Genesis 2: The garden and the command

Where Genesis 2 sits

In the story

Act I, Creation: Genesis 1–2

In the Bible

Old Testament · The Law · chapter 2 of 50 in Genesis

In Genesis

Heavens and earth: Eden lost, 2:4–4:26 · part of All humanity

Before

Genesis 1: In the beginning, God

After

Genesis 3: The fall and the promise

Genesis 2 summary

The creation week closes with God's rest and His blessing on the seventh day. Under the first “account” heading the camera moves close: the LORD God forms man from dust, plants a garden in Eden, and sets him there to work and guard it, free to eat of every tree but one. Since it is not good for the man to be alone, God builds the woman from his side and brings her to him, and the two become one flesh.

Genesis 2 in context

Speaking

Moses, narrating; the LORD God gives the command, and the man speaks the first recorded human words (2:23)

Written for

Israel, newly given a Sabbath, a sanctuary and a law, seeing all three foreshadowed in Eden

Around it

The seventh day closes the prologue (2:1–3); the garden and the command (2:4–25) set the stage for the serpent's question (3:1)

The sections of Genesis 2

1. The seventh day

   God finishes His work, rests on the seventh day, and blesses and sanctifies it.

   2:1–3
2. Man from the dust

   Under the first heading, the LORD God forms man from the dust and breathes into him the breath of life.

   2:4–7
3. A garden in Eden

   The LORD God plants a garden in Eden with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in its midst, watered by a river.

   2:8–14
4. The one command

   God sets the man in the garden to work and keep it, gives him every tree but one, and warns that eating it means death.

   2:15–17
5. The woman and marriage

   Finding no fit helper for the man, God builds the woman from his rib, and the two become one flesh, unashamed.

   2:18–25

Around Genesis 2

Also in Heavens and earth: Eden lost

• Genesis 3
• Genesis 4

On the road

• The Gospel

Places

• Eden

Read alongside

• Matthew 19:4–6 Jesus quotes 2:24 as the Creator's own word on marriage.
• 1 Corinthians 15:45 Paul quotes 2:7: the first man Adam became a living being.
• Numbers 3:7–8 The same pair of verbs for the Levites who serve and guard the tabernacle.
• Revelation 22:1–2 A river and the tree of life in the city to come.

Chapters that point here

• Exodus 31
• Exodus 39
• Exodus 40
• Ecclesiastes 12
• Song of Songs 1
• Song of Songs 4
• Song of Songs 7
• Song of Songs 8
• Ezekiel 47
• Hosea 6
• Malachi 2
• Mark 2
• Mark 10
• John 20
• Romans 5
• 1 Corinthians 6
• 1 Corinthians 7
• 1 Corinthians 11
• Ephesians 5
• 1 Timothy 2
• Hebrews 4
• Revelation 2

How Genesis 2 connects

• Rest · Genesis 2:2–3 · God's seventh-day rest; Hebrews says a rest remains for God's people, entered through faith. (Hebrews 4:4; Hebrews 4:9–10)
• The Temple Line · Genesis 2:8–15 · Eden as the first sanctuary: entered from the east, rich in gold and onyx, watered by a river; the verbs for the man's work, “cultivate” and “keep,” pair again for the Levites' sanctuary duty (Num 3:7–8).
• Land · Genesis 2:8 · The first land given to man; its loss (3:23–24) stands behind every later promise of land.
• Type · Adam, formed from dust, a living being pictures Christ, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45–49)
• Type · The first marriage, in which the man and woman become one flesh pictures Christ and the church, the union Paul names when quoting Gen 2:24 (Ephesians 5:31–32)
• Covenant with Adam · Genesis 2:15–17 · The covenant of works set up: one command, death threatened for disobedience, and life held out, pledged by the tree of life; Adam stands as head of all his offspring.

Doctrines Genesis 2 teaches

• Marriage · Genesis 2:18–25; Matthew 19:4–6
• Creation · Genesis 2:7
• Free will · Genesis 2:16–17

How Genesis 2 is shaped

Questions on Genesis 2

1. What one command did God give the man, and what did He say would follow disobedience?

   Show the answer

   He could eat freely from every tree of the garden, but he must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day he ate of it he would surely die (2:16–17).

2. Which words at 2:4 open the book's first “account” section?

   Show the answer

   “This is the account of the heavens and the earth” (2:4). It is the first of the book’s ten headings, and it opens the section on Eden that runs to the end of chapter 4.

3. Where is marriage first founded, and which New Testament writers quote it?

   Show the answer

   At 2:24, where a man leaves his father and mother, is united to his wife, and the two become one flesh. Jesus quotes it in Matthew and Mark (Matt 19:5; Mark 10:7–8), and Paul in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians (1 Cor 6:16; Eph 5:31).