Johann Wenzel Peter, Adam and Eve in the Earthly Paradise, 1800 to 1829. Public domain.
Genesis 1:26 to 30 and 2:15 to 17 · Doctrine · Featured Study
The Edenic Covenant
The charge runs from Genesis 1:26 to 2:17, and Hosea 6:7, Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 return to it.
Before Abraham, before Sinai, before David, God speaks to the first man and woman and gives them one command. The church has divided ever since over whether to call this charge a covenant.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- First taught
- Genesis 1:26 to 30 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in…”
- Fullest statement
- Genesis 2:15 to 17 “Then the LORD God took the man and…”
Before Abraham, before Sinai, before David, God speaks to the first man and woman and gives them one command. The church has divided ever since over whether to call this charge a covenant.
Summary
Genesis 1:26 to 30 and 2:15 to 17 set out what God gave Adam and Eve before the fall.
- The charge has four parts in Genesis 1: bear God's image, be fruitful and multiply, rule over the creatures, and eat of the plants and trees.
- In Genesis 2:15 the man is placed in Eden to cultivate and keep it.
- Two readings call the charge a covenant: the covenant of works, and covenant content under a word the text withholds.
- Hosea 6:7 is the verse most cited for calling Eden a covenant, and its word adam is read as the first man and as mankind.
The Charge
God speaks these verses on the sixth day, before Genesis 2 places the man in the garden.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.Of all the works of the six days, only this one opens with Let Us.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”God speaks the blessing to the man and the woman together, before any work is done.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”God speaks the blessing to the man and the woman together, before any work is done.
Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth—everything that has the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.Plants and fruit are given for food, to man and to every living creature alike.
Nothing in the charge is earned, because God speaks it as a blessing before any command is tested. Gregory of Nyssa draws from that plural what it says of man's worth, and Michael Heiser gives the grammatical name scholars use for the same plural.
“This same language was not used for (the creation) of other things. The command was simple when light was created; God said, ‘let there be light.’ Heaven was also made without deliberation.… These, though, were before (the creation of) humans. For humans, there was deliberation. He did not say, as he did when creating other things, ‘Let there be a human.’ See how worthy you are! Your origins are not in an imperative. Instead, God deliberated about the best way to bring to life a creation worthy of honor.”
Gregory of Nyssa · On the Origin of Man · on Genesis 1:26Patristic
“In ‘academese’ the wording of Genesis 1:26 is called the ‘plural of exhortation’-a fancy way of saying one person is announcing something to a group.”
Michael S. Heiser · "Exposing the Work of Zecharia Sitchin, Part 2: Does the Bible Have the Gods Creating Humankind?" (drmsh.com) · on Genesis 1:26Academic
Meat is granted only after the flood1 paragraph, 2 quotations
Genesis 1:29 grants no meat. Origen notices that the grant of flesh comes only after the flood, in Genesis 9:3, and Irenaeus says the same in his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching. Origen ties the grant of flesh to the covenant made with Noah, and The Noahic Covenant takes the thread from there.
“The historical meaning, at least, of this sentence indicates clearly that originally God permitted the use of foods from vegetation, that is, vegetables and the fruits of trees. But the opportunity of eating flesh is given to men later when a covenant was made with Noah after the flood.”
Origen of Alexandria · Homilies on Genesis 1.17 · on Genesis 1:29Patristic
“And He changed the food of men, giving them leave to eat flesh: for from Adam the first-formed until the Flood men ate only of seeds and the fruit of trees, and to eat flesh was not permitted to them.”
Irenaeus · The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Section 22 · on Genesis 9:3 to 6Patristic
Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine on the image and the blessing1 paragraph, 1 quotation
Gregory of Nyssa, in On the Making of Man, separates the image given in Genesis 1:27 from the wretchedness sin later shows in man. Augustine, in Two Books on Genesis against the Manichaeans (1.19.30), asks whether the blessing of Genesis 1:28 should be understood of the body or of the spirit.
“We must, then, examine the words carefully: for we find, if we do so, that that which was made ‘in the image’ is one thing, and that which is now manifested in wretchedness is another.”
Gregory of Nyssa · On the Making of Man 16 · on Genesis 1:27Patristic
Genesis 1:29 to 30, Gregory of Nyssa, Michael S. Heiser
Seven Texts from Eden to Hosea
Seven texts carry the charge from Genesis 1:28 to the prophet's word in Hosea 6:7.
A chain of seven texts, from the blessing in Genesis 1:28 through the covenant promised to Noah in Genesis 6:18 to Hosea 6:7.
- What it adds to the charge
- the pair is blessed and given rule
- What it adds to the charge
- the man is given Eden to work
- What it adds to the charge
- one tree is withheld on pain of death
- What it adds to the charge
- cherubim take up the keeping
5The covenant promised to Noah
- What it adds to the charge
- a covenant is pledged to Noah before the ark
- What it adds to the charge
- the blessing is renewed and meat is given
- What it adds to the charge
- Hosea sets Israel beside Adam
To Cultivate and Keep
The rule over the whole earth given in Genesis 1:28 narrows here to one garden and one task.
Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.Eden is given to the man for work before the woman is made in Genesis 2:22.
Two Hebrew verbs carry the whole verse. The man is put in the garden le-abdah, to work or serve it, and u-le-shamrah, to keep or guard it. The second verb returns at the garden's door once the man is sent out (Genesis 3:24), where cherubim now do the guarding he once did.
Ambrose of Milan reads Genesis 2:15 as God setting the man apart in Paradise so that his virtue might increase.
“Note, now, the person who was taken and the land where he was formed. The virtue of God, therefore, took man and breathed into him, so that man's virtue will advance and increase. God set him apart in Paradise that you may know that man was taken up, that is to say, was breathed upon by the power of God. Note the fact that man was created outside Paradise, whereas woman was made within it. This teaches us that each person acquires grace by reason of virtue, not because of locality or of race.”
Ambrose of Milan · On Paradise · on Genesis 2:15Patristic
The One Prohibition
Athanasius in the fourth century and Adam Clarke in the nineteenth read the purpose of the command.
And the LORD God commanded him, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”The verb die first appears in Scripture here, as the penalty of the command.
The command opens wide before it narrows. One tree alone is withheld, and the penalty is stated as certainly as the command itself. The Hebrew doubles the verb, moth tamuth, literally dying you shall die. Ambrose of Milan asks what the doubled phrase adds to the command.
“What is the difference between saying 'ye shall die' and 'ye shall die the death'? We ought to point out that there is nothing superfluous in the command of God. Here is my solution. Since life and death are contradictory ideas, in unaffected language we say 'we live in life' and 'die in death.'”
Ambrose of Milan · On Paradise · on Genesis 2:17Patristic
Both readings agree that the command is real, that it is single and that it carries a stated consequence. What breaking it means is the subject of The Fall, its own page.
Athanasius on Genesis 2:16 to 171 paragraph, 1 quotation
Athanasius sees a command that secures the grace given to the man, so that he might keep the life of paradise.
“Knowing once more how the will of man could sway to either side, in anticipation God secured the grace given them by a command and by the place where he put them. For he brought them into his own garden and gave them a law so that, if they kept the grace and remained good, they might still keep the life in paradise without sorrow or pain or care, besides having the promise of incorruption in heaven.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · On the Incarnation of the Word 3.4 · on Genesis 2:16 to 17Patristic
Adam Clarke on Genesis 2:171 paragraph
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, calls the prohibition the first positive precept God gave to man. He reads it as a proof of the man's dependent, probationary state, since the lord of this lower world was only God's vicegerent and accountable to Him.
What Genesis Leaves Unsaid
Genesis and Hosea leave four questions about the charge unanswered.
Genesis 1 and 2 do not use the word covenant, Hebrew berith. In Genesis the word first stands in Genesis 6:18, and the covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:9 to 17 is the first one the text describes.
Genesis 2 names no oath, no sign, no cutting ceremony and no witness in the garden. Genesis 9:13 gives Noah the rainbow as a sign, and Eden has no sign of that kind in the text.
Genesis does not say how long the man kept the garden before the serpent spoke in Genesis 3:1.
Hosea 6:7 goes on to say “there,” and Joshua 3:16 names a town called Adam by the Jordan. The text does not say whether adam in Hosea 6:7 names the first man, mankind or that town, and read as the town the verse says nothing about Eden.
The Voices
Six church fathers stand beside Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes and Michael Heiser.
MICHAEL S. HEISER
He wrote Exposing the Work of Zecharia Sitchin, Part 2 (2008).
GREGORY OF NYSSA
He wrote On the Making of Man and On the Origin of Man.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
He wrote Two Books on Genesis against the Manichaeans.
ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA
He preached the Homilies on Genesis.
IRENAEUS
He wrote The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.
AMBROSE OF MILAN
He wrote On Paradise.
ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA
He wrote On the Incarnation of the Word.
ADAM CLARKE
He wrote the Commentary on the Bible.
ALBERT BARNES
He wrote the Notes on the Old Testament.
Augustine of Hippo, Origen of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Ambrose of Milan, Athanasius of Alexandria, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes
Is This a Covenant?
The covenant of works and the reading of covenant content without the name are the positions, and Hosea 6:7 is the verse each side weighs.
But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.Genesis 9:9 to 17 tells how this promise is kept after the flood.
But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.This is the one verse some read as calling the arrangement of Eden a covenant by name.
The question is whether the charge of Eden was a covenant, or a command that later covenant theology named one.
Hosea 6:7 is read as like Adam and as like men1 paragraph, 1 table
The ASV, the Berean text and the Darby Bible render the verse like Adam, Young's Literal Translation reads as Adam, and the King James Version reads like men. If it names the man, it is the clearest word in Scripture calling his standing before God a covenant.
A table of two readings of Hosea 6:7, each with its holders and its ground.
| Reading | Holders | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| Like Adam, the first man | Rashi, from Genesis Rabbah 19:9; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Newcome, Horsley and Grotius, as John Owen notes in his edition of Calvin | Adam broke God's command in the garden, and Israel broke the covenant in the land |
| Like men | John Calvin, Commentary on Hosea; the King James Version; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown | adam is the common word for mankind, and Israel kept the covenant as lightly as men keep their word |
A formal covenant, the covenant of works1 paragraph
Covenant theology names the arrangement of Eden the covenant of works: Adam stands as the head of the human race, tested on a single act of obedience, with life itself as the stake. Paul's argument from Adam to Christ in Romans 5 is the New Testament ground most often cited for treating Adam as a covenant head whose act binds those who come from him. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) states the position in chapter 7, section 2. It calls the first covenant made with man a covenant of works, in which life was promised to Adam and his posterity on condition of perfect and personal obedience.
Covenant content under a word the text withholds1 paragraph
A second position finds covenant content in Genesis 1 and 2. It points to a command with a clear sanction (Genesis 2:16 to 17), a blessing spoken as a grant (Genesis 1:28) and the first promise of redemption (Genesis 3:15). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note on Hosea 6:7 that covenant is not applied to Adam's relation to God elsewhere in Scripture. They add that the thing seems implied in Romans 5:12 to 19. C. I. Scofield's Reference Bible (1917) names the Edenic Covenant the first of eight great covenants of Scripture and says it conditioned the life of unfallen man, within the first dispensation, Innocency. Because Scofield sets the name inside a dispensational scheme, the question does not divide cleanly between covenant theology and dispensationalism.
Every position agrees on the shape of the charge: a pair bearing God's image, a task, a boundary and a stated consequence for crossing it.
Books to Read Next
Four works carry the readings of Hosea 6:7 and the covenant of works, and all four are free to read online.
Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis
John Calvin · 1554
Calvin reads Genesis 1 and 2 verse by verse, the image and the garden with them.
Read it free at CCELCommentary on Hosea
John Calvin · 1557
Calvin's lecture on Hosea 6:7 sets out the reading like men, and John Owen's notes name the holders of like Adam.
Read it free at CCELThe Creeds of Christendom, volume 3
Philip Schaff · 1877
Schaff prints the Westminster Confession whole, with its seventh chapter on God's covenant with man.
Read it free at CCELThe Scofield Reference Bible
C. I. Scofield · 1917
Scofield names the Edenic Covenant in his note on Genesis 1:28 and lists the eight covenants.
Read it free at the Internet ArchiveWhere It Points
Paul sets Adam beside Christ, and Christ's obedience answers Adam's one act in the garden.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.This verse ties the man of Genesis 2 to Christ, the reason the charge of Eden points past Eden.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.Paul draws the resurrection of the body from the headship of Christ.
Whatever the reader concludes about the covenant question, Paul builds an argument on Adam as a head whose act reaches beyond himself, the structure the covenant of works names outright. The first man was given every tree but one and still reached for the one. The text asks the reader to see in Adam what disobedience costs, and to trust Christ, the last Adam.
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.This verse closes Paul's comparison of Adam and Christ in Romans 5.
Five Hebrew Words of the Charge
Five Hebrew words carry Genesis 1:26 to 28 and 2:15 to 17, from the image the man bears to the doubled verb of the penalty.
A table of five rows: tselem, radah, abad, shamar and muth, each with its Strong's number, its sense and its uses in the Old Testament.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The King James Version and the American Standard Version.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
- Augustine of Hippo, Two Books on Genesis against the Manichaeans.
- The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, volume 3 (1877)
- C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 notes)
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, translated by John King (1847)
- John Calvin, Commentary on Hosea, translated by John Owen (1846)
- Rashi on Hosea, in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg.
- James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), Hebrew dictionary.
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