What if the Garden isn't a courtroom but a classroom?

What if the Garden of Eden isn’t a courtroom but a classroom—and what happened there wasn’t a crime, but a choice? We open season two by re-reading Genesis 2–3 with fresh eyes, asking hard questions about language, tradition, and how our picture of God was formed. Every tree is called good, even the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That detail, along with the order of the trees—life first, knowledge second—sets the stage for a deeper conversation about agency, consequence, and what “command” means in Hebrew.

We explore how Western habits, especially after Augustine, turned relational instruction into legal statute, and why that translation choice still shapes sermons, parenting, and our inner lives. Through the lens of Jesus, the Father’s voice sounds less like a distant judge and more like a caring presence naming reality: choose life, because choosing knowledge first carries a cost. When eyes open, perception shifts; shame and fear enter; fig leaves follow. Nakedness in the Hebrew imagination is exposure and openness, not scandal. The first death is not a body in the ground but a fracture of identity—“I am bad”—that spirals into hiding and disconnection.

Instead of condemnation, we find God tailoring care: removing leaves and clothing humanity. No ledger, no wrath to appease, just committed love that tells the truth and stays. Along the way we challenge assumptions about sin language in Eden, the notion of a changed “sin nature,” and the dominance of substitutionary atonement. If the foundation is choice rather than crime, salvation begins to look like healed perception, restored belonging, and knowledge held within life. Join us as we dismantle inherited narratives and rebuild a vision of faith rooted in agency, mercy, and the steady kindness of God.

If this reframing stirred your curiosity, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review telling us where your view of the garden changed most.

Transcript

Dismantling The Western Narrative

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Well, welcome, welcome. I'm glad you're back for a second season. This season is gonna be quite the ride, starting with today's episode. We're going to just jump right into the deep end. So hang on tight. We're gonna start right at the very beginning, the beginning of everything that Western evangelical Christianity believes and has built an entire religion upon. But today and in future episodes, we're gonna dismantle it. The whole thing. And in its place, we're going to establish something that is much truer to actual scripture. One thing that Western evangelical Christians are extremely guilty of is reading back onto Scripture what Scripture itself never says or claims.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

We all know the general story of the fall, right? Or do we?

Two Trees Introduced

Was The Tree Forbidden

Reading Genesis 2:15–17

Two Ways To Hear God

SPEAKER_00 2:00

We're gonna begin in Genesis chapters 2 and 3, and I'll let you read those details later. Just a note to start with. While quoting Scripture, I will use the full phrase, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But outside of quoting, I'm just gonna refer to it as the tree of knowledge because we typically focus most on the good and evil part, but not on the knowledge part. We enter the story in Genesis 2.9. And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. First, let me state this. In verse 9, it clearly states that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was pleasing to the sight and good for food. It was not a bad tree, nor was it forbidden, as we've heard preached. So, no, the tree of knowledge was actually quite good. But here's what I want you to see. The order matters. Every tree is pleasing to the sight and good for food, but which one was listed first? The tree of life. This implies to me at least that the first tree that was supposed to be eaten from is the tree of life. Let's move on to verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden, Eden, excuse me, to cultivate it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die. Now I want to stop here and present two different ways of seeing, verse 15. The first is our typical way of seeing and hearing it in our heads. When I read the phrase and the Lord God commanded the man, what I see and hear are this. God is standing over Adam and Eve. They aren't afraid yet, so they are looking up at God with curiosity. But God speaks in this booming low voice. And as he's talking, he's stretching out his arm and hand and slowly waving over and pointing at the garden, saying, From any tree in the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die. To me, this has the image and connotation of God being a domineering authority figure. Someone we should be obeying without question. Because if we don't, then the punishment will come, and that punishment is death. The shall not and the shall have are very definitive, and they have acute meaning to them in the English language. It's absolute, in other words. Okay, now here's the second way of viewing that verse. God and Adam and Eve are sitting in the garden. They are marveling at all the wonderful and amusing, breathtaking beauty of this newly created world. They are watching the industrious ants make their new home. They are admiring the bees flitting from one flower to the next, collecting pollen and taking it back to the hive they've started and to the honeycomb they are beginning to build. And while they are sitting and appreciating everything around them, God speaks. And he says to the human, all you see before you is wonderful, isn't it? All the trees you see before you are so pretty to look at.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

And they are good to eat as well. But listen, that tree over there, you know the one.

Seeing Through Jesus’s Lens

Language, Augustine, And Doctrine

SPEAKER_00 6:44

One of the two special trees I put here. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat from that one, because if you do, here's what it's gonna cost you. Death will come into the picture. And I would hate for that to happen to you. Now I'm gonna jump ahead for a few minutes to the times of Jesus. We know that Jesus came to show us what the Father is like, right? So if that's true, and I believe that it is, we must look back at Old Testament scriptures through the lens of Jesus and his representation of the Father. So which of those two scenarios I just laid out for you represents the Father better? The second one, right? The second one is more like how Jesus would say that God is. All right, let's get into some technical biblical stuff for a moment. English translations of Hebrew and Aramaic can be very messy, especially after Augustine of Hippo and his philosophies took root in the Christian narrative, as well as the post-Roman Empire. England and many European nations adopted these narratives from Augustine and Rome and turned it into doctrine, which was then passed down into the United States and more deeply into Western evangelical Christianity. In the English language, we often use command and law as synonymous pairs. We make their definition equal to one another. So when we hear, and the Lord God commanded, what do we hear in our heads? Law, right? God commanded, therefore it must be law, which now requires Adam and Eve's obedience. Part of the reason we now think this is because the English word command is also what we use for the ten things that went on the tablets at Mount Sinai. The ten what?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Commandments. Those did become law.

Command Versus Law In Hebrew

Choice, Agency, And Free Will

SPEAKER_00 9:03

That was the initiation of the law. So when we see and hear God commanded them to not eat, we think that is a law that He is giving them. And therefore, when they are manipulated by the serpent, they ultimately ended up breaking the law and therefore must now suffer the punishment. But that's not how the Hebrew language treats the words command or law. If we slow down and listen to the original languages of Scripture, something really nuanced and important emerges. What is happening in the garden is not the giving of a law. It's a parental instruction given within the confines of a relationship paired with a consequence. The Hebrew language, within its grammar and linguistic constructs, does not describe this as break this and you'll be punished. But rather do this because this is what will happen if you don't. And because of this, it is evident that Adam and Eve didn't disobey anything because God didn't give them a law. What God gave them instead was a choice. A choice between two trees that are beautiful, lovely, abundant, and tasty. One tree brings knowledge of good and evil, and therefore death, and the other brings life. Humans are made in the image and likeness of God. That's their original and true identity. What is the one thing that Christians all over the world agree on when it comes to the image and likeness?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

That we've been given free will.

Order Of Trees And Consequence

Choose Life Framed In Deuteronomy

Conditioning And Inherited Beliefs

Projecting Fathers Onto God

A Caring Father In The Garden

Awareness, Fear, And Fig Leaves

Nakedness As Exposure

SPEAKER_00 11:05

At least that's the language we use. But what we really mean is that we have been given the ability to choose. And with choice comes personal agency, autonomy, and sovereignty. And that is exactly what God gave Adam and Eve. He set before them two trees, both good trees. And he said, You can eat from everything. And like I mentioned earlier, the order matters. God didn't have to give them the consequence of eating from the tree of life because the consequence is in the name. But with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he had to tell them what the consequence was going to be if they ate from that one first. Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19 later repeats what God is doing in the garden. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curse. Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live. That's basically the message God is sending to the first human being in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve didn't disobey anything because no law had been given for them to disobey. What really happened was that they just chose the wrong tree first. We have been trained and therefore have trained ourselves to believe that the command God gave to not eat from the tree was absolute and was law. And we internalized it as our own belief. We have believed it so much that we no longer even think about it or question it anymore. What's that old adage? If you repeat a lie often enough and for long enough, it becomes the truth. And we just accept what we've been taught as truth and then regurgitate it back out as if we're proclaiming exactly what actually happened. We add on to the scripture the idea that they disobeyed a law, and we do that because of our own conditioning, programming, and upbringing. It comes from the Roman empirical structure, Augustine philosophies that have been turned into doctrine. And a lot of this also comes from our parents, comes from our churches and their teachings, peer groups, it comes from our culture and inherited belief structures. We are inundated with what we should think and believe and do from lots of places. And we read that back onto Scripture. When I shared the story earlier of a domineering authority figure standing over Adam and Eve, where did I get that picture from? From my own upbringing. And please, do not get me wrong. I have wonderful parents. So I don't want to paint a picture that my earthly father is some tyrant. He wasn't. But he was strong and big, and his mere appearance was intimidating, whether he meant it to be or not. And he had presence about him that if he said something, you were to do it. And you knew that it was something that you didn't have a choice in. So it was easy for me to take what I already knew about my earthly father and read it back onto God into this story. Especially for those who have had or have domineering, harsh, intimidating, oppressive, authoritarian fathers. And like I said, mine was not even like that. But he was a very big man compared to me when I was small. Anyway, I want to reiterate that the Hebrew scripture points the picture of the second scenario I described earlier: a caring father who only wants what is best for his kids. And I want to reiterate that it was a choice that was put before them, and they just chose the wrong thing first. All right, let's move on to what happened as a result of their choice. First, knowledge, awareness, distinction now flooded their minds. Before this, their reality was that they were naked and were not ashamed. Their natural state was that of being naked and unashamed, and they didn't really have any knowledge of anything. They didn't have any consciousness or awareness to speak of at this time. But as I said, once their eyes were open and they knew they were naked, now they had awareness of their nakedness. And this made them uncomfortable with themselves and afraid. And so, therefore, in an attempt to cover up their awkwardness, they took it upon themselves to sew fig leaves together and cover themselves up with them. Then they heard the sound of God walking in the garden. God hadn't even said anything yet, and they hid themselves from God's presence. This is the first hint at the idea and later doctrine after Augustine of separation, which we'll get into in another episode coming shortly. But they hid among all the trees that God earlier said were pleasant to the eyes and good for food.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

And then God called to them, Where are you?

Shame’s Birth And Definition

Identity Split And Death’s Entry

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Now Adam is the spokesperson says, I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid myself. They were experiencing fear and concealment, which functionally speaking is the same as shame. So now we have two people who've had the first experience of fear. And that fear came from an awareness of nakedness. The Hebrew word for naked is not about nudity, even though that's pretty much how we think of it. But the Hebrew word, again, being more rich with meaning than the English, is about exposure. Exposure being a state of being. When Genesis 2, verse 25 says they were both naked and unashamed, it has the connotation of openness, transparency, nothing hidden, and no need for self-protection. What changes when we get to Genesis chapter 3, verse 10 is perception. They are still naked and exposed, but now they are afraid because of it. What happens as a result is vulnerability creeps in. Fear of being seen happens. And what is shame all about? Brene Brown defines shame as the intensely painful feeling or experiencing of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging, often stemming from the fear of disconnection and the belief that I am bad rather than I did something bad, which is guilt. And she continues on to say that it's a universal human emotion that makes us hide our perceived imperfections to avoid judgment, but it thrives in secrecy. So now we have shame and fear that is taking root in their mind. Now they have a perception of being imperfect, of being something they actually aren't. This is the first fissure in human identity, and it begins to take root in them. Later we'll see how this is what gets passed down to their children. Cain in particular, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here. I'm going to sort of make a little U-turn for a moment. Remember back when God gave them the choice between the two trees, what was the consequence that would happen if they chose the tree of knowledge first? Death. And death starts in the story of Adam and Eve in their minds. Death of right perception, death of perfect union, and eventually that death is born into being with Cain.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

But again, don't want to get too far ahead. What I want you to see is this.

Parenting, Development, And Wonder

God Clothes, Not Condemns

No “Sin” Named In Eden

SPEAKER_00 20:51

They were given a choice, not law. And they were given full autonomy, agency, and sovereignty to make that choice. They were told what would happen if they choose one tree over the other. And they chose. They became aware of themselves. They start believing they have imperfections that warrant the belief that they are no longer very good. And they become afraid and tried to hide from the one who is perfect. And then the consequence starts making its appearance first in their identity. I'm bad, therefore I must hide. And now their perception of who they are and who God is is now split and unmoored like a dinghy tethered to a boat only by the fragile little rope. And they now live out their lives from this split identity. And death, the ultimate consequence, begins weaving through humanity like a parasite looking for the right mentality to attach to. In short, what God did is what just about every loving parent does. I wonder, and it's just my wonderment, because as mentioned, the scripture doesn't say and doesn't even hint at their age or stage of development. But I wonder if when God created the humans that they weren't a little bit young. And as they grew, God was teaching them the same way we teach our kids. Yes, no, hot, cold. Explore here, not over there. But then again, I myself might probably. Just be reading back onto the scripture, what scripture never itself says. Anyway, so Adam and Eve are living their lives from this split identity while death is invading every corner of the human experience, like a fog that covers the earth on a cool morning after a hot day the day before. But God never leaves, never separates, never abandons, he never judges, never condemns, and never punishes them either. What does he do instead? He removes their meager attempt at hiding themselves with leaves, and he clothes them with skin. What I want you to take away from this episode is God is not angry. God is not some tyrant in the sky who now needs to be appeased. God doesn't need some sort of payment because Adam and Eve are now in God's debt because they sinned. Nope. This whole episode should be showing you that God is loving, is caring, compassionate, loves mercy, and gives grace to his children. And because of all that, there is no condemnation or punishment that God needs to express to temper his anger at Adam and Eve for disobeying some law. This is just normal parenting. Here is where I'll end this episode and set up the basis for the next. Nowhere in the story of Adam and Eve do we hear or see the word sin.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Never. Not once. Don't believe me?

Challenging Substitutionary Atonement

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Look it up. God never calls Adam and Eve sinners. He doesn't tell them that what they did was sin in the way that we define that word, which I'll debunk soon. And secondarily, nowhere in any scripture, Old or New Testament, does it say that their nature was changed, that they now had a sin nature instead of the image and likeness of God as their nature. Nowhere. I'll leave us here. And I hope you now have a different picture of how things got started. The foundation of our whole Christian theology has been that we all started out in sin. And because of that, we need a savior.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Substitutionary atonement is what we call it.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

But I hope that you can see that we have started the process of dismantling this lie in this episode.

Closing And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Now I'll let you chew on this one. Till next time.