Was Eden ever the perfect paradise we imagine? Exploring J. Harvey Walton’s groundbreaking dissertation on Genesis 2–4. Walton challenges the familiar Eden–Fall–Redemption narrative, arguing that the text’s original audience didn’t see a perfect paradise shattered by sin, but a fragile, unfinished order constantly threatened by chaos and evil.

We unpack:

Walton’s tri-fold framework of order, chaos, and evil;
Genesis’s critique of Babylonian cultural ideals;
and the surprising role of Eden as divine—but uncomfortable—space
which leads to the choice between two trees: stay eternally in discomfort or enter the realm of human-ordered existence.

Along the way, Carey offers her own insights, engages early church perspectives, and asks what this reframing means for our understanding of the gospel.

On This Rock Biblical Theology Community: https://on-this-rock.com/

Website: genesismarksthespot.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GenesisMarkstheSpot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

Myth of a Perfect Eden: Chaos, Order, and Divine Space - Episode 140