Episode 2: Adam and Eve: the garden, the fall and the promise

In the previous episode we contemplated the creation of the universe. Now the camera moves in on a garden and two people: Adam and Eve, the first human beings. Their story, told in Genesis 2 and 3, is short, yet it explains many of humanity’s deepest questions: what were we created for? Why is there evil and suffering in the world? Why do we feel far from God? Is there hope? These chapters also contain the first promise of salvation in the Bible, which points directly to Jesus Christ.

“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.”
Genesis 2:7

Formed from dust, filled with God’s breath

Genesis 2 describes the creation of man with a moving image. God takes dust from the ground and forms it, as a potter shapes clay. Then he breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes a living soul. We are at once dust and divine breath: fragile and limited, yet full of the life that comes from God.

The name Adam is related to the Hebrew word adamah, meaning earth or ground. Adam is literally “the earthy one”, the one taken from the ground. His name reminds him where he comes from and on whom he depends.

The garden of Eden

God planted a garden eastward in Eden and put the man there. In the garden were all kinds of trees, pleasant to the sight and good for food, and in the middle two special trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watered the garden and parted into four heads.

Adam received a task: to dress and keep the garden (Genesis 2:15). Work is not a curse; it is part of God’s original design. He also received a single prohibition: not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day he ate of it he would surely die. In the midst of enormous freedom there was one limit, reminding human beings that they are creatures and not the Creator.

Adam names the animals

God brought the beasts of the field and the birds of the air to Adam to see what he would call them, and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name (Genesis 2:19-20). Naming was an expression of authority and knowledge. Adam exercised his creativity and his responsibility over creation. But among all the animals he discovered something: there was not found a help meet for him, someone who corresponded to him.

The creation of woman

Then God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, took one of his ribs and from it made the woman. When God brought her to the man, Adam joyfully exclaimed the first poem in the Bible: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23).

Many ancient commentators pointed out a beautiful detail: the woman was not taken from the man’s head to rule over him, nor from his feet to be trampled, but from his side, to stand beside him as an equal, close to his heart. The chapter ends with the institution of marriage: a man shall leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh. And it adds: “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” There was complete harmony with God, between them and with creation.

The serpent and the temptation

Genesis 3 introduces an unsettling character: the serpent, “more subtil than any beast of the field”. The New Testament identifies it with Satan, “that old serpent” (Revelation 12:9). Its strategy is subtle. First it sows doubt: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” It exaggerates the prohibition to make God look restrictive. Then it flatly denies God’s word: “Ye shall not surely die.” Finally it attacks God’s character, implying that he is hiding something good from them: “ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit, ate and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. John describes three forms of temptation that match this account: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).

The fall and its consequences

Immediately their eyes were opened, but not to see as gods; rather, to discover their nakedness. They sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. For the first time they felt shame. When they heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hid among the trees.

“And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?”
Genesis 3:9

This is God’s first question in the Bible, and it is not the question of someone who does not know, but of a Father who seeks. Ever since, the whole history of salvation can be summed up as God seeking lost humanity.

The consequences of sin spread like ripples on water. Adam blames the woman, and even indirectly God: “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree.” The woman blames the serpent. The relationship with God is broken, the relationship between them deteriorates, work becomes toil, childbirth becomes painful and death enters the world: “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). Paul sums it up: “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12).

The first promise of salvation

In the midst of judgment, God speaks an astonishing promise. Addressing the serpent, he says:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Genesis 3:15

Christians call this verse the protoevangelium, the first announcement of the Gospel. God promises that a descendant of the woman will crush the serpent’s head, though he himself will be bruised in the heel. The Church has seen here a prophecy of Jesus Christ, made of a woman (Galatians 4:4), who was wounded on the cross but by his death and resurrection defeated the devil. From the third page of the Bible, before any other patriarch or prophet, God already announces the Saviour.

Coats of skins and leaving Eden

Before sending them out of the garden, God made coats of skins for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Genesis 3:21). Fig leaves were not enough. To cover them, an animal had to die. Many interpreters see here a first image of the sacrifice that covers sin, which will culminate in the Lamb of God.

Then God sent them out of the garden, and at its east he placed cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. This was not only a punishment but also an act of mercy: living for ever in a state of sin would have been an endless tragedy. God had a better plan to bring humanity back to eternal life.

Eve, mother of all living

After the fall, Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20). The Hebrew name Chavah is related to the word for life. It is an act of faith: despite the sentence of death, Adam believes that life will go on and that the promise will be fulfilled through the woman’s seed. Outside Eden, Cain, Abel and later Seth would be born, and through Seth the line leading to Jesus would continue.

Places in the story

Map of the places in this episode. Approximate locations; map data: Natural Earth (public domain).

The garden of Eden: described as “eastward”, watered by a river dividing into four: Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris) and Euphrates. That is why tradition places it in the region of Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq, although the Bible does not allow us to identify the exact spot.

The land outside the garden: Adam and Eve were sent to till the ground from which they were taken. There, “on the east of Eden”, the story of their children will unfold (Genesis 4:16).

Interesting facts

Adam, the earthy one: his name comes from adamah, ground. In Hebrew adam also simply means “human being”.

A long life: according to Genesis 5:5, Adam lived 930 years. He had Seth when he was 130.

An apple? The Bible does not say what the fruit was. The idea of the apple became popular in Western art, possibly because of the similarity in Latin between malum (evil) and malum (apple).

Son of God: Jesus’ genealogy in Luke ends: “which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 3:38).

The last Adam: Paul calls Jesus “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). What Adam lost through his disobedience, Christ restores through his obedience (Romans 5:19).

From garden to garden: Adam fell in a garden; Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, saying “not my will, but thine, be done”, and rose again in a garden (John 19:41).

The tree regained: the tree of life, closed off in Genesis, reappears in Revelation 22 with leaves for the healing of the nations.

Lessons for our lives

We were created for fellowship with God: the original design was to live close to him. Temptation attacks trust: the enemy wants us to doubt God’s goodness. Sin divides: it hides us from God and turns us against one another. Blaming does not heal: restoration begins with honest confession. God keeps seeking: his question “Where art thou?” is still an invitation to return. Grace comes before judgment is over: in the midst of the consequences, God promises a Saviour.

On the road to Jesus

The story of Adam and Eve explains why we need Jesus. Everything lost in Eden —fellowship with God, innocence, eternal life— will be recovered by the seed of the woman. Paul puts it clearly: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

In the next episode we will leave Eden with the first family to meet Cain, Abel and Seth: the first worship, the first murder and the beginning of the line of faith that called on the name of the Lord.

Prayer

Lord, like Adam and Eve, I have often doubted your goodness and wanted my own way. Thank you that you never stop seeking me and that you promised a Saviour. Thank you for Jesus Christ, the last Adam, who overcame where we failed. Cover me with his righteousness and bring me back into fellowship with you. Amen.