In this chapter אֲדָמָה (ground), שָׂדֶה (field), and אֶ֫רֶץ (earth, in this chapter) all occur. אֲדָמָה is the most frequent land word in this chapter.

At the beginning of this chapter Cain is the worker of the ground (4:2-3). Cain’s occupation is to cultivate the ground, but as the story unfolds he murders his brother in the field—in the place of cultivation.[1] Because Abel’s blood cries to God from the ground, the ground figures prominently in Cain’s punishment. He is cursed from the ground, which means that the ground will no longer produce for him.[2] In addition Cain is exiled from his land and becomes “a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth” (4:12). We see in this account something that will be expanded upon in the Mosaic code: murder pollutes the land. To avoid the consequences of polluted land, the law will set up mechanisms for dealing with the pollution.[3]

In many ways the punishment of Cain is an intensification of the punishment received by Adam.[4] The ground was cursed such that it would require extra work from Adam to make it productive; Cain is cursed (the person, not the ground this time) such that the ground will not produce for him. Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden, and at the eastern edge of the garden cherubim blocked the entrance; Cain is exiled from his land and moves further east of Eden to the land of wandering (Nod).[5] This exile in both cases involves moving from the presence of God.[6]

In these opening chapters of Genesis land plays an important role in the punishments given. This is likely due to the prominent place it holds in relation to God’s blessing and to the duty of man.

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[1] Leupold, 1:206; Wenham, WBC, 1:107.

[2] Calvin, Genesis, 209.

[3] Mathews, NAC, 1:275-76; Craig G. Bartholomew, Where Mortals Dwell: A Christian View of Place for Today (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 33-34.

[4] Wenahm, WBC, 1:108.

[5] Currid, EPSC, 1:151.

[6] Matthews, NAC, 1:278.

The land theme surfaces again at the end of Genesis 3 in the judgments that God pronounces on Adam and Eve.[1] Genesis 1:26-28 introduces the themes of blessing, seed, and dominion over the earth, they reappear in Genesis 2, though with the hint that the blessing can turn into a curse. In Genesis 3, due to Adam’s sin, the blessing does indeed become a curse. Fittingly, the curse focuses on seed (3:16) and dominion over the earth (3:17-19). Adam’s role as the cultivator of the ground is reaffirmed (see also 3:23). But the ground now resists human dominion.[2] It is painful to work the ground, and the geound produces thorns in thistles along with food. And in the end it seems as though the ground will have dominion over the man because the man returns to the dust of which he was created.[3]

Genesis 3 ends with mankind exiled from the Garden of Eden. As noted above, they were to extend Eden into the rest of the world, but now they find themselves exiled from the Garden. Later Scripture will hold out the hope for the restoration of Eden and its extension over the entire world.

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[1] “אדמה, ‘land’ one of the key words of the narrative (cf. 2:5-7, 19) is mentioned at the beginning and close of the curse ‘until you return to the land’ (v. 19), thereby forming an inclusion.” Wenham, WBC, 1:82.

[2] “The ground will now be his enemy rather than his servant.” Matthews, NAC, 252. Leupold speaks of the “insubordination” of the ground. Leupold, 1:173; Waltke, 95.

[3] “Once again the judgment is related to the offense. Mankind had been given dominion over the creation when Adam and Eve were first formed. But now the ground claims victory—it brings mankind into ultimate subjection.” Currid, 1:136.

Genesis 2

Genesis 1:1-2:3 forms a prologue to the book of Genesis which describes the creation of the heavens and the earth. The remainder of the book is divided into sections with the phrase “these are the generations of . . . .” These section heading act as a hinge.[1] The named person is typically the subject of the preceding section and what follows recounts the genealogy or the “historical developments arising out of” from that person in his seed.[2] In this case we are told the historical developments that arise out of the creation of the heavens and the earth. In fact, there is a literal sense in which man is generated from the earth, for God forms him from the dust of the ground.[3]

The reversal of heavens and earth to “earth and heavens” occurs only here and in Psalm 148:13. McCabe notes, “By reversing the normal order of heaven and earth, attention is shifted to focus “on what happened on the earth after the creation of man, particularly in the garden.”[4] Bartholomew notes there is a progression here from Genesis 1: “Narratively, therefore, the move from Genesis 1 to 2, rather than indicating a juxtaposition of two unrelated sources, involves a movement of progressive implacement culminating in the planting of Eden as the specific place in which the earthlings Adam and Eve will dwell."[5]

One interesting fact about the land theme in Genesis 2 is the diversity of words used for land in the chapter. Genesis 1 primarily used the term אֶ֫רֶץ, whereas Genesis 2 uses אֶ֫רֶץ (earth, land), אֲדָמָה (ground), and שָׂדֶה (field).

From 2:5 onward אֶ֫רֶץ is probably best translated land rather than earth. In 2:5-8 it probably refers to the land of Eden. The interpretation of these verses is disputed, but the most likely interpretation is as follows. In the land of Eden no plants of the kind that grow in cultivated fields were yet growing.[6] The primary reason for this lack of growth is the absence of a man to work the ground. In connection with this, the Lord made this land of the sort where rainfall does not supply the water for growth. In this land an inundation from water that springs up from the ground (in this case, probably the river mentioned later in the chapter) provides the water. But this inundation needs a man to manage it if it is to be beneficial for growing these plants. These verses thus expand on the teaching of Genesis 1:28 by providing a concrete instance of the kind of dominion man is to exercise over the earth.[7]

Verse 7 indicates that the man who is to cultivate the ground is himself made from the ground. There is a play on words here between man (אָדָם) and ground (אֲדָמָה). As Wenham notes, “He was created from it; his job is to cultivate it (2:5, 15); and on death he returns to it (3:19).”[8] The point seems to be that God made man in a way that intimately connected him with the ground, thus emphasizing the role that God has given to man to cultivate the ground.

Once the cultivator is created God plants a garden in Eden and causes trees to grow from the ground (2:8-9). In this context, the two trees are introduced, which are trees either of a blessing or of a curse (2:9; cf. 2:16).

Verses 10-14 provide a geography lesson. But this is a geography lesson with a theological point. It continues the second chapter’s expansion of the creation blessing. Up to this point Moses has emphasized Adam’s dominion in the garden, but 2:10-14 looks to possibilities beyond the garden. God never intended of human dominion to be limited to the garden; he intended for man to “fill the earth” (1:28). The river that provided water for garden (2:6, 10) also provides the highways into the lands beyond Eden.[9] This river is uniquely suited for transporting people to lands beyond the garden. All other rivers grow larger as tributaries flow into it. But this river is unity as it flows into the garden from Eden and divides in the garden into four rivers that flow out into various lands. In addition these lands have other resources that that humans will harness that will extend their dominion beyond gardening. Kidner notes, “There is a hint of the cultural development intended for man when the narrative momentarily (10-14) breaks out of Eden to open up a vista into a world of diverse countries and resources. The digression, overstepping the bare details that locate the garden, discloses that there is more than primitive simplicity in store for the race: a complexity of unequally distributed skills and peoples, even if the reader knows the irony of it in the tragic connotations of the words ‘gold,’ ‘Assyria,’ ‘Euphrates.’”[10]

Verses 15-16 wrap up this first section of chapter 2 by returning to the themes of dominion over the garden and of the blessing and cursing that stands before mankind in the two trees in the midst of the garden. The remainder of the chapter focuses on finding a helper fit for Adam. Genesis 2:4- 25 are thus a chapter length expansion on Genesis 1:28, with its themes of land, seed, and blessing. The first part of the chapter centers on exercising dominion over the earth, the last part centers on the wife necessary for man to be fruitful and multiply, and embedded in the middle are the trees that will bring blessing or cursing.

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[1] Robert V. McCabe, "A Critique of the Framework Interpretation of the Creation Account (Part 2 of 2), Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, 11, no. 1 (Fall 2006): 73.

[2] Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained, 2^nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 43.

[3] Ibid.; Young, E. J. “The Days of Genesis: First Article.” Westminster Theological Journal 25, no. 1 (November 1962): 18.

[4] McCabe, 74; cf. Bartholomew, 24.

[5] Bartholomew, 25.

[6] שָׂדֶה does not always refer to cultivated fields, but it often does and this seems the best meaning in this context, which stresses the need for a man to cultivate the ground so that the plants mentioned will grow.

[7] Alan Jacobs aptly captures how a garden exemplifies human dominion over the earth in a way that brings God glory. “The gardener makes nothing, but rather gathers what God has made and shapes it into new and pleasing forms. The well-designed garden shows nature more clearly and beautifully than nature can show itself.” Alan Jacobs, “Gardening and Governing,” Books and Culture (March/April 2009): 18.

[8] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary, ed. David A. Hubbard (Waco: Word, 1987), 59. Of course, the death aspect only comes into view with sin.

[9] I am indebted to Bryan Smith for this idea.

[10] Derek Kidner, Genesis, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, ed. D. J. Wiseman (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1967), 61.

The resurgence of the biblical theology movement of the past thirty years or so has given rise to a host of issues attendant to that discipline, including the search for a center, or organizing principle, around which the biblical data might be ordered. . . . It is the thesis of this article that such a center does exist and that it lies in the concept of the kingdom of God, the only concept broad enough to encompass the diversity of biblical faith without becoming tautological. . . . Theology must make a statement about God (the subject) who acts (the verb) to achieve a comprehensive purpose (the object).

If this is the case, not only would one expect that statement to be the interlocking and integrating principle observable throughout the fabric of biblical revelation, but he would also expect it to be enunciated early on in the canonical witness in unmistakable terms. Hence, Genesis should most likely provide the seed-bed in which the anticipated proposition is to be found. And a careful reading of that book of beginnings reveals a statement of purpose that is so striking in its clarity and authority that there can be little question it is the very formula we seek to establish the Bible’s own theological center: ‘Then God [the subject] said, “Let Us make [the verb] man [object] in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule [purpose] over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky. . . .” God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’ (Gen. 1:26-28).

The theme that emerges here is that of the sovereignty of God over all His creation, mediated through man, His vice-regent and image. Thus Genesis, the book of beginnings, introduces the purposes of God, which remain intact throughout the Old and New Testaments despite the sin of man and the impairment of his ability to be and do all that God had intended. The failings of His creation—a major theme of human history and of the Bible itself—are unable to frustrate the ultimate purposes of God, for the language of eschatology is replete with the overtones of redemption and salvation that bring about a renewal of all that God desired to do in creation. There will be a new heaven and new earth wherein dwells righteousness (Rev. 21:1; cf. Isa. 65:17; 66:22).

Eugene H. Merrill, “Daniel as a Contribution to Kingdom Theology,” in Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, ed. Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer (Chicago: Moody, 1986), 211-12.