Edenic Mandate: Multiply and Overspread the Earth

Be fruitful and multiply is not first of all about family size. It is a commission.
Humanity is made to image God - to represent him and act on his behalf - and the command to multiply is the instruction to produce more imagers and spread them out. The wording carries it: increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. The requirement to spread is built in.
Notice the geography too. Verse 28 says the earth needed filling, which means the earth was not Eden. Eden was the sacred centre. The rest of the world was the assignment.
After the flood the same command is reissued to Noah, almost word for word. The project never changed.
Scripture links:
- Genesis 1:28 - be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.
- Genesis 9:1 - the same command given again to Noah.
The job was never to stay in the garden. It was to take the garden outward.