In Search of the Garden of Eden and the Rivers of Paradise
Please click here for _my map_ showing the location of the Garden of Eden based on my research.
Please click here for maps showing the Euphrates as the "river of Eden" and its subdividing into the four streams of Paradise during the 6th through early 2nd millenniums B.C.
Please click here for this website's most important article: Why the Bible Cannot be the Word of God.
For Christians visiting this website my most important article is: The Reception of God's Holy Spirit: How the Hebrew Prophets _contradict_ Christianity's Teachings. Please click here.
14 August 2001
Revisions through 01 May 2007
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I understand that Genesis is _denying, refuting and challenging_ the Mesopotamian myths' explanation of Who, What, Why, Where, When and How man came to made, what his purpose on earth is, and why he does not possess immortality. I understand that the Hebrews accomplished these denials or challenges by taking motifs and concepts from a variety of contradicting myths and giving them "new twists," changed the names of the characters, the locations, and sequences of events. It is my belief that the Hebrews were deliberately CHANGING _or_ RECASTING the earlier myths and their motifs IN ORDER TO REFUTE, DENY, AND CHALLENGE THEM, hence the "reason why" there are _no_ individuals called Adam, Eve, the Serpent, Yahweh, Noah, Shem, Japheth and Ham appearing in _any_ of the Mesopotamian pre-biblical myths.
Why did the Hebrews seek to refute, deny and challenge the Mesopotamian beliefs? Why did Christianity refute and deny Judaism? Why did Islam refute and deny Judaism and Christianity? Apparently each felt that its predecessor had wrong or erroneous beliefs regarding the relationship between God and Man and accordingly each sought to "correct" these "false" views via _refutations, denials and challenges_.
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My Garden of Eden research in a nutshell (25 April 2007):
Genesis portrays God creating a garden in a location called Eden. He creates man and places him in his garden to care for it. Man is told he may eat of the garden's seed-bearing herbs and fruits from trees (Ge 1:29; 2:9, 16). Some Catholic scholars date the creation of the Garden of Eden based on the Bible's internal chronology to circa 5199 B.C. or 4004 B.C. according to some Protestant scholars. This research on Eden's garden and its trees can be broken down into basically three phases historically speaking:
(1) As demonstrated by archaeology the earliest known "gardens" are associated with the Neolithic "New Stone Age" villages found in the foothills of the Taurus and Zagros mountain ranges which border Mesopotamia (Modern Turkey, Iraq, and Iran), which date from the 12 to the 5th millenniums B.C. Eventually man leaves the rain-fed foothills and begins to create villages with irrigated gardens in the northern reaches above Baghdad in the Mesopotamian plain, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers providing the water for his village-gardens. (2) Mesopotamian myths apparently concocted in the 3rd millennium B.C. most probably by city-dwellers in the southern Mesopotamian flood plain, claim the gods discovered for themselves how to domesticate plants and animals, created cities to live in and invented irrigated city-gardens; tiring of all this toil, they later create man to care for their city-gardens, harvesting the produce to feed the gods in the cities' temples. The first city created by the gods is Eridu in the southern Mesopotamian plain according to the myths. Archaeology reveals Eridu is no older than circa 5900 B.C. or 4900 B.C. These myths in effect _deny, refute, and challenge_ (1) the "archaeological reality" that the gods _did not_ create the world's first irrigated gardens, Neolithic man did, in the mountainous foothills, not the southern Mesopotamian flood plain (Ancient Sumer and Akkad). (3) The Hebrew Bible's book of Genesis _denies, refutes and challenges_ (1) and (2): God did not create a city for himself to live in nor did he create a city-garden to provide food for himself, nor did he create man to harvest and prepare the garden's produce in order to have man feed God. He made the Garden of Eden to provide food for man and situated it in the midst of a region called Eden instead of the Mesopotamian region known to the Sumerians as the Edin (the uncultivated flood plain or steppe land that the Tigris and Euphrates flow through).
The Mesopotamian myths do NOT have any knowledge of man being expelled from their city-gardens for an act of rebellion like Genesis' Garden of Eden account. The gods made man to replace themselves as agricultural laborers, it would be foolish to expell man from their city-gardens for the gods would have to care for their gardens themselves. Where then are the Hebrews getting the notion that a rebellion has occured in a god's garden and the gardener has been removed? I suspect this is a recasting of the Igigi gods rebellion in the Atrahasis myth. They were "removed" from Enlil's garden at Nippur (and Enki's garden at Eridu), and man was created to replace them. So, yes, there was indeed in the Mesopotamian myths a story about a rebellion of "man" working in a god's garden and being removed from said garden! In fact when the hardwork of the Igigi gods is described it is said: "WHEN THE GODS WERE _"MAN"_ THEY DID GRIEVOUS LABOR." So "MAN" IN THE FORM OF THE IGIGI GODS WAS REMOVED FROM A GOD'S GARDEN FOR AN ACT OF REBELLION. However, the Hebrews have INVERTED the storyline. "MAN" (the Igigi) WELCOMED THIS REMOVAL for now they enjoy an eternal rest from toil as already enjoyed by the Anunnaki gods (Anu, Enlil and Enki). The Hebrews portray the removal of "man" from a god's garden AS PUNISHMENT FOR MAN whereas it was an ACT OF MERCY AND A BLESSING FOR THE IGIGI, ending their grievous labor. Christianity hopes that one day God will allow man _back into_ his garden of Eden, whereas the Igigi would never want to return to the Anunnaki's city-gardens and the grievous toil there! Christianity teaches that when man returns to the Garden of Eden he will once more enjoy God's fellowship and companionship as did Adam and Eve. But the Igigi working in the gods' gardens DID NOT ENJOY FELLOWSHIP with the Anunnaki gods! The Anunnaki ruthlessly exploited the Igigi and ignored night and day for 40 years their pleas for an end of their toil! With the "removal from the gods' gardens" the Igigi NOW ENJOY FELLOWSHIPPING WITH THE ANUNNAKI, for both now are free of toil upon the earth, both can recline on their couches in indolent leisure as both ruthlessly exploit man the agricultural slave having him care for their gardens, and present them the produce to eat in the city temples. An inversion has occured! Man's (the Igigi being called "man") fellowship with a god (Enlil of Nippur and Enki at Eridu) is obtained via removal from the god's garden instead of by remaining as a laborer in a god's garden!
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24 November 2006 Update:
Two Jewish scholars Yahuda (A. S. Yahuda. The Accuracy of the Bible. London. William Heinemann Publisher. 1934) and Cassuto (Umberto Cassuto. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Adam to Noah. Vol. 1. Jerusalem. Magness Press. Hebrew University. First edition in Hebrew: 1944. English editions: 1961-1989), noted that the biblical text suggests that a river rises in Eden and waters God's garden, AFTER LEAVING THIS GARDEN it subdivides into FOUR STREAMS: The Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris) and Euphrates. That is to say, NEITHER THE TIGRIS OR EUPHRATES IS ENVISIONED IN GENESIS AS PROVIDING WATER FOR THE GARDEN OF EDEN. As noted in this article, it is these two streams that provide water for the irrigated city-gardens of the gods in Mesopotamia's Sumerian edin (steppe/plain). I understand that the Hebrews are _refuting, denying and challenging_ Mesopotamian understandings regarding when, why, how, and where the gods created man and placed him in their city-gardens to care for them and provide the gods with food. The Hebrews are also DENYING AND REFUTING the "reality" that ALL OF THE GODS' CITY-GARDENS ARE WATERED BY THESE TWO STREAMS, claiming instead that God's garden is watered by a stream that LATER becomes the Tigris and Euphrates _AFTER_ LEAVING GOD'S GARDEN. Geologists have determined that the Tigris and Euphrates first came to cross the plain of Iraq in the Lower Pliocene Age (Pliocene is 5 to 1.8 million years ago). They have NEVER arisen from one stream. They arise "near each other" in the mountains of modern day Turkey but from separate sources. The notion that Noah's flood in the 3rd millennium B.C. (Christian Protestants' 2345 B.C., Catholics' 2958 B.C.) destroyed and buried under tons of flood sediments the river beds of these two rivers is nonsense. Geologists have found NO evidence of a universal flood anywhere in the Ancient Near East from the 10th-1st millenniums B.C. That these two rivers ever arose from one stream is then a myth. Please click here for the "pre-biblical origins" of Noah's mythical Flood in Mesopotamian Flood myths.
From my research over the past 30 years on the "pre-biblical origins" of Genesis 1-9 (Creation to the Flood), I have concluded that in many cases the Hebrews are employing INVERSIONS AND REVERSALS in order to deny, refute and challenge Mesopotamian beliefs and concepts. The Hebrews are exhibiting great artistry and creativeness in doing all of this. Joseph Campbell (1964) earlier noted this phenomenon in his study of Genesis vis-a-vis the Mesopotamian creation myths: that the Hebrews are transforming these myths and presenting a "180 degree about face" counter-argument.
Professor Campbell on the Garden of Eden's Trees having been originally a myth of a settled peoples who plant trees and gardens instead of desert-wandering shepherds and herdsmen like the Hebrews (Emphasis mine):
"...And Yahweh took the man and put him in the garden of Eden _to till_ and keep it...We recognize the old Sumerian garden, but with two trees now instead of one, which the man is appointed to guard and tend...it is to be remarked that one of the chief characteristics of Levantine mythology here represented is that of man created to be God's slave or servant. In a late Sumerian myth retold in Oriental Mythology it is declared that men were created to relieve the gods of the onerous task of _tilling_ their fields. Men were to do that work for them and provide them food through sacrifice...The ultimate source of the biblical Eden, therefore, cannot have been a mythology of the desert -that is to say, a primitive Hebrew myth- but was the old planting mythology of the peoples of the soil. HOWEVER, IN THE BIBLICAL RETELLING, ITS WHOLE ARGUMENT HAS BEEN TURNED, SO TO SAY, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY DEGREES...One milllennium later, the patriarchal desert nomads arrived, and all judgements were REVERSED in heaven, as on earth." (pp.103, 105-106. "Gods and Heroes of the Levant." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. Arkana. A Division of Penguin Books. 1964. 1991 reprint)
Professor Tigay on echoes of man being created to provide food for the gods and Adam's work in the garden of Eden:
"Placing man in the garden "to till and tend it" faintly echoes the Mesopotamian creation stories according to which man was created to free the gods from laboring to produce their own food (Pritchard, Texts, 68; cf. W. G. Lambert, Atrahasis (1969), 42–67; A. Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis (1942) 69–71; S. N. Kramer, The Sumerians (1963), 149–50). In the Bible this is not seen as the purpose of man's creation—in fact, the creation of man and the placing of him in the garden are separated by several verses; and there is no suggestion at all that God or the other heavenly beings benefit from man's labor." (Jeffrey Howard Tigay. "Paradise." http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~jtigay/paradise.doc.)
Campbell's (1964) observation that the Mesopotamian myths have been transformed by the Hebrews in Genesis TO RENDER AN ARGUMENT CONTRARY TO THE OLDER MESOPOTAMIAN FAITH IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT (Emphasis mine):
"No one familiar with the mythologies of the primitive, ancient, and Oriental worlds can turn to the Bible without recognizing COUNTERPARTS on every page,TRANSFORMED, however, TO RENDER AN ARGUMENT CONTRARY TO THE OLDER FAITHS. In Eve's scene at the tree, for example, nothing is said to indicate that the serpent who appeared and spoke to her was a deity in his own right, who had been revered in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis. There is in the Louvre a carved green steatite vase, inscribed c. 2025 BC by King Gudaea of Lagash, dedicated to a late Sumerian manifestation of this consort of the goddess, under his title Ningizzida, "Lord of the Tree of Truth." (p. 9. "The Serpent's Bride." Joseph Campbell. Occidental Mythology, The Masks of God. Arkana. New York. Viking Penguin Books. 1964, 1991 reprint) Please click here for my article on the pre-biblical origins of Eden's Serpent.
Campbell on the Hebrews "inverting" of earlier myths (Emphasis mine):
"The first point that emerges from this contrast, and will be demonstrated further in numerous mythic scenes to come, is that in the context of the patriarchy of the Iron Age Hebrews of the first millennium B.C., THE MYTHOLOGY ADOPTED FROM THE EARLIER NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS of the lands they occupied and for a time ruled BECAME INVERTED, TO RENDER AN ARGUMENT JUST THE OPPOSITE TO THAT OF ITS ORIGIN." (p. 17. "The Serpent's Bride." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. New York. Arkana & Viking Penguin. 1964. Reprinted 1991)
30 Nov. 2006 Update:
Wallace on Eden's 'contested' etymology (emphasis mine):
"Two explanations have been proposed for the origin of the name `eden, "Eden": (a) that it derives from the Akkadian word edinu, "plain, steppe," which in turn is a loan word from Sumerian eden; (b) that is is connected with the West Semitic stem `dn occurring in several languages, having to do with "luxury, abundance, delight, or lushness"...However, several objections have been raised. First, Genesis 2-3 refers to Eden in terms of a fertile garden or oasis. The transference to this meaning from a Sumerian word for "plain" or "steppe" is obscure. Secondly, while the word eden is common in Sumerian, the Akkadian equivalent edinu is attested only once...The usual Akkadian equivalent to Sumerian eden is seru. From available evidence it seems that edinu was an extremely rare word in Akkadian and it is not a likely candidate for further borrowing into biblical Hebrew. The craft of a narrator or scribe in adopting such a word would be lost to nearly all hearers or readers."
(p. 281. Vol. 2. Howard N. Wallace. "Eden, Garden of." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
In the Mesopotamian myths (The Eridu Genesis Myth, Ewe and Wheat, The Epic of Gilgamesh) man wanders naked in an uncultivated wilderness plain or steppe (Akkadian: seru and sometimes edinu, Sumerian: edin or edin-na) with wild animals for companions. It is my understanding that Hebrew `eden is recalling the Sumerian edin. But, as I have noted before, the Hebrews are _denying and refuting_ the Mesopotamian myths. At Ebla (Tell Mardikh) in Syria the Old Babylonian edin (ca. 2000-1500 BCE, O.B. Nippur Lu. 823) is rendered eden (Early Dynastic IIIb, 3000-2500 B.C.E. Ebla Sign List 55), meaning a "steppe or plain". I suspect that the Hebrews took the Syrian eden and added a phoneme /`/ to it rendering eden as `eden causing the semi-arid, desertlike steppe to become a "well-watered delightful place". Why? _The Hebrews are refuting Mesopotamian beliefs!_ The gods despised man. In the Eridu Genesis myth naked man is a wild animal, his companions are not the gods, but wild animals naked like himself. The gods do not give man any fruits from their city-gardens to eat, man must fend for himself, HE EATS GRASS and laps water like the other beasts (cf. the Ewe and Wheat myth as well as Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh). The Hebrews apparently objected to this portrayal of man. Edin (Syrian Ebla's eden) is a place of desolation, wild animals roam it, brigands, cut-throats and murdering outcasts like Cain from civilized society also inhabit it. Dumuzi was slain by demons in the edin at his sheepfold. Edin/Eden is not an idyllic place for man in the Mesopotamian myths. I suspect that the Hebrews, in refuting all this, added the phoneme /`/ to the Syrian eden rendering it into a new `eden, a place of "abundance and lushness, delightful and well-watered". God loves man, he would not place man in a desertlike wilderness to eat grass like a beast and abandon him! In the Mesopotamian understanding the uncultivated edin is where shepherds graze their flocks (like Dumuzi). The "good life" is in the cities (not the edin) built according to the myths by the gods for thier habitation _before_ man's creation. The Hebrews' ancestors are portrayed as wandering shepherds, living in tents, as such their habitation would the edin. Perhaps these "shepherds-of-edin" were offended by the Mesopotamian myths concocted by "city-dwellers", glorifying city-life over shepherding in the edin? Thus the "shepherds of edin" concocted _a counter-argument_, glorifying life in the edin and denigrating city-life? Cain the murderer builds the world's first city and man descends into corruption and sin. So the Hebrews' shepherding ancestors are refuting, denying and challenging the Mesopotamian world view regarding primitive naked man's life in the uncultivated edin being a curse. That is to say, the Hebrew shepherds are glorifying their own life style as against that of life in cities glorified by the city-dwelling Mesopotamians. Perhaps these shepherds of edin deliberately misspelled eden/edin by adding the phoneme /`/ rendering Hebrew `eden, meaning "delight, well-watered, or lush"? Thus the desertlike semi-arid edin steppe lands, the "god-forsaken-wilderness", became a "place of delight" portraying God fellowshipping with man in this remote location instead of in cities allegedly built by the gods for their habitation and their city-gardens which they would later create man to till and care for on their behalf as an agricultural slave. When Cain the founder of city-life and an agricultualist presents his offering to God it is rejected, but the offering of "the shepherd", Abel is accepted. Is this Godly rejection of a city-dweller and agriculturalist (Cain) "another swipe at" the Mesopotamian notion that the gods' contact with man occured when man was created and placed in the gods' city-gardens to relieve the Igigi gods of self-toil? Leick on CITIES BEING THE PLACE OF THE GODS' HEARTS' _DELIGHT_ NOT A GOD'S GARDEN IN A REMOTE WILDERNESS CALLED EDEN AS PORTRAYED IN GENESIS (emphasis mine):
"ERIDU IS THE MESOPOTAMIAN EDEN, THE PLACE OF CREATION...Amid a primeval sea, THE FIRST CITY, ERIDU...Just like the marsh dwellers of southern Iraq, who still build their huts on floating islands of reed, the god [Marduk] spreads mud upon a reed frame to fashion a platform. From this primordial, rather flimsy basis, the cities and their temples take their beginning. Henceforth the gods take up residence on the earth and live in cities. AND BECAUSE THE GODS HAVE THE DWELLING OF 'THEIR HEARTS' DELIGHT' IN CITIES, MESOPOTAMIAN CITIES ARE ALWAYS SACRED. THUS THE MESOPOTAMIAN EDEN IS NOT A GARDEN BUT A CITY, formed from a piece of dry land surrounded by the waters. The first building is a temple. THEN MANKIND IS CREATED TO RENDER SERVICE TO GOD and temple. This is how Mesopotamian tradition presented the evolution and function of cities, and Eridu provides the mythical paradigm. Contrary to the biblical Eden, from which man was banished for ever after the Fall, Eridu remained a real place, imbued with sacredness but always accessible."
(pp. 1-2. "Eridu." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, The Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001. Paperback)
Pritchard on Enkidu's and the wild animals of the steppe heart's DELIGHT being a watering hole (emphasis mine):
"The wild beasts came to the watering-place to drink.
The creeping creatures came, THEIR HEART DELIGHTING IN WATER.
But as for him, Enkidu, born in the hills-
With the gazelles he feeds on grass,
With the wild beasts he drinks at the watering-place,
With the creeping creatures HIS HEART DELIGHTS IN WATER..."
(p. 44. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." James B. Pritchard. Editor. The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton, New Jersey. University of Princeton Press. 1958)
Note: Hebrew `eden meaning "delight" is _not_ in any way similar in pronounciation to the verb #ia:bu, the word being translated above in the Epic of Gilgamesh as "delighting" and "delights". It is cognate with Arabic #ayi:b 'good' and Hebrew #o:v as in mazel #ov (my thanks to Professor Robert Whiting, a trained Assyriologist, for this information).
Foster on a city-dwelling Shamhat refering to the steppe's watering hole as a place of DESOLATION (emphasis mine):
"The harlot said to him, to Enkidu:
You are handsome, Enkidu, you are become like a god,
Why roam the steppe with wild beasts?
Come, let me lead you to ramparted Uruk...
Come AWAY FROM THIS DESOLATION, BEREFT EVEN OF SHEPHERDS."
(p. 13. Benjamin R. Foster. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York & London. W. W. Norton & Company. A Norton Critical Edition. 2001)
Campbell on the Hebrews' mythology being that of nomadic shepherds and DESERT-DWELLERS (note: some scholars render Sumerian edin where Dumuzi the shepherd wandered with his sheep as "DESERT" as well as "steppe" and "plain", emphasis mine):
"...Ezra prevailed, and in the end the Jews...retained, or rather reinvented, an exclusive, DESERT-BASED MYTHOLOGY..." (p. 629. "The Earthly Paradise." Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. New York. Viking Penguin. 1968, reprint of 1976)
So, to sum it all up: The Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham through Jacob (called later Israel) are portrayed as tent-dwelling shepherds: "And you shall make response before the Lord your God, 'A wandering Aramean was my father" (King James Bible: "Syrian" Deut 26:5). They grazed their herds and flocks in the edin steppe lands extending from Ur of the Chaldees (Ge 11:28), south of Babylon to Haran (Ge 11:31) in northern Syria, and Damascus (Ge 15:2) and thence south to Beersheba (Ge 21:33). The city-dwellers of Mesopotamia held the tent-dwelling shepherds of the western lands (Martu, Amurru, Aram) in contempt and regarded them a menace to civilized life in the cities.
IN DEFENSE OF THEIR WAY OF LIFE AND THE LOCATION THEY LIVED IN WITH THEIR HERDS (THE DESERT-LIKE EDEN/EDIN STEPPE) THE HEBREW SHEPHERDS ('SYRIAN' OF DEUTERONOMY 26:5) PROBABLY RECAST THE CREATION-OF-MAN MYTHS CONCOCTED BY THE MESOPOTAMIAN CITY-DWELLERS INTO A REFUTATION: GOD'S DELIGHT WAS NOT IN A CITY AND IT'S CITY-GARDEN FOUNDED BY A MUDERING CAIN AND DESCENDANTS, IT WAS IN THE EDEN, WHICH VIA A DELIBERATE MISPRONOUNCIATION AND SPELLING BECAME A PLACE OF "DELIGHT AND WELL-WATERED" INSTEAD OF A SEMIARID DESERT-LIKE GOD-FORSAKEN-WILDERNESS, A FIT PLACE ONLY FOR THIEVES, BRIGANDS AND CUT-THROATS IN MESOPOTAMIAN CITY-DWELLER'S EYES.
Primal man, Adam, had dwelt NAKED with animals for companions in a garden, in a location called Eden, just as another primal man, Enkidu of the Epic of Gilgamesh had dwelt NAKED with animal companions until he "fell for" a naked woman brought by the hunter to the watering hole in the steppe, a place where Enkidu and the animal's "HEARTS' DELIGHT was water", to undo the naked man of the steppe, separating him from his animal companions and having him leave the steppe to dwell with civilized man in a city called Uruk. The naked woman's words to Enkidu: "You are like a God now, why roam with the animals? Let us leave THIS PLACE OF DESOLATION, bereft of shepherds, come with me to Uruk, to meet mighty Gilgamesh." Enkidu agrees and she clothes his and her nakedness before leaving the steppe, and they dwell in the city of Uruk, glorified for its "civilized amenities" over the god-forsaken desolate steppe. I understand Enkidu was recast as Adam and Shamhat the naked harlot who separated him from his animals as "a more fit companion", became Eve. The watering hole in the steppe where she seduced Enkidu, the source of Enkidu's and the animals' heart's "delight" became _morphed into 'eden_, meaning a place of "delight" _contra_ a city-dwelling Shamhat characterizing the steppe as a place of "desolation". It is well to recall's Leick's words that the gods regarded cities as their dwelling and hearts' delight whereas naked primal man's (Enkidu's) dwelling and heart's delight was a watering hole in the steppe (Akkadian seru, Sumerian edin).
I am here suggesting two possible origins for edin the steppe being transformed into Hebrew `eden or "delight": (1) A deliberate mispronounciation or misspelling (or a simple word substituion: edin/eden substituted with 'eden) to change the word's original meaning by adding the phoneme /`/ to Syrian (Ebla) eden, _or_ (2) a "morphing" of the steppe's watering hole into a "place of delight" because its water is a source of "hearts' delight" for the naked primal man, Enkidu (later recast as Adam) and his animal companions.
God manifests himself to all Israel during the Exodus at Mount Sinai descending upon the mount in cloud and fire. At this mount Israel constructs a tent or tabernacle for God to dwell in. God is portrayed as a tent-dweller, NOT a city-dweller like the Mesopotamian gods, and he is a God of the wilderness, a "god-forsaken-wilderness" in Mesopotamian city-dweller's eyes. When, under Solomon, a temple is built in the city of Jerusalem, the tabernacle God dwelt in during the Exodus is folded up and placed in the Holy of Holies to remind the people that God's first domicile was a tent in the wilderness. The prophet Elijah did not seek God in the city of Jerusalem at the temple, he sought and found God at Mount Horeb in the Sinai wilderness (1 Kings 19:8-16). Yahweh-Elohim was then for the Hebrews a God of the wilderness, whereas for the city-dwelling Mesopotamians the gods who created man were city-dwellers. The gods had created man to work in their city-gardens, to raise food to feed the gods and to relieve for all eternity the gods of earthly toil. Speaking from an anthropological point of view, ancient peoples created their gods in their own image to explain their way of life. The Mesopotamians are city-dwellers, their source of food is irrigated city-gardens (fields), so they portrayed their gods as creating cities and irrigated gardens _before man's creation_ for the benefit of the gods. Then the gods create man to toil for the gods' benefit, man will provide life's necessities for the gods: Shelter, Food and Clothing. Abraham is portrayed as being a tent-dwelling shepherd with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats, these animals graze the uncultivated steppe lands of Mesopotamian edin (Ur of the Chaldees to Haran and Damascus). Understandably for the "shepherds of edin", their God will dwell in a tent and is to be found in the wilderness of eden (edin), NOT in a city and its god's city-garden. To the degree that Genesis presents God's garden as being in the midst of a region called Eden and not in a city, it appears to me that the watering hole in the midst of the steppe where Enkidu met Shamhat is the "closest match" to the garden in Eden (cities being founded by Cain and descendants _after the expulsion_ of Adam and Eve from God's garden). But fused with the watering hole which was the animals' and naked primal man's hearts' _DELIGHT_ are recast motifs originally associated with the gardens of the gods, said gods having made man to work in their city-gardens to relieve themselves of toil. Unknown to some scholars is that although the Epic of Gilgamesh is written in Akkadian it uses at times Sumerian logograms as a form of shorthand for certain Akkadian words. The "steppe" Akkadian seru, that Enkidu wandered and where he met Shamhat is rendered by the Sumerian logogram (EDIN). That is to say _the _word _is _not_seru_ its _EDIN_ shown in parentheses (EDIN) and capitalized as a scholarly notation. So, Enkidu was "undone" by Shamhat in the (EDIN), at its watering-hole, a place of Enkidu's "heart's delight."
Please click here for a map showing the "possible location" of the watering hole _in edin_ where a naked man, Enkidu, was separated from his wild animal companions by a naked woman, Shamhat, just three day's journey into the wilderness of edin from Uruk according to the Epic of Gilgamesh (said account being recast by the Hebrews as Adam with unfit animal companions and Eve's replacing them as a more fit companion).
The Sumerian edin is rendered variously as steppe, plain, desert, wilderness. There is a "high plain" or "high steppe" called an edin and a "low steppe" or "low plain" called ki edin. Depending on the season these steppe lands have grasses for the shepherds to forage their animals on. The "high steppe" because of its elevation is generally more verdant due to rainfall being greater.
Averbeck on the high and low plains:
"The upland plains were a place where wild animals such as the ibex and wild goats grazed on grass and herbs. The inland plains were also a place of grass and herbs, but here the focus is on domesticated sheep and cattle, sheepfolds and cow pens, fat and cream."
(p. 336. Richard E. Averbeck. "Ancient Near Eastern Mythology as it Relates to Historiography in the Hebrew Bible: Genesis 3 and the Cosmic Battle." pp. 328-356. James K. Hoffmeier & Allan Millard, Editors. The Future of Biblical Archaeology, Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2004)
Revelation 22:1-2 (RSV)
"Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of _THE CITY_; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its tweleve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
Note: Revelation suggests that the "water of life" and "tree of life" IS TO BE FOUND WITHIN A CITY, the city of Jerusalem! This ALIGNS NICELY with the Mesopotamian myths claiming that the gods created man to till their CITY-GARDENS, feeding them the crops which were raised. I GUESS ONE COULD SAY WITH REVELATION 22:1-2 WE HAVE "_COME FULL-CIRCLE_" WITH THE MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHS ABOUT MAN BEING CREATED TO CARE FOR THE GODS' CITY-GARDENS FOR ALL ETERNITY! As noted by Leick, the gods' hearts' delight is to dwell in cities, and other myths reveal man will present food raised in city-gardens to the gods in their temples. The Mesopotamian myths then, agree somewhat with Revelation, MAN WILL FOR ALL ETERNITY DWELL IN THE COMPANY OF THE GODS as their agricultural servant, _IN A CITY_ AND CARE FOR THE GODS' (God The Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost) CITY-GARDEN (at Jerusalem).
Adapa received the warning _not to eat or he would die _ON THE EARTH_ at Eridu from Ea, but the forbidden food was _OFFERED IN HEAVEN_ by Ningishzida and Dumuzi on Anu's behalf. Christianity's notions about Paradise being ON THE EARTH (Genesis 2:8) and IN HEAVEN (Luke 23:43) remarkably preserves the two locations in which the Mesopotamian story unfolded regarding man's (Adapa's) lost chance to obtain immortality, Ea's fruit-tree garden ON THE EARTH in Eridu and Anu's abode IN HEAVEN. However, the Mesopotamians understood that man's lot after death was an eternity in the underworld. There was no resurrection from the underworld to look forward to. No one was going to a heavenly paradise or an earthly god's garden somewhere on the earth's surface. That is to say, in Mesopotamian belief man did not "really die" he lived for all eternity as a disembodied 'shade' or 'specter' in the underworld, his food was clay and his drink was muddy water, just like his former life upon the earth, he still needed to "eat and drink" to sustain life even in the underworld!
Professor Batto (1992) on the Hebrews recasting of earlier Mesopotamian myths and motifs in the Hebrew Bible:
"...I want to emphasize that this new mythmaking process is a conscious, reflected application of older myths and myhic elements to new situations...In so far as one admits the presence of myth in ancient Babylonian and Canaanite culture, then one must also admit the presence of myth in the Bible...This book, then, is a series of case studies of mythmaking in ancient Israel, or to be more exact, in the biblical tradition." (pp. 13-14. "Introduction." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"Now the Yahwist's primeval narrative is itself a marvelous example of mythmaking based upon prior Mesopotamian myths, notably Atrahasis and Gilgamesh. Interestingly, the reappropriation of mythic traditions and intertextual borrowing posited for biblical writers was already present within ancient Babylonia, and illustrates that biblical writers must be understood within the larger ancient Near Eastern literary and theological tradition." (p. 14. "Introduction." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"The theme of this volume...is, of myth and mythmaking speculation within the Hebrew Bible...biblical writers employed much the same techniques and even the same mythic motifs as their ancient Near Eastern neighbors...Israel...drew heavily upon the Babylonian myth of Atrahasis, supplementing with motifs from Gilgamesh and other traditional myths, to create a specifically Israelite primeval myth...Like their ancient Near Eastern counterparts, Israel's theologians were concerned with the place of humankind -and particularly of their own people- within the realm of being." (pp. 168-169. "Conclusion." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"The focus of this volume has been the various ways in which biblical writers throughout the history of the composition of the Hebrew Bible have used and reused myth...to undergird their religious and/or sociopolitical agenda. My purpose...has been only to show through representative examples how biblical authors actually went about using mythic motifs in their writing and how they consciously manipulated these to serve their specific purposes." (pp. 171-172. "Conclusion." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
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09 July 2006 An important WARNING or CAVEAT:
For two millennia (2000 years) scholars have attempted to locate the Garden of Eden by identifying the Edenic rivers. It is obvious to me after some 30 years of personal research that this is a flawed and unproductive methodology. The below article will explore the "problems" in using modern maps of rivers and wadies (dry river beds) to pinpoint the location of the Garden of Eden.
I understand that the Garden of Eden is a myth, a later Hebrew reworking of motifs appearing in earlier Mesopotamian myths regarding how and why man came to be created by the gods. These myths reveal that man was created inorder to work in their city gardens located in Lower Mesopotamia, then called Akkad and Sumer.
Many Christians are interested in locating the Garden _OF_ Eden. The Bible however, states that God planted a Garden _IN_ Eden:
Genesis 2:8 TANAKH (Philadelphia. The Jewish Publication Society. 1988. [5748 since the Creation])
"The LORD God planted a garden _in_ Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He had formed."
Some scholars understand Eden is Sumerian edin, the great semi-arid plain of Lower Mesopotamia (where lay ancient Akkad and Sumer) crossed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and I am in agreement with this understanding.
Three CONTRADICTING Mesopotamian myths reveal man was created in three cities, Eridu, Nippur and Babylon by the gods Sumerian Enki (Akkadian Ea), Enlil (Ellil) and Akkadian Marduk (biblical Merodach). A fourth myth, the so-called "Eridu Genesis Myth," states only that man aimlessly wanders a steppe (Akkadian: seri, seru, serim which is the _later equivalent_ of the earlier Sumerian: edin, edin-na), abandoned and ignored by the gods, in a state of nakedness with wild animals for companions, eating grass and lapping water at waterholes before the goddess Nintur takes him from this place of desolation and has him build cities for the gods and care for their city gardens.
My personal research reveals that "many Mesopotamian locations or sites" are bound up in Yahweh-Elohim's "Garden _in_ Eden" account from differing myths involving different characters. That is to say, EVERY MESOPOTAMIAN CITY had its GOD'S GARDEN in which man worked, to provide food for the god. There is NOT _A_GARDEN_IN_EDIN, but _MANY_ GOD'S CITY GARDENS _IN_ EDIN. The Hebrews in "recasting" the Mesopotamian myths are _REFUTING_ this fact, replacing the many GOD'S CITY GARDENS IN EDIN with ONE GOD'S GARDEN IN EDEN, portraying it as "unassociated" with a city; another Hebrew _refutation_ of the Mesopotamian belief that a God's garden is an aspect of the city the god dwells in. Genesis has Cain building the world's first city, Enoch, AFTER THE EXPULSION from the Garden in Eden. Genesis is refuting, challenging and denying the Mesopotamian understanding of how man came to be created and PLACED IN A GOD'S CITY GARDEN to care for it.
My research suggests that as many as SEVEN LOCATIONS appearing in Mesopotamian myths are fused together and recast in Genesis' Garden in Eden myth: Three locations were man is made to serve the gods as slaves/servants to provide life's necessities for the gods of shelter, food and clothing are (1) Eridu, (2) Nippur and (3) Babylon. Enkidu of The Epic of Gilgamesh as a sort of "primal man" is created of clay by the goddess Aruru and cast on the steppe to live naked with wild animals (Like a naked Adam, Enkidu has no father or mother and as Adam is made in the image of God, Enkidu is made in the image of the supreme heaven-dwelling god Anu). I understand Enkidu has been recast as Adam and his "undoing" by Shamhat who has been recast as Eve was at a wateringhole in the steppe (Akkadian: seru, seri, serim, edinu; Sumerian: edin, edin-na) near (4) Uruk. Enkidu's (recast as Adam) forbidden access to trees occurs at a Cedar Mountain in the (5) Lebanon. Adapa's (recast as Adam and fused with Enkidu) failure to eat the "bread of life" which would bestow on him and mankind immortality was in (6) Heaven at Anu's abode, but the warning from his god Ea not to consume anything for it is the bread and water of death was at Eridu in Sumer. The motif of a woman made of a man's side recalls Nin-ti "the lady of the rib" at the island of (7) Dilmun (Which I identify with modern Tell el-Lahm east of Eridu).
In reality, it is quite impossible to "locate" the Garden _in_ Eden using Genesis' description of one river becoming four streams because this is a "recasting" of motifs from several contradicting earlier Mesopotamian myths. No such river system exists or has ever existed according to Geologists and Archaeologists except in the realm of fantasy and imagination.
Some Christian scholars claim Eden's garden can never be found because Noah's flood destroyed the original beds of the Edenic rivers, burying them under tons of Flood sediment. Some Roman Catholic scholars date Noah's Flood to ca. 2958 B.C. while some Protestants claim the Flood was ca. 2348 B.C. Both dates fall in the 3rd millennium BC. The problem? According to Geologists and Archaeologists there is no evidence of a worldwide flood covering the earth's mountaintops in the 3rd millennium B.C. There is also no geological evidence that the Tigris (biblical Hiddekel) and Euphrates rivers ever arose from one river. The biblical portrayal of Eden's river system is then, fantasy. However a two foot deep flood deposit was found at Tell Fara (ancient Shuruppak) where, according to Mesopotamian myths the "Mesopotamian Noah" (variously called Ziusudra, Atrahasis or Utnapishtim) lived when told to build a boat to preserve the seed of animal and mankind from the coming flood. The uncultivated land contguous to the cities of Lower Mesopotamia (Sumer) was called in Sumerian the edin, and archaeologists did document that this edin had been flooded circa 2900 B.C. about Shuruppak. So an edin (eden) was submerged under a flooding Euphrates, but not the whole world.
If scholars are "correct" that Sumerian edin was later transformed into Eden, and I assume they are, and if I am correct that the city gardens of edin (ancient Akkad and Sumer of Lower Mesopotamia) have been transformed into Genesis' Garden _in_ Eden, what then is recoverable for pinpointing the biblical "Paradise" on a modern map?
The "Golden Key" for unlocking the mystery of where the Garden in Eden lies is to _isolate the prototype_ for Mesopotamia's city gardens of the gods. In other words, WHAT CITY WAS THE _FIRST_ TO BE CREATED WITH ITS GOD'S CITY GARDEN according to the myths ? This "prototype" was identified over 100 years ago in the 19th century by professional scholars (Assyriologists). Even today, in the 21st century, one encounters in the scholarly literature the acknowledgement of the site which constitutes "the prototype" for the gods' city gardens in edin. This site has been excavated by trained archaeologists, its modern name is Tell Abu Shahrein, in the Sumerian myths it was called Eridug meaning "the good city," (Akkadian/Babylonian: Eridu). For further information on Eridu being the Mesopotamian EQUIVALENT of the Garden of Eden you will need to access an article which is divided into TWO parts. Please click here for PART ONE and click here for PART TWO (Note: after clicking on the article go to your browser menu at the top of your screen, click on the "FIND" Box, enter Eridu, and the FIND Box will scan the article highlighting this word, saving you the tedious task of reading the whole article. PLEASE READ _BOTH_ PARTS)
The Adapa and the Southwind myth informs us that the "bread of life" and "water of life" which would have bestowed immortality on Adapa of Eridu if consumed, was located at Anu's heavenly abode. However, another myth informs us that a "food of life" and "water of life" is to be found ON THE EARTH AT ERIDU, the very location which Adapa served his god Ea (Sumerian Enki) at! This important info is found in a myth recounting how Inanna "the queen of heaven" descends into the underworld and is slain by her sisiter who rules that realm. Before her descent she advises her servant to ask the great gods to intervene and rescue her from the underworld if she doesn't return after three days and nights (assuming she is dead). The mesenger first appeals to Enlil of Nippur, then Nanna of Ur (a moon-god), and finally Enki (Akkadian Ea) of Eridu. When the "food of life" and "water of life are sprinkled on Inanna's dead corpse which hangs from a stake, she is revived, brought back to life and ascends to the earth's surface. In tablets found at Nippur Inanna is called Nin-edin-na "the lady of edin" and Inanna-edin-na "Inanna of edin" she being the wife of the shepherd-god Dumuzi (biblical Tammuz). What is important here, is that Adapa who lostout in a chance to obtain immortality by consuming the "bread and water of life" at Anu's heavenly abode, was also a resident of Eridu where the god Ea (Enki) possessed "the food of life and water of life" which could restore the dead to life. Leick has argued that for the Mesopotamians Creation began with the city of Eridu and that Eridu is the Mesopotamian equivalent of the Hebrews' Garden of Eden. What Leick did not note was that it is at Eridu that the "food of life and water of life reposes" in the care of Ea/Enki who, in other myths is considered to be the creator of man from clay over his apsu dwelling to replace the rebelling Igigi gods who object to their hard toil in his city-garden (making and clearing the canals and irrigation ditches which provide water for the garden). Below, an excerpt from the Descent of Inanna into the Underworld (emphasis mine):
"If Enlil stands not by thee in this matter, go to Ur [Ur of the Chaldees where dwelt Abraham and Terah].
"In Ur upon thy entering the house of the . . . of the land,
The Ekishshirgal, the house of Nanna,
Weep before Nanna:
'O Father Nanna, let not thy daughter be put to death in the nether world,
Let not thy good metal be ground up into the dust of the nether world,
Let not thy good lapis lazuli be broken up into the stone of the stone-worker,
Let not thy boxwood be cut up into the wood of the wood-worker,
Let not the maid Inanna be put to death in the nether world.'
"If Nanna stands not by thee in this matter, go to Eridu.
"In Eridu upon thy entering the house of Enki,
Weep before Enki:
'O father Enki, let not thy daughter be put to death in the nether world,
Let not thy good metal be ground up into the dust of the nether world,
Let not thy good lapis lazuli be broken up into the stone of the stone-worker,
Let not thy boxwood be cut up into the wood of the wood-worker,
Let not the maid Inanna be put to death in the nether world.'
"Father Enki, the lord of wisdom,
Who knows THE FOOD OF LIFE, who knows THE WATER OF LIFE,
He will surely bring me to life...
Inanna walked toward the nether world,
To her messenger Ninshubur she says:
"Go, Ninshubur,
The word which I have commanded thee . . ."
Upon her entering the first gate,
The shugurra, the "crown of the plain" of her head, was removed.
"What, pray, is this?"
"Extraordinarily, O Inanna, have the decrees of the nether world been perfected,
O Inanna, do not question the rites of the nether world...
Father Nanna stood not by him in this matter, HE WENT TO _ERIDU_.
IN _ERIDU_ upon his entering the house of Enki,
Before Enki he weeps:
"O father Enki, let not thy daughter be put to death in the nether world,
Let not thy good metal be ground up into the dust of the nether world,
Let not thy good lapis lazuli be broken up into the stone of the stone-worker,
Let not thy boxwood be cut up into the wood of the wood-worker,
Let not the maid Inanna be put to death in the nether world."
Father Enki answers Ninshubur:
"What now has my daughter done! I am troubled,
What now has Inanna done! I am troubled,
What now has the queen of all the lands done! I am troubled,
What now has the hierodule of heaven done! I am troubled."
. . . he brought forth dirt (and) fashioned the kurgarru,
. . . he brought forth dirt (and) fashioned the kalaturru,
To the kurgarru he gave THE FOOD OF LIFE,
To the kalaturru he gave THE WATER OF LIFE,
Father Enki says to the kalaturru and kurgarru:
. . .
"Upon the corpse hung from a stake direct the fear of the rays of fire,
Sixty times THE FOOD OF LIFE, sixty times THE WATER OF LIFE, sprinkle upon it,
Verily Inanna will arise."
Note: We are not told _what_ the "FOOD OF LIFE" is, only that it is "SPRNKLED" upon Inanna's corpse. The Adapa and the Southwind myth identifies the "WATER OF LIFE" with "BREAD OF LIFE", so, most probably either wheat flour or bread crumbs were sprinked on Inanna bringing her back to life. We are informed that Adapa in his role as a priest of Ea (Enki), he "feeding" this god, served as a BAKER OF BREAD and and he procured clear pure WATER for the offering table as well as fish (he being a fisherman). Excavations at Eridu have unearthed the shrine and near it a bread oven, within the shrine were found fish bone offerings, and nearby a canal and irrigation ditches for the fields of barley and wheat have been identified. All this is to say that Eridu is one of several prototypes underlying Genesis' Garden in Eden. Leick IS CORRECT, Eridu is the Mesopotamian equivalent of the Garden of Eden WHERE CREATION BEGAN _AND_ it is where, on the earth, the FOOD OF LIFE and WATER OF LIFE was to be found in Enki's possession AND it was WHERE Adapa set the offering table daily to feed his god the FOOD OF LIFE and WATER OF LIFE (man's purpose in Mesopotamian myths being to provide food for the gods and toil in the their city-gardens to grow, harvest the food the gods needed to eat to stay alive).
07 July 2005 Update:
I have come to realize that Sumerian edin, edin-na, meaning a "desert plain" or "desert steppe" applies equally well to both northern (Haran to Sippar) and southern Mesopotamia (Sippar to Eridu) please click here for my article titled "Eden's Four Rivers." That is to say, edin-the-uncultivated-steppe-land is to be associated "somewhat" with what is called "The Fertile Crescent" on maps of the Ancient Near East. Please click here for a geological map showing the steppe-lands extending from Basra to Haran and Damascus and down to Israel and Transjordan. Ancient Israel's patriarchs Terah, Abraham and Isaac would have wandered this region of edin-the-steppe as shepherds.
I understand that Genesis is _refuting, denying and challenging_ Mesopotamian accounts of how, why, when and where and by whom Man was created, placed in a god's garden in Eden and later why his demise was sought in a universal Flood. This denial is accomplished by the Hebrews recasting the Mesopotamian myths. Instead of gods making men to work in their gardens, a God makes a man to work in His garden.
I found the below Edens, as a "byproduct" of attempting to document Mesopotamian _parallels_ to the Adam and Eve story in the Bible, as noted in the scholarly literature. To my surprise, I discovered that no single Mesopotamian myth possessed _all_ the elements or motifs appearing in the biblical story. The parallels or motifs were "scattered" amongst several different myths. Another unexpected surprise was to realize that the Mesopotamian myths at times DISAGREED and CONTRADICTED each other about how man came to be made by the gods and WHERE the location of his first appearance on the earth was. I understand that the Hebrews brought these contradicting parallels or motifs together and created the garden of Eden myth from them.
1) According to the Bible man is made by God and placed in the garden of Eden to till and keep the garden. Some Mesopotamian myths understand that man was created to till and tend the earthly garden at Nippur belonging to a god who in myth is called Enlil. The products of this garden were originally tended and tilled by the Igigi gods, who objected to the working conditions. To prevent a revolt by the Igigi, man is made by the god Enki to replace them at Enlil's behest. Enki has an Igigi god slain and his flesh and blood are mixed into some clay making man. So, both Mesopotamia and the Bible understand man's _first appearance_ on the earth is in a garden belonging to _a_ god_, his job being to tend and till it. However, in Sumer, the god's garden is ALWAYS associated with a city that the god dwells in. The Mesopotamian "garden of the god" was NOT in some remote wilderness all by its self as portrayed in Genesis. So, Nippur's _garden of a god_ (Enlil), is an edenic prototype.
2) In another contradicting myth, man is created by the god Enki to tend and till _his_ garden located in the city of Eridu in Sumer. The Igigi gods at Eridu object to their hard toil in Enki's garden so he makes man to replace them. In this myth man is made of clay over the apsu (a freshwater source of all rivers, a spring). Please note that Eridu like Nippur, lies on a great plain or steppe, which in Sumerian is called edin which was later replaced by the Akkadian/Babylonian term siri, seri, seru or serim (from whence arise the Arabic term zor for the plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). So, man is made at Eridu _in_ edin/siri, of its clay or earth, thus Eridu and vicinity is another edenic prototype. Leick on Eridu as as "type of" Eden:
"Eridu is the Mesopotamian Eden, the place of creation...the Mesopotamian Eden is not a garden but a city...Contrary to the biblical Eden, from which man was banished for ever after the Fall, Eridu remained a real place, imbued with sacredness but always accessible...The etymology of the Sumerian word Eridu is unknown...The Sumerians wrote it with the sign NUN, which looks like some kind of tree or even a reed." (pp. 1-2. "Eridu." Gwendolyn Leick. Mesopotamia, the Invention of the City. London. Penguin Books. 2001)
Not noted by Leick, however, is that the cities had been made by the gods as their earthly habitation and each had its own city-garden, full of fruit-trees, vegetables, wheat and barley planted by the gods _before man's creation_, inorder to nourish the gods who could die of starvation if they had no earthly food to eat.
3) Another contradicting myth called the Enuma Elish has the god Marduk making man to relieve the gods of earthly toil at Babylon. So, Mesopotamian myths CONTRADICTORILY have man being created at THREE LOCATIONS: Nippur, Eridu and Babylon. HOWEVER NO MESOPOTAMIAN MYTH EXISTS STATING THAT MAN WAS CREATED _IN_ DILMUN. There are _two_ Dilmun stories. The first is about gods and goddesses: Enki and wife Ninhursag and his daughters. In the second Dilmun story a man called Atrahasis (Ziusudra, or Utnapishtim) with his un-named wife, survive a Flood sent to destroy mankind, and are given immortality and settled _in_ Dilmun where they will not have to toil like their fellow man. Many scholars associate Dilmun with the Garden of Eden even though there is NO mention _in either myth_ of man being created to work its garden. Why ? Because life is portrayed as idylic like Eden's garden. However, they are right -to a degree- Dilmun is a garden of Eden "prototype," but it is NOT where man was created according to various Mesopotamian myths.
4) Another CONTRADICTING Mesopotamian myth, called by some scholars "The Eridu Genesis Myth" has man in a steppe or plain called in Akkadian (Babylonian) seri, seru, serim, which in earlier Sumerian times would have been called edin . He wanders this seri (edin) NAKED and wild animals are his companions; he eats grass and laps water at watering holes like an animal (According to the Ewe and Wheat myth and the Epic of Gilgamesh). Eventually a goddess called Nintur takes pity on naked man's "hard life" in the steppe and takes him from this seri/seru (edin) and "civilizes him." Man is taught that it is wrong to be naked, he MUST wear clothes when he comes to _dwell with the gods in their cities_ and _work in their gardens_, for the gods wear clothes and nakedness is an offense for them. The gods provide man clothing and settle him in cities built originally to house only the gods. From the gods man learns the arts of civilization, how to make musical instruments, how to forge metals, how to be shepherds, how to grow food in irrigation-fed gardens, as the gods do. To the degree that edin means an _uncultivated_ "plain, floodplain or steppe", and the Tigris and Euphrates do cross a great _plain_, extending from Baghdad to Basrah these rivers are thus associated with edin. However, please note an interesting contradiction exists here, the cities of Sumer were built in edin the plain. According to one myth in the beginning the gods (called the Anunnaki and Igigi) who built these cities were originally naked like animals, eating grass and lapping water like naked man. So, edin is not only the UNCULTIVATED PLAIN that wild animals and naked man roamed, its also a plain "TAMED" by civilized man, with irrigation canals and networks for gardens and cities. So, edin the UNCULTIVATED PLAIN which SURROUNDS Nippur and Eridu as well as Uruk (biblical Erech Genesis 10:10) is another edenic prototype. The Eridu Genesis myth notes that NAKED man in the uncultivated seri (edin), knew NO FEAR, no animal offered harm to him. Apparently Genesis' notion of an "idyllic eden" is fusing two different Mesopotamian concepts, the uncultivated edin with the gods' cultivated city-gardens planted by the gods for their self-nourishment before man's creation (Note: The gods' gardens were never called edin as this term applies only to uncultivated land, however, the cultivated gardens of the gods can be said to "lie in the midst of" or "are surrounded by" uncultivated steppe-land or the edin).
5) The notion that Adam and Eve ate of forbidden food from a tree is drawn from -in part- the myth about Enki and Ninhursag in the earthly garden of Dilmun. Enki eats without his goddess-wife's permission eight of her plants, in order to "know" them; enraged, she curses him with death, the first plant that Enki consumed is called "a tree plant". She later relents, asking him what body part ails him and thereupon makes either a god or goddess to heal that part. When he complains of his rib aching, she makes Nin-Ti, a goddess to heal his rib (Sumerian ti means rib). In Sumerian Nin-ti can mean "Lady of the rib" and "Lady that makes live." One of Enki's epithets was En-Ti, "Lord of the Rib."A number of professional scholars have suggested that Eve's being made of Adam's rib is drawing from this myth, as well as her name Eve, Hebrew Kavvah/Havvah meaning "mother of life" located at Dilmun. Some scholars have suggested Dilmun is the island of Bahrain near Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. My research, however, suggests its at Tel el Lahm in the marshes just east of Eridu. The Mesopotamian Noah called Ziusudra was placed in Dilmun, " _in the East_ where the sun rises, _AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVERS_"
( pi narati ) and in the 3rd millennium BCE the mouth of the Euphrates was near Eridu and Ur (biblical Ur of the Chaldees) which were in texts of that era described as being at the sea's shore or edge.
Kramer suggested Dilmun was an Edenic prototype (Note: I understand the "Sumerian Noah and wife placed in Dilmun to be prototypes for Adam and Eve):
"Paradise, according to the Sumerian theologians, was for the immortal gods, and for them alone, not for mortal man. One mortal, however, and only one, according to Sumerian mythmakers, did suceed in gaining admittance to this divine paradise. This brings us to the Sumerian "Noah" and the deluge myth, the closest and most striking Biblical parallel as yet uncovered in cuneiform literature." (p. 149. "The First Biblical Parallels." Samuel Noah Kramer. History Begins At Sumer: Twenty-seven "Firsts" in Man's Recorded History. Garden City, New York. Doubleday Anchor Books. 1959 reprint of 1956 published by The Falcon's Wing Press)
But, according to other non-mythcal annalistic texts, Dilmun is a location with a city, it has a king, buildings, boat docks, irrigation canals, plantations of Date Palms, lagoons filled with fish, and marshlands. So, Dilmun (Tilmun), in edin-the-plain, east of Eridu, Shuruppak and Uruk, is another edenic prototype. Modern Arabic traditions have Eden at Qurnah where the Tigris and Euphrates join to form the Shat al Arab which empties into the Persain Gulf. The problem? I know of _NO_ ancient settlement at Qurnah from the 3rd-1st millennium BCE when Dilmun appears in annals, and the Euphrates mouth emptied into the tamtu (marshlands) near Eridu and Ur in these millennia. So, I have proposed that Dilmun might be modern Tel el Lahm, just east of Eridu (modern Tell Abu Shahrein), as it does have a 3rd millennium BCE Sumerian graveyard and evidence of an occupation in Neo-Babylonian times. In the 3rd-2nd millenniums BCE it would have been an island in the midst of the "sea" (marshlands called tamtu or "sealands"), Eridu being described as at the edge of the sea and its "snake-marshes" in 3rd-2nd millennium BCE texts. Today no sea or marsh surrounds Tell el Lahm, the remnants of this sea (marsh) I understand is the modern Hawr al Hammar Lagoon further to the ENE of Tell el Lahm and west of Qurnah.
Professor Bernard F. Batto has observed that Genesis' notion that life in the beginning for primitive man was idyllic and paradisical is NOT a concept embraced by the Mesopotamians ((cf. an e-mail sent to the Ancient Near Eastern List hosted by the Oriental Institute of Chicago [said list being defunct as of Feb 2006] dated 14 May 1996. Please click here for his views). He has quite rightly noted that man's life at first was _not_ idyllic. I note that in one myth he roams the steppe (Akkadian seri) as a naked beast. The myths explain he has no fear of lions and hyenas and snakes because they did _not _yet_ exist. In other words, they will be created "later" by the gods. He is not portrayed in myths as being a naked gardener with wild harmless beasts in a god's garden in the steppe (cf. Ewe and Wheat, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and The Eridu Genesis Myth). Other myths have man created to replace the toiling Igigi gods (Atrahasis) who are threatening rebellion over their onerous working conditions, making and clearing irrigation canals and ditches at Eridu and Nippur. Man is _not_ going to enjoy an "idyllic life" as a naked gardener in the gods' gardens, his life will be that of grievous toil similar to that of the Igigi, he will make and clear irrigation ditches and plant, hoe and harvest food from the gods' city gardens to feed them. Batto rightly understands that man's life is improved when he comes to live in the cities as the gods' servant. I understand that Genesis is refuting the Mesopotamian presentation of how, why, where, when and how man came to be created.
6) The motif of forbidden access to trees appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh, when he and Enkidu set out to cut down for timber Cedars growing on a mountain guarded by a half-human monster called Huwawa or Humbaba. Most scholars usually identify this cedar mountain with some location in the Lebanon, famed in antiquity for its mighty cedars, coveted for the building of palaces and temples throughout the Ancient Middle Eastern world. Gilgamesh and Enkidu take 6 days to cross a great plain (called the steppe Akkadian seru, Sumerian edin) to reach this cedar mountain where Enkidu once roamed with his animal friends. Has Huwawa the guardian of the trees been reformatted in the Cherubbim ? Has the SWORD used by Gilgamesh to slay Huwawa become the "feiry sword" that bars access to the forbidden trees of Eden ? Perhaps Adam and Eve's forbidden access to sacred trees is a reformatting of Gilgamesh and Enkidu's forbidden access to cedar trees ? If so, then it worth noting that Ezekiel mentions the cedar
