The Garden of Eden is one of the most famous settings in the Bible, a peaceful garden oasis
God created as a home for Adam and Eve, before they made a dumb mistake that got them evicted.
Here's the untold truth of the Garden of Eden.
The main appearance of the Garden of Eden in the canonical Bible is, of course, in the
book of Genesis, during the second account of creation that begins in chapter 2.
Verse 8 says,
"And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom
he had formed."
If you know of the Garden of Eden at all, you probably know the Genesis narrative: Eden
was the place where God made a home for the first humans, filled with all sorts of plants
and animals, including the famous Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which Adam
and Eve were specifically instructed not to eat from.
"This is the tree of Knowledge, from its branches, you shall not eat!"
"Are you saying that in a 'I suggest you don't' or in like a 'definitely don't?'"
People being people, of course, they went ahead and did it anyway.
God kicked them out of the Garden, leaving behind angels to keep the now sinful humans
from having access to the Tree of Life.
Adam and Eve subsequently invented the idea of working for a living, and raised children
who invented the concept of murder.
Of course, humans didn't just come up with this terrible idea themselves.
No, it was the serpent who convinced Eve go give that apple a whirl.
She not only ate the fruit, of course, but also shared it with Adam, bringing about the
Fall of Man and leading to their expulsion from the Garden.
According to The Bible, this is why, in short, life sucks and then you die.
So what's the deal with the serpent?
Well, popular modern interpretation commonly teaches that the serpent was actually the
Devil in disguise.
In fact, for Christians, God's promise to the serpent that Eve's offspring would crush
him is a prophecy foretelling Jesus's ultimate victory over Satan in the End Times.
One problem, though: the Eden serpent was not actually Satan.
How do we know?
Well, according to Biblical Archaeology, when the book of Genesis was composed, the idea
of the Devil hadn't even been invented yet.
The idea of a powerful supernatural force who opposes God didn't develop until several
hundred years after Genesis was written.
Whoops!
According to Genesis 3:24, when God drove Adam and Eve out of Eden, he placed cherubim
and a spinning, flaming sword at the east entrance to keep humans from ever entering
the Garden again.
A flaming sword is pretty easy to picture, but what are cherubim?
Nowadays we tend to think of cherubs as chubby angel babies thanks to their having been conflated
with Cupids and putti from Roman mythology and Italian art.
The cherubim in the Bible are, uh...somewhat different.
Cherubim are described in Ezekiel as mashups of humans, oxen, eagles, and lions, beings
who hold up God's throne and move unflinchingly forward, like unturning chariot wheels.
This likely relates to the statues of cherubim on the mercy seat, which was the cover of
the Ark of the Covenant where God himself was known to sit.
The Jewish Encyclopedia suggests the idea of enormous beings of great power without
human emotion as representatives of gods and protectors of holy spaces is an ancient Semitic
belief that can also be found in the winged bulls and lions at Babylonian and Assyrian
temple entrances.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, for the scholars behind the Jewish theological
writings known as the Talmud and the esoteric school of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah,
there are actually two Gardens of Eden.
One of these is the earthly Garden where Adam and Eve lived and ate fruit and played with
penguins or whatever, and the other is a celestial paradise where the immortal souls of the righteous
live.
These two concepts are distinguished by referring to a "lower" and "higher" Garden of Eden,
or calling the earthly location Gan ("garden") and the heavenly one Eden.
As the Jewish Encyclopedia explains, various apocalyptic writings describe Eden as a place
for the,
"righteous who suffer innocently, who do works of benevolence and walk without blame before
God "
Those who make it to the celestial Eden will wear clothes made of light and enjoy the immortality
that comes from the Tree of Life.
The wicked will suffer sevenfold punishment, while the righteous will enjoy sevenfold happiness,
living in mansions and walking with God, who leads them in dance.
A question that has been asked and debated for centuries is the location of the physical
Garden of Eden.
After all, if you knew there was a place with talking animals, a flaming sword, and a tree
that could let you live forever, you'd want to at least grab an Instagram selfie there.
Naturally, the biblical account is the starting place for most people who assume the Garden
was more than a metaphor.
Genesis chapter 2 says Eden had a river flowing out of it that spread into four branches.
Two are identified as the Tigris and Euphrates in modern-day Iraq, but the other two have
been a little harder to pin down.
Traditionally, the third river is believed to flow through India, making it either the
Indus or the Ganges.
And the fourth is said to be in or near Ethiopia, meaning most believe it to be the Nile.
But are these traditional guesses right?
Lots of people have their own ideas about where the Garden of Eden actually is, or was.
"For centuries, people have looked everywhere, from the depths of the Persian Gulf, to rural
Missouri, and even the planet Mars."
The Mormons, for instance, teach that after being driven out of Eden, Adam and Eve settled
into a land known as Adam-ondi-Ahman, which is located in modern day…Missouri.
Joseph Smith is said to have received a divine revelation upon witnessing a rock formation
that resembled an altar that this place was where Adam blessed his descendants and made
offerings to God.
Then there's archaeologist Juris Zarins, who in 1987 told The Smithsonian that the story
of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden was a metaphor for society's transition from
hunting and gathering to agriculture.
He posited that the literal Garden of Eden is now underwater at the head of the Persian
Gulf, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers empty into the sea.
And then there's Armenia.
Many people, including the famous English poet Lord Byron, believe that the Garden of
Eden was at the origin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in Armenia, rather than at the end
in the Persian Gulf.
They also point to the fact that Mount Ararat, the final resting place for Noah's Ark, is
located on the Armenian plain as well.
So what's the truth?
Well, that's the one bit of knowledge that the serpent's apple didn't seem to grant us.
Ironic, isn't it?
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.