19
garden where living waters spring forth now becomes the possession of the man, but only after
the woman yields to him her enclosed paradise and he enters to partake of its delights and its
choicest fruits. 66 The spousal mystery continues to unveil its secrets throughout the Biblical text,
first revealed in the beginning and then as Scripture peers through the interior door of the
bedchamber where the woman and her beloved lie. The locked garden of paradise is now opened
and it is Love that has provided the key.
The nuptial lens contributed by the Song of Songs, with its theological references to the
woman as the enclosed garden, offers a new perspective from which to interpret the command of
God to Adam in the Genesis account. In Genesis 2:15, God gives Adam a task, placing him in
the garden for the purpose of tilling it and keeping it. The Hebrew word for ‘keep’ is shamar,
which transliterated means to “guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life.” 67 As Dr. Scott
Hahn points out in his talk at the World Meeting of Families in 2015, it is Adam’s duty, “not
simply to protect the garden, but…to protect his bride.” 68 In fact, in a certain theological sense,
the garden and the bride are one and the same, the precious gift entrusted to Adam to nurture,
serve and defend.
It is in opening her enclosed garden to her spouse that the woman reveals the mystery of
creation to him. This mystery is, according to St. John Paul II, “the beginning of the world by the
will of God,” a mystery that resides in the nature of every created being. 69 Hidden within her
body lies the entrance not only to the garden of delight but also—it must be remembered—of
fertile abundance. Here, God reveals the mystery of woman specifically in her ability to conceive
66
Cf. Sg 4:16.
Blue Letter Bible, s.v. “shamar,” Blue Letter Bible Institute, accessed May 27, 2018,
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H8104&t=KJV.
68
Scott Hahn, “Back to the Garden of Eden: God’s Covenant with Humankind” (video of lecture, World
Meeting of Families, Philadelphia, September 22-27, 2015), 8:57, posted May 5, 2016, accessed May 27, 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLRRBwM4XwY.
69
John Paul II, “Creation as a Fundamental and Original Gift,” para. 12.
67