Garden of eden

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The Garden of Eden ( Hebrew גן עדן Gan Eden ; Sumerian Guan Eden , edge of the heavenly steppe ) is referred to in the Greek translation of the Tanach as paradise ( Greek παράδεισος paradeisos , from Awestern pairi daēza , "enclosed area" meaning "garden", "walled garden"). The Garden of Eden was also interpreted as the “Garden of Bliss” and in the New Testament as the place of the blessed . It also appears in the first book of Moses (Genesis) of the Bible as the garden in Eden , which describes it in the 2nd chapter ( GenesisEU ) and in the 3rd chapter ( GenesisEU ) tells of the expulsion of man from it.

Detail from the triptych “ The Garden of Earthly Delights ”: The Garden of Eden from the perspective of Hieronymus Bosch

Biblical description of the geographical location

On the Ebstorf world map from the High Middle Ages, which focuses less on the physical geography of the world than on world history, paradise in the north-east is shown as a walled area.

It says in Gen 2: 10-14  EU :

“A river springs up in Eden that waters the garden; there it divides and becomes four main rivers. One is called Pishon; it is he who flows around the whole land of Hawaii , where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; there is also bdellium resin ( guggul ) and carnelian stones ( onyx ). The second stream is called Gihon ; it is he who flows around the whole land of Kush . The third river is called the Tigris ; it is he who flows east of Aššur . The fourth stream is the Eufrat . "

With this tradition, however, there is a fundamental problem in the precision of the location information: In the Jewish tradition, the name גן עדן Gan Eden to the gathering place of the righteous after death (see also: Resurrection or Heaven (religion) ), and speculation about its geographical location on earth was avoided. In this regard, the refusal of Judaism to define precisely the location of Paradise, the Mount of Revelation , Mount Sinai and others in order to avoid the dangers of worship , invocation , the cult of pilgrimage , such as the worship of holy places or idolatry (= "Idolatry") etc. should be avoided, since even the name of God is used very cautiously.

Localization attempts

David Rohl

The British Egyptologist David Rohl localized the Garden of Eden in the area of Tabriz , the capital of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan . Eden is said to have been on the plain that extends from the city to Lake Urmia . The lake could have been considered the source of the four main rivers named in the Bible, because the word Urmia means something like 'cradle of water' in ancient Syriac . In addition to the river names Tigris for Hiddekel and Euphrates for Perat, he adopts the Qizil Uzan ( Sefid Rud ) for Pishon and the Aras for Gihon. The latter was called Gyhun until the 7th century . The Gihon flowed around the land of Kush ( Gen 2.13  ELB ). Rohl derives from the name of a mountain, the Kuscha-Dagh ('Mountain of Kush'), that the region on the Aras River was once known as Kush. He equates the regions of Upper and Lower Nochdi ( Iranian for 'near Nod') east of the Tabriz plain with the biblical “Land of Nod , east of Eden”, to which Cain emigrated after Abel was fratricide .

Manfried Dietrich

The German professor of ancient oriental philology Manfried Dietrich , on the other hand, formulated the thesis that in the Mesopotamian model for the Genesis story the Garden of Eden could be the temple garden of Eridu . He based the thesis on the fact that in the older mythology of the Mesopotamian the temple garden plays a role as the exclusive area of ​​the gods in the creation of humans. This is described in the little-known short Sumerian script The Pickaxe . According to this version, the four rivers would not arise in the Garden of Eden, but instead flow together there. He held the river Pishon for the Uqnû-Karun and the Gihon for the Ūlāya-Kercha .

Juris Zarin's archaeological interpretation

The archaeologist Juris Zarins from Missouri State University is of the opinion that the Garden of Eden was in a now flooded river delta in the area of ​​the northern Persian Gulf . In addition to the Tigris and Euphrates (Euphrates) rivers, he identifies the Pishon river as the dry-fallen Wadi Batin and Wadi Rimah, and the Gihon as the Karun . He equates the Garden of Eden with the Sumerian Dilmun . In his opinion, the story of the expulsion from paradise reflects the transition from hunting to agriculture and animal husbandry : “The land on the united four rivers must have been the Garden of Eden. Because it was unusually fertile because of its abundant water content. We are talking about the Neolithic , when the hunters and gatherers of that time became arable farmers and ranchers. The story of the expulsion from paradise is merely a distorted representation of the transition of the people living at the time from hunters to farmers. ”He goes on to say:“ Adam and Eve would then correspond to the early farmers. They sinned by challenging God's almightiness. Instead of hoping for God's grace, they took matters into their own hands and trusted in their knowledge and skills in farming. ”The mouth of the four merging rivers was said to have been around 6000 BC. Due to the fact that the sea level was 150 meters lower due to the Ice Age, it is located much further southeast: "The biblical story of the Flood is therefore only a metaphor for the inundation of this land by the sea."

Thoughts on Agriculture and Livestock

The beginning of agriculture, a leitmotif in the biblical prehistory, again points to the highlands of the fertile crescent moon , to the foreland of the Taurus Mountains northeast of the city of Urfa , in which the (supposed) grotto of Abraham is located next to the Balıklıgöl . Biologists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne were when comparing the genetic material of 68 modern einkorn varieties this back to a common origin plant, a wild plant that still on the slopes of the extinct volcano Karacadağ growing. This suggests that the domestication of grain began here. About 100 kilometers southwest of the Karacadağ is the excavation site Göbekli Tepe ('Nabelberg'). The head of the excavation, the prehistorian Klaus Schmidt , holds the around 9000 BC. Built site for a sacred building . There is no evidence that he regards hunters and gatherers as builders. During this time u. a. Herds of gazelles and wild asses through Upper Mesopotamia, which consisted of 100,000 and more animals, according to the paleozoologist Joris Peters . The hunt was stored in large meat houses, the archetypal sedentary lifestyle, the wild grain was fenced in to protect it from being bitten before it was harvested. The Old Testament describes something similar when God instructs man to "cultivate the garden of Eden and to keep it" ( Gen 2.15  ELB ). This changed when the biotope was exhausted. Now sheep, goats and the aurochs were domesticated and grain was grown. In the transition period there were food crises and famines. A comparison of the skeletons of Stone Age hunters with the first farmers shows that the early farmers worked harder, suffered more often from diseases and died earlier, possibly processed mythologically as a reminder of the expulsion from paradise.

More theories

Recently, it has been suggested by Francesca Stavrakopoulou and other researchers that the story of the Garden of Eden is in fact a poetically reshaped reminder of the Babylonian exile and the preceding destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem : Adam was originally the last king to rule the Temple, which, like all ancient oriental sanctuaries, was at the same time a garden and was considered to be God's dwelling place. Because of his wrongdoing - the king allowed a Syrian snake cult - and his pride, Yahweh finally left the sanctuary and also decreed that Adam and his people were to be expelled from Paradise or Jerusalem and Judah.

For this reason, the guards who refuse to return are also in the east of Eden. The land of Nod would then be the Syrian desert , which fits in with the derivation of the Hebrew word nad (meaning “restless” or “wandering around”). It is said of the Temple Mount itself that God took the earth from there from which he formed Adam and that Adam and Eve as well as their children and grandchildren made their sacrifices there. There is also a Gihon spring south of it .

Only a later revision no longer related this story to the expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem, but reinterpreted it as a story of creation. These scientists refer to the second, presumably older, mention of Eden in the Old Testament: The prophet Ezekiel prophesies in Ez 28  EU (retrospectively) the overthrow of a ruler who was driven out of Eden because of his hubris:

“The word of the Lord came to me: Son of man , mourn the death of the King of Tire and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were a perfectly formed seal, full of wisdom and perfect beauty. You have been in the garden of God, in Eden. All kinds of precious stones surrounded you: ruby, topaz, plus jasper, chrysolite, carnelian and onyx, sapphire, carbuncle and emerald. All that was exalted and deepened in you was made of gold; all these ornaments were put on when you were created. You, Kerub, with outspread, protective wings, I installed you. You were on the holy mountain of the gods. You walked among the fiery stones. Your behavior has been blameless from the day you were created until the day you did evil. Through your extensive trade you have been filled with violence; you have fallen into sin. That is why I cast you from the mountain of the gods, from the midst of the fiery stones the protective Kerub chased you away. You had become haughty because you were so beautiful. You have destroyed your wisdom, blinded by the radiant shine. I pushed you down to earth. I gave you up to the eyes of kings, so that they may all gaze at you. You have desecrated your sanctuaries through tremendous guilt, through dishonest business deals. So I made a fire break out in the middle of you, which consumed you. Before the eyes of all who saw you, I turned you to ashes on the earth. All of your friends among the nations were appalled at you. You have become a picture of horror, you are gone forever. "

- The Bible. EÜ. Ez 28, 11-19

On the other hand, Kamal Salibi's Jerusalem hypothesis argues that the biblical stories before the Babylonian exile took place in the Asir region in the Asir Mountains . Accordingly, the Garden of Eden is also to be located there. Salibi identified this with the western Arabian oasis Gunaina ("garden"), which is irrigated by rivers from Adana ("Eden"), including the Wadi Bisha ("Pishon"). One of its tributaries, the Wadi Tabala, is located in the western Arab country of Hawala , which he identified with the biblical "Hawila". After the Babylonian exile, the location information was then related to the new home in Palestine . In the professional world, this thesis is largely rejected.

The four rivers of paradise

Region between the seas in the Middle East

According to many scholars, the geographical location of Eden can be determined - depending on the interpretation of the river names in the text - by describing the "river that emanated from Eden" and then dividing into four "main rivers" - Pischon, Gihon, Hiddekel to the east from Ashur ( Aššur ) and Perat - shared, consults. However, the identification of the rivers is controversial. Except in the case of the Perat / Euphrates, the equation of the rivers with the most important rivers of the world at that time is in turn dependent on the interpretation of history as a creation tale .

Perat

The Perat is usually identified as Euphrates (Greek), Furat (Kurdish / Arabic), Firat (Turkish), Pu-rat-tu ( Old Assyrian ) and Ufrat . The Old Persian version of Ufrat , from which most of the other names were derived, comes from the compound term Huperethuua , which means "easy to cross". The word Hu means “good” and Peretu means “ford”.

Hiddekel

The Hiddekel is usually equated with the Tigris ; however, it is sometimes objected that the etymology is unclear. It is therefore not certain that the cover is identical to the Tigris.

Gihon

The Bible gives no indication of which river the Gihon is. It was not until Flavius ​​Josephus , in the 1st century AD, who equated Gihon with the Nile , Hippolytus of Rome with the Indus , and Epiphanius of Salamis in a letter of 394 dealing with the errors of origins . It flows from Paradise to Ethiopia and Egypt and finally flows into the Mediterranean. According to Beda Venerabilis , the Gihon was also the Nile, but its source was located in the Atlas . According to Johann von Joinville in his story of Saint Louis of France (1305–1309), Egyptian fishermen sometimes found ginger, rhubarb, aloe and cinnamon in their nets, which the wind had blown from the trees of Paradise into the river.

The Kush associated with the Gihon River mostly meant Ethiopia in later times . This is probably where the identification with the Nile comes from. Originally, however, a different location was probably meant. The Sumerian-Akkadian city-state of Kiš in Mesopotamia, for which from around 2800 BC Traditions exist, or the Hittite city ​​of Kush (ar) or Kuššara , which, however, has not yet been localized.

Manfried Dietrich identifies the Gihon with the Karche , while David Rohl identifies the river Aras .

Pishon

The Pishon River is connected to the Chawila country . Flavius ​​Josephus equated the Pishon with the Ganges . Ephrem the Syrians and Bishop Severian of Gabala in Syria with the Danube ( de mundi creatione ). Epiphanius of Salamis ( Anacoratus ) believed that the Pishon was called Ganges in India and Ethiopia and Indus by the Greeks. He arises in paradise, which he leaves underground. It then flows around the land of the Elymeans (Iran), and then flows to Ethiopia and further south. Beda Venerabilis also identified the Pishon with the Ganges, its source being in the Caucasus . Abraham Ortelius agreed with Severian's view. On his world map from 1601 ( Geographia sacra ) the Pishon also corresponds to the Hydaspes in Mesopotamia. Manfried Dietrich identified the Pischon with the Karun , David Rohl with the river Qizil Uzan ( Sefid Rud ).

The Tigris and Euphrates both have their source near the Turkish city ​​of Elazığ . It is possible to find two further rivers in this source region, which are or were tributaries of one or the other or both, e.g. B. the Murat as the longest headwaters of the Euphrates.

All rivers in this region flow either directly or indirectly into the Persian Gulf , which would amount to a merging of the rivers, albeit at the wrong end, according to the usual reading of the text. Before that, however, they expand in the Mesopotamian plains to a more or less strongly linked river system, whereby individual, natural relocations are known over time, but no references to assignments are given in the context of the above text.

When crossing the ridges of the mountain ranges in eastern Turkey, one can also find rivers that flow into the Black Sea or the Caspian Sea . So if today's central Turkey were the starting point for the text description, the localization would inevitably be further north.

The interpretation of the treasures

The Chawila region is characterized by gold, Bedolach and Shoham.

Gold cannot be assigned to a specific location.

Bedolach ( Guggul ) is often translated as resin (namely bdellium resin, similar to myrrh ), which has a yellowish, transparent sheen with a rubber-like structure. There is also the reading as ore, which is the preferred form in Jewish scriptures in particular. The interpretation as pearl or even crystal (possibly glowing reddish) is repeated. However, resins sometimes solidify in a pearl shape and then turn milky white, which was described not least by John Parkinson , an English botanist of the 16th century, for Guggul from Bactria .

Shoham is the Hebrew name for onyx . Two such stones on the shoulder pieces of the priest Ephod are said to have symbolized the memory. The place of the same name in Israel , which stands on historical walls, is associated with Shoham . However, this is not helpful for finding the location of Eden, since here, quite speculatively, the stones of the same name are said to have been preferentially processed in earlier times.

There are beginnings of the symbolic interpretation of these substances, which strike an arc of understanding from the beginning of the kingdom of God to the end time (as described in the Revelation of John as the new Jerusalem and its building materials). Esoteric caballistic approaches understand Bedolach as the center of free being (given to Abraham's ancestors in the context ), which is symbolized as a crystal and is still framed by gold on the one hand and the contrast silver on the other.

Man in the Garden of Eden

Lucas Cranach the Elder : Paradise , 1530, Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna - In the foreground is God's prohibition against Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge.

Man (Hebrew Adam ) is formed from earth (Hebrew adama ) ( Gen 2,7  LUT ). In a further act of creation, the man (Hebrew isch ) and the woman (Hebrew ischah ) arise from the one human being ( Gen 2,22-23  LUT ). This linguistic 'overlap' testifies to the close togetherness and the fundamental equality of man and woman. Luther tried to portray this speaking consonance in his translation of the Bible by translating ischaah with "woman". The two were the only human inhabitants of Eden.

According to the story, the woman receives her proper name Eva (Hebrew: חוּה, Chawwah ) only after the fall and before the expulsion from the garden ( Gen 3,20  LUT ). The man takes the name Adam, which originally referred to the whole person ( Gen 3, from verse 8  LUT ).

According to Babylonian mythology, the main reason humans were created was to grow food for the gods. In the Bible it is the other way round: God creates plants as food for humans, animals as his companions against being alone.

The expulsion from the garden

The fall of man into sin and the subsequent expulsion of man from the Garden of Eden by God is told in GenesisEU .

Judaism

The Judaism knows no sin that could be inherited. Therefore, acts of Adam or the Fathers contrary to the Lord's commandments do not pass to subsequent people. Man has free will ( beḥirah ) and is only responsible for his own sins. Man has an inclination to evil ( jetzer ha-ra ) ( Genesis 8.21  EU or Psalm 51.7  EU ) like an inclination towards good ( jetzer tow ) and God's commandments help to develop the good instinct in people. This is ultimately positive for people and the environment and leads to Tikkun Olam ("bettering the world").

Christianity

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Caedmon manuscript (around 1000)
Expulsion from Paradise,
Giovanni di Paolo (1445)

In the Christian conception - apart from original sin - there are no sins that can be passed on or inherited from one person to another. However, the Ten Commandments point to God's possible persecution of guilt over several generations.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5,12 + 18 EU: “Sin came into the world through a single person…” and “… through the transgression of one individual, all men were condemned.” From this the doctrine of original sin was developed which are found in all major Christian traditions.

Man decides for himself whether to base his actions on the good or the bad. So he is responsible for his decisions. Even during earthly lifetime, people can ask that their sins be forgiven .

The Church Fathers stated that without Jesus Christ, who was loved by God before the world was created ( Jn 21:24  EU ), people would have to live and die in original sin. Through the writings of Augustine , the doctrine of original sin became an integral part of the teaching of the Western churches.

Expulsion from Paradise, relief on the entrance door to the Hamburg Michel
"Fall of Man", Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä. (1530)

A Syrian tradition of Christian theology evaluates the "fall" of Adam and Eve from the paradisiacal garden into a "godless", godless world, as inherited sin or sinfulness that passes to all people and only through Jesus Christ (who was born before the creation of the World was ( Joh 21,24  EU )) is overcome. This is mentioned in the two Arabic books of Adam and in the book The Treasure Cave , which was attributed to Efraïm the Syrian .

Since Adam's time man has only lived in the "inner knowledge" of the Garden of Eden, because Adam and Eve loved the world, which is nature, more than life in the face of God. Only Jesus leads people back - in the figurative sense - back to the Garden of Eden by redeeming them from their sins, which are of nature. With this, Jesus prepares that “dwelling” ( Jn 14.2  EU ) which man will move into in the kingdom of heaven as a glorified figure who shines like the “sun” ( Mt 13.43  EU ).

Islam

Adam is considered by the Muslims as the first Muslim and at the same time as the first prophet of Islam. According to Islamic tradition, Adam and Eve were exposed at different points on earth and first had to wander around on earth in search of each other, which is why the story of Adam and Eve is also presented in Islam as a special love story. According to tradition, large cities will later develop in all places on earth where Adam lay down to sleep in his search for Eve.

According to Islamic belief, Adam and Eve only found themselves after a long search at Mount ʿArafāt in what is now Saudi Arabia , where they embraced and praised Allah. The Prophet Muhammad delivered his farewell sermon on Mount Arafat in 632.

Further interpretive approaches

Psychological interpretations

The narrative in Genesis 3, which in Christian terms is the “narrative of the Fall ” and in Hebrew as “the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden”, has been interpreted in many philosophical and psychological terms. German idealism saw in it the myth of the awakening of consciousness and went so far as to no longer regard people as “ people ” in the full sense of the word after eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil . Psychological interpretations want to recognize an encrypted representation of the adolescence conflict in which the “innocent” parenting bond is gradually loosened and an adult identity is created , characterized by freedom and responsibility . The tree of knowledge is also interpreted towards the discovery of sexuality .

As the German Islam expert and psychologist Andre Ahmed Al Habib writes, in Islamic mysticism Adam and Eve's search for one another is viewed as the search for God (Allah). When searching for each other, Adam and Eve are required to be patient (Arabic: Sabr ) and trust in God (Arabic: Tawakul ). In the earthly physical union, however, a great ecstasy is released (Arabic: Ishq ), which strengthens the bond between the two lovers and between the lovers and God (Arabic: Allah ). This motif of lovers who are in dialogue with God in their search for one another and then praise God when they unite to one another is a continuous motif in Islamic literature; B. in the stories of Thousand and One Nights , the story of Leila and Majnun from Nizami, the stories in the divan of Hafiz, or the stories of Rumi in Mathnawi .

Interpretations in art and literature

Garden of Eden by Adi Holzer (2012)

In European art and literature, the story of the expulsion from paradise is omnipresent. In Goethe's Faust Mephisto writes in Professor Talar the inquisitive students into the stud book , which promised the snake and what apparently as a headline stand above all the drama of knowledge urge and the border crossings: Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum - "You have become like God and to know the good and the bad ”.

In Christian iconography the cross (one in the middle, four ends) is represented as a tree of life with the one source of paradise from which the four rivers (= four Gospels) spring. The Romanesque miniature of a Zwiefalten Codex (around 1250) depicts the four rivers as a water cross with the one lamb of God in the center, the four cardinal virtues justice, prudence (wisdom), bravery and temperance in the four corners and the four evangelists and their symbols in the four rectangular fields of the 'mandala'. The inscription of the picture reads that the doctrine of the four-part Gospel fills and irrigates the whole earth (like the 'haze' in Gen 2,6), "thus makes it again a blooming paradise garden" by turning the water back and forth (cf. Koh 1,7).

Numerical interpretation

The number mysticism or number symbolism indicates the letters contained in the words to a hidden meaning, which it particularly attaches to numbers and numerical relationships. For the creation story such a numerical interpretation could be as follows:

“The number structure 'one river - four rivers' (Gen 2,10) refers to the relationship unity - multiplicity or divinity - worldliness, which is fundamental for all reality, as it is in the first created 'haze' (Hebrew ed = 1-4) who waters the earth (Gen 1,6), is expressed or in the name of Adam (Hebrew adm = 1-4-40). This 1-4 principle is, in a certain sense, like the core, which expresses itself in all the layers around it, in all the circles around it, projects itself in theirs. "

The human hand with one opposable thumb (cf. thumb press) and the four fingers as well as the human figure with one head (thinking, spirit) and the four limbs of the body depict this 1-4 principle. “The joints obviously also correspond to this pattern. This 1–4 principle can be found in many other places and in many ways in humans. ”Reference can be made to the air we breathe (1 part oxygen, four parts nitrogen) or the ratio: one breath - four heartbeats.

In one (heart) center of Paradise, the tree of life (numerical value 233) and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (numerical value 932 = 4 × 233) are also in the ratio 1–4. “In the tree of life in the middle of the garden with the four rivers emanating from it, the cosmic heart of God beats, so to speak, in his creation. But this cosmic heart ... with its 1–4 symbolism pulsates through all of creation. ”The numerical value of the Hebrew names of the four rivers adds up to 1600 = 40².

The concept of paradise in various religions and mythologies

Paradise is an old Iranian (Avestian) word for a delimited "enclosed area" such as a stately park, an animal, pleasure or magic garden; in the Greek translation of the Bible it was used to designate the "Garden of Eden".

There are parallels to the notion of a golden age in Greco-Roman mythology. The concept of the “noble savage” , which locates the expulsion from paradise in the emergence of civilization / high culture , is based on similar ideas.

Paradise in Zoroastrianism

In Zoroastrianism (also Zoroastrianism ), according to Zarathustra that enter souls after death to the Cinvat Bridge . Judgment of good and bad is held here. The good get into the blissful realms of the paradise Garodemäna (later Garotman ), the “place of praise”; but the soul of the evil one ends up in the “worst place”, that is to say in hell . Parallels to the later Christian doctrine of the Last Judgment and eschatology in Islam are unmistakable.

Paradise in Judaism

In Judaism , ideas of paradise do not play as important a role as in Islam and Christianity. They are only found in comparatively few places in the Hebrew Bible . Except in GenEU , they only appear in Isa 65,17-25  EU and a few other passages, but there - just like in the concept of Christianity derived from it - they present the eschatological perspective in addition to the original concept .

Paradise in Christianity

Lucas Cranach, Adam and Eve in Paradise

First of all, one has to distinguish between different eschatological ideas in Christianity, some of which are seen as different and some as separate in the individual traditions.

Strictly speaking, one must apply the term paradise according to the Bible to the time before the fall of man, when Adam and Eve lived in a paradisiacal state in the so-called Garden of Eden. There was no enmity between humans and animals, no thorns and thistles, humans could feed themselves without any effort. As for the life of the redeemed after death, the Bible refers to this state as Eternal Life or Kingdom of God, which differs from Paradise in several ways. John, the writer of Revelation, is granted a glimpse into this new kingdom by God (see Revelation 21 to 22  EU ). In this kingdom God himself will rule; it will be a kingdom of peace and justice. Death, sickness and toil will be a thing of the past. There will be no more night, God himself will be the light. In contrast to paradise in Islam, there will no longer be men and women in the kingdom of God; all people will be in a certain way the same, especially with regard to their likeness to God ( Luke 20 : 34-36  EU ). The clear statements about the afterlife in the Bible are intended to make it clear that this is not a projection of human desires, but a completely different reality planned by God.

Other religious communities

The Jehovah's Witnesses see in Paradise and in the creation of the first two humans the beginning of a perfect human society created by God. This structure was only interrupted by the fall of man. During the Millennial Kingdom of God, the original state of perfection would be restored and people would be given eternal life in paradise on earth.

Mormons believe that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County in the state of Missouri found. There a region south of the city of Independence is revered as Eden. There the founder of the movement, Joseph Smith , discovered an altar that Adam built after his expulsion from Paradise.

Paradise in Islam

The Islam knows indeed very vivid descriptions of a paradise of bliss, with fruits and cool streams, virgins of Paradise , with cushions and soft carpets etc, but a single word for it does not exist.

Mostly one uses words that designate a garden , only the Koranic-High Arabic word for "garden" isجنة, DMG ǧanna , often by the Persian loan wordبستان, DMG bustān (alsoبوستان, DMG būstān , literally scented garden ). There is also the term paradise as a loan word from Persian فردوس, DMG firdaus , and "Garden of Eden", Arabic جنّة عدن, DMG ǧanna 'adn , is also known. The idea of ​​a paradise divided into different levels with “ Seventh Heaven ” as the highest level is quite popular. The Turkish variant is Cennet = "Garden [Eden]".

Persian poets wrote elaborate descriptions of the Garden of Eden, such as in the 12th century Chaqani Schwirwani in his poem The Language of the Birds .

Overall, the idea of ​​a paradise full of worldly pleasures is very common in Islam, even if Islamic theologians have tried again and again to interpret the idea of ​​sensual pleasures in a more abstract way.

Paradise as a garden

The Garden of Eden in the Duke of Berry's Book of Hours

The transcendent ideas of "paradise" as a garden and life in it are very diverse and give insight into the needs and longings of the respective culture:

  • the Celts had Avalon , the "apple orchard"
  • the Teutons had Valhalla , the "apartment of the fallen"
  • the Greeks had the garden of the Hesperides on an island in the west with its golden apples
  • Epicurus, a Greek philosopher, gathered his followers in a garden (kepos), who promised ataraxia and carefree to everyone there.
  • Whereas for the Christians in the mostly rural Middle Ages it was the city - the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21) - later the garden of Eden (Gen. 2) came to the fore.
  • The monastery gardens still give us the image of a (geometrically) ordered, self-contained world.
  • The high point of this performance was the Baroque French garden .
  • Since the Enlightenment , however, the paradise garden has been equated more and more with a primeval landscape, a world before civilization .
  • For the ecologically conscious people of today, paradise is usually a wilderness , a primeval forest or biotope in which the alienation caused by culture and technology would have been overcome.

See also

literature

  • Sebastian Brock (Ed.): Hymns on paradise. Crestwood 1990, ISBN 0-88141-076-4 .
  • Jan Christian Gertz : The first book of Moses (Genesis). The prehistory Gen 1-11 (ATD 1 revisions). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-525-57055-5 .
  • Klaus W. Hälbig: The key to paradise. The symbolism of the cross of Christ - twelve picture meditations. EOS-Verlag, St. Ottilien 1996, ISBN 3-88096-297-9 .
  • Heinrich Krauss: Paradise. A little cultural history. Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-406-51072-4 .
  • Alessandro Scafi: Mapping Paradise: A history of Heaven on earth. British Library, London 2006.
  • Jürgen Tubach , Armenuhi Drost-Abgarjan and Sophia G. Vashalomidze (eds.): Longing for Paradise: Ideas of Paradise in Judaism, Christianity, Manichaeism and Islam. Contributions from the Leucorea Colloquium in honor of Walther Beltz (†) [Ed. by Karl Hoheisel and Wassilios Klein. Studies in Oriental Religions 59]. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010.
  • Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in Word. The Structure of the Bible in Jewish Tradition. Zurich ²2002.
  • Eden . In: Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church (RE). 3. Edition. Volume 5, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1898, pp. 158-162.
  • Oswald Zingerle : The paradise garden in the old German Genesis. In: Meeting reports of the kaiserl. Academy of Sciences [Vienna], philosophy-historical class. Volume 112, 1886, pp. 785-805.

Web links

Wiktionary: Paradise  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anton Grabner-Haider (Ed.): Practical Biblical Lexicon, with the collaboration of Catholic and Protestant theologians. (1969) 14th edition. Freiburg im Breisgau 1996; Reprint (“15th, updated edition”) Wiesbaden 2005, Col. 215 f. and 843.
  2. ^ Anton Anwander: Dictionary of Religion. 2nd Edition. Würzburg 1962, p. 399 f.
  3. David M. Rohl: Legend: The Genesis of Civilization ; Arrow Books, 1998; ISBN 0-7126-8229-5 .
  4. ^ Jeffery Donley: The Everything History of the Bible Book. Adams Media, 2006, ISBN 1-59337-556-5 , p. 59.
  5. Etta B. Donaldson: A Journey to the Garden of Eden. In: The American Magazine. Crowell-Collier Publishing Co., 1893, p. 439.
  6. Andrew Burke, Mark Elliott: Iran. Lonely Planet, Footscray (Victoria) 2004, ISBN 1-74059-425-8 , p. 133.
  7. Manfried Dietrich: The biblical worldview and its ancient oriental contexts . In: Bernd Janowski, Beate Ego (Ed.): Research on the Old Testament . No. 32 . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-16-148251-4 , The Biblical Paradise and the Babylonian Temple Garden, p. 281 ff . ( Online [accessed January 9, 2013]).
  8. Manfried Dietrich: The biblical worldview and its ancient oriental contexts . In: Bernd Janowski, Beate Ego (Ed.): Research on the Old Testament . No. 32 . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-16-148251-4 , The Biblical Paradise and the Babylonian Temple Garden, p. 320 ( online [accessed January 9, 2013]).
  9. ^ J. Stephen Lang: 1.001 More Things You Always Wanted to Know About the Bible . Thomas Nelson Inc, Nashville 2001, ISBN 978-1-59555-314-0 , 691. The lost rivers of Eden, pp. 331 ( online [accessed January 8, 2013]).
  10. Archived copy ( Memento from April 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  11. Philipp Saller: Scientists in search of the garden of Eden . Eight places of longing for paradise explorers. In: PM magazine . No. 12/2012 . Gruner + Jahr , Hamburg December 2012, 1st Persian Gulf, p. 31 .
  12. Matthias Schulz: Guide to Paradise. Spiegel Online , June 3, 2006, accessed January 9, 2013 .
  13. ^ Francesca Stavrakopoulou: Tree-hogging in Eden: Divine rejection and royal restriction in Genesis 2-3. In: Mike Higton et al. (Ed.): Theology and Human Flourishing. Eugene / Oregon 2011.
  14. Isn't the Bible right after all ?, Part 1 In: Der Spiegel , No. 38.
  15. See for example Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (ed.): Ein Bücher-Tagebuch. Book reviews from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Frankfurt 1986, pp. 551f; Alfred Felix Landon Beeston , in: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 154 (1988), pp. 389-93; W. Sibley Towner, in: Middle East Journal 42 (1988), pp. 511-513.
  16. a b Alessandro Scafi. Mapping Paradise, A history of Heaven on earth. British Library, London 2006, p. 44.
  17. Alessandro Scafi: Mapping Paradise, A history of Heaven on earth. British Library, London 2006, p. 52.
  18. Alessandro Scafi: Mapping Paradise, A history of Heaven on earth. British Library, London 2006, plate 16.
  19. Klaus W. Halbig: The key to paradise. The symbolism of the cross of Christ - twelve picture meditations. St. Ottilien 1996, pp. 105-110.
  20. ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition. Zurich ²2002, p. 80 (cf. pp. 74-77).
  21. ^ Friedrich Weinreb: Creation in the Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition. Zurich ²2002, p. 81.
  22. Irmgard Hess: Man and Woman in the Bible. A lost image of man beyond patriarchal and feminist structures. Münsterschwarzach 1996, p. 35.
  23. Philipp Saller: Scientists in search of the garden of Eden . Eight places of longing for paradise explorers. In: PM magazine . No. 12/2012 . Gruner + Jahr , Hamburg December 2012, 8. Jackson County Missouri, p. 36 .
  24. ^ Karl Schlamminger, Peter Lamborn Wilson : Weaver of Tales. Persian Picture Rugs / Persian tapestries. Linked myths. Callwey, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7667-0532-6 , pp. 141-144 ( The Garden ).