Genesis 3: What is the Garden of Eden & talking snake?
The account of the Fall of humanity in Genesis chapter 3 is often misunderstood by the secular world, even being cited as a reason for not being Christian. My favorite line from reddit is, “Thankfully there is a talking snake so we know it’s not real.” In reality, this is all real but the disparity between the modern world and the ancient causes many to lack an understanding on how to read the Bible.
To summarize the Fall, Adam and Eve, the first created humans, are in the Garden of Eden, otherwise known as paradise. God instructed them, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:16-17). We begin chapter 3 by meeting “the serpent.” The serpent tempts Eve into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, telling her, “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Eve gives into the temptation. “She took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate” (Gen 3:6).
God then questions them on what happened. After Adam and Eve tell God about the events that took place, God curses the serpent to crawl on the ground and eat dust for all its days and then curses Eve with birthpains and Adam has to till the now cursed ground to struggle for food. Adam is told “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).
Adam and Eve are then driven out of Eden and God placed a “cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” So that man may not “take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (Genesis 3:22-23).
The account of the Fall is filled with lots of confusing things for non-Christians. What’s with talking snakes? Is God even Omniscient? Did the Garden actually exist? Did God LIE? Let’s walk through Genesis 3 to understand what is being said and the theology behind it. We will discuss the serpent, the fall itself, the punishments, prophecy, and answering, what is the garden of Eden and where is it? Stick with me to the end to see it all come together.
How to read Genesis 3
The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation us gives us the certainty of faith the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents (CCC 390).
We must first learn and understand what is being said through the figurative language to better understand the story.
Talking Snakes
Reading from the Creation Story and into the Fall, we are greeted with a talking snake. We read how the serpent tempts Adam and Eve and then is punished by God, Who said “upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:14). So, is this the story of how the snake lost its legs? No.
To better understand what the talking snake is, we must understand what is being said by reading through the lens of the ancient world. In the ancient Near East, serpents symbolized divinity and fertility as well as the threat of cosmic chaos (The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 62). This is an example of the inspired authors using symbols familiar to the Hebrews in the ancient Near East mythology to relay important truths. An ancient Jewish reader would have understood this serpent in Genesis 3 to be a divine being of sorts that brings many threats of chaos to the proper order of the world.
The other thing to consider is what word was used. The Hebrew word used here is commonly translated to “serpent”. The modern Hebrew word used translates to nâchâsh, however ancient Hebrew was written with consonants and without any vowels. The vowels were added in the medieval period. If the vowels are removed, the words become more ambiguous. Dropping the vowels, the word nâchâsh can be used as a noun, verbal participle, or adjective. As a noun it would be serpent, if it is a verbal participle, it would be the cunning or deceptive one, and as an adjective it would be “shining one” (Spirits 2020).
The serpent in the account of the Fall is described as a serpent, as in a divine symbol in semitic culture which would be a false god, a fallen angel, a demon. The serpent in Genesis 3 is also a cunning or deceptive one, as shown in its deception of Adam and Eve. Lastly, this serpent is a shining one, because it is believed to be Lucifer, a fallen angel, a beautiful seraphim from the angelic orders. All three of the options for the word nâchâsh apply very well to the serpent described in Genesis 3.
Ultimately, this may not be a serpent as in merely a snake, but instead is a serpent as in a deceptive and cunning fallen angel believed to be Lucifer who is offering a temptation to Adam and Eve. When the figurative use of language is considered, we can see this may not necessarily have been a snake hanging off a tree but was Lucifer tempting Adam and Eve to believe they “will be like God.” (Genesis 3:5).
What is Lucifer and how did he get there in the first place?
There many names for Lucifer such as the devil, Satan, and Beelzebub. Lucifer is an angel created by God, though he is a fallen angel. By going to the other end of the Bible into the Book of Revelation, we can learn how Lucifer fell from grace and ended up in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
“A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon… His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. (Rev 12:1-5)
“And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Rev 12:7-9).
A loud voice was then heard in heaven proclaiming the victory over Satan and his angels. The voice concludes “But woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:12).
“When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.” (Revelation 12:13)
Cool story, but what does all this mean? I will note the book of Revelation is multivalent and filled with rich symbols and images to interpret, so there may be other ways to interpret which does not invalidate other interpretations. Getting to it, we clearly see the dragon, “that ancient serpent” is “the Devil,” “Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” and “he was thrown down to the earth.” With that, we can connect that the serpent in Genesis 3 is the devil who was cast down to earth in Revelation 12.
The devil is clearly shown to have been an angel because “the dragon and his angels fought.” The dragon is the great deceiver, “the deceiver of the whole world” who is the reason that one third of the angels fell with him (see Rev 12:4). The dragon was the angel among the other angels who inspired them to rebel with him against God.
Why did the devil rebel? This has to do with the woman described. Who is the woman? Tradition holds she is none other than the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. So was Mary in heaven giving birth to Jesus, the “male child, who is to rule all the nations,” before humanity had even begun? No. The commonly held belief is that God created the angels outside of heaven but not on earth. They were outside of heaven so they would not see God and fall in love with Him. God wanted them to consent to His rule out of free will and love, something that would have been compromised if they had beheld the beauty of God. God then told the angels His plan to create humanity and that He would become man to join them by being born of a woman, the Blessed Virgin, and unite humanity to The Trinity as members of the Mystical Body of Christ. Just as we have “members” of our body, we are the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, to be united with the Godhead, the Trinity, for all eternity (1 Cor 12:12-13). This meant that the angels would have to submit to a human, Jesus Christ, God made Man, and honor His mother, the Blessed Virgin, and humanity in the Mystical Body of Christ, something that Lucifer did not like. The writing of Revelation depicts visual imagery, however it is safe to say it was a representation of God presenting His plan to the angels so they may accept or reject Him.
It is believed that Lucifer was the most beautiful angel created. Enamored with his beauty, he pridefully rose up against God to avoid kneeling before any human. This belief is shown when “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.” And after his fall, “when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.”
Rather than holding that Mary was in heaven giving birth to Jesus, it is that Lucifer was shown God’s plan, to which Lucifer decided to rebel, desiring to devour the Male Child, as in, prevent God’s plan from coming to fruition in an effort to prevent any human from being above Lucifer himself.
To summarize all this, Lucifer rebelled against God because he did not want to bow down to humanity due to his pride which came from Lucifers free will, a free will given to him by God to allow for true choice to exist. Because of this, Lucifer was banished from heaven leaving him to roam the earth, thus he found his way into Eden.
What is a fallen angel?
A fallen angel is a being that was made naturally good by God, but were made evil by their own doing (CCC 391). Evil is not something that exists in itself, but instead is the absence of good. This evil is an absence of the greatest good, that is, God. By being completely absent of the good of God, these angels are in a fallen state because they are entirely without God’s grace. By being without God’s grace, they are entirely evil, entirely absent of good.
They are angelic by nature, meaning they are still angels, just as we are still humans despite original sin, and the abilities of angels are still retained, however they lack the potential greatness that is only granted by grace. Due to this, they are utterly incapable of fulfilling the office they were created for within the Kingdom and service of God. They remain existing in their nature, broken from their sin, unable to fulfill that which they were created for, despairing without God’s grace, a grace they freely rejected and have chosen to live without.
They desire to tempt humanity in an attempt to make us feel like them, which in turn only increases their own suffering and misery as they cause others to suffer like them.
Why even let Satan exist?
It is within God’s omnipotent capabilities to cease the existence of Satan and the other fallen angels. The reason God did not do this is because it would be a violation of free will. If the consequence of angelic rejection of God was to cease existing, then that would not be free will and instead would be coercion.
Alternatively, God could have sealed Satan and the fallen angels into hell for eternity. God did not do this because that would also be a violation of free will instead resulting in coercion to accept God.
God wants us all to accept Him so that He can lovingly give us the great gifts of grace. If we reject God and are closed off to Him and His gifts, then He will honor this decision based in free will because a violation of this free will would be coercion. We humans are also given the opportunity to repent during our mortal lives, something angels are incapable of due to their nature.
Can these angels repent like humans?
The rebellion of the angels was a sin against God, an irrevocable rejection of God by the angels (CCC 392). Their rejection of God is irrevocable because angels are fully aware of the exact repercussions of their actions, thus in rejecting God they were aware they were choosing to live eternity without God. It is important to understand that “it is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. “There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death”” (CCC 393).
Whereas we humans are not aware of this due to the limitations our bodies place on our immortal spirit, thus we are given the opportunity to repent during this mortal life once we see the consequences of rejecting God, consequences that we were not aware of when we decided to reject Him.
Why did God let Satan tempt Adam and Eve?
Although Satan was cast out of heaven due to deciding not to serve God, this does not mean Satan has any level of freedom. In contrast, Satan is on a leash held by God. This leash does not violate free will since the will comes from within each of us, whereas restrictions on freedoms limit our capacity to take action on our will, but does not actually change our will.
So, does this mean God willed for Adam and Eve to sin? No, instead, a more realistic belief is that God permitted Satan to tempt Adam and Eve as an opportunity for the couple to choose God.
Why would God test them instead of just letting them be without temptation from Satan?
If Lucifer hadn’t rebelled, then Adam and Eve would not have been tempted by him, but this does not mean they would not have been tempted at all. God gave us all free will, and we use that free will to accept or reject our God. We receive recompense for either decision, but we are free to choose. The existence of the tree in the garden was a temptation in itself
What is the Tree of knowledge of good and evil?
Did God not want Adam and Eve to have knowledge of good and evil? The Tree did not give Adam and Eve simply knowledge of good and evil. Being rational animals, they had the virtues to understand good and evil. Instead, Adam and Eve believed the tree was capable of giving them the authority to determine what is good and evil, in other words “to be like God”. However, “man cannot decide by himself what is good and what is evil, they cannot “know good and evil, like God”” (Catholic Answers 2014). The belief they had about the tree and their actions based on this are the source of the Original Sin. They knowingly disobeyed God in an effort to be like God without God.
Why did God even place the tree there in the first place?
God could have “leashed” Adam and Eve by not even placing the tree there, but they needed the opportunity to act on their free will and exhibit a true and free choice in accepting God. By placing the tree there and warning Adam of the consequences, Adam and Eve were given the opportunity to show their trust in God and to accept Him through free will.
The Fall
We have gone over what the serpent actually is, who the serpent is, why he was able to tempt them, and why the tree was placed there in the first place. Now we will move onto the moment they fell. The stage is set for the Fall of humanity. The serpent, who is the most cunning fallen angel, has tempted Eve with violating God’s commandment, so that humanity may fall from their state of grace and enter into the same despair Lucifer has found himself in.
After conversing with the serpent, Eve “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” (Gen 3:7).
Adam and Eve sinned, falling from the state of holiness God had created them in. “They knew that they were naked” meaning they now had something to hide and conceal because they had sinned. Before the Fall, there was nothing to hide, but now they had to conceal themselves and their sin. We see this is not a curse from God but is a true fracture of their nature because this was the immediate effect of giving into the temptation, that is, sinning against God. Adam and Eve fractured themselves, something that was then transmitted to all of humanity through Original Sin.
What is Original Sin?
To understand the impact of the original sin, sin itself must be defined. Sin offends both against God as well as against reason, truth, and right conscience (CCC 1849). Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience in that “it is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods” (CCC 1849). This perverse attachment to certain goods results in an individual making an action that is against proper reason, natural truth, and one’s own conscience thus causing them to place God and neighbor below this certain good.
This first sin resulted in Adam and Eve losing the grace of original holiness, destruction of the harmony they had found themselves, and a loss of control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body (CCC 399-400). This has since been transmitted to the descendants of Adam and Eve. Adam received original holiness to transmit to his descendants, however after the introduction of sin and destruction of original holiness, the fallen state caused by original sin was transmitted by propagation to all mankind (CCC 404, Trent 22). Original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in his descendants, and is a deprivation of original holiness where we have a wounded human nature, inclined to sin, an inclination called “concupiscence.” (CCC 405).
To be born with original sin, is to be born with a broken nature inclined toward sin. Adam and Eve were created in a state of holiness, without sin, as God intended, in His image. They were in communion with God, fully aligned with Him receiving all the grace He has to offer. Upon committing the original sin, they were no longer in communion, no longer in the state of holiness, and thus their relationship with God was broken. Due to this, they were banished from the garden of Eden and no longer merited God’s grace that they received when in a state of original holiness (see Genesis 3:23). As a result, we all bear this deprivation of original holiness which is why the story of salvation started began after the Fall of humanity.
God responds
Immediately after the first sin, “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8). There are two theories to explain that God was walking. 1) Jesus Christ Himself, God Incarnate, Second Person of the Trinity, Eternal God, was actually walking in the garden. 2) This was a humanlike description, anthropomorphizing, applied to God to describe the closeness that existed between God and humanity; they walked together, they were in communion with each other.
Adam and Eve hid from God, “But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:9-11).
Is God actually omniscient?
If God is omniscient, why did He ask Adam “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). Of course, God knew where Adam was. God was giving Adam the opportunity to repent and confess what happened. God knew exactly what happened and where they were, that’s why God was able to walk within earshot of Adam and Eve while also asking about the exact thing they did.
Who do we blame?
‘The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.”’ (Genesis 3:12). We see the division sin is beginning to sow among humanity. Adam resigned himself from his God-given duty as head of household. Adam blames eve, who in turn blames the serpent. Neither Adam nor Eve repented.
A fun dinner table conversation comes from, “who sinned first? Adam or Eve?” Men will blame Eve while women will blame Adam. In reality, it was both, but the bulk of this sin falls on Adam. Adam was right there with Eve when she was speaking with the serpent, which is how “she also gave some [fruit] to her husband” (Genesis 3:6).
Disordered way of life
Original sin has introduced disorder into humanity. To better understand this disorder, we can look through the Scriptures to learn the proper order.
Before Eve was created by God, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:16-17). Then later on in the Fall, Eve recites the same thing. Scripture only notes God telling Adam this, it does not note anything about God telling Eve directly.
God appointed Adam as guardian of Eve. God gave Adam a commandment to keep, a commandment that Adam relayed to Eve. We can see this theory reinforced because God, who is omniscient, “called to the man” and asked Adam of everything that happened with the serpent. God already knew what all had happened, but He did not ask Eve. Instead, God asked Adam, who was accountable for both Adam and Eve because God had given Adam responsibility over Eve. This disorder is shown in Adam sinning when he did not step into the conversation between Eve and the serpent, instead standing by and eating of the fruit she handed him.
Adam could have stopped Eve, not partaken himself, and at the very least repented to God. Instead, Adam submitted to Eve sinning against God, partook in the sin himself, and then tried to pass all blame off of him. Adam was prideful in trying to “be like God” and failed to be humble when God offered the opportunity for repentance.
Curses and prophecy
The serpent is cursed
God then said to the serpent, “upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life” (Gen 3:14). Is this the story of why the snake crawls on the ground? Far from it. Scripture utilizes the language of “licking dust” in various texts.
“May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust!” (Psalm 72:9)
“Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet.” (Isaiah 49:23)
“They shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds, they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall fear because of thee.” (Micah 7:17).
Licking dust is shown to be the lowest possible status of someone, something reserved for one’s enemies. The Psalmist sings of God’s enemies as licking the dust, Isaiah speaks of those who approach Jerusalem to lick the dust of the feet of Jerusalem. Micah speaks of a serpent eating dust, likening it to those who tremble out of their strongholds and turn in dread to the Lord Our God. The serpent was being cursed to eat dust, as the lowest most defeated enemy of God. This was not about how the serpent came to crawl on its belly, but instead was a curse for the devil to be the sentenced as the lowest creature.
Prophecies
God then continues speaking to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15). This verse is referred to as the protoevangelium, otherwise known as the first Gospel (CCC 410-411). Who is this woman? At first glance it looks like this is about Eve. We understand that prophecies in Scripture often had a double meaning, one meaning pertinent to the times, another about the Messiah. The traditional interpretation before Christ was that this is about Cain and Abel, Eve’s sons in Chapter 4. However, if one recalls the woman from Revelation 12, the woman the devil was pursuing, then we can see through the Full Revelation of Faith in Jesus Christ, that this is also about Mary. The traditional Jewish interpretation is this is prophecy about Cain and Abel, but at the same time this is also about Our Lord Jesus Christ and His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Remember that angels, such as Satan, are fully aware of the repercussions of their actions, meaning it is plausible to consider that Satan knew humanity’s first sin would result in the state of Original Sin and its transmission throughout humanity. Satan thinks he has accomplished something with his action, but God is letting him know that this action of fracturing humanity will not stop God’s plan of bringing humanity into communion with Him.
Instead, God will exalt Mary even more by giving her the gift of the Immaculate Conception, which means to be born without Original Sin. This enmity will be that Satan will have no claim to her upon even her conception, something he will despise.
The seed is Jesus Christ, the one Who Satan was trying to devour. God tells Satan that he will bruise Jesus’ heel while Jesus bruises, or crushes, Satan’s head. This is referring to the Crucifixion. Satan will have done all he can against Jesus Christ, God made man, but that will amount to nothing more than bruising His heel, meanwhile Christ will crush Satan’s head by defeating death, the death brought into the world by sin.
Recall that God was already planning to bring humanity into eternal communion with Him through the Mystical Body of Christ. This is not at all a backup plan, this was the plan from the beginning. God created humans with the plan to join humanity and then ultimately bring us into eternal communion with the Trinity, a plan “which he gave to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Tim 1:9).
Adam and Eve are cursed
Adam and Eve are then addressed. “To the woman [God] said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”” (Genesis 3:16)
“And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)
At first glance this may seem like this is all just trying to explain why things are the way they are, why women undergo birth pain and are considered “subordinate” to men as well as why the ground takes so much work to bear nourishing food, and ultimately why we die. However, this is actually a merciful act from God. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, rather than forsaking sinful mankind, these punishments embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of sin (CCC 1609). The solution to these punishments is found in the sacrament of marriage because it “helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one’s own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving” (CCC 1609).
Although the one flesh union of man and woman was stated in Genesis 2:24, it was not actually about the sacrament of marriage, because man and woman did not need to bound into marriage. At the time, they would engage and remain in the one flesh union lovingly within the state of holiness, however after the fall, the sacrament of marriage is a remedy, through means of a covenant between spouses, a covenant which shall not be broken. The original state Adam and Eve were created in was also not their final end, we were called to join the Trinity for eternity through salvation in Jesus Christ (CCC 257). This is why “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angelsin heaven.” (Mathew 22:30). We will be different from the angels because we will be immortal spirits united to our resurrected bodies, however we will be the same in that we will be enraptured in adoring God, the greatest good.
Marriage becomes necessary after sin enters the world so we may enter into covenant with our spouse, a covenant that requires us to uphold our end with the punishment being death, death being separation from God. And we give ourselves in marriage not out of fear of death but out of love of the other. The goal of marriage is to will the good of the other, and that good is for the other to make it to heaven. We give ourselves freely out of love; men toil to provide while women offer their body to welcome in new life while serving the husband in this exchange of love. Both give equal yet receive greater love from each other.
Till death do us part… because upon death, if we have upheld our end of the marriage, of the covenant, then the other will be with their greatest good, that is, the Lord our God. And we are not trying to exalt ourselves as the greatest good of our spouse, nay, we are to give them our all so they may receive all that God wants to give, just us they give us their all, so we receive all God wishes to give us. And that is the greatest gift anyone can give, the love that helps to achieve their greatest good. If they do not receive their greatest good, are we worthy of receiving our greatest good? No, this is why we enter into marriage covenant, this is why we cherish, nurture, and uphold the marriage covenant, to give each other the greatest gift, a gift that is greater than ourselves.
The covenant of marriage is not a contractual agreement to do things for each other. It is a covenant in love, love for one another to will the greatest good by offering ourselves as a sacrifice for the other. This self-sacrifice is made for no gain or merit for ourselves but for love of the other so the other may receive their greatest good, that is, eternity with God.
The marriage covenant was not required before the Fall because Adam and Eve were in a state of holiness and in the presence of God, both were in communion with God, there was no greater good to will for one another because both already had their greatest good. This remedy is necessary due to concupiscence, the result of original sin, which is the fractured nature that gives us a tendency toward sin. The reason marriage offers a remedy is marriage is the remedy that helps us overcome the damaging effects of the fall, is it gives us the grace needed to overcome the burdening effects of sin, pain and struggles, because we do so out of love for one another while welcoming God and His grace into the marriage covenant between spouses.
Is God jealous of Adam and Eve?
After the Fall, “the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever”— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.” (Genesis 3:22). First, we have another example of the communion of persons that is God in the use of “Us”, just as discussed about Genesis 1:26 in my post about Creation. Second, we wonder, was God jealous? Did God simply not want Adam and Eve to become like Him, a competitor of sorts with God? No, instead God did not want Adam and Eve to live immortally like Him in the broken state they were in. Before, when Adam and Eve were in a state of holiness, the Tree of Life was an option for them to eat from, but now that they are in their fallen state, God does not want them to become immortal in that state, a state of being separated from God.
God was not at all concerned with Adam and Eve becoming like Him, after all, Satan tried to be like God and look where that got him.
And so, God “drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24). Again, this was an act of mercy from God so Adam and Eve did not live eternally separated from God. The cherubim is from the angelic order. Cherubim and flaming swords symbolized divine prohibition in the ancient near east.
The Cherubim and flaming sword were common around ancient Mesopotamia (known as karibu) as well as lightning represented in the form of flames or a wavy sword on stones marked the borders of territories, indicating that access to the place was forbidden to profane persons while the border was also defended by the gods (New Catholic Bible, 8). Does this mean the Hebrew text was just “ripping off” other ancient texts? No, instead it was simply using that which the readers, ancient Hebrews, knew so they would understand what was being said.
Did God lie?
Adam and Eve did not die instantaneously upon eating the fruit, nor did they die that day because Adam lived to be 930 years old (Genesis 5:5). There are two options to consider. The first one, though a less serious one, what did God call a day? The Psalmist says of God, “a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by” (Psalms 90:4). “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pet 3:8). Adam did not live a thousand years, a thousand years which is but a day to the Lord. As for the question of Adam living 930 years, there are two ways to go about this. The first is, history wrote age based on an honorific system, meaning if someone wanted to portray a historical figure as grand, they would give them a very long age. Adam was very important, and so his age was written as very long to signify how important he was. However, some people also hold these are accurate ages and that people in early humanity were able to live longer because they had less sin promulgated throughout. We are open to believe either option.
We also see this is actually a spiritual death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). As Scripture says, those who do not attain eternal life through Christ Jesus are damned to hell where “men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Matt 13:42). This does not mean their soul will experience death in the sense of ceasing to exist. Life is a state of being with Jesus Christ Our Lord, and death is to exist without life, that is, without eternal life in Christ Jesus, which is, in heaven. So, God did not lie because the death Adam and Eve experienced was a spiritual death, where they no longer had eternal life, and instead were living without the heavenly grace of God, to receive the recompense of sin, to forgo eternal life with God. The serpent lied because Adam and Eve experienced this death. However, God did not forsake them to death and instead began the story of salvation.
Where is the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life?
With all this, one must wonder, where is the Garden of Eden and why does no one see a Tree of Life guarded by a Cherubim with a flaming sword? Before we get into it, it is important to note that the Catholic Church does not have a dogma regarding whether or not the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life are literal or metaphorical.
Where is the Garden of Eden?
The geographical data described in Genesis 2:10-14 suggests the Garden of Eden would have been in Mesopotamia (The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 60). Even then, this is debated among scholars. But here is the question we have to ask, did the inspired authors write this in a literalistic way or in a way that the local people would understand the deeper meaning?
Let’s look at Genesis 2:10-14
“A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Hav′ilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphra′tes.”
It is easy to read this as literalists, but we have to view this from the perspective of the ancient people. These things were passed down orally. What did the elders say to them? What was being relayed? What did it all mean?
We start with “a river flowed out of Eden…it divided and became four rivers.” In the ancient world, people believed their gods were on the top of mountains. We see this in stories like the Greco-Romans with Mount Olympus and others. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve are described to be in the presence of God. This indicates that Eden was to be pictured on top of a mountain. The reader would understand that Eden was placed on top of a mountain, in the presence of God, with a single river flowing through it that then split into four rivers.
How would they have understood these four rivers?
Pishon flowed “where there is gold” and “bdellium and onyx stone.” The Pishon flowed to great goods of the earth, goods that we covet. Gihon flowed to the land of Cush an area of ancient Egypt, peoples steeped in physical immorality. The Tigris, also referred to as Chidekel, leads to Assyria, famous for its ancient history of pursing conquest and world-domination. The Euphrates flows East to the Holy Land (Haber).
Three of these rivers flow to sinful things and one of these leads to the Holy Land. We as people tend to reside downstream of these rivers, at the base of the mountain outside of the presence of God, seeking to covet the goods of the earth, physical immorality, and conquering others, however all these rivers lead to the same place. This does not mean that God leads us to sin or creates sin, rather, this means that while we are steeped in our sin, while we are downstream from God, having taken the easy path down the mountain, God has provided a river, a path, for us to follow to return to Him, so we may pass through the narrow gate into heaven (see Matthew 7:13-14).
The Tree of life
So then, what is the Tree of Life? What does the Tree of Life invoke? Scripture notes there was a tree of life, but what was the tree of life?
In various ancient cultures preceding the Jews, the Tree of Life was used to represent immortality, life, abundance, etc (Steinmeyer 2025). The inspired authors utilized the symbol of the Tree of Life to relay truths using imagery and symbolism that the people would understand. Upon reading/hearing “Tree of Life,” they would know the author was speaking of a source of eternal life.
With this, we know there was something called the tree of life that gives eternal life by consuming its fruit. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it was a tree in that it was an arbor type plant producing fruit like apples. So, the symbolism used at least shows there was a means of sustaining life for eternity while in the garden, that is in the presence of God, a presence in which Adam and Eve were so aligned with God that they walked with God, while in a state of Holiness untainted by sin. Once sin had entered the world and Adam and Eve, they fell from this state of Holiness and were no longer suited to be in the garden, in the presence of God, with access to the tree of life, immortal life, in that broken state.
So did the Tree of life and the Garden of Eden exist?
I think yes but I think it was not what we think it was. It could have been a literal garden with a literal tree located where the Bible literally says, however, I believe the inspired authors used names, imagery, and symbolism to help relay deeper truths to the people. The reality of what the Garden looked like, where it was, and what the Tree of life was, is simply beyond our grasp. At the very least, the Garden of Eden was where Adam and Eve lived in the presence of God with access to immortality from God’s grace through what was described as the Tree of Life. What all that looked like at the time and where it was, I don’t have a firm stance.
Conclusion
What does all this mean for us? The serpent, the garden, the tree of life, everything comes together in one clear message.
Before time began, God planned to bring us into the Godhead through the Mystical Body of Christ (CCC 257). Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden, that is, in the presence of God. They had access to the Tree of Life, that is the source of immortality. Lucifer, out of prideful hate for humanity, tempted Adam and Eve, something they consented to. Adam and Eve broke their nature, a nature transmitted to humanity. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, the presence of God, but they were not forsaken. God still gave them the waters, that is His Grace, to return to Him to be with Him through the Tree of Life for all eternity. The Tree of Life is found in Jesus Christ.
“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19). Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross made of a tree, a tree of death, but through the tree of death, Jesus Christ brought us the fruit of the tree of life, eternal life, which can be found in the most Holy Eucharist.
Our Lord said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” The Eucharist is “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ” (CCC 1374). The Eucharist was instituted during the Last Supper when Jesus “took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”” (Luke 22:19). Our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself on the Cross, the tree of death, so we may be united to Him through the fruit of the tree of life, the most Holy Eucharist.
We must leave our ways of sin and follow the rivers of God’s grace back up the mountain to seek the Garden of Eden, Paradise, that is, the presence of God, so that we may be in His presence and receive all the Good our Good God wants to give us. He even gives us rivers, waters of life, the Sacraments, to nourish us with His Grace on our journey to Him. Despite our sin, He is always calling us back to Him, to His presence, to be united with Him.
Even though God revealed Himself through the Jews, God calls all of us to leave our sin and follow the path to Him, to His presence, to live with Him In His Presence for all Eternity, with the Tree of Life, the fruit of which is the eucharist, which is Jesus Christ because He calls us all to Him. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
The account of the Fall is not just an explanation for why things are the way they are. All of this comes together through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. This comes together in ways the inspired authors didn’t even know.
God loves you for you. Not just as a part of a whole, but for you. He didn’t die for humanity as a whole. God died for each of us. God died, for you. God is always calling us to Paradise, to be in His Presence, to follow the path He has laid out for us, to nourish us with His Grace so we may spend eternity with Him.
References
1995. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Canada: Doubleday.
Catholic Answers. 2014. “Was God unfair to Adam and Eve?” Catholic Answers. November 1. Accessed November 6, 2025. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/was-god-unfair-to-adam-and-eve.
Haber, Rabbi Yakov. n.d. “The Rivers Out of Eden, Choices, and Return to Eden.” Torah Web. Accessed November 6, 2025. https://www.torahweb.org/torah/2006/parsha/rhab_braishis.html.
2020. New Catholic Bible. Totowa, NJ: Catholic Book Publishing Corp.
Spirits, Lord of. 2020. The Five(ish) Falls of the Angels. October 9.
Steinmeyer, Nathan. 2025. “The Tree of Life Beyond the Bible.” Biblical Archaeology Socity. January 29. Accessed November 7, 2025. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/the-tree-of-life-beyond-the-bible/#:~:text=The%20Tree%20of%20Life%20motif,eternal%20life%20to%20the%20deceased.
2024. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.
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