Garden of Eden
Various suggestions have been made for its location:[3] at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea;[4] in Armenia, and even in Jackson County, Missouri.
[5][6][7][8] Others theorize that Eden was the entire Fertile Crescent[9] or a region of "considerable size" in Mesopotamia, where its native inhabitants still exist in cities such as Telassar.
[12] Scholars note that the Eden narrative shows parallels with aspects of Solomon's Temple and Jerusalem, attesting to its nature as a sacred place.
[29] In Antiquities of the Jews, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus identifies the Pishon as what "the Greeks called Ganges" and the Geon (Gehon) as the Nile.
However, the king sinned through wickedness and violence, and so he was driven out of the garden and thrown to the earth, where now he is consumed by God's fire: "All those who knew you in the nations are appalled at you, you have come to a horrible end and will be no more."
[6][34][7][8] British archaeologist David Rohl locates it in Iran, and in the vicinity of Tabriz, but this suggestion has not been adopted by mainstream academia.
[35] Others theorize that Eden was merely a region of "considerable size" in Mesopotamia, where its native inhabitants still exist in cities such as Telassar, based on verses such as Isaiah 37:12.
Korpel and J.C. de Moor reconstructed close Canaanite parallels, which they posit as being the origin of the biblical creation myth from the first chapters of Genesis including the Garden of Eden and Adam narrative.
[48] Their reconstructed texts talk about the creator deity El, who lived in a vineyard or garden together with his wife Asherah on Mount Ararat.
[48] However, John Day argues that these stories are not explicitly attested in the Ugaritic texts but are reconstructed on the basis of speculative and dubious suppositions.
[49] The word "paradise" entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, paradisum, from the Greek parádeisos (παράδεισος).
It subsequently came to indicate the expansive walled gardens of the First Persian Empire, and was later borrowed into a number of languages: into Greek as παράδεισος (parádeisos), 'park for animals', cf.
For example, the Old Iranian word survives as pardis in New Persian, as well as its derivative pālīz (or jālīz), which denotes a vegetable patch.
[citation needed] The word entered the Hebrew language with the meaning of pardes (פַּרְדֵּס), 'orchard', appearing thrice in the Tanakh: in the Song of Solomon (4:13), Ecclesiastes (2:5), and Nehemiah (2:8).
[53] US archaeologist Lawrence Stager posits that the biblical Eden narrative drew from aspects of Solomon's palace and temple compound and Jerusalem.
[13] In the Septuagint (3rd–1st centuries BCE), the Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos) was used to translate both the Hebrew פרדס (pardes) and גן (gan), meaning 'garden' (e.g. Genesis 2:8, Ezekiel 28:13): it is from this usage that the use of paradise to refer to the Garden of Eden derives.
[55] In the Talmud and the Jewish Kabbalah,[56] the scholars agree that there are two types of spiritual places called "Garden in Eden".
The second is envisioned as being celestial, the habitation of righteous, Jewish and non-Jewish, immortal souls, known as the "higher Gan Eden".
[citation needed] Some modern Orthodox Jews believe that history will complete itself and the ultimate destination will be when all mankind returns to the Garden of Eden.
The first compartment is for Jewish martyrs, the second for those who drowned, the third for "Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his disciples," the fourth for those whom the cloud of glory carried off, the fifth for penitents, the sixth for youths who have never sinned; and the seventh for the poor who lived decently and studied the Torah.
This idea of an atemporal separation from Eden has been most recently defended by theologians David Bentley Hart, John Behr, and Sergei Bulgakov as well as having roots in the writings of several early church fathers, especially Origen and Maximus the Confessor.
(For example, a sahih hadith reports Muhammad said: "Allah says: I have prepared for my righteous servants that which has neither been seen by eyes, nor heard by ears, nor ever conceived by any man."
)[70] Islamic exegesis does not regard Adam and his spouse's expulsion from paradise as punishment for disobedience or a result from abused free will on their part.
[71]: 171 Instead, ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) writes, God's wisdom (ḥikma) destined humanity to leave the garden and settle on earth.
[72] Followers of the Latter Day Saint movement believe that after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden they resided in a place known as Adam-ondi-Ahman, located in present-day Daviess County, Missouri.
It is recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants that Adam blessed his posterity there and that he will return to that place at the time of the final judgment[73][74] in fulfillment of a prophecy set forth in the Bible.
LDS doctrine is unclear as to the exact location of the Garden of Eden, but tradition among Latter-Day Saints places it somewhere in the vicinity of Adam-ondi-Ahman, or in Jackson County.
[76][77] The 2nd-century Gnostic teacher Justin held that there were three original divinities, a transcendental being called the Good, an intermediate male figure known as Elohim and Eden who is an Earth-mother.
