The Garden Of Eden

Adam And Eve At Eden

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

Long, long ago, in the very beginning of time, there was God.

There was no shape to the earth then, and total darkness and raging waters covered everything.  Everywhere was waster and empty until God set about creating the world.  He said “Let there be light” and then the light came.  God divided the light from the dark, and He called the light “Day” and the darkness “Night”.  Evening and morning came, and that was the first day.

Then God made the sky, like a great dome.  Evening and morning came, and that was all done in the second day.

Next God made the earth.  He ordered the waters below the sky to come together, and so it happened.  He named the waters “Seas” and the dry land which was left He named “Earth”, and He was pleased with what He saw.  Then he ordered all kinds of plants to grow upon the earth---plants which bore grain and plants which bore fruits and plants with flowers.  Evening and morning came, and that was the end of the third day.

Then God ordered great shining lights to appear in the sky.  The two largest lights were he “Sun” and the “Moon”; the sun was to rule over the day; and the moon over the night.  The smaller lights were the stars, including planets, comets and meteors.  Evening and morning came, and so ended the fourth day.

However, there were as yet no living creatures in it.  So the next day, God made fish and birds.  He filled the waters with all kinds of fish, from enormous sea-monsters and whales down to the tiniest minnows and sticklebacks.

In the air, He put all kinds of birds, from great eagles to tiny wrens and linnets.  The sea and the skies were now full of beautiful creatures.  God was pleased with what He saw and He blessed all the living things He had made.  When evening and morning had passed, that was the fifth day.

Then God said, “Let the earth produce all kinds of animals.”  He made a wonderful variety of creatures to live in the world; there were enormous beasts, like elephants, giraffes and rhinoceros, and tiny moles and mice, shrews and spiders.

Then God said, “I will make human beings, who will be something like me.  They will take care of the fishes, the birds and the animals, and all creatures which move in the sea and the sky, and on the earth.”

So next He made a man, and breathed life-giving breath into him, and the man became a living soul.  God named the man as Adam.  God blessed him and placed him in the east of the world, in the beautiful Garden of Eden.

“You must have many children,” God said, “so that they will grow and live all over the earth and look after it.  You and they will be in charge of the fishes, the birds and the animals.

Out of the ground God made grass and trees grow, and leafy plants for animals and birds to eat; and He provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruits for people to eat---so that none would go hungry.

He looked at everything He had made and was pleased.  Evening and morning came and that was the sixth day.

Now the universe was finished.  God had completed His wonderful and flawless work.

So He stopped creating, and on the seventh day He rested.  Then He blessed this seventh day and set it apart, and ever since then one day in seven has been a special day for people to rest from their work.

In the Garden of Eden, there grew all sorts of beautiful tress which bore good fruit.  A stream flowed through the garden to water it and, beyond Eden, this divided into four rivers; they were called Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris and the Euphrates.

There were also special trees in the middle of the garden.  It called was the Tree of Life and the other one was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, He wanted him to cultivate it and take care of it, and so be a fellow-worker with Him.  He said to Adam, “You may eat the fruits of any of the trees in the garden, except the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  That fruit you must not eat; if you do then you will surely die.”

Then God brought all the animals and birds in front of Adam, and Adam gave them all their names.

God has decided that it was not good for Adam to be all alone in the garden, so when Adam was asleep, He made a woman to share life in the garden with Adam.

Adam named her Eve, and they both began a happy life together looking after the beautiful garden and everything in it.

One of the creatures living in the garden was a snake, and he was very cunning.  One day he glided up to Eve and said, “Did God really says that you must not eat the fruit of any of the trees?”

“No”, Eve replied to the snake.  “We may eat the fruit of the trees, except from that tree in the middle---the tree which is called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God said that if we ate any of that fruit, then we would surely die.”

“That’s not true, you know,” he hissed.  “God said that because He knew that if you ate the fruit, then you would know all about good and evil, and so you would be like God Himself.”

Eve looked at the beautiful tree again and saw how delicious its fruit looked.  Perhaps as taste would not matter---and it would be wonderful to be as wise as God, she thought.  It would do no harm if she took a bite.  So she plucked one of the tempting fruits and ate it.  It taste nice, so she gave some to Adam and he ate too.

However, as soon as they had eaten, they suddenly realized what they had done and both felt very ashamed that they had disobeyed God.  They knew they had chosen their own way and not God’s, and that they had spoilt the beauty of that perfect garden by doing wrong.  For the first time they became aware that they were naked and in their embarrassment they rushed to make clothing for themselves out of leaves.

The same evening, they heard God walking in the garden, by they felt guilty and tried to hide from Him among the trees.

But God called out, “Adam, where are you?”

“I heard You coming,” answered Adam, “and I was afraid, so I hid myself from You.”

“Have you eaten any of the fruit that I commanded you not to eat?” asked God.

“Eve gave the fruit to me and I ate it,” said Adam, who was not feeling very brave and was ready to blame someone else.

God turned to Eve and said “Why did you do this?”

Eve, too, tried to put the blame on to another, and she said. “The snake tricked me into doing it.”

God was very sad at what happened, for he felt that Adam and Eve could no longer be trusted and so were not fit to stay in the lovely garden.  Their wrong-doing had to be punished.

Then He turned to the snake and said, “You, of all the animals, must bear the punishment for this.  From now on you will crawl along the earth and eat dust for as long as you live.  You and the woman will always be enemies.

To Eve God said, “You will have to suffer pain when your children are born.  And to Adam He said, “You listened to your wife and you ate the fruit which I have forbidden you to eat.  Because of this, you will work hard all your life to make the earth produce enough food for you.  There will always be weeds and thorns and you will have to toil all the time to make anything grow on the land at all.”

So where before Adam had been looking after a perfect and fertile garden, now he would have to struggle in a wilderness of weeds and thistles.

Then God said, “Now man has become like Me and has knowledge of good and evil.  He cannot be allowed to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and thus live forever.

So God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, and Adam was set to work to cultivate the land outside it.

In order to keep either Adam and Eve, or anyone else, from coming near the Tree of Life, God placed winged creatures as a symbol of His majesty and presence at the east of the garden, and also angels, with flaming sword, to keep our intruders.

Winged Creature that guards the Garden of Eden from intruders