Question
Gramps,
Where was Adam and Eve formed before they were put into the Garden of Eden?
Diane
Answer
Dear Diane,
The garden of Eden took up only part of the earth. According to the creation accounts, Adam was created on earth – though we don’t have a name for the location that took place:
Abraham 5:7 And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
8 And the Gods planted a garden, eastward in Eden, and there they put the man, whose spirit they had put into the body which they had formed.
The Moses account clarifies that the creation happened spiritually first, and then physically:
Moses 3:5 … For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air;
6 But I, the Lord God, spake, and there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, all things were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my word.
8 And I, the Lord God, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there I put the man whom I had formed.
Genesis 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
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 soul.
8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
In all three accounts, later in the cited chapters, after Adam has been placed in Eden, the Lord causes Adam to sleep, takes one of Adam’s ribs, forms Eve from it, and brings her to Adam.
So, spiritually, like the rest of us, Adam and Eve were created in heaven (Moses 3:5). Physically, Adam was created somewhere on the earth, and Eve was created either in Eden, or somewhere else on earth (none of the accounts is specific beyond the fact that Adam was in Eden at the time of Eve’s creation).
I hope that answers your question, Diane, and that you will study these accounts on your own, praying for the Spirit to teach you, for there are many lessons to be found in them.
Gramps
