IAJ,
This question has baffled many. IMHO, the events described of the garden are not on the earth, but in another realm, signified by talking serpents, the 'US" which refers to angelic beings, and the casting out from the garden of Cain, and its re-entry barred.
I thought that I provided an answer why the issue should not baffle us. The whole matter is solved by two keys:
1.) The longevity of early humans
2.) God's permitting of the first humans to marry close relatives
Concerning the different realm of Eden ...
Is there a need to remove Eden from the physical planet in order to make sense of the story? I don't think so.
When God met Moses in the incedent of the burning bush He told Moses to take his shoe off of his feet. The reason was that the place on which he stood was
"holy ground."
And He said, Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
Exo.3:5)
A burning bush in which Moses met God is as mysterious as a tree of life. Yet it was on
"holy ground" on the planet. Am I right?
The same occured with Joshua. He also stood on holy ground:
And the Captain of Jehovah's army said to Joshua, Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.
(Jos. 5:15)
This too was an epiphany of the Angel of Jehovah with the angelic army ready to fight in the heavenly realms against the demonic and evil principalities of Canaan. Yet the scene took place on the earth on holy ground.
I can believe that a spot on the planet was reserved for a garden of the first human being. Everything about the description of the physical surroundings suggest that it was on the earth.
Indeed the earth is crucially important to God. It is His will which is to be done
"on earth" as it is in heaven.
I do acknowledge that the talking serpent is atypical. But we have the miracle of the talking donkey also in the book of Numbers which occurs on the earth -
" ... a dumb beast of burden, uttering with a man's voice, restraining the madness of the prophet" (2 Peter 2:16 comp. Numbers 22:`21-30)
I admit that the talking serpent is a mystery. But it does not for me require that the garden of Eden need be transfered into another realm. Nature may have been in a realm unfamilar to us on this side of the fall of man.
I have already written that the divine
"Us" of Genesis and Isaiah is, I believe, the Triune God. He is the same as the Divine
"We" in the gospel of John verse 23. Only One of the Godhead has been incarnated as a man in Jesus:
Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him. And We will come to him and make an abode with him. (John 14:23)
The Divine Person of the Trinity spoke in the creation of man -
"Let Us make man ...". And the Divine Person of the Trinity spoke just before the crucifixion of Christ promising that the Son and the Father as the Divine mysterious
"We" would, in Christ's resurrection, come to His lovers to make an abode within them.
I do not believe that any angels assisted God in the creation of man, such that God would say
"Us" - meaning He and some angel/s.
Gen Ch 3/
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way to the tree of life.
Well, "another realm," I think, would not mean so "another" that it could not be located on the planet. Cain moved to the east of Eden. So whatever the nature of your propsed "another realm" I think the record shows physical and directional aspects related to it.
Gen 4/16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Can one move to the "east" of a existential realm? Where is east of another realm? Where is east of another dimension?
In modern terms would we say, "I moved to the east of Cyberspace." The two concepts don't make sense in the same sentence.
Further, the bestowing of a life form with speech is also not of this earth, signified by no life forms on earth have acquired this attribute, despite the premises of adaptation, which is a time based factor. Humans acquired speech despite being the newest life form, bypassing the evolutionary thread. Here we find, the concept of reproduction is a factor which does not relate to angelic beings, who do not experience death or sexual desires. Reproduction only occurs on earth:
How many other animals spoke or why Eve displayed no surpise when the serpent did speak are a mystery to me.
I have no answer for those things at this time. But G.H. Pember writes about biblical issues regarding animals. I have not read that particular book. But much of his exposition on Genesis has been extremly helpful to me. Namely
Earth's Earliest Ages is a book I would recommend to any serious student of Scripture.
That is the first half of the book dealing with Genesus chapters 1 through 6 or so. I don't like the second half where he goes into a lot of history of mythology.
Perhaps the next time I speak to someone about the talking serpent in Genesis I will have studied what Pember had to say about that.
Further, we see that Cain left th Garden, and met speech endowed humans same as he was:
Gen 4/16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bore Enoch; and he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.
Thus the garden of eden report is not of this earth, and a epiphany occured, whereby humans were bestowed with speech not via evolutiuon, but from a decision in another realm. IOW, when Adam and Eve were given speech, a Gdlike attribute, it was simultainiously bestowed upon the human species which began with Adam. We note that Adam is a generic term in Gen 1, but it becomes a proper noun thereafter.
God created the earth for His kingdom. After the second coming of Christ there is a restoration of the planet for a period of 1,000 years in which the surviving and saved nations enjoy God's original intention. Listen to what Jesus says as He judges the nations left alive from His throne in Jerusalem:
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, at that time He will sit on the throne of His glory. And all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates teh sheeep from the goats. (Matt. 25:31,32) ... Then the King will sau to thjose on His right hand, Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (vs. 34)
"[A]ll the nations" refers to all the Gentiles who remian at Christ's coming back to the earth. That is the Gentiles who were not destroyed who followed Antichrist at Armageddon
(Rev.16:14,16;19:11-15,19-21).
This will be the judgment of the
living before the millenium [b](Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1). It differs from His judgment of the
dead at the great white throne after the millennium
(Rev. 20:11-15).
The
"sheep" on the left hand of Christ the Judge will be allowed to inherit the kingdom prepared on the earth
"from the foundation of the world". Though we may say the kingdom is in another realm, it is still on the earth. From the foundation of the world in the garden of Eden God prepared a kingdom for man. This was the realm in which Adam lived in the earth.
The saved Gentiles will be subjected to the priestly saved Israelites who will have Christ reigning over the planet from Jerusalem. This is why I say this kingdom is not other worldly. It was not in Adam's day. And it is not at that time in the future when the saved Gentile
"sheep" inherit the kingdom of God which was prepared from the foundation of the world.
After the judgment at Christ's throne of glory, the "sheep" will be transferred into the millennium to be the people living under the kingly ruling of Christ and the overcoming believers
(Rev. 2:26-27; 12:5; 20:4-6) under the priestly ministry of the saved Jews
(Zech. 8:20-23). In this way the "sheep" will inherit the (coming) kingdom. In the millennium there will be three sections:
(1) the earth, where the blessing of God's creation will be, as mentioned in
Genesis 1:28-30;
(2) the nation of Israel in Canaan, from the Nile to the Euphrates. from which the Jews will rule over the whole earth
(Isa. 60:10-12; Zech. 14:16-18); and
(3) the heavenly and spiritual ection (1 Cor. 15:50-52), the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, where the overcoming believers [in Christ] will enjoy the kingdom reward
([Matt.] 5:20; 7:21). The kingdom that the "sheep" will inherit consists of the first section.
The blessings of the first section in the millennium, the blessings of God's creation, was prepared for the "sheep" from the foundation of the world, whereas the blessings in the third section, the blessings of the heavenlu and spiritual kingdom, was ordained for the believers before the foundation of the world
(Eph.1:3-4).
Footnotes 34(1) and (2) of Matt. 25:34, The Recovery Version.
Jesus said
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." (Matt.5:5) This kingdom is in
"the earth" according to the words of Jesus.
Luke 19:17,19 say that Jesus will reward His faithful servants with authority over so many cities respectively:
And he said to him, Well done, good slave. Because you have become faithful in the least, have authority over ten cities ... Amd he said to this one as well, And you, be over five cities.
These cities over which Christ's rewarded servants are to rule are in the inhabited earth when He returns. I don't think that they will be in another realm as you describe the garden.
1.) The coming
"earth" is to be subjected not to angels but to the human servants of Christ:
"For it was not to angels that He subjected the coming inhabited EARTH, concerning which we speak. (Heb. 2:5 my emphasis)
2.) Christ returns to establish His kingdom not in another realm but in the inhabited earth:
"And when He brings again the Firstborn into the inhabited EARTH, He says, And let all the angels of God worship Him." (Heb. 1:6).
By comparing the facts about Christ's return and restoration of the earth and the facts of early Genesis - "the foundation of the world" we can ascertain that the garden kingdom/paradise was earthly. It may have been in a quality which was in another realm from what we know today. But I do not think it was in another dimension or not on the surface of the geophysical planet.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
™ Version 4.2