Stephen said
Robert Miller suggests that the point of the odd coordinates was precisely to keep people from trying to find Eden.Someone needs to inform those folks who keep making sad attempts to locate Noah’s ark.
I had long wished to go there, but there were obstacles. One of them was that I could not find it on any map.
-Freya Stark on Alamut
Eden was destroyed in the flood surely?
Stephen said
Let me add to the reading list-** you do not have permission to see this link **
Prof Zevit interprets the Genesis story through Ancient Near Eastern eyes, what it really meant to the people who originally read it.
Yes indeed. I have read this somewhat thoroughly. I’m taking notes! So, I have picked up this Genesis of Good and Evil written by Mark Smith. Smith does cite Zevit among others. In fact, Prof. Zevit gives the book a “plug” on the back cover. He calls it a “quick read” but I wouldn’t necessarily (ha). Smith’s book is loaded with notes to about half of the book is notes. There’s a lot of information there to dig into. It’s much the same approach, putting the interpretation in the time frame and place where it would have been originally received.
Thanks for your helpful interest Stephen!
It is likely, of course, that to the extent that there was an actual geographical location that came to be thought of as the Garden of Eden, it would be in the region where modern humans evolved. But even if we accept such a premise, the idea of the Garden of Eden is almost surely buried under so much nostalgia and has so much metaphorical meaning superimposed over it, that it may not really be recognizable in the physical world. (And that isn’t even taking in to consideration the affects of nature over a long period of time.) Surely no one is expecting to find an actual tree still guarded by an actual angel with a flaming sword.
Robert said
I love tree of life imagery. My new family room is two stories high, full of windows on two sides that look out on my wooded backyard. My plan is to decorate the other two walls with tree of life artwork, but I’m still looking for just the right pieces. I only recently learned that annual ‘death’ in winter and rebirth in spring each year is part of the symbolic background of this as a religious or otherwise life affirming image in various cultures.
There is something inspiring about a strong tree, tall and with a broad spread of branches bursting with leaves (with or without flowers and/or fruit). It is very life affirming.
(I suppose part of that is that trees embody a kind of natural majesty — and the only meanness they reveal is when they decide to fall over on your house or car. We have lost many ash trees here lately, due to invasive insects which now appear to be moving on to other hardwoods. I just had to have a very tall ash tree taken down for my parents yesterday.)
(and in my prior post, please read “affects” as “effects” — a very clumsy typo, intelligible but embarrassing.)
JAS said
Robert said
I love tree of life imagery. My new family room is two stories high, full of windows on two sides that look out on my wooded backyard. My plan is to decorate the other two walls with tree of life artwork, but I’m still looking for just the right pieces. I only recently learned that annual ‘death’ in winter and rebirth in spring each year is part of the symbolic background of this as a religious or otherwise life affirming image in various cultures.
There is something inspiring about a strong tree, tall and with a broad spread of branches bursting with leaves (with or without flowers and/or fruit). It is very life affirming.
(I suppose part of that is that trees embody a kind of natural majesty — and the only meanness they reveal is when they decide to fall over on your house or car. We have lost many ash trees here lately, due to invasive insects which now appear to be moving on to other hardwoods. I just had to have a very tall ash tree taken down for my parents yesterday.)
(and in my prior post, please read “affects” as “effects” — a very clumsy typo, intelligible but embarrassing.)
I know that Native American folklore holds the evergreen in esteem as the guardian of winter. I don’t know the story complete; it has to do with why the evergreen keeps its leaves.
Robert said
Jill_L said
Stephen said
Let me add to the reading list-
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Prof Zevit interprets the Genesis story through Ancient Near Eastern eyes, what it really meant to the people who originally read it.
Yes indeed. I have read this somewhat thoroughly. I’m taking notes! So, I have picked up this Genesis of Good and Evil written by Mark Smith. Smith does cite Zevit among others. In fact, Prof. Zevit gives the book a “plug” on the back cover. He calls it a “quick read” but I wouldn’t necessarily (ha). Smith’s book is loaded with notes to about half of the book is notes. There’s a lot of information there to dig into. It’s much the same approach, putting the interpretation in the time frame and place where it would have been originally received.
Thanks for your helpful interest, Stephen!
Jill & Stephen, perhaps you could single out a few of the specific ideas you find most interesting for discussion here? I have so little time to delve into books outside of my normal work, so this would be much appreciated on my part and from other members here.
I think I can do that.
Here is a short distillation of what I found to be the most salient to me of Zevit, Ziony, What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden.
Linguistic and literary criteria considered in their historical and cultural contexts…if achievable.
Adam and Eve
The human was formed outside of the Garden from a clod (of earth). Zevit translates ‘apar, a clod of soil. God, like a brick maker, worked soil rendered malleable by the upsurge. Unfortunately, ‘apar is often translated as “dust”. He was formed outside of and brought into the garden to work. That he was formed outside of the Garden becomes important, because this would explain why there could be other humans around when Cain or Qayin is banished from the family unit upon killing Abel or Hebel.
Eve or Hawwa was fashioned from a bone of Adam, as ezer kenegdo, equally powerful but different.
Post encounter with the serpent, the pair was driven from the garden after a meeting of the divine council. Zevit thinks that this meeting was convened post serpent-encounter after some time had passed, and some concern was raised about the couples’ access to the Tree of Life. The concern was that the humans would live forever in a diminished state, that is perceiving of thorns and thistles in agricultural labor, pain in labor of childbirth. They had not yet been expelled when this sentence was passed. The sentencing is from that point forward but before they are expelled that they will perceive their existence through different “lenses” as their “eyes” had been opened. Put another way, their focus will shift.
Zevit puts it this way: “The sentences resulted in little change. He [Adam] was a hardworking agriculturalist before, and so he remained. In light of the analysis of ‘aruwr earlier*, the expression “‘awuwr [is] the ground” in verse 17 means that the ground appears diminished in productive strength “on account of” the man (cf. Deut 28:16; Pss 106.32; 132:10).”
*earlier Zevit: “Aruwr, usually rendered as “cursed” or “cursed be” (with a verb of being added for clarity in English), lacks the range of negative associations attached to cursed in English. the English word includes the notion of destructive power triggered by some supernatural authority that wreaks destruction or vengence.
“In biblical Hebrew, in contrast, to be ‘aruwr is to be in a diminished, disempowered, weakened, impoverished state.”
(The word ‘aruwr is distinguishable from qelalah – (Strongs) 7043 from 7045 curse, despise, bring into contempt, make more vile. ‘aruwr 779, p prim. root; to execrate — bitterly curse.)
So the couple was driven out as an act of kindness (rather than as punishment) to keep them from becoming immortal visually diminished unhappy humans. Man was made and had always been mortal and will remain mortal.
God’s Command
God’s command is translated accurately in the KJV 2:17, “But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die.”
Here are three important details of the command. First, the pronoun “thou” is singular. Often this number is not apparent in modern English translations so the nuance is missed. Second, it contains the threat of death. To die. Strong 4191 is muwt (put to, worthy of) death, etc. Third, in its context the command is rather indirect and not taken so seriously by Adam as God intended. It’s rather received as a kind of off-hand warning instead.
The Subtil Serpent
Serpent 5175 nachash from 5172; a snake (from its hiss) – serpent. Subtil 6175 aruwm pass part. of 6191; cunning (usually in a bad sense): – crafty, prudent, subtil.
(The serpent’s motive may be jealousy of Hawwa for her stealing Adam away.)
KJV 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Zevit: “in addition to inverting the facts, the serpent introduces a confusing, ever so slight variation that the woman fails to notice and correct. He uses a plural form in quoting God that the woman adopts. She then continues using plural forms in her restatement.
p 163 The serpent is shrewd but he is not rasa’, a wicked or evil creature. Although a few characteristics of the evil person are similar to those of the shrewd one, the two are not the same. Only in medieval interpretation was the devious fused with the evil, creating a devil. Thus a serpent in the Garden was transformed into Satan who rules in Hell.
Sin
A question Prof. Zevit asks is, was man created sin free? I think that Gn 3:6 probably intimates an answer of “no.”?
(R. Alter) 3:6 And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and that it was lust to the eyes and the tree was lovely to look at and she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her man with her, and he ate.
(KJV) 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.
good = 2896 towb; desired = 2530 chamad: beauty, greatly beloved, covet, delectable thing
Concept of Justice – or Why Didn’t Adam Die after Eating of the Tree of Knowing?
Zevit sees issuance of justice at play in the ensuring exchange between the parties (Gn 3:11-13)
Parsing God’s use of “which I commanded you,” Adam comprehends that no matter the lack of formal, correct grammar in the original policy statement about fruit consumption in Gen 2:16-17, God had intended that it be taken as a command.
A technicality: “She gave to me from the tree and I ate” (3:12) and “the serpent beguiled me and I did eat” (3:13)
(R. Alter) on 3:12 – The woman you gave by me, she gave to me. Man passes the buck, not only blaming the woman for giving him the fruit but virtually blaming him for the woman.
(Zevit) God does not advance a “yes…but” counter argument. He accepts Adam’s defensive excuses, preferring to encumber his statement intended as a prohibition with the serpent’s implied grammatical yet convoluted sophistries. By doing so, he obviates dealing with any sanction involving death “on the day of your eating.”
p. 183 “Some victories are Pyrrhic [not worth the cost]. The story’s author and its audience understood these implicit elements because they were part of their social, political and juridical world. In this world, laws were not necessarily intended to be applied literally and harshly but were grasped as principals and precedents, rules intended to help people work through and settle disputes intelligently. (Jackson, B.S. Wisdom-Laws: A Study of the Mispatim of Exodus 21:1-22:16, 2006)
. . . He was confronting an issue later framed by a question by Abraham in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah “Will the judge of all the earth not deal justly?” (Gen 18:25) God, the character in the Garden story had to consider what constituted justice in this case. The narrator…ethical notions of his readers and with their, and his, sense of fairness.
p. 241
Each pointed finger constituted more than an attempt to deflect blame; it also constituted an implicit defense against charges of culpability based (1) on the language of God’s original instruction to Adam and (2) on the circumstances of what had actually occurred at the Tree of Knowing.
Other Observations
Also of interest, Prof Zevit covers allusions to the story in the Hebrew bible, the location of and why a garden.
I will pick up later.
I will pick up later.
Other Observations
The story becomes a play between the characters’ intellects and their wielding of the language through their discourse. Prof. Zevit explicates the words and phrases of the Ancient Hebrew to foster understanding of the story’s dynamics.
“Wisdom is embedded in the vocabulary of the story with its words and syntagms* for knowing, understanding, perceiving, influence, craftiness, and verbal deception.”
*syntagm: a linguistic unit consisting of a set of linguistic forms (phonemes, words, or phrases) that are in a sequential relationship to one another.
Allusions Found in the Hebrew Bible
Allusions to the Garden story are positive ones and can be found according to Zevit’s understanding and his translations, in prophets and psalms, for example
I am not a prophet. I am a man working the soil like Adam. He created me [thus] from my youth. (Zech 13:5)
Also: Zech 14:8-11; Psalm 46:5; Ezek 47:1-12; Psalm 8:5-7; Psalm 144:3-4
Although Psalms 22:10, 71:6 do not allude to the story, they express the notion that God is involved in protecting children even in the womb, an idea congruent with Hawwa’s statement in Gen 4:2.
Zevit notes that scholars who were seeking the universal principles of deportment that lead to what people and God consider worldly success later eisegeted the waw as a waw explicativum the Hebrew equivalent of Latin id est or of the English expression “that is (to say)”: “and a Tree of Life in the middle of the garden, that is, a Tree of Knowling proper/good and improper/bad.” Construing it for their own reasons against the overt sense of the narrative and fusing the two trees into one enabled them to refer to “wisdom” as a “Tree of Life” (Prov 3:18, 11:30; 13:12; 15:4). Also Psalm 1, Jer 17:8.
“Lady Wisdom” or hokmah, (Prov 8) alludes to Hawwa out in the world chastised but reflective of her experience.
Why a Garden and Where Was It?
Gardens represented, in the Near Eastern Iron Age world, the home of the gods.
Prof. Zevit located Eden (!) in the territory of Urartu, an ancient kingdom; an area remote, isolated and difficult to reach. The area was controlled by Hurrians. The Garden would be on its eastern side.
Hellenistic Influence
Meanings or rare words and uncommon expressions of Late Antiquity Hebrew barely understood at the end of the Iron Age were completely lost to Hellenistic readers. Local social, political and economic conditions, the influence of Greek philosophy changed how the story was comprehended by readers.
Writers of the time wrote to appeal to the temper of the times and reworked passages to clarify a state of mind that could be understood in metaphysical terms as a profanation of the soul.
Example:
Passage of the Hebrew Bible:
“Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those to dwell in tents and amidst herds. And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe. As for Zillah, she bore Tubal-cain, who forged all implements of copper and iron. (Gen 4:19-22a. NJPS)”
Pseudo-Philo’s retelling of the same passage:
“At that time, when the inhabitants of the earth began to do evil deeds, every man against his neighbor’s wife and they defiled them. God became angry. And men began to play the lyre and cythern and every instrument of sweet music and to corrupt the earth. Sella bore Tobel. . .that is the Tobal who showed men arts in lead and tin and iron and copper and silver and gold. Then the inhabitants of the earth began to make sculpted objects and to worship them.”
These ideas gained influence with certain Rabbis after the destruction of the second temple 70 CE and spread further by the teachings of Paul. Eventually they were seen as basic to understanding the enigma of salvation. Read back into the Hebrew Bible these alien notions settled into the Garden story and have never left it.
Very important book. I’m glad Stephen recommended it! 
What sucks is how little I actually do read. I spend long periods just staring into space. Other people do this right?
Jill that was great.
What always strikes me is how concrete the imagery is in these stories. They seem so elemental. Yahweh walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The angel guarding the way to the Tree of Life with a flashing sword that turns every way. Genesis gives you a glimpse of a primordial world – but only a glimpse.
ps How’d you like to go through the ages being known as Pseudo-Philo? Or Trito-Isaiah. (But that said we have to salute Trito-I. He got in. He did get in. You can’t take that away from him.)
Stephen said
What sucks is how little I actually do read. I spend long periods just staring into space. Other people do this right?Jill that was great.
What always strikes me is how concrete the imagery is in these stories. They seem so elemental. Yahweh walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The angel guarding the way to the Tree of Life with a flashing sword that turns every way. Genesis gives you a glimpse of a primordial world – but only a glimpse.
ps How’d you like to go through the ages being known as Pseudo-Philo? Or Trito-Isaiah. (But that said we have to salute Trito-I. He got in. He did get in. You can’t take that away from him.)
Yes, I could agree. Once one takes the dogmatic away it becomes a lovely piece of literature.
JAS said
Stephen said
What sucks is how little I actually do read. I spend long periods just staring into space. Other people do this right?
Yes, if that space has a TV in it, or a cellphone.
Nah I just stare into space. I haven’t owned a TV since 1998 but of course in our society the TV monitor is ubiquitous. Now we carry it around so that we can never be without. I have a phone and the technology is wonderful that allows us to access so much information so easily. So why are many folks so dumb? I used to enjoy YouTube until monetization. My problem, if problem it is, is that commercials make me physically ill. And there is no environment where someone is not trying to sell me something I don’t want. Except books. I once had a professor who told me that since I was a reader I would always be an alien. At the time I didn’t really understand what he meant.
Jill wrote
Once one takes the dogmatic away it becomes a lovely piece of literature.
I can only speak for myself but I was never ever truly able to appreciate the Bible until I abandoned my religious beliefs. Pardon the awful pun but the Bible is a revelation when you scrape all the religion off it.
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