Week 9- Summary

God planted a garden eastward in Eden and enjoined Adam to dress it and keep it ( Gen2.15). In the previous chapter we read that God had already given him a command, ‘Be fruitful and replenish the earth, and subdue it.’(vs.28)
Adam while living in the Garden of Eden knew who the maker of that garden was. He was there only as a wise husbandman earning his keep and also the fruits of the whole earth. The command of God ‘Subue it’ didn’t mean any aggressive act from Adam since the Earth and the fullness thereof belongs to God? It certainly didn’t mean he could defoliate the woods and strip rocks and the depths of the earth for precious stones or metals. (It must be a degenerate spirit that compels any man to think he could own a piece of earth absolutely and with impunity disenfranchise the rights of every other species in order to enjoy the fruits of the earth.) His care and industry in the Garden ensured the wellbeing of the earth in general.
After the fall when Adam was sent out of the garden he must have known what it really meant to own property: like the pilgrims of old who staked out claim in New Canaan. See it from the point of view of the American natives. As a French philosopher said,’ Property is theft.’
Adam fell from grace. But the horses didn’t; neither did oxen nor asses. Adam in his fall found new shades of meaning for the words ‘control’ and ‘domination’.
Tailpiece: If Marquis de Sade appears can L. von Sacher-Masoch be far behind?
benny