Commentary on Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17; 3:1-8

Genesis 2 and 3 are among the most familiar chapters of the Bible. They tell of the creation of the first human, formed by God from the soil in order to tend the soil in the garden of Eden (2:4b–7); of God authorizing the human to eat from any tree in the garden, save one (2:15–17); and of the humans eating from that very tree at the suggestion of the snake (3:1–8).

In classic Christian teaching, these stories constitute the key initial episodes of the biblical drama: Creation and Fall—a world made well and then decisively marred. As such, Genesis 2 and 3 provide the (tragic) narrative catalyst for all the events that follow: Whether the calling of Abraham or the constitution of Israel or the coming of God’s Son, all these roll back the dire effects of the first humans’ disobedience.

Preaching Genesis 2 and 3 according to this theological framework thus takes on a strongly explanatory character. Interpreting these chapters as Creation and Fall means explaining default human experiences: mutual fear between humans and animals, difficulty in childbearing, alienation between sexes, and demanding agricultural labor. Such an approach also means explaining some human peculiarities relative to other creatures. Humans know good and evil (3:22). We experience nakedness as a problem, and we make clothing (3:7). We are mortal, and we recognize it (3:19).

Indeed, these latter details have suggested to some interpreters that the arc of Genesis 2–3 does not move only or simply from good adult humans fulfilling their God-given vocation to fallen adult humans divinely expelled from the garden. Rather, some readers discern a movement from childlikeness toward maturity. Hermann Gunkel wrote: “With this example [the eyes opening in verse 3:7a], the myth wants to say that, formerly unknowing children, they are now instantaneously adults.”¹

Other biblical (or parabiblical) texts connect the phrase “knowledge of good and evil” with exactly this developmental threshold: Deuteronomy 1:39 characterizes children as those “who this day have no knowledge of good and evil” (New American Standard Bible; see also 2 Samuel 19:36). The Rule of the Congregation from the Dead Sea Scrolls enjoins its (male) adherents to refrain from sex until the age of 20, “when he knows good and evil” (Serekh ha-‘Edah 1:10–11).² Likewise in Genesis, sex and reproduction take place only after eating the fruit.

Since most humans come of age, the insight that Genesis 2–3 might concern that same basic transition we all go through opens the text to a different kind of preaching: not just explanatory but also exhortatory. That is, these chapters don’t only provide primordial background. They render an example that, because it is perennial, can address and instruct. Several observations about Genesis 2–3 in its canonical context fill out this preaching possibility.

First, although it is clear that Genesis 2–3 and Genesis 1 have distinct literary origins, anonymous editors have set these stories meaningfully together. They function as a “compound introduction” to Genesis as well as to the Pentateuch.³ One effect of putting Genesis 1 in first position is to lend it a chronological—and perhaps ontological—priority relative to the cursing of Genesis 3. Stephen Chapman argues: “The combination of the two accounts seems to insist not only that blessing is intrinsic to the creation and prior to its curse but also that curse was a secondary and avoidable development.”⁴ We might also claim that human growth and maturation (Genesis 2–3) depend on the previous stability and habitability of creation at large (Genesis 1).

Second, the end of Genesis and the end of the Pentateuch both chime with Genesis 2–3. Read in concert with the beginning chapters of Genesis, they suggest that blessing and curse are not just events in a sequence but are ongoing, live, existential options that we readers and preachers can activate. We too, like our first human parents in the garden, face the choice of trusting God’s injunctions or not; of deciding toward life or death. As with Genesis 2–3, the end of Genesis and the end of the Pentateuch likewise draw on coming-of-age as an image, to underline the texts’ pedagogical interest and to reinforce the gravity of their lesson.

Thus the Joseph story (Genesis 37–50), which concludes the book of Genesis, narrates Joseph’s maturation from a tactless 17-year-old boy (37:2) to a powerful and self-disciplined man. He refuses a sexual liaison (Genesis 39) and, when he could have retaliated against his brothers, he acts to save their lives and the lives of all in Egypt. To his brothers he says, “Do not be distressed because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life” (45:5). Joseph’s example instructs us to choose life. He also shows a discerning trust in God’s purpose, even in and through hardship, which stands in counterpoint to the suspicion of the snake in Genesis 3.

Similarly, Deuteronomy 27–33 makes a “compound conclusion” to the whole Pentateuch.⁵ These chapters list out blessings for covenant obedience and curses for covenant disobedience. There is a chronological dimension to this blessing and cursing, since they correspond with historical experiences of exile and restoration (Deuteronomy 29–30). But the decision they urge is perennial. Moses exhorts us always and again: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

These final Deuteronomy chapters also evidence a special concern for teaching children (Deuteronomy 31:13; 32:46). In these regards, they match with Genesis 2–3.

Besides preaching Genesis 2 and 3 in the usual explanatory fashion, we can preach it in this Deuteronomy-like way: as an exhortation to receive God’s instruction like eager, childlike learners—unlike our first human foreparents.

Notes

1. Hermann Gunkel, Genesis, trans. Mark E. Biddle (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997), 17.
2. Konrad Schmid, “The Ambivalence of Human Wisdom: Genesis 2–3 as a Sapiential Text,” in “When the Morning Stars Sang”: Essays in Honor of Choon Leong Seow on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. Scott C. Jones and Christine Roy Yoder, BZAW 500 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), 282.
3. Stephen Chapman, “Pentateuch and Blessing,” in T&T Clark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation, ed. Jason Goroncy (London: T&T Clark, 2024), 50.
4. Chapman, “Pentateuch and Blessing,” 49.
5. Chapman, “Pentateuch and Blessing,” 50.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Lord God, grand architect of the universe,
Your design of creation is unflawed. Yet we continue to litter your creation with defects and imperfections. Show us how not to destroy, but to create, not to demean, but to uplift, not to hate, but to love, so that your creation may be made perfect once again. Amen.

HYMNS

Creating God, your fingers trace ELW 684, H82 394, 395, NCH 462, UMH 109
Forgive our sins as we forgive ELW 605, H82 674
Praise the Lord, rise up rejoicing ELW 544, H82 334

CHORAL

O Wisdom, William Beckstrand (MorningStar)
Do Not Leave Your Cares at the Door, Elizabeth Alexander (Seafarer)