The Story Of Paradise In The Light Of Mesopotamian Culture And Literature

Abstract

This chapter discusses the interesting narrative in the Hebrew Bible-the Story of Paradise. It focuses on some of the motifs in the story of paradise. It pays special attention to the question of how the culture and literature of Mesopotamia might help us better understand specific elements of the narrative. Through the years scholars have taken into account points of agreement between the Paradise narrative and myths from Mesopotamia, but recent studies provide more detailed discussions in this regard, especially pertaining to the garden of Eden, to the four rivers, and to links between the Paradise narrative, on one hand, and the myth of Adapa and the Gilgamesh Epic, on the other. The chapter discusses the following topics: the prohibition, the garden of Eden, the frame of the narrative, and the two trees. It concludes with some summarizing statements, including a brief discussion about the theme of the story. Keywords: garden of Eden; Gilgamesh Epic; Hebrew Bible; Mesopotamian culture; Mesopotamian literature; myth of Adapa; story of Paradise; two trees

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