#3:24

[whencyclopedia]

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is the biblical earthly paradise created by God to be inhabited by his first human creation - Adam and Eve. Some claim that the name “Eden” derives from the Akkadian term edinu, which means 'plain'. In the biblical tradition, the garden is often alluded to by the biblical authors as a luxuriant place, which is why it is sometimes called the “Garden of God.” However, it is the biblical definition of the garden that is our concern here. Adam was the first man created by God in his image. After God saw the loneliness of Adam as "not good," God caused a deep sleep on Adam and created Eve (the first woman) out of Adam's rib as his helper (Genesis 2:20-23). To properly understand what the garden is to the narrator of Genesis, it is important to discern its location, the characters playing roles in it and what took place in it. All these contribute to our understanding of the biblical definition of the “Garden of Eden.”

The Eden narrative is narrated in the Bible's book of Genesis 2:4b-3: 24, which places the garden at the east side of Eden. Commonly, translations have the “Garden of Eden” with the construct element “of,” but the Hebrew text has 'gan-beeden', which is not in the construct form, and that the preposition “be” in 'beeden' is to be translated as “in.” Therefore, it is grammatically incorrect to translate 'gan-beeden' as “Garden of Eden,” but the “Garden in Eden.” The actual location of Eden is disputed amongst scholars, but a number of them have concluded that the garden is an extraterrestrial place – where the gods resided. The water from the garden was the water-source for the two great rivers: Tigris and Euphrates, which are well-known in ancient Mesopotamia for the production of irrigation systems in the surrounding area. Its location then should be placed somewhere in Mesopotamia.

Location & Features

The description of the garden in Genesis 2:10-14 states that the water from Eden watered four important areas: Pishon, which flows into the land of Havilah; Gihon, which flows into the land of Cush; Tigris, which flows into the eastern side of Assyria; and the fourth is Euphrates. The garden is also said to have “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” Yet, two trees are singled out: the “Tree of Life” in the middle of the garden and the “Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.” However, the Genesis account is inconsistent at some point, Genesis 2:8-9; 3:1-3 has both trees in the midst of the garden, whereas Genesis 3:22-24 gives the possibility that both trees were planted on the east side of the garden where Adam was originally placed.

Even more, the description of the garden in the Genesis account is not identical with other biblical texts alluding to the garden. For example, in Ezekiel 28, the luxuriant materials found in the garden are not mentioned in Genesis 2:4b-3:24. For some of these reasons, the concept of a “garden” of a god(s) was a very common metaphor in the ancient Near East of where the god(s) resided. For the narrator of Genesis, the “Garden in Eden” was imaginatively constructed for an etiological (origin or cause of things) purpose, not as a divine residence, but of the first man and woman on earth – Adam and Eve. As generally accepted in modern scholarship, Genesis 1-11 is labeled as the “Primeval History,” which includes mythologies and legends that were very common not just in Israel, but throughout the ancient Near East. These myths and legends are not Israelite in origin but were adapted by the biblical writers for either polemical or rhetorical purposes.

Some of the crucial questions readers ought to ask to properly discern the “Garden in Eden” are: What is the purpose of the Eden narrative in the book of Genesis? What did the narrator seek to achieve? Importantly, to reach this goal, readers should not treat the “Garden in Eden” exclusively from the characters playing roles in the narrative, such as God, Adam, Eve, the serpent, the singled out trees: tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and especially the narrator's overall purpose. To focus exclusively on the "garden" without acknowledging these characters would only disrupt the plot of the narrative.

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[f-a-r-a-h]

Mein melissen tee 😋 melisa çayım 🤗😍☕️

[glimmerofawesome]

[kyle1]

*DISCLAIMER: Hypotheses are based on objective observation, but pondered empathetically/subjectively*

how is it that saying out loud that "I am gay," actually gets me more positive attention from women, which then further reinforces my innate straightness, and respectively makes me less gay in-fact, even if I wasn't lying from the start...

is it because vulnerability abounds around souls who willing compromise and spiritually weaken themselves to please and comfort others?

or is it something deeper in the psyche of women, unknown to me (of course) -which compels an animalistic flocking-effect toward men that exude natural confidence, even if its flow from such a liar is in-fact more oozey than upstanding?

curious minds would like to know, but will settle merely to pontifcate, and query aloud about-

[jay-wasstuff]

Logan: trauma dumps Wade:

[grantwilson]

we are discussing our childhood passions on the dash tonight

[candyje11yfish]

[icarusredwings]

Thinking about Laura scolding her dads for smoking. They're both on the couch, Logan with his cigar, Wade with a fucking menthol.

Laura: You're gonna get cancer!

Wade: I already have cancer

Logan: I can't get cancer

Wade: *glares* Lucky bastard

[kitteecafe]

im so late to pride posting lmao

[watcher0033]

Y’all, the Archive admins are made up of VOLUNTEERS. And they have been working for 12-13 HOURS STRAIGHT.

I better not hear any complaints when donation period comes around. OR ELSE.

cosplay by @woahchriswoah on Twitter

EDIT: How do we show appreciation to the volunteers? For me reading these deep dives on OTW issues u guys apparently it's been said multiple times that one of their objective statements is to have paid staff for ao3 and there's a surplus of donations they haven't used up or the other community solutions that needs to address. For those more financially literate feel free to analyze, snipe me or add to the discussion etc. linked here by deepa. They’re cool and these yearly analysis they did aint no joke.

But Seriously what can we do for these volunteers? The probable burn out from this entire fiasco would be no joke. @ao3org

[jackalspine]

Uhhhh r we sure dis guy is a ghost??

[taffybuns]

🦑💥🐙

[and-his-hands-were-24-crows]

They're Not Talking

Happy Season 3, friendos.

[foolishlovers]

[magulon]

[myxozoan]

ok gumby