Why Is the Setting of Genesis 3 So Important to the Storyline of the Bible?
Outside of Eden
Genesis 3 takes us into a small part of the world. The Lord creates the heavens and the earth, and then on the earth he makes a garden. And in this garden of Eden, he puts his image bearers. They’re going to be fruitful and multiply. This is a very unique setting. When we get these conditions of Eden described in the way of Genesis 2 and reflected on in later Scripture, we realize that outside of Genesis 2, outside of the garden of Eden, we see a different kind of world. And that’s the world Adam and Eve are going to enter.
Short of Glory
Mitchell L. Chase
In this accessible book, Mitchell Chase identifies biblical themes found in Genesis 3, explaining why they are essential to understanding the biblical narrative and identifying why these themes are crucial for believers today.
So this setting is especially unique. It is not only unique on the earth. There are particular trees that are located there, the encounter with a serpent takes place there, the walking of God in Eden with his image bearers takes place there. These take the reader into a world we are not as familiar with.
We are all born outside of Eden, and therefore by getting into Genesis 3 and the garden that is set up in the previous chapter, we are entering a world that is before the fall, and then we're watching an unfolding event. As readers on the edge of our seats, and as questions and answers between Eve and the serpent unfold, the arrival of God in his power and all-seeing words, we are truly entering into a realm of Scripture that is going to leave us as readers aware of an impact that’s no doubt going to echo through in a loud way. And indeed, the echo of the fall is felt from that point forward.
Mitchell L. Chase is the author of Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall.
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