The Evangelical Universalist Forum

The Garden of Eden

The story of The Garden of Eden is full of symbolism. If deciphered by using what is said in other parts of the bible, it seems to reveal the same truths that many of the other stories tell us. From what I understand it says the following:

There are many blessing that come from living in God’s word(way of life). We give up these blessings because we are deceived by the ways of the world. Their ways look more promising at first, but eventually they lead to destruction. I think when Adam and Eve decided to follow the wrong path, they discovered what God meant when He said they would die. But according to the story, God is willing to forgive if we come back to Him with a humble heart and confess our sins. He renews us, but we must separate ourselves from sin and begin our lives again in His word. God’s word must followed, protected and taught to our children to insure that future generations know the true way.

Genesis 3:16
To the woman He said: I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

Some people of old had the idea that God was punishing them for the sins of their parents and their ancestors.This idea is still being preached today, but Ezekiel 18:1-18 refutes this notion. We are each held accountable for our own actions when we stand before the Lord.

I think what the author of the story is trying to say here is that sin is a very serious matter. As I mentioned before, it not only tears down our personal lives, but it can bring down whole societies and affect future generations. That’s why it is so important to teach the true word of God to our children. I think what he is saying in the last part of the verse is that when sin takes over and rules our lives we will long for the days when we were walking with the Lord.

The verses in the story seem to be jumbled, but you can still get the gist of what’s being said. The following verses are an example.
Genesis 3: 22 Then the Lord God said “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”-

Us in this passage actually makes more sense to say them. Adam and Eve were already made in the image of God in the beginning. To me, this means that they were walking in the word of God (righteous). It is when they sinned that they became like one of them knowing good and evil(unrighteous/the tree that bears bad fruit/those who know right from wrong according to their own interpretations). Since Adam and Eve were walking in sin, they were unable to partake of God’s blessings.

Genesis 3:21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Here God forgives them and clothes them anew. In other words they return to God and His word.
In verse 23 He sends them out of the garden to till the soil and plant the seed(God’s word) elsewhere.

So what happens to the Garden of Eden? This is only my opinion because it really doesn’t say, but it probably became a wasteland.

Just thought I’d throw this verse into the mix, because it can be confusing.

Genesis 3:15 "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

I think that God was putting things back in proper order here. Righteousness is to rule and sin shall be underfoot. Some translations say offspring as in physical descendants, but God was separating the seed of those that bear bad fruit from Adam and Eve- those that carry the word of God in their hearts.

Genesis 3: 22 Then the Lord God said "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.

To me this is a critical verse in the bible giving us some insight into why God doesn’t stop evil. The consensus is that in allowing us free will God allows evil, but here God says that to become like God (in a certain way) we must know good and evil. Allowing free will is a deduction but here God states the reason we need to know or experience evil.
I don’t think God created evil but rather it’s a natural consequence or contrast to good.

That is a very good point and one which I totally agree with. For how are we to know anything unless we know the opposite (hot vs.cold, fast vs. slow, good vs. bad etc.)and experience them? But is this the point the author is trying to make in the story? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the same one Jesus warns us about in Matthew 12:33-34
Either make the tree good and it’s fruit good or else make the tree bad and it’s fruit bad; for a tree is known by it’s fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Also see Mark 6:15-20 and Luke 6:43-45 which tell of the same tree.
I’m thinking that the writer is referring back to Adam and Eve following the ways of this “tree” because in the next verse it prevents them from eating of the tree of life.

In Genesis 3:22, the phrase “like one of us” is a strange construct in the Hebrew. It is ‘echad - mi- menoo’. It literally translates to “one from among us”. As in pointing out a specific one. If it was meant to say that “the man has become like one of us” it would probably be phrased as “ha -adam haya ci menoo”, leaving out the word echad and the prefix mem, which denotes the concept of “from”. The “us” in the verse is usually assumed to be God, but that may not be the case. Michael Heiser has written extensively on the topic of God ruling through a “divine council” composed of beings called elohim in the scriptures. The “one from among us” may be a reference to the nachash, or satan.

I made a few interesting discoveries about the Garden of Eden. There is someone who says the Garden of Eden is under the Persian Gulf now.

He claimed that satellites revealed underwater rivers and the Garden of Eden was located near several rivers so possibly a cataclysmic event moved the Garden under water.

This is an interesting video about Genesis from Wright, Polkinghorne and McGrath on the interpretation of Genesis:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=5bKa92eLkQM