Shadowland: Beginnings

Shadowland: Beginnings: Week 7

Hebrew Lesson: Flash Cards

The Garden of Eden

Genesis 2:4-25

Figurative Meanings

2:9 "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life..." Revelation 22:2
2:10-14 Why are these details from a lost world included? Is there a hidden meaning? Revelation 21:18-21
2:14 Revelation 9:14
2:17 Eating of this tree was by definition, willful disobedience, and hence knowledge of good and evil. Not just knowledge, but perception and choice. Joshua 20:3-5 Deuteronomy 4:42

Cursed is he that hangs on a tree. Galatians 3:13

Two Trees, 1 Peter 2:24
Similarities and Contrasts
good for food	good for food
knowledge of good and evil	knowledge of good and evil
in a garden, 2:9	in a garden, John 19:41
planted by God	planted by Men
ground cursed with thorns	crown of thorns
forbidden to eat	commanded to eat
brings death	brings life
turned out of paradise	entered paradise
pleasant to the eyes	He had no form nor comeliness, Isaiah 53:2
desired to be wise	no beauty that we should desire Him

The second tree sweetens the trial of physical death. "And the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." Exodus 15:23-25

Literal Interpretations

2:5-6 No rain - watered by a mist. A lost world, that was profoundly different from ours.
2:10-14 The world which was perished. 2 Peter 3:6 The rivers would have been changed by the flood, so locating Eden is somewhat hopeless. Nevertheless, the Tigris and Euphrates have their source in the mountains of Armenia near mountain lakes, and there was a Cush on the shore of the Caspian, and Asshur embraced northern Mesopotamia.
2:11-14 We switch from past to present - hinting that this narrative was written before the flood. But Genesis 10:11 mentions Asshur. Was Asshur named after something from before the flood? Or was the narative composed after the flood (e.g. by Moses)?
2:14 Tigris and Euphrates
2:16 eating, you shall eat
2:17 dying, you shall die
2:19 This is an elaboration of 1:25. See 2 Kings 6-7 for a similar narrative.
2:21 "rib" or "side" (of a pair). Consider that taking the X side of the XY chromosome pair would produce a woman.