2nd Creation Story: Garden Eden ...

Friday, Aug 16, 2013. We are discussing the second creation story, as recorded in the second chapter of the book Genesis, the first book of the bible. We have already noted that this second creation story has a completely different perspective and approach compared to the first creation story. Here, the main focus is humanity. The key szene for the second creation story is the “Garden Eden”:

Men in the Garden Eden …

9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the

tree of life

and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Gen 2, 9-15) There are several questions which come up when you study the above part of the creation story. First, here the location of the Garden Eden is described. Looking at a map of Mesopotamia, e.g. here, the beginning of human culture is put into the Middle East. The rivers Euphrat and Tigris are well known. The other two rivers here are more difficult to identify today, there are different theories and scientific studies, ranging from “Ganges” in India to the Nile - but scientists also speculate about smaller rivers which do no longer exist today, and which can be seen in satellite based remote sensing images. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil … Very important ingredients of this story are the trees in the Garden Eden. Here, we hear about the tree of life and about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil**. These will play a crucial role in the further dramatic steps of the story.

What were these trees like? Can we think of this as a real story, or is the whole story merely a metaphor? Did God generate something, which had real consequences in the sense of physical laws, which would lead to particular processes and events as they are described when we continue to read the story? Or are the trees which are described here just ordinary trees, but God himself links consequences to them?

Perhaps, it is not really important, what particular process took place with the trees in the Garden Eden. Perhaps, even the whole setup is not the main point here, but the questions which are linked to it. Perhaps the key question here is: what is good and what is evil? Are we good or are we evil? Do we understand it? Do we know it? Do we want to know it? Do we have limits in our life? Do we trust God, when he tells us what to do, and what NOT to do? Do we trust him, even if we do not completely understand? The key topic here is the relationship of mankind to the Lord! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts