“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15, NRSV; emphasis added).

When we read Genesis 2:15 in the NRSV translation, we come away with a clear idea of what God intended Adam to do in the garden: to till the soil. However, when we read other modern English versions we get a more general sense of what God expected of Adam: to work (Gen 2:15, NIV), cultivate (NAB, NASB), or farm the garden (CEB).

 Most of us probably assume that Genesis 2:15 justifies—if not commissions—the human work of plowing up the soil. But what if “till” over-interprets the underlying Hebrew verb? What if plowing up the ground isn’t necessarily what God placed Adam in the garden to do? Would we be willing to reconsider our approaches to agriculture—both in light of scripture and in light of science?

I’m hoping your answer is yes. But even if not, take a little linguistic journey with me.

The verbs “till,” “cultivate,” and “farm” have pretty narrow ranges of meaning in English. These verbs call to mind the work involved in farming. Tilling here is the most specific, with its connotation of plowing and opening up the ground. Farming and cultivating, in contrast, can describe many different actions involved in growing food, with or without tilling or plowing. Think of the nut or fruit-tree farmer. She does not plow up the ground every spring to plant; she’d hurt her trees’ roots.

This variety of English translations should make us wonder what the underlying Hebrew term meant. What was its range of meaning? Was it a specialized term, referring to the tasks of farming specifically? Or, was it a general term?

The Hebrew verb that the NRSV translates as “till” is ʿābad. It has a very general meaning of “work,” “serve,” “labour,” “work for another,” and even “worship.”[1]

The verb ʿābad takes on specific agricultural nuances when it is placed in a context describing farm work. For example, the agricultural context of Isaiah 30:23-24 and especially the participation of oxen and donkeys make it pretty clear that the verb ʿābad in verse 24 means “till” or “plow.” The passage states:

“[God] will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork” (Isaiah 30:23-24).

But our passage in Genesis 2 doesn’t mention the work of oxen or the use of farming implements. This doesn’t mean that the verb in Genesis 2:15 can’t mean till. But the verb in this context does not demand such a narrow meaning.  

Two details in Genesis 2 suggest that Adam’s work is meant to promote the land’s ability to grow plants for the long-term. The first detail comes at the beginning of this second creation account. “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens . . . no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up” (Gen 2:4-5a). Why not? Why are there no plants yet? Verse 5 goes on to explain, “for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one [ādām] to till [laʿăbod] the ground.”[2] God had not yet sent the necessary, nourishing waters upon the soil, and God had not yet created the human to work and serve the ground.

This story of creation establishes a positive link between human agricultural labor and the spread of plants and herbs of the field. Human activity is expected to promote the land’s ability to grow plants.[3]

But should this growth only last for a short time? Should societies degrade soils, abandon fields, and move on to new lands, as has happened so often in human history in large part because of plowing?[4] Are we humans bound to use up the fertility of a particular place and then destined to exploit other lands?

The obvious answer is no. At least this is not God’s intention. Whether or not we can learn to live within an ecosystem’s constraints and maintain its fertility is another question. But what we find in the second creation account is a vision of the human being not only serving or working the land but also keeping it.

Just after Genesis 2:15 indicates that the human is to ʿābad the garden, it says adam must also šāmar it. This Hebrew verb means “keep, watch, preserve.”[5] Sometimes this verb occurs in connection with God’s Law, commands, and covenant, indicating God’s people are to maintain their side of the covenantal relationship with care, perseverance, and integrity. One famous passage that delineates Israel’s obligation to keep the covenant is Deuteronomy 29. At Deuteronomy 29:9 Moses declares: “Therefore diligently observe [keep / šāmar] the words of this covenant, in order that you may succeed in everything that you do.”[6] Keeping the covenant isn’t a task that ends after a few years or decades. It goes on for the entirety of one’s life and extends throughout the generations, for all those who receive its gifts and accept its restraints.

All of this is to say that Adam’s task of “keeping” the garden is not another way to say that he is to hoard it. “Keep” might give us this impression in English, but that is far from the underlying Hebrew word’s meaning. God expects Adam to preserve, conserve, protect, watch over, and maintain the wellbeing of the garden for the long haul. (Genesis 1:29-30 provides a similar depiction of humans caring for the long-term health of the land. See my “A Call to Share Plants & Soil.”)

When our methods of tilling the land and growing food actually work at cross-purposes with our commission to serve the land and maintain it, then we must stop what we’re doing, turn from our destructive practices, and learn healthier forms of agriculture that will protect and even build the fertility of the soil. In another post, I’ve traced how tilling soil year after year negatively affects global health by releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases (Problems of Plowing, Part 1: Greenhouse Gases). I’ve also described the ways in which tilling leads to the loss (rather than protection) of our fertile soils in Problems of Plowing, Part 2: Erosion. From a scientific perspective, plowing isn’t the best way to care for our soils. And from a scriptural perspective, tilling isn’t an essential feature of being human or of fulfilling God’s commission to Adam.

But you’re probably wondering, “Isn’t plowing vital to global human survival? Isn’t plowing necessary from a practical perspective?” With food choices and human population numbers what they are today, yes; plowing is essential. But farming methods and crop possibilities are changing. We’ll review some of these possibilities in future posts.

In the meantime, consider how you might support farmers who commit themselves to serving and maintaining their land. One way to connect with such farmers is by searching the directory of the Certified Naturally Grown network (https://www.cngfarming.org/). This network of farmers are committed to “implement[ing] tillage and cultivation practices that maintain or improve the physical, chemical, and biological condition of soil and minimize soil erosion” and “managing crop nutrients and soil fertility through rotations, cover crops, and the application of plant and animal materials” (among other ecologically-healthy commitments).[7]

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[1] Francis Driver S. R. Brown et al., The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon : With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic : Coded with the Numbering System from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible / Uniform Title: Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, [New ]. ed. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996), 712-13.

[2] The verb “till” renders the Hebrew verb ʿābad.

[3] For intriguing studies about the ways in which human agricultural activity can indeed promote healthy growth of plants for the long term, read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass; https://www.facebook.com/braidingsweetgrass/).

[4] For a helpful exposition of this phenomenon and its relationship to the decline of civilizations, see David R. Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008).

[5] Brown et al., 1036.

[6] This verse appears as Deuteronomy 29:8 in the MT and LXX versions.

[7] https://www.cngfarming.org/produce_standards