"to cultivate Paradise" in the sense in which we took the pre-
BOOK EIGHT 47
CHAPTER 10
The meaning of "cultivate" and "guard" in Gen. 2.15.
19. Man was to guard it. But guard what? Paradise? Against whom? There was surely no fear of an invader from the vicinity, or of one who would assail the borders; no fear of a thief or an aggressor. How, then, are we to understand that a corporeal paradise could have been guarded by man with corporeal means? But Scripture did not say "to cultivate and guard Paradise"; it said simply to cultivate and guard.°° But if we take care to translate literally from the Greek, the text says, And the Lord God took the man whom He made and placed him in Paradise to cultivate and guard it (or him).5}
But did God place the man there to work? This is the interpretation of the translator who wrote simply "to cultivate" or "to work" (ut operaretur), without an object expressed. Or was it to cultivate Paradise, that is, that the man should cultivate Paradise? The text is ambiguous. But the words seem to demand that we say not "to cultivate Paradise" (operaretur paradisum) but rather "to work in Paradise" (operaretur in paradiso).
20. Nevertheless, let us assume that we do not take the words "to cultivate Paradise" in the sense in which we took the previous statement, And there was not a man to cultivate the earth>2 (while admitting, of course, that the expression "'to cultivate the earth" has exactly the same structure as "to cultivate Paradise'). The text is ambiguous, and we should explore both interpretations. For if it is not necessary to say "to guard Paradise" (paradisum custodire), but if we can say "'to keep guard in Paradise"
(in paradiso custodire), then what is being guarded in Paradise? As for the expression "to work in Paradise," we have already discussed our opinion. Perhaps we should say that what man cultivated in the earth by the art of agriculture he guarded or preserved within himself by discipline.°* I mean that just as the soil which he tilled obeyed him, so he would dutifully render to his Lord, who had given him the command, the fruit of obedience, not the thorns of disobedience. In the end, since he did not wish to remain obedient and guard within himself the likeness