The distinction between garden (or vineyard) and field begins in Genesis 2. This relates to the ordering of the formless world. Plants of the field are contrasted with the garden planted by God in Genesis 2:5&8. Later on, under the Old Covenant the Israelites will be required to keep their field plants and vineyard plants separate, just as we are to keep the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine separate in the Lord’s Supper. God created fruit trees and grain plants on the third day and scattered them over the earth, but there is no indication that they were kept separate. The separation is set up here, when the Garden of Eden is separated from the Land of Eden.

Genesis 2:5 states that man’s labor of cultivating the field will involve him with the shrubs and with grain plants. It is clear from Genesis 2:15 that he will also be involved in cultivating the garden, including fruit trees and grape vines. Why, then, are these field plants emphasized here in 2:5? 

The reason is eschatological. The passage looks forward to man’s proceeding out the Garden of Eden and into the Land of Eden. The Sanctuary-Garden is the vineyard near the house, while the Land is the field. Man is not to live continually in the Garden, but only to start there and return there each sabbath day. The goal implied by Genesis 2:5 is that man will act as God’s image and move out of the Garden, cultivating the whole earth, the “field.” Man proceeds from the center. The sanctuary does not exist for itself alone, but to train men to cultivate the world. 

In fact, this is what happened. The judgment pronounced by God in Genesis 3:18 is phrased in terms of the two kinds of field plants. The shrubs will now grow “thorns and thistles,” and the grains will be eaten by the sweat of the brow. The orchard trees are not mentioned, and in a sense are excluded. Throughout the Old Covenant, men were never allowed to drink wine in the presence of God, and the Nazirite had to swear off all grapes and raisins as well. The priests were, however, allowed to eat the showbread and the cereal offerings in holy places. Man could fellowship with God in the field under the Old Covenant, but he was not admitted back into the Garden until the New. 

Sadly, throughout Church history men have rejected the opportunity to come back into the Garden and drink wine with God. For centuries the Church would not serve the cup to the laity, and Protestants have never recovered the joy of weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Most Protestants refuse wine and settle for grape juice. We have been given permission to return to the Garden, but we refuse it. 

To return to Genesis 2 & 3, we can understand what is implied by Genesis 2:5. God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden so that they could cultivate the thorny shrubs and tough grains. Had our parents not sinned, they would have followed the rivers out of the Garden into the field and cultivated nice shrubs and gentle grains anyway. Thus, Genesis 2:5 points forward to man’s eventual departure from the Garden, which was to happen after he had named the animals, gotten a helper, and resisted Satan. 

We have an order of world development set out for us in Genesis 1-2. God first created the world, then set aside the fields of the “lands,” and finally planted an orchard in a garden in the midst of a land. Man is the image of God. Man begins in God’s orchard, but is tasked with developing a land first. Man will start with field plants, which produce the grain that is necessary to sustain human life. He will in time also plant vineyards and orchards, which produce the fruits that are luxuries in human life. 

God climaxes His work with the garden-orchard at the end of the first week. Then God passes on the world to His image, who labors for the second week. The climax of human labors will be a garden-orchard-city: the New Jerusalem. Because of Adam’s sin, it remained for the Last Adam to do this manly work. 

For man to do his work properly, he must start not with his orchard, and not even with his field. He must start by cultivating God’s orchard (Genesis 2:15). If he does not cultivate and guard God’s orchard, then when he starts his own field, it will be a perverse field, and when eventually he builds a city-orchard, it will be a perverse city. Man must bow the knee and start in God’s house before he moves out to do his own works. Only then will his works be good works. 

We have seen that man’s first food was fruit, grown by God and given as a gift. Man’s second food would be grain, grown by man and God together, offered to God, and then received back as a gift. The same would be true of man’s later fruit. Grace precedes works, here as always. 

Fruit is grown in the vineyard, the orchard. Under the Old Covenant, the vineyard was kept separate from the field, where grain is grown. The vineyard, being analogous to the Garden of God, was holier under the Old Covenant than the field. Under the Old Covenant, the priests were allowed to eat grain in the sanctuary, but not wine. Wine was too holy, and man was not yet wholly sanctified. 

Thus, the original order seems reversed. Originally, fruit came first and then grain. Nowbread: comes first and then wine. How are we to understand this?

We go back to Genesis 1. Genesis 1:11-12&29 mention grain first and then fruit. God made the world first, then set aside the land (field) of Eden, and last separated the garden (orchard) of Eden. Thus, the historical order is: grain and then fruit, bread and then wine. Similarly, God worked six days and rested the seventh. This is the order of God’s work, and of the work of His image, man. Grain grows in a year; fruit takes longer. Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites had to wait until the fourth year to eat fruit (Lev. 19:23-24). Similarly, bread can be made quickly, while wine takes a longer time. 

God worked, then rested. Man, however, was made late on the sixth day and his first full day was the day of rest. Man starts in rest and moves to work. Similarly, man started with God’s fruit and then moved to his own grain and then to his own fruit. This is the order of grace, which always precedes works. Man started in the garden and moved to the field, and then to his own orchard. This establishes the theological fact that however much human work is involved in the production of bread and wine, they are ultimately gifts of God. 

But how does wine (fruit) come first for us? Remember that wine is the blood of grapes, and thus signifies blood, in which is life (Gen. 49:11; Dt. 32:14, Lev. 17). In the order of creation, the blood of fruit comes first, then the bread. In the order of re-creation, the blood of Christ comes first, then the bread and wine of communion, which we make as a memorial before God. We must drink once and for all of the blood of Christ in the sense of John 6 (conversion) before we eat the bread and drink the wine of communion. I believe that this is why, on one occasion only, at the last Supper, Jesus shared the wine before giving the bread and wine (Luke 22:17-20). 

Let me go a bit further and suggest that baptism with water is to be associated with the fact that fruits came first. Wine is glorified water (John 2). Baptism (apart from our works) gives us the initial fruit of the Garden-sanctuary. We don’t do anything to produce the water of baptism; in fact Genesis 2:5 says that water comes wholly from God. The Lord’s Supper (which involves our work of producing bread and wine, taken from field and garden) is the continuing food of the Kingdom. 

With this in mind, we can return to Genesis 2 and see a further dimension of what is found there. Man was freely invited to the Tree of Life. God planted that tree, not man. Its fruit was a free gift. Thus, man gets life from God apart from works. This is signified by baptism, in the sanctuary-garden of the Church. 

Man was also eventually to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, apparently before going out into the field to cultivate grain. That fruit was also a free gift, but depended on man’s faithfulness. It represented investiture with mature authority. It is also signified by baptism. 

Only the man who has been given Life and Authority is free to bring his own grain and fruit, bread and wine, to God and eat with Him. 

What is faithfulness then? Is it a work, in the sense of cultivating the ground? No, it is seen in Genesis 2-3 as the “work” of guarding the garden, resisting Satan. This endeavor must precede all others. Only when men come to God for Life, resist Satan, and have been given Authority by God — only then are they equipped to pursue the dominion mandate and cultivate the world. Only then are their works of producing bread and wine acceptable to God. 

James Jordan is scholar-in-residence at Theopolis.