Genesis 3 - The Fall of Man (Conclusion)
…continued Genesis 3 - The Fall of Man (Part 7)
22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Verse 22 is a verse that has always interested me, because seems to imply more than it is saying. Compare it to this passage in Genesis 1:
 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
 27 So God created man in his own image,
      in the image of God he created him;
      male and female he created them.
When God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,” what did He mean? Did He mean that man was to be created in God’s image and likeness? Why was His statement made with the plural form of His name? If God already made man in his image and likeness in 1:26-27, then why does verse 3:22 say that it was eating of the apple and sinning that made Adam like “one of Us”?
When God said “Let us” make man in our image, we can read that statement knowing know that Jesus was God the Father’s master craftsman for creation, which is consistent with the Gospel where Jesus consistently does the will of His Father Who is in Heaven. It’s throughout the Gospel that Jesus only does His Father’s will. It would be no different during Creation. Therefore, the Us refers at least to God the Father and the Son. This makes sense, because throughout Genesis 1, the Father pronounces what shall be, and the Son sees to it that it gets done. Keeping with this theme, it would then appear that God the Father is telling Jesus to mankind in Their image… but He doesn’t say what that means. However, He does say that being in God’s image and likeness, mankind would rule the life created before him.
Then Adam and Eve eat the fruit, and God says that Adam “has now become like one of us.” But, He doesn’t stop there, He says what that means: “… knowing good and evil.” This tells me something. It tells me that when Adam was created, he was in God’s image, and in God’s likeness, but he did not know good and evil. In fact, even Satan appears to confirm this in Genesis 2:
 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
What this suggests is that Adam was created with the capacity of disobeying, but was not given anything to disobey until he was placed in the garden. But, being the placed in the Garden introduces its own interesting quandary, because after creating male and female in Genesis 1:
 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
So, the sequence leading up to man’s arrival at the knowledge of Good and evil, would appear to be thus:
- God creates male and female in His image and likeness on Day 6
- God places Adam in the garden
- God makes Eve
- Adam and Eve fall, and are now like God, knowing good and evil
- Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden
Do you see the repetition within the sequence above? Many are uncomfortable with it, creating an obvious attraction of considering Genesis 2-3 a repeat of Genesis 1, but just showing more or different detail. Both have the creation of Adam and Eve, both have them being like God in some respect, and both have them going out into the world to live. However, I prefer the sequential approach because the re-telling approach introduces the following problems:
- In Chapter 1, Adam and Eve are both made on Day 6. For a Young Earther, this places nearly all of Day 2 (creation of Adam, need for a helper, naming of the animals, deep sleep, creation of Eve) within a single 24 hour period. Why all of that? Because Genesis 1 records the creation of both male and female.
- In Chapter 1, mankind is given all of the earth as a blessing; in Chapter 3, it is because of a curse.
- In Chapter 1, mankind is created similar to God and pronounced “very good”; in Chapter 3, mankind “becomes” like God and is punished.
Do you see the contradictions? That is why I prefer the sequential approach. However, the sequential approach, while avoiding these contradictions introduces problems of its own…
- Mankind, male and female, were created before Adam
- Mankind was blessed to fill the earth… and only later was Adam put into the Garden
- Being created in God’s image and likeness somehow precedes becoming like God for knowing good and evil
However, these problems are all solved by modern science. Combine science with scripture and it tells the sequential story I enumerated above. According to scripture, Adam lived 6-10,000 years ago; according to science, mankind lived 200,000 years ago. That reconciles it! God made mankind 200,000 years ago, blessed them to populate the entire world, and they were indeed created in God’s image, but did not know good and evil… meaning they did not know disobedience to God. Then, God rested.
Adam was later taken from mankind, placed in a beautiful garden, and God gave him animals to keep him company while he tended the garden. However, Adam was still lonely. So, instead of taking Eve from the general population, He took her from Adam’s rib. They were in God’s image and likeness, but they did not know good and evil. However, they knew belief and obedience… they were righteous. When they ate the fruit however, and did it out of temptation by the devil, they now knew evil. This made them more like God than before. There were people living outside the garden already, tilling the ground… but now Adam and Eve were made to live likewise among them. They were now banished from the Garden. In fact, because I believe it was Jesus walking through the garden, I believe it was also Jesus who drove them out of there… and I am convinced it broke His heart. He already knew that He would return to form His ministry 4-6,000 years later… which is why He could predict the enmity between his seed and her seed… Satan’s seed and Eve’s… later on Mary’s, because Jesus birth would be to a virgin.
I really enjoy the true harmony I see in scripture, between God’s story of Creation in scripture, and His story that He tells through science. Between them, we see His perfect will carried out.