It once used to be thought, and taught, that in the early chapters of Genesis we have at least two different creation accounts, each with differing theologies. In fact the first three chapters are bound together not only theologically but with authorial deliberation. Together they present the story of the world's beginning, expounding on its nature from different perspective but most of all on the nature of human beings, and expressed through the motif of the divine provision of the fruit of the trees and progressing from the grace of divine provision to the bane of distrust and fall and back to the grace of divine protection in the life of the first human couple in the Garden of Eden:
The Grace of Divine Provision:
"God said, 'I give you every . . . tree that has fruit . . . they will be yours for food . . .'" 1:29-30.
The Grace of Divine Warning:
"And the Lord God said, 'You are free to eat from any tree . . . but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . . .'" 2:16.
The Temptation:
"[the serpent] said: 'Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?' . . .' The woman said . . . 'We may eat fruit from the trees . . . but God did say, 'You must not eat . . .'" 3:1-3.
The Fall:
"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." 3:6
The Grace of Divine Protection:
"And the Lord God said, 'The man . . . must not be allowed to . . . take also from the tree of life and eat . . .'" 3:22.
Thus understood the first literary unit in the book of Genesis charts out a paradigm of divine redemption. The paradigm—the pattern of initial divine grace followed by human sin and then divine intervention that makes possible a new beginning—would be repeated again and again through the rest of Genesis, and then beyond.
Understanding these chapters in its narrative whole is vital for understanding the flow and thrust of the individual episodes within it. Such an appreciation will also keep us from the trap of seeing especially Chap 1 as resources for constructing a pious biology to counter the press of evolutionary theories for which the text, its author and its early and native readers would have had no cause to care about. Any such construction can only be futile since it requires isolating the text from its native context and reading into instead of out of the text ideas and concepts which are neither natural to nor consistent with the flow and theological thrust of the narrative.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2018