Does God Command and Punish in the Garden of Eden?

What is it about?

In most interpretations of Genesis 2-3, which tells the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, you will find the themes of divine command, human obedience, and divine punishment. These ideas, however, are not found in the details of the narrative. They represent only one possible way of interpreting words with multiple meanings or ambiguities in the plot. One can also read Genesis 2-3 as a story about a divine warning and a consequential decision. This alternative reading does a better job making sense of the narrative details, the obscure words and ambiguities. This reading also better reflects the relationship that humans share with God in other texts found in the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) that scholars believe once existed together as an independent story, often referred to as the J source. Since Genesis 2-3 would mark the beginning of this narrative document, this reading restores how the Garden of Eden story was understood when it marked the beginning of the J source. This reading has implications for how we understand the way ancient Israelites thought about God and morality, arguing they did not always think of God as one who issues commands that obligate humans to obey.

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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash