The Garden of Eden

At the time God created the earth and the heavens, no shrub or plant had yet grown because God had not sent rain and there was no man to work the ground. God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, causing the man to become a living being (Genesis 2:7). God then planted a garden in the east, in a place called Eden, and put the man there to work and take care of it. The text states that God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, including the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil located in the middle of the garden (Genesis 2:9). A river flowed from Eden to water the garden, where it separated into four headwaters named Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.

God commanded the man that he was free to eat from any tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, warning that the man would surely die if he ate from it. God observed that it was not good for the man to be alone and determined to make a helper suitable for him. God brought the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, which He had formed out of the ground, to the man to see what he would name them (Genesis 2:19). Whatever the man called each living creature, that became its name. However, for Adam, no suitable helper was found among the animals.

God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, God took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. God then made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man and brought her to him (Genesis 2:22). The man stated that she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, calling her woman because she was taken out of man. The text records that the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame (Genesis 2:25).