The Garden of Eden as a Temple

According to G.K. Beale, the first temple was in Eden. After studying both Beale and Wright on this, I agree with this assessment. Though there wasn't a literal constructed temple like what Israel had, I believe the typology is still clearly present. Derek Rishmawy summarizes Beale's line of reasoning stating,

1. In the later OT the Temple was the place of God’s special presence where he made himself known and felt to Israel. That is exactly how his walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden is depicted. (Gen. 3:8)

2. Adam is placed in the garden to “cultivate (abad)” and “keep (samar)” it (Gen 2:15). The same two words are translated elsewhere “serve” and “guard”, and when they appear together, they are either referring to Israelites serving or obeying God’s word, or more usually, to the job of the priest in guarding and keeping the Temple. (Num. 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 1 Chron. 23:32) Elsewhere Adam is portrayed dressed in the clothes of the high priest, functioning as a high priest. (Ezek 28:11-19; see Beale, pg. 618 on this for more argumentation.)

3. The tree of life served as a model for the lampstand, which was clearly shaped as a tree, in the Temple.

4. Israel’s later Temple was made with wood carvings of flowers, palm trees, etc. meant to recall Eden’s garden brilliance  (1 Kings 6:18, 29, 32, 35); pomegranates were also placed at the bottom of the two stone pillars in the Temple. (7:18-20)

5. The entrance to the Temple was to the east, on a mountain facing Zion (Ex. 15:17), just as the end-time temple prophesied in Ezekiel is (40:2, 6; 43:12). Well, turns out the entrance to Eden was from the East (Gen. 3:24) and in some places pictured as being on a mountain. (Ezek. 28:14, 16)

6. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the ark of the covenant both were accessed or touched only on pain of death. Also, both were sources of wisdom.

7. Just as a river flowed out of Eden (Gen 2:10), so a river is supposed to flow out of the End-time Temple (Ezek 47:1-12; Rev. 21:1-2)

8. This one requires some serious argument so I suggest you consult Beale directly here (pg. 620-621), but just as there was a tripartite sacred structure to the Temple, Beale discerns a tripartite structure to creation with Eden standing at the center as a Holy of Holies.

9. Ezekiel 28:13-14 refers the Eden as “the holy mountain of God” which everywhere else in the OT is Temple and Tabernacle language.

Why is this significant? How should this affect our theology? Well, in short, (and I plan on teasing

this out later in more posts) this demonstrates that it was the intention of God in creation to inhabit and dwell amongst His people. The Temple was the place of God’s special presence. This also affects our eschatology, because at the consummation, we can look forward to and expect this fracture that now exists between heaven and earth to be healed. This is what is meant by the creation of a New Heavens and New Earth.

When we take note of this Temple Theology, we begin to better understand the work of Christ. Not only did he reconcile God's people on the cross, but as NT. Wright states, Jesus' resurrection is to be seen as the beginning of the new world, the unveiling of what God is now going to accomplish in the rest of the world. He points out, Mary supposed Jesus was the gardener after his resurrection; thats the right mistake to make because, like Adam, he is charged with bringing God's new world to order. He has come to uproot the thorns and thistles and to plant myrtle and cypress instead, as Isaiah promised in his great picture of the new creation that would result from the Word of God coming like rain and snow into the world. 

This also has implications on the purpose of humanity. If the Garden was a Temple, then Adam was a priest who was responsible for cultivating and keeping it. As Christians, we are called a Royal Priesthood. God never repeals His dominion mandate that was given to Adam. It is recapitulated in the Great Commission, thus we are a set apart people of God who take up Adam’s original commission, which was to have dominion and subdue the earth and spread God’s image throughout the world, spreading the boundaries of the temple. Wright says in Surprised By Hope, "What we do in the Lord is not in vain, and that is the mandate we need for every act of justice and mercy, every program of ecology, every effort to reflect God's wise stewardly image into his creation. In the new creation, the ancient mandate to look after the garden is dramatically reaffirmed."