Back in the Garden.

One of the more interesting and useful books I read as a youth was by Schaeffer. It was called “Genesis in space and time” and it was an argument for the first chapters of Genesis, not as myth, but history. As Troy was not myth, neither was the Garden, and the events in the life of Adam have significance.

Or, more bluntly, Genesis is neither poetry nor myth. You do not get the sense that Adam is a hero. Moreover, you get a sense of what the role of male and female are in this life, after the fall.

And, there is a risk in this, hinted in the song I’m embedding: that we think that by our own efforts we can get back to the garden. This is not ever going to happen. The fall was a one-way door.

Genesis 2:4-9 (10-15) 16-25

⁴These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up — for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; ⁶but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground — ⁷then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. ⁸And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. ¹¹The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; ¹²and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. ¹³The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. ¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

¹⁸Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” ¹⁹So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. ²¹So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²²And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” ²⁴Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. ²⁵And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

From this we can get some principles.

Firstly, it’s not good for a man to be an individual. It’s worse for a woman, for reasons I will get to. All the animals in creation could not meet Adam’s need to communicate with another, to be with another.

Secondly, our wish to classify and divide nature “at the joints” is there from the beginning. Adam named the animals: Adam set up models of beasts and plants. One can extend this and say that the scientific endeavour is good, right, and proper.

Thirdly, woman was made to complete man. This could imply that women also is not able to be alone.

Fourthly, there was initially no shame in our bodies or our sexuality, for it was in the garden and we were innocent, and it was good.

Part of us longs for the Garden, and one of the things I like about this version of Woodstock is that the very creepiness of wanting to get back there comes out in the way Jodi Mitchell sings it.

Because we are not in the garden.

The need for communion remains, but the very idea that one may have obligations to one another is now seen as horrifying. Instead the idea of independence, that a woman can do what she likes without consequences, is having consequences. We may be able to protect ourselves from the physical consequences of promiscuity (although this is wrong; the only “safe sex” does not involve touching or kissing another) and we may sear our conscience, saying that we were designed to be polyamourous, but then betrayal will kick us in the guts. We cannot inoculate our hearts against the want for another: we have to deal with it in another way.

Now, some are blessed with the ability to be single, and to live a celibate life. The church was wise and put these people into communities: I would suggest that every church needs some single women’s flats and single men’s flats — a monastery and nunnery if you will — and there should be the widower, the single young man, and the broken divorced man sharing the flat and (together) providing the emotional and physical shelter that is lacking when each one of them is sitting alone in is bijou studio apartment. (The women can do something similar, but that’s their business).

But most of us are seeking Eve, and Eve was as broken by the fall as Adam is. In Christ we do not go back to the garden. In Christ we will move to something greater, where we will truly be complete, and there will be no need for male or female, for we will be changed.

But in this life, we need to preserve marriage and remake the women’s house and the brotherhood. For the state will not last: but Christ rules the church.

_____________
Additional: some may argue that a single woman should be under her father’s roof until marriage. Well, the trouble is this world is fallen, and sometimes a woman has to move to do what her role is, or the family she grew up in is pagan or violent or have damaged her. It is the business of the church to provide an community for such people.

And I think at some time a man has to leave home: if not to marry, to join a brotherhood, and to do things. And men should not be alone either.

Google+

Chris Gale