Eden: The Temple of God
“And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:8)
“The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:9)
When speaking of Eden, have you ever considered how often our language suggests Eden and the garden are the same?
It’s hard not to, as it’s a land in which we’ve never been.
Butʿēḏen - so dreamy a place as to literally mean “delight and pleasure” - is actually the context which includes the garden, just as the garden is the context which includes the tree of life.
This is perhaps not wholly dissimilar from how Georgia exists within the US, or Atlanta within Georgia.
This may initially seem like an insignificant detail, but as we follow throughout the narrative of Scripture, we see an intentionally paralleled design: that is, the Temple.
The Tabernacle and Temple too had a tri-concentric layout: the Outer Court, the Holy Place (or Sanctuary), and the Holy of Holies.
These edifices were places of holiness and glory and divine presence. The further one moved towards the core, the greater the imagery pointing back to ēḏen.
Moving from the Outer Court to the Holy Place, one would begin seeing artistry depicting the lusciousness of a perfect garden - palm trees, pomegranates, and flowers graven on its walls.
As one eventually reached the Holy of Holies, which held the Ark of the Covenant with the 10 Commandments (also often referred to as the “Tree of Life”) they would see the two golden cherubim sculpted atop, additionally returning one’s heart and mind to the eastern gateways of ēḏen.
The message is clear: ēḏen was Adonai’s original Temple, filled with the sanctuary of his presence like that of a garden, and with the most intimate of holy places even deeper still, radiating from the Tree of Life.
Yes, the connection is definitely clear; however, we are no longer in ēḏen, and the Temple of Jerusalem is no more. What do we make of this?
As all things find their resolve in Yeshua, this too is no different.
Through Christ, the second Adam, the firstborn among a new creation, the image of the invisible God, we have received an even greater gift in him by his Holy Spirit.
Paul explicitly puts it together for us this way: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?… For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
As triune image-bearers of God - in body, mind-soul, and spirit - we who are filled with Holy Spirit have become the new Temple of God.
By abiding in the Vine of Yeshua - the Tree of Life - we might too know life to the full.
Life as it was in Eden. Life as it will be in the new Jerusalem. Life in absolute closeness with God.
