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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The garden of Eden, the place where God dwells with his divine council, is known in Greek translation as Paradise.\u00a0 The word Paradise is a Persian loan word to Greek which refers to a particular type of walled garden.\u00a0 Likely the most high profile example of a paradise garden in the world today is the Taj Mahal, built according to Persian custom.\u00a0 An aerial photo of the Taj Mahal reveals even four waterways in parallel to the Biblical description.\u00a0 Modern literalism has sought to locate this garden somewhere on the planet earth, with the assumption that at some point, usually the flood of Noah, it was destroyed.\u00a0 While a \u2018this worldly\u2019 interpretation of Eden is attractive to many, it fails to explain the way Eden is referred to in the rest of the Old Testament, and the way in which Paradise is described, as still existing, in the New Testament.\u00a0 Eden does indeed exist, and understanding the way in which Paradise as a place is actually depicted in scripture clears up a great many popular modern debates.<\/p>\n
When Eden is introduced in the text of Genesis 2, contrary to some modern claims, it is not given a real world location.\u00a0 It is, first of all, stated to be \u2018in the East\u2019 (Gen 2:8).\u00a0 East of what is not stated.\u00a0 Attempts to physically locate the garden, therefore, typically revolve around the four rivers which flow out of the garden (v. 10-14) which are described in geographic detail.\u00a0 The problem here is that sufficient geographic detail is given to positively identify all four, as has been recognized since even pre-Christian Jewish interpreters.\u00a0 The four rivers which flow from Eden are the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile, and the Danube.\u00a0 Even a brief perusal of a map, ancient or modern, will reveal that there is no location in this world where the sources of those four rivers branch from each other.\u00a0 These rivers, however, were the point of origin of the most ancient civilizations known to the Biblical authors.\u00a0 The flooding of these rivers in the spring deposited fertile soil that could be used to grow crops, producing the first stable human civilizations along these rivers.\u00a0 Genesis here depicts these rivers, the source of life for these human communities, as flowing out from the presence of God.<\/p>\n
The location of Paradise \u2018in the East\u2019 is an example of what is termed \u2018cosmic geography\u2019.\u00a0 It stands parallel to the way in which evil dwells, in the Hebrew scriptures, \u2018in the North\u2019.\u00a0 While specific areas like Mt. Hermon and Bashan were to the North of most of Israel, this term also references the cosmic dwelling place of evil.\u00a0 The Hebrew word \u2018tzaphon\u2019, used for the cardinal direction \u2018North\u2019, is also used to mean a place that is \u2018dark\u2019 or \u2018gloomy\u2019.\u00a0 One of Baal\u2019s titles, Baal Zaphon, is a reference to his dwelling in the North on a particular mountain.\u00a0 His dwelling is \u2018in the North\u2019.\u00a0 The North is the home of evil throughout the prophetic corpus of the Hebrew Bible (Is 14:13, 41; 41:25; Jer 1:13-15; 4:6; 6:22; 10:22; 13:20; 46:10, 20; Eze 8:3, 5, 14; 32:30; Zeph 2:13).\u00a0 It is for this reason that the resurrection Gospel of Orthros, and in traditional Western liturgics the Gospel in general, are read toward the North, to proclaim the victory of Christ to his enemies.\u00a0 Likewise Eden, the dwelling place of God Most High, is \u2018in the East\u2019, and so prayers and worship are offered toward the East.<\/p>\n In the ancient near east, gods were considered to live in gardens and on mountains.\u00a0 Gardens were a dwelling place for gods because of the generally arid wilderness conditions under which most people lived.\u00a0 The famed hanging gardens of Babylon are an example of an ancient garden temple.\u00a0 Mountains were thought suitable dwelling places because they reached up toward the heavens and were inaccessible to humans.\u00a0 Eden is described as a mountain at several points in the Hebrew scriptures, after being clearly described as a garden in Genesis 2:8, 10 (cf. Ezek. 28:13-16).\u00a0 It is also implied by the fact that these rivers flow down out of the garden.\u00a0 Adam is created from the dust of the earth and is then taken and placed in the garden (Gen 2:15).\u00a0 Here again we see that Paradise is a location outside of this world into which Adam is removed as he is brought to live with God on his holy mountain.\u00a0 This is key to understanding the mission which is entrusted to humanity.\u00a0 This is a mission that is impossible if Adam remains alone by inability to reproduce (Gen 2:18).<\/p>\n Humanity is created, in Genesis 1, at the climax of creation.\u00a0 At the beginning of God\u2019s creative activity, he is addressing two problems after creating the heavens and the earth.\u00a0 The earth is, in Hebrew, \u2018tohu wubohu\u2019 (Gen 1:2).\u00a0 It is formless or chaotic and it is empty.\u00a0 Over the first three creation days, the chaotic world is put into order (Gen 1:3-10).\u00a0 Over the second set of three days, the creation is filled with life (Gen 1:14-25).\u00a0 When humanity is created, however, they are commanded to \u2018fill the earth and subdue it\u2019 (Gen 1:28).\u00a0 This command directly parallels the initial problems, humanity is to fill the earth and bring order to it.\u00a0 Human persons are therefore God\u2019s co-workers to assist in bringing his works to completion (1 Cor 3:9).\u00a0 Humanity was not created to, at that time, simply passively dwell with God forever in his presence.\u00a0 Rather, humanity was created to, as God\u2019s\u00a0image, spread Eden out into the world and make the whole world a Paradise in which God dwelt.\u00a0 Once this work was complete, then humankind would dwell with God and his heavenly hosts forever.<\/p>\n After their rebellion, however, Adam and Eve become mortal and are clothed with mortal flesh (Gen 3:21).\u00a0 Adam and Eve had bodies previous to this, but they were different than the bodies possessed in this world, just as those of this world differ from the bodies with which humanity will be clothed in the resurrection.\u00a0 They were then, as the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great describes it, \u2018cast out into this present world\u2019.\u00a0 They are no longer able to stand in the presence of God or upon his holy mountain (Ps 24:3).\u00a0 They therefore do not take Eden with them when they come into this world and are unable to remedy the emptiness and chaos which they find.\u00a0 God\u2019s work in creation remains incomplete, as Christ points out (Jn 5:17) until Christ brings it to completion (Jn 19:30).\u00a0 After this, Christ rests on the seventh day and rises to begin making all things new (Rev 21:5).\u00a0 In the end, the world becomes Paradise, filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea (Hab 2:14), and God\u2019s presence fills it.<\/p>\n Until Christ brings all things to completion, Paradise still exists as the place where God dwells atop his holy mountain, such that Christ himself can promise the wise thief that he will be with him there (Luke 23:43).\u00a0 Likewise, St. Paul could visit Paradise in a visionary experience (2 Cor 12:2-4).\u00a0 Sinful humanity, however, is unable to ascend his holy mountain, despite rebellious attempts to do just this and bring God down as at the tower of Babel (Gen 11:4; compare John 3:13 and Rom 10:6-8).\u00a0 Until man can once again come to dwell in the presence of God, Yahweh the God of Israel condescends to bring his dwelling place to humanity.\u00a0 This is exemplified at Mt. Sinai, which twice becomes the mountain of God in order for God to meet in person with Moses (Ex 3:1-6; 19:2-6).\u00a0 The people of Israel cannot even touch the mountain without dying (Ex 19:10-13).\u00a0 The seventy elders of Israel, Aaron, and Aaron\u2019s sons are able to, after purifying themselves, ascend partway up the mountain and see Yahweh, the God of Israel (Ex 24:9-11).\u00a0 Only Moses, however, can ascend to the peak (v. 12).\u00a0 In order to dwell with his people, therefore, Yahweh gives detailed instructions to Moses to construct the tabernacle after the pattern of God\u2019s dwelling which he beheld on the mountain (Heb 8:5).\u00a0 God therefore descends his mountain to come and dwell with humanity.\u00a0 This is a foreshadowing of the incarnation of Christ, as seen by St. John\u2019s use of the phrase \u2018the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us\u2019 (Jn 1:14).<\/p>\n Later, though he has no need of it and was under no compulsion, Yahweh consents to dwell within the temple, and Mt. Zion becomes the mountain of God for as long as he dwells there (1 Kgs\/ 3 Kgdms 9:3-9).\u00a0 The decorations of the temple are designed deliberately to evoke the garden of Eden as a realization of the place where God dwells (7:15-50).\u00a0 This includes both the imagery of flowers and fruit trees as well as imagery of the cherubim and other members of God\u2019s divine council who dwell there with him.\u00a0 In Ezekiel\u2019s vision of the new and eternal temple, he sees streams of water flowing forth from it (Ezek 47:1-12).\u00a0 Joel similarly uses the river imagery to connect the temple and Eden (Joel 3:18).\u00a0 Paradise is the place where Yahweh dwells, and so the place where Yahweh dwells becomes Paradise and streams of living water flow from him (Jer 2:13; 7:13).\u00a0 It is for this reason that the Theotokos herself is poetically described as a \u2018mystical Paradise,\u2019 because Yahweh the God of Israel came to dwell within her womb.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the imagery of Paradise, the permanent dwelling of God, comes to reside upon the person of Jesus Christ himself.\u00a0 This is a function of all of the language in the Gospels identifying Christ with the temple (cf. Jn 2:19-21).\u00a0 Christ also identifies himself as the source of the water of life (Jn 4:10-26).\u00a0 In the Troparion of his Nativity, Christ is called \u2018the East from on high\u2019.\u00a0 In the new heavens and the new earth, the whole world drinks of the water of life that flows forth from the presence of God (Rev 21:6).\u00a0 There is no temple not because the whole world is now a temple, but because the Yahweh the almighty God and the Lamb is their temple (Rev 21:22).\u00a0 For Christians, however, this promise becomes a present reality.\u00a0 The one who drinks of the water of life which flows from Christ himself, as Christ said at the feast of Tabernacles, has a spring of water come to flow from within him (Jn 7:37-38).\u00a0 He is speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:39).\u00a0 When a Christian comes to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, God himself is dwelling within them making them a temple (1 Cor 6:19).\u00a0 This also means that, as St. Silouan says, \u201cThe Lord has given the Holy Spirit upon the earth, and in whomsoever He dwells, that one feels paradise within himself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The garden of Eden, the place where God dwells with his divine council, is known in Greek translation as Paradise.\u00a0 The word Paradise is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[42,94],"class_list":["post-24548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orthodox-wisdom","tag-biblical-archeology","tag-history"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/3-6.jpg","views":{"total":5201,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1768401980},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-6nW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24548"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24555,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24548\/revisions\/24555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7c05e2f7e555d5ef8f1ca98d556cbe4a-1.jpg\")
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