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Rethinking the Garden of Eden

Rethinking the Garden of Eden

Last updated on: August 30, 2026 at 1:32 am by Ben Witherington

Rethinking the Garden of Eden 2026-08-19T21:37:07-04:00 Ben Witherington

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Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden - Bible Story Verses ...

First things first— the Hebrew word גן means garden, and refers to a safe enclosure. Add the word עדן to it, and the overtone is of a pleasurable place, a garden of earthly delights—the garden of Eden. Now nothing at all in these words, nor in the story we are reflecting on in Gen. 2-3 suggests either the idea of a Temple, or the notion that Eden was a place where God took up residence. Nothing at all. The description of the place with its connection to four rivers, and the intimation it was a verdant place with trees bearing fruit, certainly suits the word garden… but not a temple, despite the recent popularity of talking about the garden also being a temple for God. Let’s take a moment and listen again to the old old story.

“Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[ and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

The picture here is of a paradise of sorts, which God created for humans, and as the text says God deliberately put ‘the man’ in this garden to work it, and to take care of it. He is also given the job of naming the animals, which seems to be an act of his taking power or authority over them, and as commentators have suggested, Adam could not find a suitable mate among the animals, as they were different sorts of creatures, creatures not created in God’s image, and so God made a mate out of parts of the man himself. Only one commandment had been given to Adam (and notice Eve was not there when the commandment was given).

The story takes a negative turn in Gen. 3 as follows, and so far nothing in the story suggests Adam is being groomed to be a priest, rather he is being given the task of being a gardener, and perhaps a sort of park ranger where animals were, but mainly he was to work the garden. Here is the rest of this sad story….

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LordGod had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”

20 Adam[c] named his wife Eve,[d] because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e]of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Is there anything here which suggests the garden is a temple where God dwells? No indeed. God shows up in the garden to confront Adam and Eve after they have disobeyed, and severed their relationship. Adam and Eve become self-aware, self-conscious, self-centered, self-protective and ashamed, so ashamed they are running and hiding from God. One of the implicit aspects of the story is that Eve, not being present when the commandment was given by God, must have learned it from Adam, an Adam who was right there with her when the serpent tempted her, and could have corrected her misrepresentation which involves her saying if you touch the forbidden fruit you will die. Notice as well that there are three things Eve saw that she liked about the fruit— it was pleasing to the eye, it was desirable for food, and for gaining not merely knowledge but wisdom, and she wants these things. All is well at this juncture, until human desires come into the picture— we are told that Eve saw the forbidden fruit as pleasing to the eye, good for food, but more importantly ‘desirable’ for wisdom. Those who know their Hebrew know that the word ‘yada’ translated knowledge or know as a verb, can certainly mean ‘experience’—as in Adam knew Eve. It was the experience of good and evil that was the result of sin.

As I said, Adam was right there with his suitable helper and yet he says nothing, he does not correct her, nor does he turn down the fruit when she hands it to him— he too of his own volition eats of the fruit as well, ‘and their eyes were opened’. This is why in later tradition like in Rom. 5.12-21 Adam is mainly blamed for sin entering the world. He received the commandment and not only did he not correctly teach it and its implications to Eve, he did not put a stop of her giving in to temptation, he participated freely and willing to the tragedy. They gained knowledge alright but the wrong sort of knowledge, a self-centered -self-conscious sort of knowledge. Indeed, their hearts turned in upon themselves. And we learn that they must be expelled from the garden lest they eat of the tree of life and then live forever. Notice that they were not immortal before this juncture. Rather they were all too mortal, and the part of them that experiences death is not the physical self, but their spiritual life— spiritually they die. They are no longer in communion with God the very source of all life.

In the Genesis account in Gen. 1-3 no temple is mentioned, and at least before Adam and Eve sinned, there was no need for one. Humans were not yet sinners. Indeed, if we back up to the beginning of Gen. 1, God is depicted as dwelling somewhere entirely outside of the creation which he brings into being. Note that it is only after Adam and Eve sin that we hear about God’s voice in the garden and that the couple seeks to hide from God, as he is coming after them to confront them about their sin. They were right to be afraid, for God was indeed the Holy One, and they were not in a holy condition any more.

While it is certainly is true that temples were viewed in the ANE as the locus where there was the divine presence of a deity, it is also true that the function of having a designated set apart space for the deity, was precisely because God or a god was viewed ‘as holy other’ and considering the nature of humans, there was danger in coming to close to a deity. Remember poor Uzzah.

What about the notion that Adam and Eve were given priestly roles in Eden? Really? The command given them was to fill the earth and subdue it— that is like God they were to be mini-creators and mini-rulers of the earth. These are not the roles of priests. Ironically, we hear nothing about sacrifices until the humans have been expelled from the garden, and considerably later we hear the tale of Cain and Abel’s sacrifices seeking to honor or curry favor with God, an understandable exercise by someone who is alienated from God and seeking to get back in good standing.

What about the supposed similarity between this story and the story of the new creation, the new Jerusalem in Rev. 21-22? First of all note that in the new Jerusalem there is no temple, rather God the Father and the Son come to dwell with their people. There is no need for a temple there because there is no need to separate the holy from the unholy any more. The commandment ‘be ye holy as I am holy’ has been fulfilled in the new creation. Temples are meant to allow God to be near his sinful people, but also to protect them from the consequences of encountering the Holy One in a less than perfect human state.

In short there was no need for a temple in Eden or in the New Jerusalem, but as the creation story in Gen. 1 makes clear, the dwelling place of the Creator of all creation was outside the material universe to begin with, where God and his heavenly council dwelt, which is who ‘the us’ in the phrase ‘let us’ refers to. Enough said.

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