EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 



God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and He put there 

 the man He had formed" (Gen. 2:8). The term "garden" is 

 translated "paradise" in Greek and other languages, after a 

 Persian word meaning a park set aside for hunting and 

 pleasure. It is depicted in Genesis as a sort of oasis in the 

 oriental desert. 



The man was installed in the garden to tend and cultivate 

 it; but this work of cultivation was not the hard, sweaty labor 

 that would be imposed after his sin. He exercises dominion 

 over the animals, to which he assigns names suitable to their 

 natures. He has a conscience that enables him to distinguish 

 between good and evil. He understands the extent of the 

 command laid on him and the disastrous consequences of 

 disobedience to God. 



The state of Paradise is aptly called "original justice" in 

 theology. The term stresses moral perfection; our first parents 

 were "just," that is, according to the biblical meaning of the 

 word, they were submissive to God as children are to a beloved 

 father. Eden, the garden of pleasure where they were to lead 

 a happy life, comes to them from God's love, which raised 

 them from the level of creatures to that of sons. Therefore 

 the gift which properly estabhshed Adam and Eve in the 

 condition of original justice was sanctifying grace. In Genesis 

 this is merely hinted at in the description of the stupendous 

 familiarity the first couple had with God, and is brought out 

 more clearly in the New Testament. The immediate fruit of 

 their fullness of grace was an easy control over passion. This 

 gift of "integrity," or absence of conflict between sense 

 craving and the nobler desires of the spirit, is indicated 

 ingenuously in the statement that they were both naked yet 

 had no shame. The spontaneity of their affective life was in 

 no way jeopardized, but their tendency toward higher good 

 was not retarded by inordinate attraction to sense goods. 



Another gift the first couple received for themselves and 

 their posterity was bodily immortahty. Genesis mentions the 

 tree of life, access to which was cut off after sin. The punish- 

 ment inflicted on Adam shows, as St. Paul says (Rom. 5 : 12), 

 that death was introduced into the world by his disobedience. 

 How God would have preserved men in immortality we are 

 not told. 



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