Was there anything outside of Eden when God planted it in the East, and was Adam created outside the Garden?
Genesis 1:8 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
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Asked 2 days ago
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Carolyn Hostetter
Supporter
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Shirley H
Supporter
So I believe I found an answer for you. However I must first state that I don't have the same wording, in the verse numbers that you shared. For example you say Genesis 1:7 says, "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust..." My N.K.J.V. Bible says in Genesis 1:7: "Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters..." Genesis 2:5-8 says before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain... there was no man... Verse 2:7: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." In Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, 'Let Us make a man in Our image..." In Genesis 3:22: "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us...'" Notice there is more than one story of the creation. Genesis 3:23: "...therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken." So I believe we have found your answer. I quote from my footnote, Genesis 3:23: "The man had been formed by God outside the garden (2:5-8,15) and had been given the task of tending and keeping it. Now he was removed from the garden and sent back to till the soil from which he was taken. (see 2:5; 3:17-19) Adam seems to have been created outside the garden. God created a lot before he made man.
Tim Maas
Supporter
Since the Bible records (as noted above in Genesis 1:8) that God placed Adam in the garden after He had created him, this says to me that the actual creation of Adam occurred outside of the garden. By the same reasoning, since the garden was a specific location on the earth's surface (rather than encompassing the entire surface of the earth), there must also have been terrain outside of the garden. To me, this is confirmed by the expulsion of Cain, and his subsequent settlement in the land of Nod, which the Bible indicates was "east of Eden".
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