Mark

pinklight,

let me try and understand your chronology. Maybe this will help our discussion.

1. Adam is given a prohibition about the garden only (Gen 2:16-17)
2. Eve is created oblivious of the above prohibition (gen 2:22-25)
3. Then you flick back to Gen 1. Both are given a command to eat from the trees of the whole earth (1:29)
4. Then both are given a ‘new’ prohibition regarding the forbidden tree and the garden specific (which is the one under discussion)
5. Then you come to Gen 3 and the fall.

Is this a fair assumption of your view?

Now the way i see it to help you.
Gen 1 is a broad ‘overview’ if you like of the creation of the world. Gen 2 is a ‘zoomed’ in version, giving more detail, more precise chronology which is excluded in Gen 1. Contextually therefore, Gen 3 is supposed to flow on from chapter 2, not to have gen 1 inserted in between. Gen 1 is given as a backdrop so to speak, and so should not be read in between Gen 2 and 3.

We know this is the case because in Gen 1 the animals are made before the people. But in Gen 2 they are made after and brought to the man to name them.

In Gen 1, on day three God makes all the plants and vegetation, but in Gen 2, the plants have not sprung up because there is no man to work the field.

In Gen 2, God plants the garden after the creation of the man and before the creation of the woman, but this detail is altogether exluded in Gen 1.

Basicaly my point is, Gen 1 is not intended to be read in between Gen 2 and 3. It doesn’t work, therefore we must attempt to understand it differently. This is why your view is difficult to understand and formulate. In fact, i’m not sure i have ever heard anybody try to understand Gen 1-3 the way this blog does. The scholars definately do not see it this way.