a royal garden ideology of eden sjot 2014 (1)
DESCRIPTION
Ideologia del EdenTRANSCRIPT
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Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament AnInternational Journal of Nordic TheologyPublication details including instructions for authors and subscription informationhttpwwwtandfonlinecomloisold20
A Royal Garden The Ideology of EdenNicolas Wyatta
a 22 Hillway London N6 6QA New College Edinburgh EH1 2LXPublished online 13 Jun 2014
To cite this article Nicolas Wyatt (2014) A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden Scandinavian Journal of the OldTestament An International Journal of Nordic Theology 281 1-35 DOI 101080090183282014926689
To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101080090183282014926689
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copy 2014 The Editors of the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden
Nicolas Wyatt 22 Hillway London N6 6QA
New College Edinburgh EH1 2LX
Email niqmad3gmailcom
ABSTRACT Before ldquoParadiserdquo became concerned with explaining the pre-
sent ldquofallenrdquo condition of humanity due to a primal sin which later also be-
came eschatologised into the locus of a human post-mortem felicitous destiny
it already symbolised royal power and the kingrsquos role in the ritual manage-
ment of the state And before the Garden of Eden came to be understood as
ldquoin the eastrdquo or in some other place remote from the present real world it
was understood to be located in Jerusalem as the setting of the royal cult
Adam the gardener was originally a type of the king This paper examines the
evidence for these elements in the biblical Eden story (Genesis 2-3) and in
Mesopotamian and Egyptian iconography and ideology and attempts to set
the final form of the tradition within its historical context the destruction of
the state in 597586 BCE and its non-monarchical succeeding period under
Persian rule
Key words Adam Eden Exile Jerusalem Kingship Royal Ideology Sacred
Tree Zion
Introduction
It is probably fair to say that the narrative in Genesis 2-3 is one of the
foundation documents of western culture It has certainly determined the
whole self-understanding of humanity in Jewish and Christian thought with
an appreciable influence on Muslim anthropology It has been universally
interpreted throughout most of its history as treating the creation of man
followed by his ldquofallrdquomdashhowever that is understoodmdashand giving rise to our
present universal ldquofallenrdquo human nature Paradise has been ldquolostrdquo to be
ldquorestoredrdquo in the future at the last trump
But many elements within the story both narrative and incidental features
suggest that the original author(s) may have understood it very differently
and as referring to their own time and to conditions only recently imposed
upon them only a much later Jewish Christian and particularly Augustinian
hermeneutic giving rise to the final lapsarian interpretation If we examine
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 2014
Vol 28 No 1 1 35 httpdxdoiorg101080090183282014926689 ndash
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2 Nicolas Wyatt
these clues we shall be enabled to appreciate the specifically royal
ideological ties which bind the story to an entire nexus of beliefs and to
iconographic architectural and ritual forms These in turn have a bearing on
why paradise subsequently became an eschatological theme and also explain
many of the features of its exposition in the Judaeo-Christian tradition
Within Jewish and early Christian thought the Enochic and similar
apocalyptic literature moved in an eschatological direction with significant
input from the prevailing Persian and Greek cultures as argued by J
Bremmer1 This material with celestial and remote conceptions of Paradise
remained in tension with the centre-of-the-world imagery to which our
present discussion will ultimately lead us
The Text of Genesis 24b-324
Let us begin with a brief study of the text concentrating on those features
which are particularly relevant to the issues under discussion My translation
runs as follows arranged to indicate the quasi-poetic nature of the
composition
a) The Creation of the Man and Woman
24b On the day when the Lord of the gods (yhwh rsquoĕlōhicircm) made earth and
heaven
5 before any plant of the steppe was on the earth
or any herb of the steppe had sprouted
for the Lord of the gods had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth
and there was no man to till the soil
6 a mist (rsquoēdmdashor perhaps rather a mountain) was rising up from the
underworld
and was watering the whole surface of the ground
7 Then the Lord of the gods fashioned (wayyiṣer) the man (hārsquoādām) from
dust2 from the ground
and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and the man became a living being
8 And the Lord of the gods planted a garden in the beginning (miqqedem)
and he placed there the man whom he had fashioned
9 Then the Lord of the gods caused to grow from the ground every tree
that is pleasant to the sight and good for eating
and the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of knowing all things3
1 See his article ldquoThe birth of Paradise to early Christianity via Greece Persia and
Israelrdquo forthcoming in A Scafi (ed) The Cosmography of Paradise Warburg
Institute colloquia (London The Warburg Institute Turin Nino Aragno)
2 See discussion of cāpār in Z Zevit What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden
(New Haven CT and London Yale University Press 2013) pp 80-83 He translated
it as ldquoclodrdquo This volume appeared only when this article was at proof stage I have
been able to comment on only a few of his interesting interpretations
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A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 3
10 A river came out of Eden to irrigate the garden
and from here it divided into four sources (rārsquošicircm)
11 The name of the first is Pishon
this encircles the whole land of Havilah where gold is found
12 And the gold of this land is pure
Bdellium and carnelian are also found there
13 And the name of the second is Gihon (gicircḥocircn)
this encircles the whole land of Cush
14 And the name of the third river is Tigris
this flows this side of Assyria
And the fourth river is the Euphrates
15 And the Lord of the gods took the man and put him in the garden of
Eden to till it (lĕcobdāh)
and care for it (lĕšomrāh)
16 Then the Lord of the gods commanded the man
ldquoFrom every tree in the garden you may indeed eat
17 But from the tree of knowing all things you may not eat
For on the day that you eat it you will certainly diehelliprdquo
18 And the Lord of the gods said
ldquoIt is not good for the man to be alone
I shall make him a helper suitable for himrdquo
19 So the Lord of the gods fashioned from the ground all the living things
of the country
and all the birds of heaven
and he brought (them) to the man
to see what he should call them
And what the man called every living thing
that became its name
20 Then the man gave names to all the cattle
and to the birds of heaven
and to every living thing of the country
But for the man (himself) he did not find a suitable helper
21 Then the Lord of the gods caused a deep sleep to fall on the man
And he fell asleep
Then he took one of his ribs4
and closed up the flesh in its place
22 And the Lord of the gods turned the rib which he had taken from the
man into a woman
3 Hebrew hadda
cat ṭocircb wārā
cmdashlit ldquoknowing good and evilrdquo or ldquothe knowledge of
good and evilrdquo
4 Zevit What Really Happened pp 140-50 has an interesting alternative to this
seeing ṣelac as ldquopenisrdquo () But the expression rsquoaḥat miṣṣal
cōtacircw would appear to
preclude this
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4 Nicolas Wyatt
and he brought her to the man
23 Then the man said
ldquoAt last
Bone from my bone
Flesh from my flesh
This shall be called woman (rsquoiššacirc )
for from man (mērsquo icircš ) this was takenrdquo
24 So a man supports5 his father and mother and cleaves to his wife
and they are one flesh
25 And the two of them were naked (cărucircmmicircm) the man and his wife
and they were not ashamed
b) The ldquoFallrdquo of the Man and Woman
31 Now the snake was wiser (cārucircm) than all the living things of the
country which the Lord of the gods had made
and he said to the woman
ldquoDid God really say
lsquoYou shall not eat from every tree (in) the garden rsquo rdquo
2 And the woman said to the snake
ldquo From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden
God said
lsquo You may not eat from it nor may you touch it in case you
Diersquordquo
4 And the snake said to the woman
ldquoYou will not die
5 For God knows that on the day that you eat from it
your eyes will be opened
and you will be gods (kērsquolōhicircm6) knowing all thingsrdquo
6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food
and that it was delightful to the eyes
and that the tree was to be desired to make (one) wise
and she took (one) of its fruit and ate it
and gave it as well to her husband who was with her
and he ate
7 And both their eyes were opened
and they knew that they were naked
and they plucked fig-tree leaves
and made themselves loin-cloths
5 Following the insight of Zevit What Really Happened pp 156-57
6 I interpret the idiom here as kaph veritatis indicating identity rather than similarity
See B K Waltke and M OrsquoConnor An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax
(Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns 1990) p 203 They defined the usage thus ldquothe
logical outcome of comparison is correspondence or identityrdquo This is integral to the
royal ideological slant of the narrative
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A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 5
8 Then they heard the sound of the Lord of the gods strolling in the garden
in the cool of the day7
and the man and the woman hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord of the gods
in the midst of the trees in the garden
9 And the Lord of the gods called out to the Man and said to him
ldquoWhere are yourdquo
10 And he replied
ldquoI heard the sound (you were making) in the garden
and I was afraid because I am naked (cecircrōm)
So I hidrdquo
11 Then he said
ldquoWho told you that you were naked8
Have you eaten from the tree
from which I said that you must not rdquo
12 And the man replied
ldquoThe woman whom you gave (me) to be with me
she gave me from the tree and I ate (from it)rdquo
13 And the Lord of the gods said to the woman
ldquoWhat is this that you have donerdquo
And the woman said
ldquoThe snake deceived me so I ate (from it)rdquo
14 Then the Lord of the gods said to the snake
ldquoWhat is this that you have done
Cursed are you above every animal
and above every living thing of the country
On your belly (cal gĕḥonĕkacirc) you shall proceed
And dust shall you eat all the days of your life
15 And I shall establish enmity between you and the woman
and between your offspring and her offspring
He shall bruise your head
and you shall bruise his heelrdquo9
16 To the woman he said
ldquoI shall make your childbearing pain very great
7 Given the symbolic aspect of Eden discussed here the source of this figure is
perhaps to be understood as a cultic procession with the image of the deity carried
out of the cella perhaps for evening sacrifices N Wyatt Myths of Power A Study of
Royal Myth and Ideology in Ugaritic and Biblical Tradition (Ugaritisch-Biblische
Literatur 13 Muumlnster Ugarit-Verlag 1996 p 369
8 Paronomasia ldquonakedrdquo (cecircrōm
cărucircmmicircm) and ldquowiserdquo (
cārucircm) Wisdom is in part
consciousness of onersquos nakedness
9 Is this a veiled allusion to the kingrsquos role as re-enactor of the Chaoskampf in his
battles On the theme see N Wyatt ldquoTherersquos Such Divinity Doth Hedge a Kingrdquo
Selected Essays of Nicolas Wyatt on Royal Ideology in Ugaritic and Old Testament
Literature (SOTS Monograph Series London Ashgate 2005) pp 151-189
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6 Nicolas Wyatt
In pain you shall bring forth children
yet for your husband shall be your desire
and he shall rule over yourdquo
17 And to Adam10
he said
ldquoBecause you obeyed the voice of your wife
and ate from the tree which I commanded you
lsquoYou may not eat from itrsquo
Cursed is the ground because of you
In distress you shall work11
it all the days of your life
18 but thorn and thistle it will grow for you
So you shall eat the vegetation of the steppe
19 By the sweat of your brow you shall eat food12
until you return to the ground
for from it you were taken
Dust indeed you are13
and to dust you will returnrdquo
20 Then the man named his wife Eve (ḥavvacirc )
because she was the mother of all living things
21 Then the Lord of the gods made clothes of skin for Adam and his wife
and clothed them
22 Then the Lord of the gods said
ldquoLook The man has become one of us14
knowing everything
10 Or ldquoManrdquo as name there is no article Similarly at 321 In 224 in contrast the
article is lacking because the term is indefinite
11 MT ldquoeatrdquo (tĕrsquoōkălennāh) Perhaps to be corrected to ldquoworkrdquo (tacabdennāh) Thus
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia apparatus p 5 (consonantal text to read hnlk)t for
hndb(t)
12 It is tempting to compare the phraseology here with the dream of Nebuchadrezzar
as interpreted by Daniel Daniel 42-30 The book of Daniel is of course from much
later than Genesis 2-3 (see discussion below on dating) but may itself contain earlier
elements The passage in questionmdashalso subversive of royal ideologymdashmay con-
ceivably have been told originally of Nabonidus and originated in the sixth century
P R Ackroyd Exile and Restoration A Study of Hebrew Thought in the Sixth
Century BC (Old Testament Library London SCM Press 1968) p 36 and n 97
citing W von Soden ldquoEine babylonische Volksuumlberlieferung von Nabonid in den
Daniel-erzaumlhlungenrdquo ZAW 53 (1935) pp 81-89
13 Rather than ldquoFor dust you arerdquo Emphatic kicirc cf for Ugaritic C H Gordon
Ugaritic Textbook (Analecta Orientalia 38 Rome Pontifical Biblical Institute
1965) p 76 sect917 J Tropper Ugaritischer Grammatik (Alter Orient und Altes
Testament 273 Muumlnster Ugarit-Verlag 20122) pp 809-810 sect857 and for Hebrew
M J Dahood Psalms III (AB 17a New York Doubleday 1970) pp 402-406
Waltke and OrsquoConnor Hebrew Syntax p 204 sect1129d The bicolon is asyndetic
not explanatory
14 The plural usage implies the divine council as the place where these words are
uttered On the concept see H W Robinson ldquoThe council of Yahwehrdquo JThS 45
(1944) pp 151-157 F M Cross ldquoThe council of Yahweh in Second Isaiahrdquo JNES
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015
A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 7
(lit good and evil)
So now lest he stretch out his hand and take also from the tree
of life and eat (it) and live for ever rdquo15
23 So the Lord of the gods expelled him from the Garden of Eden
(to prevent him) from16
tilling the ground from which he had been
taken
24 So he drove the man out
And he set in front of the Garden of Eden cherubs17
and the flame of the whirling sword
to guard the way to the tree of life
Discussion of the Text
a) The rivers
Let us begin our discussion with the matter of the rivers18
The rivers of Eden
echo the widespread appearance of four streams diverging from a common
source in ancient Near Eastern glyptic art In both cases it is one stream
which becomes many here apparently outside the garden (Genesis 210) We
shall return below to the identity of these streams and their significance for
the gardenrsquos location
12 (1953) pp 274-277 N Wyatt Myths of Power pp 338-352 Notice also the kaph
veritatis (see n 6) This background is the basis for my translation ldquothe Lord of the
godsrdquo (yhwh rsquoĕlōhicircm) 15 The sentence remains unfinished
16 This unusual translation will be justified in the discussion below
17 On these see N Wyatt ldquoGrasping the Griffin identifying and characterizing the
griffin in West Semitic traditionrdquo Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 1
(2008) pp 29-39 Griffins and cherubs were both winged quadrupeds the former
with falconiform later aquiline heads the latter with human heads The biblical
seraphim were probably griffins rather than snakes as commonly supposed See
further discussion below
18 See E D van Buren The Flowing Vase and the God with Streams (Berlin
Schoetz 1933) E Noort ldquoGan-Eden in the context of the mythology of the Hebrew
Biblerdquo in G Luttikhuizen (ed) Paradise Interpreted (Leiden EJ Brill 1999 pp 21-
36 T Stordalen ldquoHeaven on earth―or not Jerusalem as Eden in biblical literaturerdquo
in K Schmid and C Riedweg (eds) Beyond Eden (FAT 234 Tuumlbingen Mohr
Siebeck 2008) pp 28-57 id Echoes of Eden Genesis 2-3 and Symbolism of the
Eden Garden in Biblical Hebrew Literature (Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and
Theology 25 Leuven Peeters 2000) pp 273-84 N Stone ldquoThe four rivers that
flowed from Edenrdquo in Schmid and Riedweg Beyond Eden pp 227-250 The last of
these scholars summarised (pp 227-28) the tradition from the Lives of the Desert
Fathers of the six inquisitive monks who searched for Paradise finally discovering
that it was situated on top of a mountain This tradition parallels the Jewish one of the
four rabbis entering Paradise see G Macaskill ldquoParadise in the New Testamentrdquo pp
64-81 (69 and references n 28) in M Bockmuehl and GG Stroumsa (eds)
Paradise in Antiquity Jewish and Christian Views (Cambridge Cambridge
University Press 2010)
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8 Nicolas Wyatt
b) A Mountain Tradition
But the first problem to treat is the ultimate source of these rivers the one
primary stream Is it as most translators have it a distillation from a
mysterious ldquomistrdquo (rsquoēd 19
) which wells up from the underworld This would
have no obvious parallel in the iconographic tradition however realistic it
may be Cyrus Gordonrsquos suggestion that the term should be seen as relating
to a Cretan (Minoan) term for or name of a mountain as in Mount Ida the
traditional birthplace of Zeus is intriguing This would allow harmonisation
with the Eden of Ezekiel 28 which is situated on a mountain Gordon noted
that
Ida the high mountain in central Crete was associated in antiquity with
artistic workmanship The name ldquoIdardquo may be the clue to the source of major
elements in the Hebrew creation account which are not of Egyptian or
Mesopotamian origin Gen 26 states that ldquorsquoēd rises out of the earth and
waters all the surface of the groundrdquo The traditional rendering of ldquoid as ldquomistrdquo
and the pan-Babylonian identification with Sumerian id ldquoriverrdquo are unsatis-
factory Rivers do not rise they descend What rises from the earth to water
the ground is a mountain carrying its streams to the surrounding countryside
Accordingly it is worth considering that ldquoēd means Ida pointing to East
Mediterranean elements in the Biblical Creation There is one objection
however that requires clarification namely that the Greek form of Ida begins
with long icirc- whereas ldquoēd reflects short i-20
Gordon also cited hdm id in the Ugaritic text KTU 14 i 34 though this text is
preferably to be corrected to hdm il and hdm here is in any case probably
Hurrian (atmi admi) not Minoan21
But this caveat does not affect Gordonrsquos
overall argument Further support for such a harmonisation can be found in
the vision of a future paradise in Isaiah 116-8 (see v 9)22
And even if
Gordonrsquos particular argument be rejected it remains a useful heuristic tool in
pointing us in the right direction the welling up of the primal stream still
implies an upland that is mountain scenario For what it is worth it should
19 Cf Akkadian educirc with the sense of flood high tide wave A Leo Oppenheim
(ed) The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary vol 4 E (Chicago Oriental Institute 1958)
pp 35-36 J Black et al A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (Santag 5 Wiesbaden
Harrassowitz 20022)
p 66 LXX πηγή already interpreted ldquospring sourcerdquo On this
term cf Hesiod Theogony p 282
17 C H Gordon ldquoHomer and the Bible the origin and character of East
Mediterranean literaturerdquo HUCA 26 1955 pp 43-108 (62) cited N Wyatt The
Mythic Mind Essays on Cosmology in Ugaritic and Old Testament Literature
(London Equinox 2005) p 227 n 12
21 W G E Watson Lexical Studies in Ugaritic (Aula Orientalis Supplementa 19
Barcelona AULA 2007) pp 43-44 Note the Hurrian elements adduced by Zevit
What Really Happened pp 112-13 190
22 See N Wyatt Space and Time in the Religious Life of the Ancient Near East (The
Biblical Seminar 85 Sheffield Equinox 2001) pp 244-245
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A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 9
be observed that on the Mari fresco to be discussed below the foreground at
the bottom shows a scale-pattern which is the conventional way of
representing mountains in glyptic art
The mountain would as in the description here not only arise out of the
netherworld but implicitly afford an entrance to it a feature of cosmic
centres such as this garden represents if my argument is cogent This
centrality is borne out by the reference to the four rivers logically
(schematically) radiating out from the centre This approach would also
obviate the necessity felt by some scholars to see in Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel
28 two different conceptions of Eden (one with and one without a mountain)
It makes more sense to see two allusions to the same common symbolic
tradition and indeed in this instance to see one (Genesis) as literarily
dependent on the other (Ezekiel) as we shall see Margaret Barkerrsquos
observations may also allow us to see these gardens harmonised in Isaiah 14
which while not explicitly Edenic surely represents the same mythical nexus
though it has now diverged and deals more specifically with a mortuary
context In Isaiah 14 the disobedient royal figure is the king of Babylon or
some other great power but the narrative is a West Semitic myth Barker
argued that
Ezekielrsquos oracles [in chapter 28] are clearly in the same setting [as that of
Isaiah 14] The first deals with a fallen god and the second apparently with
the first man in Eden If we read the two together in the light of the fallen
figure in Isaiah we see that the two figures are one and that the problems in
reading this text come from our using categories and distinctions quite alien
to Ezekiel The fallen god and the figure expelled from Eden were one and
the same Thus Ezekiel forms a link between Isaiah 14 and Genesis 2-3
Ezekielrsquos Eden is a strange magical place I believe that we glimpse here the
mythology of the old temple hellip23
The kind of intertextuality Barker recognised here is exactly the level of
sensitive comprehension that is essential for the appreciation of the mythical
world of biblical literature Furthermore Bernard Gosse followed by Terje
Stordalen also noted that the oracle of Ezekiel 2812b-15 directed in its
present form against the ruler of Tyre would originally have been addressed
to the high priest (for which we should perhaps read rather the king) in
Jerusalem24
The question is even worth raisingmdashthough any answer must
remain speculativemdashas to whether the melek ṣocircr in 2811 (and the
corresponding nĕgicircd ṣocircr in 281) really does designate the ruler of Tyre and
not rather the ldquoruler of the rockrdquo that is the sacred mountain in Jerusalem
23 M Barker The Older Testament The Survival of Themes from the Ancient Royal
Cult in Sectarian Judaism and Early Christianity (London SPCK 1987) pp 234-
235
24 B Gosse ldquoEzeacutechiel 2811-19 et les deacutetournements de maleacutedictionsrdquo Biblische
Notizen 44 (1988) pp 30-38 Stordalen ldquoHeaven on earthrdquo p 33
Dow
nloa
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10 Nicolas Wyatt
This is all the more plausible in a world of divine kingship since ldquoRockrdquo (ṣocircr)
was a title of Yahweh himself25
We may further note that Targum Pseudo-
Jonathan on Genesis 215 involves an allusion to a mountain though it is not
explicitly identified with the garden this may be implicit
And the Lord God took Adam from the mountain of the service the place
from where he had been created and made him dwell in the Garden of Eden
so as to be serving in the Torah and observing its commandments26
The Location of Eden at the Centre of the World
Much ink has also been spilt on the vexed problem of the location of Eden
but the idea of four rivers radiating out from a single source (the reverse of
what happens in nature except at deltas) suggests the idea of a centre and its
relationship to the cardinal points Equally artificial is the location of Elrsquos
dwelling in Ugaritic tradition which is also a cosmic centre as described in
Ugaritic texts KTU 12 iii 4 13 v 5-7 14 iv 21-22 15 vi [-3 to -1 to be
restored] 16 i 33-34
Then he set his face indeed towards El at the source of the rivers
amidst the springs of the two deeps 27
Though I previously took these rivers to be plural (four in number
corresponding to those of Genesis 2)28
I think now that they may well be
rather two as riverine aspects of the two deeps of the second colon cited29
One lay above the firmament and one below the earth or netherworld as in
Hebrew cosmology A remarkable citation of this in the Qurrsquoan (1861-62)
indicates the longevity of the cosmology behind the formula30
The Identity of the Rivers
As to the identity of the rivers two the Tigris and the Euphrates are
immediately recognisable The other two have been regarded as problematic
The Gihon was identified with the Nile by the LXX of Jeremiah 218
followed by Josephus Antiquities 11331
who also in the same passage
25 See M C Korpel ldquoRockrdquo pp 709-10 in K van der Toorn B Becking and P W
van der Horst (eds) Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden EJ Brill
19992)
26 ET M Maher Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis Translated with Introduction
and Notes (The Aramaic Bible 18 Edinburgh TampT Clark 1992) p 23
27 N Wyatt Religious Texts from Ugarit (The Biblical Seminar 53 London
Equinox 2nd
edition 2002) p 52 n 64
28 Wyatt Religious Texts p 52 n 63
29 Wyatt The Mythic Mind p 196 Cf D T Tsumura Creation and Destruction
A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament (Winona Lake IN
Eisenbraus 2005) p 136 n 59
30 Wyatt The Mythic Mind p 227 n 13
31 Cited as 139 by J Skinner A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis
(ICC Edinburgh TampT Clark 1910) p 61
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nloa
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015
A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 11
identified the Pishon with the Ganges But Jeremiah himself had used the
term šiḥocircr for the Nile32
and the explicit identification with the Gihon can
thus only be dated with certainty from the time of the Greek translation ca
300 BC On the contrary it was the Pishon that was interpreted by Manfred
Goumlrg33
as the Nile from the Egyptian expression p3 šny ldquothe encompassing
onerdquo the river being conceptualised as an extension of the cosmic ocean
surrounding the world This is perhaps more compelling than Neimanrsquos
proposal34
to link the Pishon to Hebrew peten ldquosnakerdquo a metaphor for the
serpentine ocean though the term discerned by del Olmo35
who proposed
that bāšān (Ugaritic bṯn usually cited as cognate with peten) should be
recognised as having serpentine and maritime associations in various
geographical contexts followed up by myself36
seems to be another
reasonable etymological possibility So I have suggested in a discussion of
oceanic language that in Deuteronomy 3322 we should understand the text
as follows
Dān gucircr caryecirc Dan the whelp of a sea-monster
yĕzannēq min-habbāšān springs forth from the Serpent (sc the Ocean)
This meaning is concordant with Danrsquos original maritime location in the
Shephelah (cf Judges 517) before its migration to northern Galilee A link
with the sea peoples is suggested for Dan and Asher by Judges 517 and for
Zebulun by Genesis 4913 The Egyptian and Ugaritic etymological
proposals for Pishon are both attractive
32 This was explained as ldquothe pond of Horusrdquo (š[y] ḥr) by L Koehler and W
Baumgartner The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden EJ
Brill 1999) iv p 1477 They followed the proposal of Erman-Grapow Handwoumlrter-
buch 4 p 397) The older assessment by F Brown SR Driver and CA Briggs A
Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford Clarendon 1906) p
1009 that it is based on the lemma šḥr ldquoblackrdquo is also a possible explanation
though they labelled it ldquodoubtfulrdquo
The reference to the Gihon in Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira) 2427 does not contrary
to some views identify the Gihon and the Nile See below at n 52
33 M Goumlrg ldquoZur Identitaumlt des Pishon (Gen 211)rdquo Biblische Notizen 40 (1987) pp
11-13 endorsed by Stordalen Echoes of Eden p 278 n 150
34 D Neiman ldquoGihon and Pishon mythological antecedents of the two enigmatic
rivers of Edenrdquo Proceedings of the Sixth World Congress of Jewish Studies
(Jerusalem World Union of Jewish Studies 1977) pp 321-328 Wyatt The Mythic
Mind p 192
35 G del Olmo Lete ldquoBašan o el ldquoinfiernordquo cananeordquo in P Xella (ed) Cananea
Selecta Festschrift fuumlr Oswald Loretz zum 60 Geburtstag = Studi Epigrafici e
Linguistici 5 (1988) pp 51-60
36 Wyatt The Mythic Mind p 204 See reasons ad loc for taking other Hebrew
leonine terms as synonymous with labbu (lit ldquolionrdquo) with the sense of ldquo(sea)
monsterrdquo
Dow
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ded
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ity o
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t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
12 Nicolas Wyatt
Regarding the Gihon of Genesis 213 Neiman also proposed an
interesting link between the Hebrew gicircḥocircn which he associated with the
snakersquos belly (gāḥocircnmdashgĕḥonĕkacirc) in Genesis 314 and with Greek
ʾΩκεανος37
The latter in encircling the Greek world is like the Gihon
which ldquoencircles the whole land of Cushrdquo Whether or not this be regarded as
a viable etymology it is at least a likely paronomasia and the Gihon also had
a local reference as the stream supplying Jerusalem with water and also used
in royal rituals as in 1 Kings 133-34 38-40 (Solomonrsquos coronation) and
presumably in Psalm 1107
Minnaḥal badderek yišteh From the stream from the throne he
drinks cal-kēn yāricircm rōrsquoš and thus he raises up heads
38
I have taken derek in this latter passage to represent the idea of ldquodominionrdquo
translated here metonymically as ldquothronerdquo to be compared with Ugaritic drkt
as perhaps in Job 1224 and Psalm 10740 The Gihon in Jerusalem is perhaps
also alluded to in Psalm 369-10
yirwĕyun middešen becirctekacircirw They are filled with the abundance of
your house
wĕnaḥal cēdenĕkacirc tašqēm and the stream of your Eden gives them
to drink
kicirc-cimmĕkacirc mĕqocircr ḥayyicircm For with you is the fountain of life
bĕrsquoērĕkacirc nirrsquoecirc-rsquoocircr in your well a light is seen
reading the Masoretic text plural cădānecirckacirc (ldquoin your delightsrdquo) as singular
cēdenĕkacirc and Masoretic bĕrsquoocircrkacirc (ldquoin your lightrdquo) as bĕrsquoērĕkacirc (ldquoin your
wellrdquo) in parallel with mĕqocircr ldquofountainrdquo of the preceding colon ldquoTheyrdquo of
the first colon here are ldquothe gods and the sons of manrdquo of v 839
The stream is
to be associated with the throne as will be demonstrated below If the
proposed singular reading cēdenĕkacirc be accepted we have a clear implicit
identification of Eden with Jerusalem since ldquoyour houserdquo of the preceding
colon can only be the Jerusalem temple40
The implications of the identity of the rivers for locating Eden
What are we to make of these riverine data in terms of actually locating the
garden It hardly provides compelling evidence for a Mesopotamian location
as for those who took the name Eden (cēden) to represent the Sumerian EDIN
37 Neiman ldquoGihon and Pishonrsquo Wyatt The Mythic Mind p 192 LXX for gicircḥocircn is
Γηων
38 See Wyatt Myths of Power p 54
39 See Wyatt Myths of Power pp 66-67
40 For further examples of prophetic allusions of this kind see Ezekiel 471-12
(discussed below) Zechariah 148-11 and Joel 418 noted by Stordalen ldquoHeaven on
earthrdquo pp 33-34
Dow
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ded
by [
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ity o
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t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 13
= Akkadian edinu the plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates41
Such a
location ignores the claims of the Pishon and the Gihon for inclusion within
the writerrsquos immediate purview To reject the original identification of the
paradisal and the Jerusalem Gihon in view of this evidence on the strength of
its later identification with the Nile ( Jeremiah LXX et al) would seem to me
to be perverse What we have here are two different explanations for the data
which on any analysis remain incompatible (On Neimanrsquos analysis men-
tioned above the two are even reconciled) To my mind the local significance
of the Gihon for Jerusalem is to be taken seriously in view of the evidence
we have adduced42
Even if the etymology of the cosmic Gihon be unknown
and unconnected with the Jerusalem stream (the latter means ldquoGusherrdquo43
)
which is quite improbable it is hard to believe that the similaritymdashor even
identitymdashof the two names was not clearly in the authorrsquos mind That is he
was intentionally evoking Jerusalem even if not wishing to name it44
This
would also preclude any location of Eden further east as far afield as
Armenia as proposed by a number of scholars45
or even India as suggested
41 F Delitzsch Wo Lieg das Paradies (Leipzig J C Hinrich 1881) pp 4 6 79-80
cited by A R Millard ldquoThe etymology of Edenrdquo VT 34 (1984) pp 103-106 he
traced the acceptance of this explanation down to E A Speiser Genesis (AB 1
Garden City NY Doubleday 1964) pp 16 19 Millard himself rejected the
explanation in favour of the Aramaic term cdn ldquoenrich give abundancerdquo See also
Stordalen Echoes of Eden pp 284-86 and Koehler and Baumgartner Hebrew and
Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament II p 792
42 It should be clear that the claims of the Gihon in Jerusalem to be linked with that
of the Eden narrative cannot be squared with claims for identification with the Nile
43 Koehler and Baumgartner Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon p 189 gicircaḥ ldquoto burst
forthrdquo
41 Noortrsquos confident rejection of the equation ldquoGan-Edenrdquo p 28 n 34 is
unsupported by any justification and seems cavalier Regarding his identification of
the Gihon with the Nile see discussion above Goumlrgrsquos explanation of the Pishon as
the Nile (see at n 30) at least has philological plausibility
45 A H Sayce Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the
Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (Hibbert Lectures London Williams and
Norgate 1887) pp 237-238 envisaged Eridu a view revived by M Dietrich ldquoDas
biblische Paradies und der babylonische Tempelgartenrdquo in B Janowski and B Ego
(eds) Das biblische Weltbild und seine altorientalischen Kontexte (Tuumlbingen Mohr
Siebeck 2001) pp 281-323 pp 302-320 J Day Yahweh and the Gods and
Goddesses of Canaan (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplements 265
Sheffield Sheffield Academic Press 2000 pp 29-31 and D Rohl The Lost
Testament From Eden to Exile the Five-Thousand Year History of the People of the
Bible (London Century 2002) pp 27-29 located it in Armenia Note also the brief
(and inconclusive) survey of views in C J Collins Genesis 1-4 A Linguistic
Literary and Theological Commentary (Phillipsburg NJ P amp R Publishing 2006) pp
119-120 See also J Delumeau History of Paradise The Garden of Eden in Myth
and Tradition (New York Continuum 2000) pp 155-174 Goumlbekli Tepe in south-
eastern Turkey has also been identified as Eden S Thomas (nom de plume Tom
Dow
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ded
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t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
14 Nicolas Wyatt
on various mediaeval maps46
Furthermore it would certainly remove Eden
from the ldquonever-never landrdquo category some other scholars seem determined
to apply to it47
The four rivers represent the three major systems of the
ancient Near East and the world-ocean but crucially link them with the
sacred waters of the city of Jerusalem itself The point of allusions to the
Tigris and the Euphrates in a Jerusalem-centred text is surely to extend the
sacrality of the latter the place from which the Jews had been deported to
the place of their exile (a feature which obviously has a bearing on the dating
of the text) We see a similar pattern of the implicit inclusion of the place of
exile within the sacred territory in the stories of Jacobrsquos dream and of
Mosesrsquos vision of the burning bush48
Miqqedem in Genesis 28
The one feature within the text which might support an oriental location is
the use of miqqedem in 28 This Hebrew expression commonly translated in
this passage as ldquoin the eastrdquo is however to be understood here as a temporal
rather than a spatial formula meaning ldquoin the beginningrdquo49
so that it has no
bearing on the gardenrsquos location which is to be deduced on other grounds
We have in the description of the rivers a somewhat convoluted account
of a classic cosmic model the river emerges from its source at the true centre
and flows out via various branches to an ocean which surrounds a circular
world This is certainly the understanding of ancient cartography mutatis
Knox) The Genesis Secret (London Harper 2008) See also discussion in A Scafi
Mapping Paradise A History of Heaven on Earth (London British Library 2006)
Zevit What Really Happened pp 96-113 located Eden in Urartu (Armenia) biblical
Ararat
46 Among various examples we may note the Vercelli world map (ca 1191-1218)
where Paradise is located in India (Scafi Mapping Paradise figs 62a and b pp
132-133) while on Higdenrsquos Polychronicon (ca 1350 figs 63a and b pl 4 pp 134-
135) it lies northeast of India in both cases on the edge of the cosmic ocean The
Hereford Mappa Mundi (ca 1300) is similar Christopher Columbus and Amerigo
Vespucci were even tempted to locate it in the New World See M Bockmuehl
ldquoLocating Paradiserdquo p 192 in Bockmuehl and Stroumsa Paradise in Antiquity
47 See M Barker The Gate of Heaven (London SPCK 1991) p 103 and cf Noort
ldquoGan-Edenrdquo p 28 ldquoin the stories of Gen 2-3 Paradise is not located it is far awayrdquo
See also id p 33 ldquohellip the narrator wants to offer a mystified location for Paradisehellip
he does not want to locate Paradise in an accessible and locatable placerdquo
48 See respectively Wyatt The Archaeology of Myth (London Equinox 2010) pp
1-12 and The Mythic Mind pp 13-17
49 See N Wyatt ldquoInterpreting the creation and fall story in Genesis 2-3rdquo ZAW 93
(1981) 13 cf id The Mythic Mind pp 127-129 Stordalen ldquoHeaven on earthrdquo pp
28 41-43 id Echoes of Eden pp 207 261-264 Cf Koehler and Baumgartner
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon III p 1069-1070 where it is considered the radical
sense
Dow
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t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 15
mutandismdashwhich lasted until the Middle Ages50
mdashand also corresponds to
the notion of cosmic rule in which kings reign ldquofrom sea to seardquo 51
The reasons outside the text that have appeared to reinforce the spatial
sense of miqqedem here are firstly the misapplication of the term edinu
noted above and secondly the supposition that since Abraham came ldquofrom
Ur of the Chaldeesrdquo (Genesis 1131) events prior to his migration to
Palestine must be located in the east since even a spatial sense for miqqedem
in Genesis 324 would locate the garden west of the place of expulsion The
patriarchal tradition though couched in primordial terms actually concerns
the exile of the Jews following the destruction of Jerusalem in 587-86 BCE52
so that Abrahamrsquos departure on his long journey west is not an account of a
primordial (Bronze Age) journey but rather a cipher for the exilesrsquo return
following the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 Genesis 2-3 serves as a
narrative of an original archetypal exile prefiguring the historical one
Other Biblical Support for the Location of Eden in Jerusalem
A reason from within the text for supporting the line I take53
mdashthat Eden is in
Jerusalemmdashis the fact which we noted above that there is only one river
actually within the garden Given the post-exilic dating now increasingly
recognised for the story this is best understood as a deliberate allusion to
Ezekiel 471-12 which in the prophetic vision of the new temple describes a
stream flowing out from beneath the stone pavement on the eastern side of
the temple building and then flowing south out of the temenos and on down
to the Arabah This passage is echoed in Revelation 221 modelled on
Ezekiel referring to
the river of the water of life shining like crystal coming out from the throne
of God and of the lamb hellip
and 1 Enoch 1419
and from beneath the throne were issuing streams of flaming fire
47 See W Horowitz Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Mesopotamian Civiliza-
tions 8 Winona Lake IN Eisenbrauns 1998 A Scafi Mapping Paradise
51 See the selection of texts in Wyatt Space and Time pp 81-88 115-20 and cf H
P LrsquoOrange Studies in the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship (Oslo H Aschehoug
1953)
52 See D J Clines The Meaning of the Pentateuch (JSOTS 10 Sheffield JSOT
Press 1978) passim
53 See also Barker The Gate of Heaven pp 57-103 Stordalen ldquoHeaven on earthrdquo
passim L E Stager Jerusalem and the garden of Eden Eretz Israel 26 (1999) pp
183-194 id ldquoJerusalem as Edenrdquo Biblical Archaeological Review 26 (2000) pp
36-47 66 H Shanks Jerusalemrsquos Temple Mount from Solomon to the Golden Dome
(London Publisher 2007) pp 22-23 A Wood Of Wings and Wheels A Synthetic
Study of the Biblical Cherubim (BZAW 385 Berlin Walter de Gruyter 2008) p 49
Bockmuehl ldquoLocating Paradiserdquo
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t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
16 Nicolas Wyatt
though this text has pluralised the river Here are the justifications for
recognising a throne in Psalm 1107 As to the origin of this spring it can
only seriously be understood as emerging from the cĕben šĕtiyyacirc the ldquostone
of foundationrdquo which formed the bedrock floor of the temple cella This is
widely identified with the rock under the Dome of the Rock with its
conspicuous crevices into which water was poured during the New Year rites
to prime the source of all life54
Furthermore it is implicitly identical with the
Gihon the cityrsquos only supply of water Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira) 2425-27
which evidently shares the cosmological presuppositions of Genesis 2 states
that Wisdom brims like the Pishon the Tigris the Euphrates the Jordan ()
the Nile () and the Gihon55
homing in on the local river before extending
out again in vv 28-34 to the universal sea The almost chiastic form of this
passage ldquoin from the cosmic rivers and out again to the cosmic oceanrdquo
highlights the geographical and cosmic centrality of the Gihon and implicitly
of Eden The passages above appear to locate the throne of God (and thus of
the king56
) over the cĕben šĕtiyyacirc from which the stream flows
In earlier engagements with this problem I have identified Eden with the
ldquogardenrdquo mentioned within the topography of Jerusalem the so-called
ldquoKingrsquos Gardenrdquo (gan hammelek)57
Some other scholars have also endorsed
this view58
The precise location of this garden is unknown but it was
probably situated adjacent to the royal palace and the temple which were
evidently part of one overall construction It was associated with royal burials
and it is perhaps on this accountmdashif my identification is correctmdashthat post-
biblical tradition located the burial places of various ancient patriarchs here
Adam is buried in Eden according to Jubilees 429 and in the earthly
paradise while his soul ascends to the heavenly paradise above (third
heaven) in the Life of Adam and Eve (Apocalypse version) with Abel in
371-6 406 and with Eve in 43159
The following passages are also worth
noting Testament of Dan 512
54 See R Patai Man and Temple (London Nelson 1948 p 41 (B Ta
can 25b)
55 Note that in this passage the Gihon and the Nile are distinct in a series of six
56 Note the double function of the throne of deity and monarch in Psalm 1101 I
Chronicles 285 2923 in Barker The Older Testament pp 113 149 230 247
Wyatt Myths of Power pp 278 316
57 See Wyatt ldquoTherersquos Such Divinityrdquo pp 55-59 and 61-76 for specific discussions
and for tangential discussions presupposing Jerusalem symbolism the references in n
41 See also Francesca Stavrakopoulou ldquoExploring the garden of Uzza death burial
and ideologies of kingshiprdquo Biblica 87 2006 pp 1-21
58 D Neiman ldquoEden the garden of Godrdquo Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum
Hungaricae 17 (1969) 109-124 (cited in Stordalen Echoes of Eden p 33)
59 J H Charlesworth The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha vol 2 (Anchor Bible
Reference Library Garden City NY Doubleday 1985) pp 65 289-295 for Adamrsquos
burial by Enoch see Charlesworth vol 1 (1983) p 311 n 48Cb
Dow
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015
A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 17
the saints shall rest in Eden
and in the new Jerusalem shall the righteous rejoice
and 1 Enoch 6112
All the elect who dwell in the garden of life (shall bless him)60
This aspect of the garden belongs primarily to a discussion on the relation of
this garden to a post-mortem Paradise but it is reasonable to think that this
eschatological element derives from the older ideological sense that I am
attempting to reconstruct here
Another candidate for the garden might be part of the so-called ldquoHouse of
the Forest of the cedars of Lebanonrdquo an important annexe to the temple
which housed an armoury presumably used for ritual purposes since the
shields were all made of gold (1 Kings 1016-17 21 = 2 Chronicles 915-16
20)61
Barker identified Eden with the temple itself 62
as did H J van Dijk63
But perhaps we err in trying to make modern logical distinctions of this
kind where the ancients happily superimposed such levels upon one another
Perhaps the garden motif was intended to embrace the various aspects of the
sacred landscape On one level of understanding the garden is a synecdoche
for the whole kingdom the land flowing with milk and honey64
A
remarkable confirmation of this is the vision of the restored Jerusalem in
Isaiah 513 where Zion and Eden are equated
Indeed Yahweh has had compassion on Zion
he has had compassion on all her ruins
and will turn her wilderness into Eden
and her wasteland into the garden of Yahweh65
It is evident that in the time of Deutero-Isaiahmdashthe exilic periodmdashEden did
have the larger reference Here Zion itself is a synecdoche The later
60 Cited in Wyatt ldquoTherersquos Such Divinityrdquo p 68 See further M Goodman
ldquoParadise gardens and the afterlife in the first century CErdquo pp 57-63 (and p 57 n 2
citing Targum Isaiah 457 and Targum Zechariah 214-47 on the perpetual dwelling
of the righteous in Eden) and G Macaskill ldquoParadise in the New Testamentrdquo pp
64-81
61 On this see Wyatt ldquoTherersquos Such Divinityrdquo p 183
62 Barker The Older Testament pp 25 233-237 The Gate of Heaven pp 57-103
esp 62 64
63 H J van Dijk Ezekielrsquos Prophecy on Tyre (Ez 261-2819) a New Approach
(Bibbia e Oriente 20 Rome Pontifical Biblical Institute 1968) p 117 cited
without complete approval by Noort ldquoGan-Edenrdquo p 25 n 26
64 See N Lohfink Das Siegeslied am Schilfmeer (Frankfurt J Knecht 1965) pp
91-92 cited by Mettinger The Eden Narrative p 50 see also the discussion in
Stordalen Echoes of Eden pp 307-316
65 Wyatt ldquoTherersquos Such Divinityrdquo p 67 See also Stordalen Echoes of Eden pp
321-324 (though I am not convinced by his view that vv 1-3 should be seen as a
unity)
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
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r] a
t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
18 Nicolas Wyatt
eschatological Paradise of Christian doctrine was identified with the ldquoCity of
Godrdquo the ldquoNew Jerusalemrdquo of Augustinersquos account based on Revelation 21-
22 and the subsequent iconographic tradition And the whole was filled with
arboreal imagery For such imagery (as architectural form) in the temple see
1 Kings 6293235 715-22 the tabernacle (some of its features are trans-
parently elements of the [second] temple) the menorah (an almond tree)
Exodus 2531-40 the palace 1 Kings 76-7 and the House of the Forest 1
Kings 7266
More relevant to our present discussion and in pursuit of
possible royal ideological aspects of this garden is the conclusion to the
Genesis account This states (324) that
[the Lord of the gods] set in front of the garden of Eden cherubs
and the flame of the whirling sword
to guard the way to the tree of life
The cherubs were sphinxes and are frequently found in royal contexts as
armrests on thrones67
attendants at or browsers on trees and so on Hebrew
distinguished śĕrāpicircm ldquogriffinsrdquo from kĕrūbicircm ldquosphinxesrdquo though the
Greek γρύψ cognate with kĕrūb meant ldquogriffinrdquo evidently associating them
at least unconsciously 68
The primary function of both forms appears to have
been as guardians of boundaries being if my analysis is correct derived
from the forms of the Ka of the king in Egyptian ideology So their presence
here should not surprise the reader What does perhaps cause surprise is that
the man thrown out of the garden suddenly becomes aware of these
creatures from the wrong side of the fence as it were But the sphinxes were
probably already there guaranteeing his safety within the garden This is
supported by the cherub apparently provided as a guardian to the king69
(of
Tyre) in the garden in Ezekiel 281470
The sword is another matter being
unmentioned elsewhere But since a sword is an essential attribute of the king
as warrior we may see something of this symbolic dimension in it It is
consonant with the idea of the House of the Forest as armoury Or it may
66 Wyatt ldquoTherersquos Such Divinityrdquo pp 182-184
67 Wood Of Wings and Wheels pp 9-31 argued cogently against the idea that the
biblical cherubim formed Yahwehrsquos throne
68 Wyatt ldquoGrasping the Griffinrdquo Hebrew śārāp is best explained as deriving from
Egyptian srfw ldquogriffinrdquo Both griffins and sphinxes appear together with kuribu
figures on the Mari painting discussed below
69 Alternatively the cherub was the king himself G Widengren The Ascension of
the Apostle and the Heavenly Book King and Saviour III (Uppsala Universitets
Aringrskrift 19507) p 97 cf Barker The Older Testament pp 235-236 Noort ldquoGan-
Edenrdquo pp 23-24 (p 24 ldquothere is no lsquobetterrsquo readingrdquo)
70 See the Ahiram sarcophagus from Byblos
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
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ity o
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t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 19
have something of a cultic overtone since ḥereb can have the sense of a
ritual harpe (a cognate term)71
The Problem of the Number of Trees in Eden
The Garden of Eden boasted two trees one of knowing all things and one of
life72
Since they actually fused in later tradition we may wonder whether
their duality was not always problematic or whether they really constituted
one tree under two modes varying according to the literary function of
different parts of the narrative We are led to this suspicion by the precise
phraseology of various parts of the text Thus Genesis 29 states
Then the Lord of the gods caused to grow from the ground every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for eating
and the tree of life in the middle of the garden
and the tree of knowing all things
The second tree here appears almost as an afterthoughtmdashin an appositional
phrasemdashand certainly cannot logically according to a straightforward prose
understanding of this verse which is usually presupposed also be located as
a separate tree at the centre of the garden where we would expect to find it
To complicate matters in 32-3 this statement appears to be contradicted
Then the woman replied to the snake ldquoThe fruit of the trees in the garden we
may eat but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden
God has said lsquoyou may not eat from it nor touch it in case you diersquordquo
This passage can only refer to the tree of knowing all things
A contrary argument was advanced by Andreas Michel and Tryggve
Mettinger to the effect that each tree relates to the ldquomiddle of the gardenrdquo by
ldquosplit coordinationrdquo73
But this looks like an elegant case of special pleading
A better solution was suggested to me by Anthony J Frendo that we
should recognise here an example of waw explicativum in which the phrase
introduced by the particle further expounds the meaning of what precedes
Thus the latter part of 29 is to be understood following his suggestion as
71 See Wyatt Religious Texts p 70 n 2 My layout of the text above making the
allusion a bicolon would accommodate any of these interpretations If it is to be read
as poetry we should not be too demanding of a formal logic But verse frequently
performs exactly as Anthony J Frendo suggested (see n 74) successive cola draw
out implications or hints addressed in the first colon of a strophe
72 Interestingly Philo placed the first tree (of knowing all things) outside the garden
because to have it inside would contradict the command to eat from every tree (216)
Legum Allegoriae I XXXI (97) C D Yonge The Works of Philo (Peabody MA
Hendrikson 1993) p 36 But the logic of this is to require Adam and Eve to leave
the garden in order to sin which is not the understanding of Genesis
73 A Michel Theologie aus der Peripherie die gespaltene Koordination im
Biblischen Hebraumlisch (BZAW 257 Berlin de Gruyter 1997) pp 1-22 Mettinger
The Eden Narrative pp 21-22
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f E
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r] a
t 15
52 3
1 M
ay 2
015
20 Nicolas Wyatt
the tree of life in the middle of the garden
that is the tree of knowing all things74
That is the second colon is an explanation of the first the same tree performs
two functions The recognition that we have verse here not prose reinforces
this view the second colon draws out the implications of the first Thus the
same tree is to be understood
So just as Jean Margueron found the one tree in the courtyard to
correspond to two in the painting in the Mari palace (on which see further
below) we may think similarly that the two trees in Eden are really one
Mettinger surveying the extensive discussion over the number of trees and
the problem of priority if there is only one pointed out that the characters in
the story Adam and Eve know of only one tree75
They learn of the second
mdashif they ever domdashonly on finding that they have forfeited access to it rather
like their discovery of sphinxes (cherubs) Furthermore one of the
ideological features we shall note below contradicts the idea that eating from
this tree intrinsically constitutes a crime But the real issue to appreciate is the
rich symbolism of the tree or trees however understood The final
explanation offered here emphasises the symbolic richness
The Significance of the Tree(s) in Eden
Now what is this symbolism While we may suppose that general themes of
fertility security and utility were always present at times specifically royal
significance was attached to trees This is clear from its role in Assyrian
palace rites in which the king or priests acting on his behalf or even divine
figures appear to pollinate the fruit of the tree76
M Giovino showed
however that this common explanation of the ldquoAssyrian sacred treerdquo is not
strictly accurate since the stylised device is probably an artificial
construction rather than an actual tree and the supposed act of pollination is
more likely one of unction77
though perhaps the question of the precise
74 A J Frendo personal communication For the phenomenon see Waltke and
OrsquoConnor Biblical Hebrew Syntax pp 648-49 (sect3921b) and D W Baker Further
examples of the Waw Explicativum VT 30 (1980) pp 129-136 Cf Zevit What
Really Happened pp 93-94 he rejected this explanation wanting to retain two trees
75 Mettinger The Eden Narrative pp 5-11
76 Thus most recently B N Porter Trees Kings and Politics Studies in Assyrian
Iconography (OBO197 Goumlttingen Vandenhoek and Ruprecht Fribourg Fribourg
University Press 2003) The entire history of scholarship on the matter was surveyed
and evaluated by M Giovino The Assyrian Sacred Tree A History of Interpretations
(OBO 230 Goumlttingen Vandenhoek and Ruprecht Fribourg Fribourg University
Press 2007)
77 Giovino Sacred Tree p 82 citing S Smith ldquoThe relation of Marduk Assur and
Osirisrdquo JEA 8 (1922) p 44 and n 3 E A W Budge A Guide to the Babylonian
and Assyrian Antiquities 3rd
edition (London British Museum Department of
Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities 1922) pp 43-44 On the Assyrian tree as
representing the king see S Parpola ldquoThe Assyrian Tree of Life tracing the origins
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A Royal Garden The Ideology of Eden 21
nature of the ritual must remain open This suggests that the ldquotreerdquo somehow
represented kingship in the Assyrian context78
the sacral power of which was
reinforced by the anointing process And Babylonian and biblical usage both
confirm that this symbolism was international79
Although it is probably beyond proof in the absence of clear evidence it is
tempting to see the asherah (rsquoăšēracirc) of the Judahite cult as a similar artificial
construction a surrogate tree representing the goddess Asherah (a royal
solar goddess who probably served also as the patroness of the city) As the
mythic mother of the king80
Asherah would certainly have been recognised
by her devotees and the symbolism of the cult as the mother of the nationmdash
incarnate in the queen mother the Gebirah (gĕbicircracirc) and so again intimately
linked with royal ideologymdasha close counterpart to Eve (ḥavvacirc) as the
ldquomother of all living thingsrdquo (rsquoēm kol ḥāy) in the Eden narrative Following
this intuition it is tempting to go further and see in Eversquos handing to Adam of
the fruit which grants knowledge a metaphor for the role of Wisdom who in
Proverbs 1-9 appears to be the goddess Asherah restored in post-exilic
literature to favour as an abstraction81
Thus the patron goddess gives to her
son the king the gifts of life and wisdom
of Jewish monotheism and Greek philosophyrdquo JNES 52 (1993) pp 161-208 (167-
168) The sets of trees in the Assyrian throne-rooms may have represented royal
ancestors and gave these spaces a garden-like appearance See S Richardson ldquoAn
Assyrian garden of ancestors room I northwest palace Kalḫurdquo State Archives of
Assyria Bulletin 13 (1999-2001) 145-216 see also F Stavrakopoulou ldquoTree-hogging
in Eden on the restriction of divine wisdom in Genesis 2-3rdquo pp 41-53 in M Higton
J Law and C Rowland (eds) Theology and Human Flourishing Essays in Honour
of Timothy J Gorringe (Eugene OR Cascade 2011)
78 A symbolic tradition graphically reflected in Ezekiel 318-9
79 On the tree as symbolising the king in biblical thought see Wyatt Space and
Time pp 169-172 (Daniel 47-19 Numbers 171-8 [Hebrew 16-23] Zechariah 31-
10 41-14) Stavrakopoulou ldquoTree-hoggingrdquo pp 44-48 See also the ldquoshootrdquo
metaphor used in such passages as Isaiah 42 111 1419 3731 532 Zechariah
612 Testament of Judah 244-6 Psalm 13 Hosea 149 and Lamentations 420 (the
shadow is that of a tree) passages discussed by G Widengren The King and the
Tree of Life in ancient Near Eastern Religion (King and Saviour IV Uppsala
Universitets Aringrskrift 19514) pp 49-58 (and passim) and Stavrakopoulou ldquoTree-
hoggingrdquo In Psalm 13 the k in kĕcēṣ is surely kaph veritatismdashsee n 1mdashand this is
in origin a royal psalm according to WH Brownlee ldquoPsalms 1-2 as a coronation
liturgyrdquo Biblica 52 (1971) pp 321-336 an assessment summarily rejected by H-J
Kraus Psalms 1-59 A Commentary (Minneapolis MN Augsburg) 1988 p 114 but
without adequate argumentation
80 See Psalm 19 discussed Wyatt ldquoTherersquos Such Divinityrdquo pp 61-76 and Psalm
1103 LXX discussed Wyatt Myths of Power pp 270-271
81 B Lang Monotheism and the Prophetic Minority (Social World of Biblical
Antiquity 1 Sheffield Almond Press 1983) pp 51-54 MS Smith The Origins of
Biblical Monotheism Israelrsquos Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts
(Oxford 2001 Oxford University Press) pp 172-173 id The Early History of
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015
22 Nicolas Wyatt
The theme of the garden is very widespread as a symbol of cosmic order
and as we shall see above all of royal management of the cosmos The
Avestan word pairidēza borrowed into late Babylonian as pardēsu into
Hebrew as pardēs and Greek as παράδεισος82
appears to have meant
originally ldquorampartrdquo and hence a ramparted place such as an enclosed royal
garden The central figure in the garden is therefore implicitly the king as
borne out by Ezekiel 2812-19 The biblical evidence is by no means the
earliest attested treatment of the theme and can be shown to be heir to a long
tradition stretching back over more than a millennium
The Pottery Metaphor (Genesis 27)
The term used of the fashioning of the man yāṣar has the specific sense of
manufacturing a pot This metaphor occurs frequently in biblical thought
with reference to the creation of people in general in Isaiah 2916 3014
4125 647 Jeremiah 181-12 Lamentations 42 and of enemy kings in the
coronation Psalm 2983
But there is reason to think that this is not merely a
neutral if graphic constructional figure It is always used collectively of the
nation and perhaps the psalm citation hints at its primary reference it is a
royal metaphor a well-known motif in Egyptian royal ideological contexts
Thus a relief in the mammisi (ldquobirth-houserdquo) at Hatshepsutrsquos mortuary temple
at Deir el Bahri shows the ram-headed god of Elephantine Khnum
fashioning the king ( Hatshepsut was a woman) and his Ka on the potterrsquos
wheel with an accompanying descriptive text
Utterance of Khnum the potter Lord of Herur
lsquoI have formed thee of these limbs of Amun Presider over Karnak
I have come to thee to fashion thee better than all gods
I have given to thee all life and satisfaction
all stability all joy of heart with me
I have given to thee all health all lands
I have given to thee all offerings all food
I have given to thee to appear upon the throne of Horus like Ra forever
I have given thee to be before the Kas of all the living
while thou shinest as King of Upper and Lower Egypt of South and North
God Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (2
nd edition Grand Rapids
MI Eerdmans 2002) pp 133-134
82 Koehler and Baumgartner Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon p 963 CAD vol 12 P
(2005) p 182 W Hinz ldquoAchaumlmenidische Hofverwaltingrdquo ZA 61 (1971) p 295 See
also discussion in J Bremmer Greek Religion and Culture the Bible and the Ancient
Near East (Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture Leiden EJ Brill 2008) pp
35-55 (he insisted on a Median aspect) and also the essays by Bremmer (above n 1)
and A Panaino (ldquoAround Inside and Beyond the Walls Names Ideas and Images of
Paradise in Pre-Islamic Iran With an Appendix on Old Persian ltpa-ra-da-ya-da-a-
magtrdquo) in Scafi The Cosmography of Paradise
83 Also in Romans 921
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015