The Two Things Man Was Supposed to Do in Eden

There were two things Adam was supposed to do in the Garden of Eden.

Given that this was the terrestrial paradise—Eden could be translated as delight or pleasure—one might think Adam was meant to relax and take it easy.

But that’s not quite what Genesis 2:15 tells us: ‘The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.’ That’s the New American Bible translation. A traditional rendering is ‘till and keep.’

Till and keep. That doesn’t sound like stuff you’d have to do in place called the Garden of Delights.

We tend to think of work as a hardship, a necessity ushered in by the Fall (see Genesis 3:17-19). But here, in a place called the Garden of Delights, work is part of the deal. Think about that for a moment: in the beginning, in his original condition free from sin, man was intended to work.

One biblical commentator neatly captures the significance of this verse:

Even in paradise itself man had to work. None of us were sent into the world to be idle. He that made our souls and bodies, has given us something to work with; and he that gave us this earth for our habitation, has made us something to work upon. The sons and heirs of heaven, while in this world, have something to do about this earth, which must have its share of their time and thoughts; and if they do it with an eye to God, they as truly serve him in it, as when they are upon their knees. Observe that the husbandman’s calling is an ancient and honourable calling; it was needful even in paradise. Also, there is true pleasure in the business God calls us to, and employs us in. Adam could not have been happy if he had been idle. (From the commentary by Matthew Henry, a Welch Presbyterian minister who lived from the late 1660s to the early 1700s.)

St. John Chrysostom, in his commentary on Genesis, agrees, emphasizing work as the antidote to sloth and sin:

I mean, since life there was filled with every delight, was a pleasure to behold and a thrill to enjoy, he arranged accordingly that the human being should till the garden and watch over it lest he be unsettled by the exceeding indulgence. Well, why, do you ask, did the garden require attention by him? I’m not telling you that, but in fact God wanted him for a while to take some slight care that was appropriate in both watching and tilling. If, after all, he had been relieved of all need to work, he would have fallen a victim to great indulgence and at once have slipped into sloth; whereas in fact by performing some work that was painless and without difficulty he would be brought to a better frame of mind.

The work is twofold: till and keep. The first applies to the plants of the garden. The second is less obvious but appears to refer to keeping watch over the animals. This is, for example, how the word is used in Genesis 30:31, in reference to Jacob as a keeper of flocks.

The question arises: how was this work different from the work that became a curse for man in Genesis 3:17-19. Read those verses closely. There, the work was tied to eating, the bare necessities of life. ‘In toil you shall eat its yield’ (verse 17) and ‘By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread’ (verse 19).

We don’t have enough information to conclude that Adam’s work was not connected with the food he ate. But we do have enough information to know that God himself had already ‘planted’ the garden and grown the trees ‘good for food’ (Genesis 2:8-9). Work in the Garden of Eden wasn’t so much about surviving—as it would be after the Fall—as it was for the thriving of man.

Not only did the purpose of work seem to change, but the nature of the work itself most assuredly did. In Genesis 2:15 the call to ‘till and keep’ comes after God ‘settled’ or ‘put’ Adam in the garden. The Hebrew word for ‘put’ (yanach, pronounced as yä·nakh’) could also be translated as repose, have rest, be quiet. So a more literal translation might be: ‘God caused Adam to be rested and reposed.’

God’s action here necessarily informs the implicit command to ‘till and keep’ that follows. It suggests to us that in the Garden of Eden the work of man was restful. We can push the implications of this a bit further: perhaps one of the evil consequences of the fall has been this separation between work and rest, causing the work we do to not be restful and the rest we require as an escape from the stresses of work to not be productive.

On a natural level, the lesson here is significant: man was made for something, not the nothingness of luxurious idleness.

But the text also has a deeper meaning on a supernatural level. God did not create Adam, drop him off in paradise to have fun and leave him be. Adam’s work in paradise was ultimately meant to lead him to revere and worship God.

For Chrysostom this ultimate purpose is signified in the word ‘watch.’ He concludes:

That phrase, ‘to watch over it,’ is not added idly: it is an instance of considerateness in expression to the effect that he might be fully aware that he was subject to a master who had regaled him with such enjoyment, and along with that enjoyment entrusted him with its protection. God, you see, creates everything and arranges it for our salvation.

Today, this raises a number of challenging questions for us.

On a natural level: How can we find work that is more ‘restful’—that feeds our souls beyond just providing for the bare necessities of survival? To the extent that we as individuals can find this work we are living out our original purpose as human beings. And, to the extent that society creates the conditions where such work is increasingly available, it is one that better serves the common good than another.

Then the supernatural: How can our work bring us closer to God? How can we sanctify our work day? How can we acknowledge God’s ultimate sovereignty over what we do?

Ultimately, we are all called, through grace, to till and keep our own gardens of Eden.

image: jorisvo / Shutterstock.com

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Stephen Beale is a freelance writer based in Providence, Rhode Island. Raised as an evangelical Protestant, he is a convert to Catholicism. He is a former news editor at GoLocalProv.com and was a correspondent for the New Hampshire Union Leader, where he covered the 2008 presidential primary. He has appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN and the Today Show and his writing has been published in the Washington Times, Providence Journal, the National Catholic Register and on MSNBC.com and ABCNews.com. A native of Topsfield, Massachusetts, he graduated from Brown University in 2004 with a degree in classics and history. His areas of interest include Eastern Christianity, Marian and Eucharistic theology, medieval history, and the saints. He welcomes tips, suggestions, and any other feedback at bealenews at gmail dot com. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StephenBeale1

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