(Genesis 2:15). But not the man created in God’s image? It’s a question that has puzzled thinkers for centuries. What’s the deal?
Some folks, taking a rather literal view, suggest that Paradise must have been a physical garden. They figured that since the first, created man was a being of the senses, it was only natural he’d be placed in a sensory place. That the man created "in God's image," being more intellectual and less tangible, already had the whole incorporeal world as his domain. Makes a kind of logical sense, right?
But is it that simple?
Philo, the great Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, writing millennia ago, offers a different take. He saw Paradise not just as a garden, but as a symbol of chochma, of wisdom itself.
Think about it. Adam, the man formed from dust, is a blend of soul and body. He’s got work to do, a path of learning and discipline to follow. He’s got to strive, according to philosophical principles, to find happiness. He has to earn it.
But the man made in God’s image? Ah, that's different. That being, being already closer to the Divine, needs nothing. He is self-taught, self-sufficient. He is his own master, possessing inherent wisdom. He already is the wisdom that Adam, in the garden, is seeking.
So, perhaps, the garden isn’t a reward, but a classroom. A place of growth. A place for the being of soul and body to become more like the image of God.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it? Are we all, in a way, in our own personal gardens, striving to reach that state of self-sufficiency, of inherent wisdom, of being truly in God's image? And what does that striving look like in our own lives?