Chapter 10: The Age of Innocence

With the creation of man completed on the 6th day, a brief description of paradise is given with the 4 rivers that flow from the Garden of Eden and the tree of life and tree of knowledge planted in the midst of the garden. Adam is commanded not to eat from the tree of knowledge, lest he die. He is given the responsibility of keeping and dressing the garden. He is further tested in his ability of discerning an appropriate mate, of which he succeeds and is given his wife.

With the creation of Adam, the Dispensation of Innocence begins as Adam enjoys the lush pleasures of the nascent world.

WATERING THE EARTH

The canopied Earth had no cloud cover or rain system for the first 1500 years until the canopy was ruptured by the Noahic flood. Because of the high atmospheric pressure the humidity was very high, so that moisture collected as a mist upon the ground, which was used to water all the plant life.

THE TREES OF LIFE & KNOWLEDGE

These will be discussed later in regards to the testing of Adam, but are included here because of their connection to the four rivers that flowed out from the garden of Eden. Suffice to say that the tree of life granted eternal life - perhaps a picture of the cross - and that the tree of knowledge of good and evil, really was the knowledge of evil, because, at this point, Adam is perfect and good.

THE FOUR RIVERS

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is "Pison": that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;... And the name of the second river is "Gihon"; the same is that which compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is "Hiddekel": that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is "Euphrates". Genesis 2:10-2:14.

Since the world was changed after the Flood, these four rivers which sprang from the heart of the garden of Eden 0$3 (which means, "soft, voluptuous pleasure") are not existent today. There are no present rivers named the "Pison" or the "Gihon". The "Hiddekel" (or Tigris) and the "Euphrates" are not the same rivers of today, but it is probable that the post-diluvians remembered these antediluvian rivers and renamed the new rivers of Mesopotamia after them. It also suggests that Noah and his sons had traveled far and wide in the antediluvian world (perhaps in gathering the animals) and remembered the terrain well. After the Flood they may have explored the land again to assess the damage and note the changes.

The first river, Pison 0&:*5 (which means "dispersive") probably refers to it being the head river that branches off into the other rivers. The text indicates that the mist was not enough to water the garden, hence the need of the river. Since the waters begin in the midst of Eden, then it is probable that its sources are subterranean waters beneath the ground of Eden. The Pison is described as compassing the land of Havilah %-*&( (which means "circular") where gold is found, and may describe an antediluvian land. If so, then the mining of gold and precious stones was common practice there in the antediluvian world. It is more likely that the land of Havilah refers to a postdiluvian area that Moses used to help his readers identify the territory that it once was. The Bible refers to Havilah as the abode of Ishmael and his sons. "And they [the sons of Ishmael] dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria" (Gen. 25:18). And again concerning Saul battling the Amalekites, "And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt" (1 Sam. 15:7). It is reported by Henry Morris in his book, The Genesis Record that Havilah also has the meaning of "sand land" [1], which would refer to a desert. From these descriptions it sounds like the land of Havilah is the Sinai Peninsula and the land just to the east in Idumea or the Negev.

The second river, Gihon 0&(*# (which means "a stream that gushes forth, or breaks forth) may have been an underground spring that broke forth from the Pison then circled the land which today is called Ethiopia. It is also a valley, or pool, near Jerusalem. When Adonijah tried to steal the promised throne of David from Solomon, King David said, ".. cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon" (1 Kings 1:33). When Solomon rode forth on the mule, the Bible says, "And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon" (1 Kings 1:45). Later another king, Hezekiah, "stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David" (2 Chron. 32:30). This later became the pool of Siloam (which means "sent" since Hezekiah built a tunnel from the Gihon to Siloam) where Jesus sent the blind man to receive his sight (John 9:7). Is it just a coincidence that the fountain of Gihon, which today is the Virgin's Fountain,, was passed by Jesus riding on a donkey during his Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday?

The third river, Hiddekel -8$(, (the meaning is uncertain, but in Accadian it is Idikla, which is the Tigris). According to Gesenius [2], the word means rapid Tigris, since its source is high in the mountains of Armenia and flows east of Assyria. Assyria, of course, is another post-diluvian land and is used by Moses to describe the area where the Hiddekel flowed. It is mentioned only once more in the Bible (Dan. 10:4) as the place where Daniel had his epic vision of the future kingdoms of the earth. Perhaps, in the antediluvian world the Hiddekel dropped off a small set of hills that caused it to run rapidly down river.

The last river is simply stated as the Euphrates, which Moses assumes is universally understood to flow where the Euphrates flows today. The Hebrew word, however, is not Euphrates, but, Perath ;95 which means, "to break forth, rushing." Perhaps it broke off of the Hiddekel, running faster downhill than the Hiddekel. In the post-diluvian world, the Perath, or Euphrates is the boundary of the promised land given to Abraham (Gen. 15:18).

WHERE IS EDEN?

It is significant that these four rivers begin in the heart of the garden of Eden. The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of the Millennial Temple in chapters 40 through 47. In that last chapter he describes a river flowing from beneath the temple that runs to the Dead Sea imparting new life into that salt lake.

Afterward he [the angel with Ezekiel] brought me again unto the door of the house [temple]; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the fore front of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the altar (Eze. 47:1)

...he [the angel] measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. After wards he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over (Eze. 47:3b-5).

Then he said to me, "These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea [Dead Sea]: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed (Eze. 47:8).

And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine (Eze. 47:12).

A similar description without a Temple is given again to the apostle John and recorded in his Revelation in the last chapter:

And he [the angel with John] showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves were for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:1 & 2).

There are subterranean water tables beneath the Temple mount in Jerusalem today. It would be no hard matter for the Lord to cause these wells to rupture (especially since Zechariah tells us that when the Messiah returns to set up his kingdom, he'll land on mount Olives and split them asunder upon his landing - Zec. 14:4). It seems that there will be trees similar to the tree of life during the millennial kingdom, but the tree of life won't be reinstated until the end when the White Throne Judgment and last battle with Satan are over.

Tradition says that the garden of Eden was located at the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers at the Persian Gulf. Probably the reasoning for this is that these rivers meet there which is similar to Genesis 2:14. However, the antediluvian world was drastically altered with the Flood that covered the entire Earth. Also, the rivers began as underground springs, which would then, have to flow downhill to the oceans, not from the ocean up. Considering the parallels between the rivers of Genesis, Ezekiel, and Revelation and how God has chosen Jerusalem as the sight of man's redemption through the cross of Christ and the throne of his earthly kingdom, could it not be possible that Jerusalem is the original site for the garden of Eden? If one redraws all the continents so that they form one land mass according to the plate lines, then one would see that the location of Jerusalem would be in the center of all the continents. Wouldn't that be a logical place to originally place Eden? It would also be appropriate that the redemption of mankind would occur at the site of the original crime. While its exact location is unknown, the Scriptural argument for it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

SERVICE: RESPONSIBILITY

When Adam was set in the garden of Eden, he was given a task or service to perform in dressing the garden and keeping it. In dressing it he was to tend to it's maintenance. In keeping it he was to guard the garden from intruders and to protect it from defilement. Adam was entrusted with stewardship. Jesus said that "he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10) and further stated, "if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?" (verse 12). Adam was given a series of tests before full dominion of the planet was handed to him. The first was the care of the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it (verse 15) to test his servant hood in the bodily realm.

This test was given, not to burden Adam, but rather to prove him worthy of dominion. A manufacturer of a product will create the product and test it to see how it stands up to different types of stress before it is deemed safe for release to the consuming public. Likewise, God's tests were for the same reason. Adam passed some tests, but failed the big test. This is what the writer of Hebrews means of Jesus:

For, like Adam, Jesus was already perfect, but he had to prove himself perfect by his obedience before all power and dominion was handed over to him. If God tested Adam and Jesus, then we need to realize that God tests us, as well. His testing with us is the same: to prove us as reliable, not to torment us. It is always God's intent to prove us good, and Satan's intent to use the testing for our destruction.

He was told he could freely eat of every tree in the garden (verse 16), but not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die (verse 17). This was a test of his belief in the Word of God which is of the heart (believe in thine heart -Rom. 10:9) and his obedience which is of the will in the soul according to the spirit (Prov. 25:28 - he that has no rule over his spirit). It is noteworthy that while there was no death at this time, Adam must have understood what that meant because he was held accountable for his actions. God does not hold us accountable for what we do not know as stated in Acts 17:30, "and the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent." We know that he later failed this test.

DISCERNMENT: SELECTING A MATE

And Yahweh God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." And out of the ground Yahweh God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him Genesis 2:18-20.

When God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone," He was not making an afterthought, but was declaring for all generations to come that marriage is His creation and is the best circumstance for man. However, it seems a strange matter that He'd say that He'd make man a mate, then bring forth animals for Adam to name. Many theologians have claimed that this was part of Adam's "job" in keeping the garden, but if that is so, it is strangely out of context. The task of naming the animals is not an unrelated digression. God was testing Adam to see if his discernment was correct. Adam has to tell whether the animals were the same as he was physically, which was a test of his world awareness in his body, of which he successfully recognized that they were not. But more significantly, the naming of the animals was a test of his spiritual discernment which is a facet of his communion ability in his spirit. More than just his making up names as merely a label affixed to an entity, he was restating the same word that God had spoken that defined the essence of each creature which was the spirit of each creature. This was a test to see if he could tell that in spirit and body (Gen. 2:7) if there was a soul mate to be found, which there was not. Therefore he was rewarded with the creation of his mate (verses 21 & 22).

It is noteworthy that some speakers have recreated this scene as though God were personally creating each animal one by one for Adam to name - a task that would clearly have taken a long time to accomplish! However, the text clearly states that the fowl of the air were created on the fifth day (1:22), not the sixth day when the beast and cattle were created (1:25). It has also been said by theologians that man is unique to in that God formed him from the dust of the ground and not the animals, but, rather, spoke all other creatures into existence. This passage clearly refutes that in saying, "And out of the ground Yahweh God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air" (2:19a). Therefore, we must conclude that the text means that God brought samples of creatures to Adam that He previously formed from the ground.

Another consideration that causes confusion is the expression "help meet," which is often understood to mean "help mate," which it does not. The term "meet" is not connected to the term "help." It means suitable or appropriate and therefore is rendered "a helper appropriate for Adam." This passage as interpreted as a test of his discernment renders a clearer meaning to the term "meet." The conclusion of this test states, "but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him" (2:20b). This isn't a statement on God's frustration. He is all knowing and knew ahead of time that none would be appropriate for Adam just as a teacher knows the answers to a student's test. Rather, this statement is an approval of Adam's ability to discern that none of the creatures were suitable as a mate for him. This same test given to Adam is still given to men today. God wants us to mature enough to recognize a potential spouse that is both physically and spiritually appropriate for us. The world system exalts the physical over the spiritual so that many men marry the wrong women and have bad marriages.