The Garden Was Not a Temple with Dr. Desmond Alexander

Johnny Ova: Welcome everybody to the Dig In Podcast. I am your host, Pastor Johnny Ova. Today our guest is Dr. Desmond Alexander. Dr. Alexander, welcome to the Dig In Podcast.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Johnny Ova: As you said before we went live, we have a complex topic today, so I hope you've come ready to roll.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: I hope so too, but you're in the lead in a sense, so it depends on you and how things go.

Johnny Ova: I'll take the pressure. I got it. All right, let's jump right in. Most people think of Eden as a story about a garden, a snake and a piece of fruit. After decades of studying the text, what do you see in Genesis 1 and 2 that the rest of us may be missing?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: I think there may be quite a few things to be seen, but one of the most important things to pick up on is that in Genesis 1 we're introduced to humanity, and God puts considerable emphasis on the fact that they are to rule over all the other creatures on earth. Then when you jump to chapter 2 and into chapter 3, you discover that God has placed Adam and then Eve in this amazing garden, a special environment for them to be in. And then suddenly we're introduced to one of the wild animals. It's interesting: the serpent is referred to in the Hebrew text as being an animal of the field. In Genesis 2 the field is separated from the garden. It's the area outside the garden. So you don't expect the serpent to be naturally in the garden.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: But when he comes into the garden, the human couple fail to rule over the serpent. That is a very significant feature of the story. That's actually the first failing. It's perhaps more important than the eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They do not subdue the serpent, but they seem to agree with it. They take on board what the serpent has to say rather than what God has said. I think that's often missed by people. They fail to see this betrayal that takes place. They've been put by God in charge of everything. They are meant to be royals, to rule over the earth on God's behalf, and the first thing they fail to do is rule over the serpent. We know the consequence of that: the serpent then becomes, in a sense, the de facto ruler of the earth, because the human couple have granted the serpent that control. So humanity comes under the serpent's control for the future.

Johnny Ova: Interesting point. I wouldn't have put those two things together, even before the fruit aspect of it. But that's powerful, because it's almost like not moving in your identity. God created us to rule and to reign, and when we don't operate in our God-given identity, chaos seems to ensue.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Exactly. And interestingly, the solution to the problem is that God promises one of the woman's offspring will overcome the serpent. So we jump forward to the New Testament, where we see Christ coming as the perfect king, the second Adam, the one who is going to exercise control over the serpent. It's really striking when you come to the Gospels. Immediately after God has declared Jesus to be his Son, and in a sense made him the earthly king, you find him not in a garden but in the wilderness, and you find the devil coming to tempt him. The devil offers him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory if only Christ will worship him. It's a very significant temptation, because it's what Christ has come to do. He's come to take control of the world, and the serpent in a sense is offering it to him. But Christ does not succumb. From the beginning of his ministry he stands against the serpent. He is going to be the one who defeats the powers of evil, and we see that working out in the Gospels. So I think it's very important to see the connection between what happens initially in the garden and how it relates to Jesus Christ as our King, the one we're meant to submit to, rather than to the evil one.

Johnny Ova: It's almost like the same battle. Adam and Eve failed, Jesus wins. We see the result of Adam and Eve not moving in their identity and not resisting, and we see the result of Christ not falling to that temptation.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Yes, very much so.

Johnny Ova: Now, Dr. Alexander, you've argued that Eden is actually described as a temple, the first sanctuary on earth. Can you walk us through the evidence, and what in the text tells you this is sacred space?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: I'll have to confess at this point that I've probably changed my viewpoint a little bit on this, so let me explain. Breaking news, perhaps. Some years ago my PhD supervisor was Professor Gordon Wenham, and one of the significant articles he wrote was on the Garden of Eden, drawing attention to parallels between the Garden of Eden and later Israelite sanctuaries, the tabernacle and the temple. On the back of that, I and others, and Gordon Wenham himself, suggested that Eden was itself a sanctuary, a temple-like area, a sacred space.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Now, I think there is something of significance in this. But one of the things that has to be thought about is this: is Eden itself a temple, or are the later temples renewals of Eden? Do you see the temple as a restoration of Eden on earth, or do you see Eden as the proto-sanctuary? One can debate the merits of either viewpoint. From my point of view, I've moved more to the position that I don't think Eden itself was thought of as a temple, in the sense that God was dwelling there. I think that right at the beginning of the story of humanity, God is not dwelling on earth. That is something that is going to come about as human beings take control of the earth, as the human population develops, as they create, you might say, the city of God.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: It's worth reflecting on the fact that when you come to the fulfillment of what God was beginning in Genesis 1, 2 and 3, in Revelation 21 and 22, where you encounter Eden again in the New Jerusalem, there is no temple in the New Jerusalem. God and the Lamb are the temple. So my sense is that Eden is the initial place on earth where God is going to set about creating his holy city, the place where he will dwell with human beings. But it doesn't begin with an actual temple. And in many ways, when you do have a temple created, it functions as a barrier between God and humanity. Even when the tabernacle or the temple in Jerusalem is created, human beings don't have direct access to God. God has come close to them, but they don't have the kind of access Adam and Eve have in the Garden of Eden, where they meet with God and talk with God. There is no barrier there. After that, temples enable God to come close and be on earth, but the tabernacle creates a barrier that allows God and humanity to come close to one another without God's holy presence being destructive to sinful human beings. I hope you can see what I'm getting at.

Johnny Ova: Yep, I totally get what you're getting at. So how would that play out with the Adam figure in Genesis? He's pictured as a gardener, but you've also said his job description is priestly language.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: I just want to clarify that a little bit. I don't think I've ever actually said his function is strictly priestly. It's rather like the function of the Levites. In the garden, before Adam and Eve's disobedience, there was no need for sacrifices. Communion with God was direct. There was no sin that needed to be addressed sacrificially. So priests in that context are more like courtiers, people who serve God in his palace and have access to God. That remains somewhat true for the rest of Scripture.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Again, I think it's very important to draw a distinction between the role of the high priest and that of other priests. We tend to blur this distinction. We talk about priests and lump them all together. But only one priest mediated with God at any time, and that was the high priest. The high priest alone had access to God. Other priests did not have that same access, and they didn't wear the special clothing the high priest wore. So you've got the high priest, who has special access to God, other priests who assist, and then the Levites, who have a role in maintaining the tabernacle or the temple. There are different levels at which people were involved.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: In the Garden of Eden, you could argue that Adam has a priestly role in caring for this sacred space, but it's not a role like that of the high priest. He's meant to maintain this sacred area, and I think he's meant to prevent the serpent from coming in. It's interesting that the term used for caring for, keeping, guarding, is then applied to the cherubim who guard the garden after Adam and Eve have been expelled from it, to prevent them from coming back in. I think that was part of Adam's role. The garden was meant to be sacred space. The serpent ought not to have been there, but Adam and Eve did not maintain the sacredness of the garden.

Johnny Ova: Gotcha. So we have Adam made to rule and reign, with this identity placed on him, and at the very least a caretaker role, maintaining the garden. You also said we see them kicked out of the garden and not allowed back in, which shows Eden has some type of border around it. So what if Adam and Eve didn't fall? What was supposed to happen if humanity succeeded? Were they going to expand Eden, or just maintain the position God had given them?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: From Genesis 1 the instruction is that they are to fill the earth. I think we've got to anticipate that as Adam and Eve had children and time went on, they would expand and set about creating a city where God would dwell. I think God created human beings innately to be city builders. It's interesting that one of the things said about Cain is that he began the construction of a city. And it's not insignificant that by the time you get to Genesis 11, you have human beings creating a city. We generally refer to it as Babel, but Babel is actually the Hebrew name for Babylon. So they end up building Babylon, and in the context of Genesis, Babylon becomes the antithesis of the city God wanted to create on the earth. Human beings build a city, but they exclude God from it.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: You then find the author of Hebrews making the point that Abraham, who came from the area of Babylon, desired to dwell in the city of God. His faith, in Hebrews, is in the city of which God is going to be the architect and builder. So the biblical story moves forward from Abraham toward the construction of the city of God. It's interesting that when the Israelites come out of Egypt and cross through the waters God has parted, what I think of as the Lake of Reeds and others call the Red Sea, they sing a song, and at the end of that song they speak about God planting them on his holy mountain, his sanctuary, the place where he is going to live. Ultimately that brings us to Jerusalem, and the Israelites dwelling with God on Mount Zion. There the temple is constructed, and there you have a kind of partial restoration of Eden. The temple has features in its construction meant to draw attention to a garden, the sense that here is where human beings can reconnect with God the way they connected in the Garden of Eden.

Johnny Ova: That's an interesting point, because after the exile from Eden, the Bible almost immediately gives us Babel. It moves very quickly. Why does the story move so fast from the lost garden to this counterfeit city?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: In part it's a reflection of how humanity has turned away from God very quickly. You get that sense of humanity turning away from God almost wholesale even before you get to Babel, because Noah is held out as the only one thought of as righteous before the flood. Then, after Noah, you have the creation of the nations, which is tied in with the building of Babel. The chronological order of Genesis 10 and 11 has to be handled carefully, but you get the sense of a unified people at Babel being dispersed throughout the earth and the creation of the different nations. Babel is when people begin to use different languages. So Babel results in the creation of nations and the breaking up of the unity of humanity. It's against that background that you have the call of Abraham, and God promises him that through him the nations of the earth will be blessed. He is going to play an important role in bringing God's blessing to all of these nations.

Johnny Ova: All right, let's go to the tabernacle. You've got an eastward entrance, you've got the cherubim, gold, a lampstand shaped like a tree. How deliberate are these Eden echoes, and what was Israel supposed to understand when they saw them?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Again, one has to be careful about how strong the Eden echoes are. There is the idea of the entrance from the east. The entrance into Eden was placed at the east, and you moved into God's presence. Something similar is happening with the tabernacle. There are a lot of things about the tabernacle that are significant. It's also thought of as a microcosm, a miniature world, and God's presence in the tabernacle is like him filling a microcosm. The expectation is that ultimately his presence will fill the entire earth.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Before the creation of the tabernacle, God has dwelt only in heaven. The tabernacle represents the place where God's presence is now to be found on earth. The Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies is described in the Old Testament as the footstool of the divine throne, the heavenly throne. So the tabernacle connects heaven and earth. God is enthroned in heaven, but his feet are to be found in the tabernacle. The same imagery is found with the temple. Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, tells people to pray toward the temple, but God will hear from heaven. It's as if the temple is where earth and heaven get connected. The tabernacle and the temple foreshadow the idea that God's presence will be found on earth. This is the beginning of the process by which God reclaims the earth from the devil. There's a lot more to happen before we get to Jesus Christ, but that will be another stage in the whole process.

Johnny Ova: Here's what strikes me, Dr. Alexander. God's presence keeps getting more restricted. You have one garden, then one nation, then one building, then one room, then one man once a year. Is the Old Testament telling a story of divine presence in retreat?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: I don't know that I would say it's a story of divine presence in retreat, but rather a story of God's presence becoming more and more real. When you read Genesis, God will come to earth. He might come in human form, as when he comes with two angels and encounters Abraham in Genesis 18, or he might appear to Jacob with the stairway that reaches up to heaven. But in Genesis, and in Exodus before you get to the tabernacle, God is not dwelling on earth. Abraham does not find God on earth as such. So the creation of the tabernacle is a very significant development, because God now comes to dwell with people on earth. The tabernacle is a portable sanctuary. Mount Sinai is not the ultimate destination. The people will transport the tabernacle ultimately to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem as a city becomes the presence of God on earth. A psalm like Psalm 48 draws attention to the significance of the city as the place where God dwells.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: But because of human sinfulness, because the inhabitants of Jerusalem fail to be truly the people of God, you find that God later abandons the earthly Jerusalem at the exile. The prophets then speak of a greater Jerusalem to come. The book of Isaiah begins with Isaiah condemning a corrupt, sinful Jerusalem at the end of the eighth century BC. By the end of Isaiah he's speaking about a transformed, holy Jerusalem that God will delight in, and he talks about God creating new heavens and a new earth, creating Jerusalem. So Isaiah is anticipating the New Jerusalem we read about at the end of Revelation. This idea of a city where people will dwell with God draws on the earthly Jerusalem as its model, but there's an anticipation of something better. In the same way, the tabernacle is modeled on a heavenly sanctuary. You learn some things about the heavenly sanctuary by looking at the earthly one, but the earthly sanctuary is a shadow, a copy, not the real thing. There is this expectation running through Scripture that we're moving toward the ultimate city of God, the New Jerusalem.

Johnny Ova: How would you respond to this? Beyond God retreating, were people making access to God more and more difficult over time? Then Jesus shows up and says, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up, talking about himself. Was he almost breaking down the walls, making access to God a whole lot easier because people had made it so difficult with their rules and regulations?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: I want to go back and note that in the Old Testament the creation of the temple is tied in with the establishment of the Davidic dynasty. In 2 Samuel 7, David's desire is to build a house for God, but God intervenes and says, you're not going to build it. I will build a house for you, and your son will build a house. Solomon is largely responsible for building it. So you get this intimate connection between the Davidic king and the building of God's house on earth. When you come to the New Testament, once again you have the perfect Davidic king. Jesus comes as the king who is going to subdue the evil one, and he is also going to build God's temple on earth. But in the New Testament that temple is no longer a building restricted to Jerusalem. It becomes an organic temple. The followers of Jesus become the temple of God through the Holy Spirit's presence.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: On the day of Pentecost you have this picture of fire and wind descending on the believers in Jerusalem. It replicates what happens when God's presence comes and fills the tabernacle at the end of Exodus 40. The same thing happens when Solomon builds the temple: the fire and cloud fill the temple. Something similar happens in the New Testament. This is also connected with the tearing of the veil in the temple when Jesus is crucified. The old order gives way to a new order, and the nature of the temple becomes quite different. God's presence is still found in his temple, but that temple is now made up of people and is no longer restricted to one location. It's found throughout the earth, which is a move toward what God intended right at the beginning of the story.

Johnny Ova: Sticking with Christ, you've written that Christ succeeds precisely where Adam failed, as the true priest king. How do his life, death and resurrection reopen what was closed in Genesis 3?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: First and foremost, he comes as the king. He is going to subdue the evil one. He is going to place his foot on the head of the serpent. Significantly, the defeat of the serpent comes through the death of Christ. It's almost paradoxical that life and victory should come through his death. But that's the all-important message of the New Testament: through love, through self-sacrifice, through the giving of himself, Christ defeats the powers of evil. There's something remarkable about how God works. He doesn't use his power, his omnipotence, his force to defeat the powers of evil. It is through love and self-sacrifice and suffering that Christ destroys the powers of evil. Then he is raised to life again, and all-importantly he ascends to the heavenly sanctuary. There he is enthroned as the one who has universal authority. If you pick up on Psalm 110, you have Christ sitting at the right hand of God while his enemies are ultimately defeated. But it rests on what Christ has already done in offering himself as the one who brings atonement and reconciliation and defeats the powers of evil.

Johnny Ova: I've got a few more questions for you, and thank you again for your time. The Bible doesn't end in a garden. It ends in a garden city, the New Jerusalem, with the tree of life at its center and no temple in it. Why a city? What does that tell us about what God was after from the very beginning?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Different people have different views on cities. Some, because of their experience, may have a very negative view of a city: concrete, somewhere you don't want to live. In my early life I grew up on a farm in the countryside, and I was not a city person. But cities are significant in that they create community. They offer opportunities for people to come together and do things in community that would not be possible in isolated locations. Cities have a creative power to them. I think that's why people are drawn to live in cities. They feel part of something bigger and have more opportunity to express and fulfill themselves. In the city God creates, that will be true. It will be the best any earthly city can be, and better. It will not be a concrete jungle, but a garden city, somewhere you feel at home with nature. What God creates is going to surpass our wildest dreams. But the city is a reflection of community, of people coming together and experiencing life together, and I think that's significant.

Johnny Ova: So you're telling me God's taking me right out of my element here in New York, right out of the concrete jungle, into a garden. I'm used to all the buildings around me.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: I'm not saying there won't be buildings. There will be buildings and there will be gardens, and they will blend together in a way that is harmonious and creative, where we will enjoy life. I live in a city now, but there are lots of green areas, and I value the greenness of the city. If it was all houses with no trees and no gardens, it would not be a pleasant place to live.

Johnny Ova: All right, my last question. When John sees the New Jerusalem coming down and God dwelling with his people face to face, is that the moment Eden's original purpose is finally realized? Is that what the whole Bible has been driving toward? God face to face with his people from the beginning, man separating himself through sin, and by the end of Revelation, man and God face to face again?

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Yes, I do. I think it's very important to pick up on that, because as Christians we often think of going to heaven, and we have a very ephemeral view of heaven. We don't think of it as an earth in any way like the earth we're on now. Yet when you connect Revelation 21 and 22 back to Genesis, as I think they're meant to be, and explore what kind of city Isaiah has in view with a new heavens and a new earth, and think about Paul's emphasis on the resurrection of the body, all of these things come together to suggest that the life we experience now is not totally different from the life we will experience in the world to come. What God began in the early chapters of Genesis reflects what he is looking to achieve in Revelation 21 and 22.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: If we see the entire biblical story and connect the beginning with the end, we can observe what God has been doing. He's been working to restore the earth and bring it back under his control. Jesus comes to create the kingdom of God. In the Beatitudes, Jesus talks about the meek inheriting the earth and seeing God. That seems to me to come to fulfillment in Revelation 21 and 22. Now, there's a lot of imagery there that may not necessarily tell us what the city will look like. Will it be an enormous golden cube, or is that symbolism meant to suggest the New Jerusalem is a Holy of Holies, where human beings are now allowed into God's presence in a way that has never happened before? One has to be cautious about how one reads the material, given the nature of Revelation. But there is something significant in how we move from the Garden of Eden to the garden city at the end of Scripture.

Johnny Ova: I love it. Dr. Desmond Alexander, thank you so much for being our guest on the Dig In. I very much enjoyed our conversation.

Dr. Desmond Alexander: Thank you very much for having me, Johnny.