Genesis | Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is recognized in the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But some other religions and cultures have creation stories containing a similar concept to the biblical Garden of Eden that date back much further in h
1899-12-30 00:00:00 - Ancient Astronaut Archive
And while most scholars readily acknowledge the more ancient sources for the Book of genesis, the vast majority of Jews and Christians seem either unaware of the roots of their own religions and/or have little interest if any in learning that truth.
The Garden of Eden, also called Paradise, is the biblical "garden of God" described in the Book of Genesis and the Book of Ezekiel. Genesis 13:10 refers to the "garden of God". The "trees of the garden" are mentioned in Ezekiel 31. The Book of Zechariah and the Book of Psalms also refer to trees and water without explicitly mentioning Eden.
The name derives from the Akkadian edinnu, from a Sumerian word edin meaning "plain" or "steppe", closely related to an Aramaic root word meaning "fruitful, well-watered". Another interpretation associates the name with a Hebrew word for "pleasure", thus the Douay-Rheims Bible in Genesis 2:8 has the wording "And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure" rather than "a garden in Eden". The Hebrew term is translated "pleasure" in Sarah's secret saying in Genesis 18:12.
Like the Genesis flood narrative, the Genesis creation narrative and the account of the Tower of Babel, the story of Eden echoes the Mesopotamian myth of a king, as a primordial man, who is placed in a divine garden to guard the Tree of Life. The Hebrew Bible depicts Adam and Eve as walking around the Garden of Eden naked due to their innocence.
The location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as the source of four tributaries. The Garden of Eden is considered to be mythological by most scholars. Among those that consider it to have been real, there have been various suggestions for its location: At the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea and in Armenia.
References:
•Foster, B. R. The Epic of Gilgamesh. (New York & London. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001)
•Gunkel, H. The Legends of Genesis: The Biblical Saga & History. (Schocken Books, New York, 1975)
•Crawford, H. Sumer and the Sumerians. (Cambridge University Press, 1991)
•Herbert G. May, H.G. & Metzger, B.M. Editors. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. [Revised Standard Version]. (New York. Oxford University Press, 1977)
•James, E.O. The Tree of Life: An Archaeological Study. (E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1966)
•Kramer, S.N. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, Philadelphia, 1961)
•Kramer, S.N. The Sumerians, Their History, Culture and Character. (The University of Chicago Press, 1963)
•Kramer, S.N and Maier, J. Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. (New York & Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1986)
•Kuhrt, A. The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC, Vol. 2. (Routledge, 2018)
•Lambert, W. G. & Millard, A. R. Atra-Hasis, The Babylonian Story of the Flood. (Oxford University Press. 1969)
•Pinches, T.G. The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia. (London. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1908)
•Pritchard, J.B. The Ancient Near East. (Princeton University Press, 2010)
•Sarna, N.M. Understanding Genesis: The World of the Bible in the Light of History. (Schocken Books, New York, 1966)
•Speiser, E.A. Genesis. (Anchor Bible, 1964)
•von Rad, G. Old Testament Theology: The Theology of Israel’s Historical Traditions. (Harper & Row, New York, 1962)