Theology Detail
Applied to: Right to repair and meaningful ownership
Genesis 2:15 gives concrete form to the dominion mandate of Genesis 1:28. Where 1:28 speaks of subduing the earth and having dominion, 2:15 narrows the focus to the daily, hands-on work of tending and keeping what God entrusts to man.
“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15)
This verse comes in the second creation narrative, before the fall. God has planted a garden and placed Adam in it with a specific vocation: to dress it (‘abad—to work, serve, cultivate) and to keep it (shamar—to guard, watch over, preserve). These two Hebrew verbs together capture the full scope of stewardship: active cultivation and careful preservation.
The garden was not self-maintaining. It required human labor, attention, and care. God did not place Adam in the garden as a passive consumer but as an active steward—one who works with his hands on real, material things entrusted to him by God.
This is a pre-fall ordinance. The calling to work, maintain, and preserve material goods is not a consequence of sin but part of man’s original dignity and purpose. The Westminster Larger Catechism (Q. 20) affirms that God’s providence includes upholding and governing all His creatures and all their actions—and man’s role in that order includes the faithful care of what is placed under his hand.
“To dress it” (‘abad): This word means to work, serve, or till. It implies active, productive engagement with material creation—not passive holding or mere consumption, but labor that shapes, improves, and sustains.
“To keep it” (shamar): This word means to guard, watch over, or preserve. It implies protective care—maintaining what exists, preventing deterioration, restoring what has broken down. The same word is used of the cherubim who “keep” the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24) and of the command to “keep” God’s commandments.
Together, ‘abad and shamar describe a steward who both works and preserves—who does not merely use but also maintains, repairs, and guards the things under his care.
The principle is this: God designed human beings to actively work, maintain, and preserve the material things entrusted to their care. Stewardship is not ownership in name only. It includes the practical ability and responsibility to cultivate, repair, and guard what one possesses.
A steward who is forbidden to maintain what he has been given—who may use a thing but not open, repair, restore, or improve it—is not exercising the kind of stewardship Genesis 2:15 describes. The calling to “dress and keep” assumes access to the thing being kept and the freedom to exercise care over it.
Applied carefully, Genesis 2:15 supports the principle that ownership should include the practical capacity to maintain and repair what one owns. When manufacturers or licensing arrangements forbid the owner from servicing, repairing, or modifying goods they have lawfully purchased, the relationship between the owner and the object is no longer one of stewardship. It becomes one of dependency—the owner may use the thing, but only on the licensor’s terms, with no ability to “dress and keep” it.
This does not mean Genesis 2:15 directly mandates modern right-to-repair legislation. The connection is a strong implication: the creation mandate envisions human beings exercising real, hands-on care over material things. Arrangements that systematically strip owners of that capacity work against the grain of the creation order.
Genesis 2:15 does not establish an absolute right to modify anything in any way. The steward in the garden was under God’s authority and subject to God’s commands (including the prohibition of the tree of knowledge, v. 17). Stewardship is always under authority, never autonomous.
Likewise, the right to repair in the modern context has legitimate limits: safety regulations, intellectual property protections that serve genuine innovation, and restrictions that prevent harm to others are all lawful exercises of civil authority. The principle supports the ordinary expectation of maintenance and repair, not an unqualified demand to override every manufacturer restriction regardless of context.
Nor does this text support a consumerist mentality that treats ownership as absolute autonomy. The steward answers to God. The principle is responsible care, not mere self-will.
Genesis 2:15 teaches that God placed man in the garden to work and preserve what was entrusted to him. This pre-fall calling to active, hands-on stewardship supports the principle that lawful ownership should ordinarily include the practical ability to maintain, repair, and care for what one owns. Arrangements that systematically prevent owners from exercising basic stewardship over their possessions work against the creation order. This is a strong implication from the text, not a direct proof-text for any specific legislation, but it provides a clear creational foundation for the expectation of meaningful ownership.