Many of us are familiar with the biblical interpretation of the creation of the world and man. This is described in detail in one of the Old Testament books of the Bible - the Book of Genesis. The first part of the Book of Genesis tells about the life of the patriarchs (or forefathers), to whom, in particular, Adam belongs - the first man created by God, the progenitor of all living today.
According to the Bible, God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Further, the Bible tells about the fall of Adam and Eve and about their expulsion from Paradise for disobedience. As a result, Adam and Eve, and then all people, lost the ability to live forever, since they no longer had access to the tree of life, and became involved in the eternal struggle between good and evil.
Science and religion
To what extent are the events described in. Bibles correspond to real historical events?
We will not dwell in detail on the latest archaeological finds confirming the theory that man is a product of evolution, and that mankind was born in the Neolithic era. It is important that archeology has dealt a serious blow to the biblical interpretation of the emergence of human civilization. Many have come to regard the biblical story of the Garden of Eden as a myth.
But science is impartial, and the same archeology often surprises scientists, destroying the established opinion. The Book of Genesis contains facts that confirm the reality of the existence of the Garden of Eden. So let's see if he really existed.
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The Bible gives a hint
Modern anthropology and the Bible agree on one thing - humanity was born about seven thousand years ago. The second chapter of Genesis describes the geographical location of the Garden of Eden. It says here that God created a beautiful garden in the east of Eden about seven thousand years ago. where Adam and Eve appeared.
A river flowed out of Eden to irrigate Paradise and was divided into four channels: Pison, flowing around the entire land of Havilah, rich in gold and precious stones, Tikhon, flowing around the land of Kush, Hiddekel (Tigris) and the Euphrates. It is known that the Euphrates and the Tigris flowed through ancient Mesopotamia, located on the territory of modern Iraq. Two other biblical rivers. according to medieval scholars, they could be in Africa or India. Thus, the entire Ancient World could be the Garden of Eden!
However, Dr. David Rowe, professor of history at Oxford University in England, argues that Eden couldn't have been that big. After all, Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise in order to endure hardships, which means that the Garden of Eden was only a part of the Ancient World.
Fenced on four sides
Theologians believe that many of the Bible stories are based on the ancient epic legends of Mesopotamia and Iran, which is confirmed by archaeological finds. An ancient clay tablet is kept in the British Museum, which is more than three thousand years old. It tells the story of the Flood and how the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh escaped from the raging elements, like the biblical Noah, with the help of the ark. The museum also contains a seal from Mesopotamia, made over four thousand years ago. It depicts a plot reminiscent of the story of the fall of Adam and Eve.
Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the Garden of Eden indicates that this garden was fenced on four sides. The ancient Persian name of such a garden is consonant with the modern name of Paradise in the Romance languages. Moreover, the architecture of the ancient Persian and Indian palaces that have survived to our time is a space fenced off on four sides, in the middle of which there is a fountain and four reservoirs dividing the territory of the palace into equal parts.
In the footsteps of the Sumerian messenger
In Hebrew, the word "channel" sounds like "rosh", which is consonant with the name of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashana, which marks the beginning of the new year. David Rowe suggested that since the Bible uses this word in the plural, it means that we are talking about the sources of the rivers of Eden. Therefore, Paradise must be sought in the mountainous regions where their sources are. Where the Tigris and Euphrates originate, in the mountainous area between eastern Turkey and western Iran, there are two more rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea. Therefore, the scientist decided that Eden was in that very place, and went to Iran, to the Mesopotamia region, to make sure he was right.
Here, on the territory of ancient Mesopotamia, there are still preserved ancient Sumerian fortresses - ziggurats. The Sumerian epic has carried the saga of the powerful king of Uruk Enmerkar to this day, who once sent a messenger to the king of Aratta, a country north of Mesopotamia. The envoy began his journey in the ancient city of Susa, located on a plain along the banks of the Kerhe River in southwestern Iran. On the way to Aratga, the messenger passed seven gates, which in the ancient world were considered mountain passes and gorges. It is interesting that in the Hebrew epic the number seven was considered sacred, since it was on the seventh level of paradise that Adam and Eve lived. The valley into which the messenger descended from the mountains to meet the king of Aratta is denoted by the word "edin" in the ancient Sumerian language, therefore many scientists associate the origin of the name - Eden - with him.
Following the war chariots of the Assyrians
The seven gates are also mentioned in a clay tablet kept in the Louvre. She describes the military campaign of the Assyrian king Sargon II against the ruler of Aratta. On the way to the Manakhan valley, the king overcame seven mountains, passed the gorges, crossed the mountain rivers and, finally, together with his army reached the Surikash area in the country of Mannev. Then he went further north and arrived in the valley of Aratta, in the same place where the envoy of King Enmerkar was trying to get.
Dr. Rowe used a satellite image of the area and this is what he found on it. Before him stretched a valley, in the western part of which Lake Urmia was located, inaccessible mountains towered over the valley from the north and south, and in the east between the mountain ranges a narrow passage was clearly visible connecting the valley with the surrounding world. To the north of the valley, in the area with the ancient name of Kush, the very one mentioned in the Bible, flows the Aras River, which after the capture of Persia by the Muslims received the name Tikhon. The Kizel-Wizon River flows to the southeast of the valley.
But how did the Persian Wizon become the biblical Pison? This is due to the replacement of the sound "y" with the sound "f" when translating the ancient Iranian name into Hebrew. Also, the Persian name of the Nokhdi area was changed to the Hebrew name of the land of Nod, which was located east of Eden. Adam's son Cain was exiled there after the murder of his brother Abel.
Link of times
And a few finishing touches to the completed painting describing the real-life Garden of Eden.
As you know, after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, God sent an angel with wings and a fiery sword to guard the entrance to Paradise.
In the ancient land of Nod, in the territory of modern Palestine, the Haru people lived. The priests of this ancient people during religious ceremonies wore wings behind their backs, and held swords in their hands, which made them look like the angel described in the Bible.
It is no less interesting that Adam, according to the Bible, was created by God from the dust of the earth, that is, from clay, and the name Adam itself means “red earth”. The land of the Zagros Mountains, which surrounds the Tigris valley, is rich in red clay, which the local population has long used to obtain ocher.
Today, in the Tigris Valley, on the site of the Garden of Eden, the location of which was precisely determined by Professor David Rowe, right in the heart of the modern industrial area, is the city of Zakes, which bears little resemblance to earthly paradise. However, in the vicinity of the city, in the mountain protected corners, there are still several places untouched by civilization that will help people imagine a wonderful picture of the earthly paradise as the biblical Adam saw it.
Sergey Sukhanov. Secrets of the XX century magazine