In | A Return to Eden

Adam and Eve cover their naked bodies and begin to blame one another for their disobedience. The primeval lovers of Genesis 2 fall away from each other both physically and spiritually. In verse 7 their “eyes are opened,” and they realize they’re naked. In verse 12, Adam uses Eve as a scapegoat for his sin.

Instead of treating Eve as “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh” (2:23), Adam uses Eve as an object for selfish purposes. Instead of protecting her, he pushes her away in order to save himself. Humanity’s relationship with God is broken in the fall, and so is Adam and Eve’s romantic and spiritual bond. 

This short passage describing the fall in Genesis 3 may not seem overly meaningful, but it is full of deep theological implications. The two become vulnerable in a new way, not only to natural pain and suffering but to abuse in human relationships. The immediate fallout is increasing distance from one another in body and mind. 

Genesis 3 is an important context for the Song of Songs, as this book represents a kind of return to Eden, where two lovers could stand across from each other as they did in Genesis 2, “both naked and not ashamed” (2:25). The suspicion and discretion of Genesis 3 is replaced in the Song of Songs by a sense of Edenic innocence and mutual fascination:

What was barely expressed in the second chapter of Genesis in just a few simple and essential words is developed [in Song of Songs] in a full dialogue, or rather in a duet, in which the bridegroom’s words are interwoven with the bride’s, and they complete each other. On seeing the woman created by God, man’s first words express wonder and admiration, or even better, the sense of fascination (Genesis 2:23). And a similar fascination—which is wonder and admiration—runs in fuller form through the verses of the Song of Songs. 

Source: John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, 2006, p. 552 (108.3).