What was the first command given to Adam in the garden?

Answer 1

When Adam and Eve were placed in the garden of Eden, God told them that they could do what ever they want except that they were forbidden to eat fruit from a certain tree. Of course when tempted by the devil, they jumped right to it and ate the forbidden fruit.

Answer 2

Command? Why does everything have to be a 'command'?'

Jehovah God gave Adam some assignments that are recorded in Genesis.

Some think that the first command to Adam was in Genesis 1:28.

But not so fast. Perhaps it was the absolute first / perhaps it wasn't.

Genesis 1:28 mentions two people when it says: "God said unto THEM."

But certainly God spoke to Adam long before he spoke to Adam & Eve together.

God gave Adam the ASSIGNMENT:

1) to name the animals. (Perhaps he watched their antics; listened to the sounds they made; and then gave them an appropriate name. For example: The Hebrew name for turtledove (tohr or tor) evidently imitates this bird's plaintive cry of "tur-r-r tur-r-r."

2) He was to 'tend to the Garden'.

Then when Eve was with Adam, Jehovah said to them:

3) to 'be fruitful, become many, and fill the earth' with offspring.

4) Adam was also advised about not eating from the one tree.

But in which order they were given, is not known; because there is a brief account in chapter 1; and a more detailed account in Chapter 2.

Another Answer:

Most reading Genesis have difficulty with the accounts in chapter 1 versus chapter 2. But if the reader considers that Genesis is a book of genealogies which is said several times to begin new points-of-view or subject matter, then there is a story flow that is consistent throughout.

Though there are many interpretations of Genesis 1 & 2 as being the 'macro vs micro' view - an account and re-hashing of sorts; different writers like J or P; or genealogical beginning with God's account in Genesis 1 (although He is without beginning) and Genesis 2:4 starting with Adam's account. So the answer will certainly be different depending upon the one considered in answering.

Whether a 'command' or statement, consider this from God's perspective:

Genesis 1:27-28New King James Version (NKJV)

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

And this 'command' from Adam's perspective:

Genesis 2:16-17New King James Version (NKJV)

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."