Is there any Bible story--any story at all--more often told, dissected, and interpreted than this one? Or better, these stories, as there are really several embedded in this opening of the Pentateuch. I am struck by the themes of abundance and fertility: The water "teems with an abundance of living creatures." The plants and trees across the earth are "seed-bearing." The animals, and the man and the woman, are exhorted to "be fruitful, multiply." Even as the man and woman are being cast out of Paradise, the talk is of child-bearing, the fruit of the trees, and the tilling of the land. They are cast out, but not cast away. God provides them "leather garments" to clothe and protect them as they are led east of Eden. To them, and to us, God has given a teeming creation, an Earth abundant with gifts, opportunities, talents, friends, family. It is for us, as for Adam and Eve, to till this creation, and co-create this world and ourselves with him.
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