh day.” As Saint Augustine says:

We find no evening in the Sabbath, because our rest has no end; evening brings an ending. [83]

2. Adam in Paradise

KJV · Verses 4–14

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

God created the whole inhabited world for the human being, the earth, the firmament, space, the planets, and so forth, so that through them he might perceive God’s fatherhood and surpassing care. He then revealed this fatherhood by speaking in greater detail about the creation of the human being and the planting of a garden eastward in Eden for his sake.

In the second century, it appears that the scholar Origen regarded the story of Adam and Eve and what happened to them as a purely symbolic account, given by divine inspiration to reveal spiritual truths concerning humanity’s life with God. According to this view, the garden was not on earth but in the third heaven, where Adam and Eve were spirits without real bodies before the Fall. Because of their fall, they descended from Paradise to earth, and the bodies they received were a form of punishment.

Saint Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, opposed these ideas in his letter to Saint John, Bishop of Jerusalem. [84]

The Church completely rejects these ideas because they distort our view of the world, which God created as a sign of His love for us, and undermine our understanding of the sanctification of the body.

The Lord Christ and His holy apostles presented the earliest events of creation as actual events, rather than merely symbolic ones:

First: Both Testaments of Scripture proclaim the sacrifice of salvation that humanity needed after the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden; see Romans 5. Adam’s fall required Christ’s saving work to restore the whole human being, spirit and body together, rather than saving the spirit alone. If the human body had resulted from sins previously committed by the spirit, there would have been no need for the divine Incarnation or for the salvation of the body together with the spirit.

Second: When the Lord Christ spoke about marriage, He based His teaching on what happened at the beginning of creation as a historical fact, and on that basis prohibited divorce (Matthew 19:3–6; Mark 10:2–9).

Third: The Lord Christ referred to the fall of our first parents at the beginning of creation, explaining the devil’s role and deception (John 8:44).

Fourth: When the apostle Paul spoke of the Church as the bride of the Lord Christ, he referred to the serpent’s deception of Eve as an actual event (the source prints “1 Corinthians 11:3”; the intended reference is 2 Corinthians 11:3).

Fifth: In the genealogy of the Lord Christ, Luke the Evangelist mentioned Adam as the first human being in creation (Luke 3).

Sixth: The apostle Paul spoke of Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, as an actual person rather than a symbol (Hebrews 11:4).

While we affirm the reality of this garden as part of Adam’s actual history, we also see in it a symbol of the Lord Christ, who came to us from the East. Adam enters into Him to find satisfaction and joy for his heart. If “Eden” means “delight” or “bliss,” then our Lord Jesus Christ is our true delight and the source of our eternal blessedness.

If the garden symbolizes the Lord Christ as the source of our delight, it also symbolizes the Church as Christ’s body. Within it stands the “tree of life,” symbolizing the Lord Christ, the head of the Church and the source of her life.

The Lord Christ descended into the world to reveal Himself as the tree of life planted within His Church. Whoever partakes of Him enjoys life and wisdom. As Saint Jerome says:

Solomon says, “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her” (Proverbs 3:18), speaking of wisdom. If wisdom is the tree of life, then wisdom is truly Christ.… Since this tree has been planted in the Garden of Eden, we are all planted there. [85]

In other words, we could not have had a share as living trees planted in Paradise unless the tree of life had descended into its midst and revealed Himself as the source of our life.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies knowledge, which in itself is a gift and a blessing. But if it turns toward experiencing evil, it becomes a cause of destruction. Saint Theophilus of Antioch says:

The tree of knowledge was good in itself, and its fruit was good. It was not the tree that carried death, as some suppose; rather, disobedience carried death within it. There was nothing in the fruit except knowledge alone, and knowledge is good when used wisely. [86]

The garden was watered by a river, of which it is said:

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. [10]

If the tree of life signifies the Lord Christ, the giver of life, then the river watering the garden signifies the Holy Spirit. Through His holy waters He flows over our earth and transforms our wilderness into a garden that gladdens God’s heart.

The Lord Christ spoke of this river, saying:

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)

The Evangelist comments on these divine words:

(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:39)

The river’s division into four branches signifies the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Church throughout the world, from east to west and from north to south.

If the river signifies the Holy Spirit, who comes upon believers to sanctify them, then its division into four branches also signifies His sanctification of the body. The body is symbolized by the number four because it is taken from the earth, with its four directions. Thus, through the Holy Spirit, the human being in his relationship with God becomes a new Garden of Eden, sanctified by the Spirit, who works in both the human soul and the body.

As for the garden’s location, theologians and geographers have not reached agreement. Some believe it was in Armenia because the Euphrates and Tigris have their sources there.

The prevailing view described here is that Eden’s river, which divided into four branches, was the Euphrates–Tigris river system flowing into the Shatt al-Arab and the Persian Gulf, with its several branches. According to this view, the Garden of Eden lay in the fertile southern part of Iraq.

Supporters of this view identify Havilah, where there was gold [11], with a part of the Arabian Peninsula adjoining Iraq to the southwest. They understand the land of Cush [13] as probably referring to Elam, which was long known as “Cashshu” or “Cossean.” The Babylonian plain was also called edinu. [87]

3. God’s Commandment to Adam

KJV · Verses 15–17

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” [15]

Before giving Adam the commandment of love and obedience, God placed him in the Garden of Eden to work and care for it. By establishing the garden for him, God revealed His love and care. By appointing him to work and keep it, He revealed His esteem for the human being.

God provided him with every means of rest and gave him the powers of thought and understanding. Therefore, He did not place him in the garden merely to eat, drink, and amuse himself. He established him as a being whose work and dignity were valued in God’s eyes.

Thus God sanctified work. He appointed the most complete of His earthly creatures to work and gave him wisdom to care for the garden. It was as though God appointed him a steward over the work of His hands, to carry out his work with joy of heart and understanding.

After granting him this gift, the gift of working in and caring for the garden, God gave him a commandment:

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. [16–17]

Someone may ask: Was this commandment necessary?

We answer that the commandment honors the human being because it reveals his freedom of will. God wished to deal with him on an exalted level, and so He gave him the commandment to open the door to a practical dialogue with Him.

Adam’s obedience to God would therefore be more than an automatic, instinctive obedience governed by the laws of nature, as with other creatures. It would arise from his sanctified humanity and the true love flowing freely from the depths of his being.

The commandment is therefore neither a deprivation nor a repression of the human being. It is a way of enjoying the holiness of free will. We have previously discussed “The Commandment and Love” in a separate booklet.

Some hold that God had already given humanity great gifts, but even after placing him in the garden, He wished to prove him and honor him with greater gifts, perhaps through eating from the tree of life, if he lived in obedience to the divine commandment, expressing his love in practice toward his Creator and greatest friend.

Saint Theophilus of Antioch says:

God wished to prove him through his submission to the commandment. At the same time, He wished the human being to remain for a longer time like a child, in simplicity and sincerity. [88]

Because the consequence of disobedience was “thou shalt surely die,” some have supposed that the story of our first parents’ fall must be symbolic. They argue that the penalty is extremely severe and out of proportion to a commandment concerning eating the fruit of a particular tree.

Scholars answer this as follows:

First: The consequence arose from the inward attitude that responded with ingratitude to God’s surpassing love and care for humanity, rather than from the particular form of the commandment. Punishment is the natural fruit of sin, whatever that sin may be, just as Paradise in its original delight corresponded to the condition of a human being united to God.

Second: The severity of the punishment corresponds to the gift of human freedom and to God’s high regard for the human being.

Third: The severity of the punishment reveals the power of the salvation God offers humanity by giving His only-begotten Son.

Fourth: Remarkably, the weight of the curse fell upon the ground and the serpent. God did not curse Adam or Eve. He cursed the serpent because it deceived the human being, and the ground because of the one dwelling upon it.

In His love, God revealed the bitterness of sin, yet He did not curse the human being. What love could be greater than this?

4. The Creation of Eve

KJV · Verses 18–25

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” [18]

Even if the creation of the whole world required millions of years, divine inspiration recorded it very briefly in a single chapter. In this way, all Scripture continues to proclaim God’s particular concern for the human being, who is the center of the world in God’s eyes.

God cared for his material, psychological, and spiritual needs. Now, seeing him alone in the garden, He wished to make him a helper corresponding to him.

The expression “a helper corresponding to him” reveals the meaning of married life: Adam’s relationship with Eve, or a man’s relationship with a woman. The wife is a helper to her husband, just as the husband is a helper to his wife. She is his counterpart: she neither exalts herself above him nor is inferior to him.

Married life thus rests upon a true unity that supports both persons through mutual respect.

Scripture tells us that God created Eve as Adam’s one wife, bringing her from his side after causing a deep sleep to fall upon him. Adam recognized her as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh [23]. He called her “woman” because she was taken from “man.”

Through this event, Scripture established the principle of marriage:

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. [24]

The story of Eve’s creation also prefigures the creation of the Church, Christ’s bride. For her sake, the Bridegroom emptied Himself so that He might be united to her and bring her into His heavens.

The writings of the early Church contain abundant teaching about Eve’s creation and its relationship to the Church as Christ’s bride. We quote a few of Saint Augustine’s words on this subject:

When was Eve created? When Adam slept! When did the mysteries of the Church flow from Christ’s side? When He slept upon the cross! [89]

If Christ is joined to His Church so that the two become one flesh, in what sense does He leave His father and mother?

He left His Father in the sense that, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6–7).

In this sense He left His Father: through appearing in human form, without forgetting Him or being separated from Him.

But how did He leave His mother? By leaving the Jewish synagogue, from which He was born according to the flesh, to be joined to the Church He gathered from all nations. [90]

Speaking of the mystery of the union between the Lord Christ and His Church as Bridegroom and bride, the apostle says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32).… We are with Him in heaven through hope, and He is with us on earth through love. [91]

Our Lord Jesus speaks in His own person as our head, and He also speaks in the person of His body, which is His Church, ourselves.

Thus the words come as though from a single mouth, and we understand the head and body as united together in completeness, inseparable from one another. This is like marriage, of which it is said, “they shall be one flesh.” [24; 92]

We conclude here with the words of Saint Ambrose, who sees in “one flesh” a unity of will through the love between husband and wife:

God placed the disposition of a good will within man and woman, saying, “they shall be one flesh.” We may also add, “and one spirit.” [93]

Finally, after speaking of Eve’s creation and her union with Adam in love, Scripture says:

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. [25]

They were physically naked but spiritually clothed. Therefore, they found nothing to make them ashamed. What brings shame to a human being is the corruption that enters through sin, rather than the body itself.

For this reason, some of the Fathers see entering the baptismal font naked as a return to Paradise, where the human being, in purity of heart, was physically naked and unashamed.

Notes and References