Myth of a Perfect Eden: Chaos, Order, and Divine Space - Episode 140
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
00:00 - Walton’s Threefold Framework: Order, Chaos, and Evil
05:35 - Eden as Divine Space, Not Perfect Paradise
10:34 - The Hebraic Mindset vs Greek Dualism
15:21 - Civilization, Legacy, and the Problem of Mortality
21:16 - Cain, Cities, and the Fragility of Human Order
26:41 - Chaos vs. Evil in Biblical Theology
32:01 - Eternal Life or Human Ordered Existence?
37:38 - Axiology: That Which Brings Good
42:43 - ANE Death, Legacy, and the Defeat of Chaos
50:02 - Seeing Chaos, Not Just Evil
55:33 - Opening the Door to New Ideas
