When one reads the first few chapters of Genesis, he notices the simple economy of words in revealing foundational truth underlying a biblical worldview.  Genesis 2 begins the history of mankind with the toledoth structure in Genesis 2:4.

Toledoth

Toledoth is the Hebrew word translated “generations” thirteen times in Genesis and divides up the early history of mankind from the perspective of God.  It follows the record of the people, of mankind, with God recording what occurred. Genesis 1:1-2:3 record the creation of God, a unique period in history.  The earth He created begins then bringing forth as an active partner in “making.”  2:4 heads a new section in the narrative with  the first toledoth emphasizing what happened with the beautiful and perfect world that God had created. It connects what precedes with what follows, pushing forward the history with another account.

The first toledoth does not use the name of a person — there was no history of men yet.  However, all the history that follows proceeded from God’s creation of heaven and earth. Genesis 1:1-2:3 is a record of creating not begetting.  When we get to Genesis 2, earth is an active partner in making.  It sprouts plants (2:5) and the dust of it begets man himself, the product of earthy dust.

In Genesis 2:10-14, Moses wrote a description of the surrounding geography of Eden from a present-tense perspective of a pre-flood observer.  It gave the reader in that day a sense of the immensity of the original Garden of Eden.  Based on the geographic parallels in a post-flood world, the Garden was 3,500 square miles.  God had major possibilities available for a faithful, obedient Adam and Eve.

Genesis 2:9

The few words take on maximum importance in communicating what God wants the reader to know and how and where to focus.  Genesis 2:9 says the following:

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The LORD God made out of the ground to grow every tree.  These trees were the means by which the pre-sin world would live.  After sin and then the flood, men would survive based on the sweat of his brow, operating according to tilling a soil with thorns and thistles.

Pleasant to the Sight

The first quality of the trees of Eden God says are “pleasant to the sight” and second, “good for food.”  It was important to God that the trees and the Garden looked beautiful.  In modern cooking shows, chefs speak of food presentation, the process of arranging food to make it look better on the plate.  This started with God and is in fitting with his nature and the nature of man.

If scripture says the tree was “pleasant to the sight,” then something must also be “unpleasant to the sight.”  For beauty to exist, ugliness also exists.  However, right at the beginning of creation, in the nature of God is the making of something beautiful to see.

For man made in the image of God, what was beautiful for him to see was also beautiful for God to see.  God created people who would have the same aesthetic standard as Him.  This is the beauty of God’s holiness.  Beauty conforms to the perfections of God’s attributes, His glory.  This is seen in His creation in its symmetry, order, proportion, harmony, and diversity.  God Himself is the standard and everything beautiful conforms to who He is.

The Garden of Eden looked good.  This was a first priority and within the nature of God.  It wouldn’t be trashy, unkept, disorderly, or messy.  These qualities do not conform to God.  Any reader should assume that he knows what was pleasant to the eyes of Adam and Eve in their sinless conditions.

The Importance of an Aesthetic Value

My major point in this was the importance of an aesthetic value.  God emphasizes the beautiful.  True believers should and will judge all forms of art as to its beauty and reject what contradicts the nature of God.

Beauty is a second term issue.  By that, I mean that God assumes we know what pleasantness is.  The syllogism would read like the following:

The Trees of the Garden Were Pleasant to the Eyes
Symmetry, Order, Proportion, Harmony, and Diversity Are Pleasant to the Eyes
Therefore, the Trees of the Garden Had Symmetry, Order, Proportion, Harmony, and Diversity

You could write a similar syllogism with the adverse qualities of ugliness.  The qualities of objective pleasantness must conform to the nature of God.  What doesn’t is in fact ugly.  Nothing is beautiful in its own way.  Everything is beautiful according to the nature of God.