27
See also: The Fall 30–35 ■ Covenants 44–47 ■ Entering the Promised
Land 96–97 ■ The New Jerusalem 322–29 Paradise
According to the Bible, the
Garden of Eden is perfection
itself—a place of beauty and
abundance, free of disease,
death, and evil, into which
God sets Adam, the pinnacle
of His creation. After around
500 bce, this wondrous place
becomes synonymous with
the Hebrew term pardes
(orchard), stemming from
the Persian word paridayda
(walled enclosure).
The concept of paradise is
important within Christianity,
Judaism, and Islam. Even
as He is dying on the cross,
Jesus says to a thief hanging
beside him, “Truly, I tell you,
today you will be with me in
Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The
Jewish Talmud (the written
version of oral law) associates
paradise with the Garden of
Eden, and within Islam, the
concept of jannah or “garden”
describes the destination of
the righteous after death.believed to have been written in
the 6th century bce by the Jewish
priestly writer referred to as “P,”
is cursory. It implies that both
sexes are formed at the same time,
on the sixth day of creation: “So
God created mankind in his own
image,” “male and female he
created them.”
The second passage, chapter
2:7, attributed to the oldest source
of the Pentateuch (the first five
books of the Bible), known as
Jahwist (or “J”), provides more
detail and describes God in
human terms. In this account,
God forms the man out of dust
and “breathes into his nostrils
the breath of life.” God goes on
to create Eve when He sees that
it is not good for Adam (Hebrew
for man) to be alone. Putting Adam
into a deep sleep, God removes a
rib from his side and creates a
woman from it (2:21). Seeing that
this new being closely resembles
him, Adam composes a poem:
“This is now bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh; she shall be called
‘woman,’ for she was taken out of
man” (2:23). She is not referred to asEve until Genesis 3:20, after
eating the fruit from the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil
(see pp. 30–35).
Biblical references to God’s
image, in which humankind is
made, are contradictory. Some
passages ascribe human features,
such as arms, eyes, hands, and a
beard to God and refer to Him as
“walking in the garden” (3:8).
Others depict him as a type of
angel, sheltering humans “under
his wings.” More significant are the
spiritual attributes shared by God
and humankind, which include
intellect, the capacity for rational
thought, morality, free will,
creativity, and compassion.Divine spark
Inherent in God giving Adam
life through His divine breath
is the implication that humans
themselves—unlike animals—❯❯GENESIS
Adam is made in God’s image in
Michelangelo’s God creates Adam
(c.1512), one of nine scenes from the
book of Genesis painted on the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.Strange and familiar beasts
populate the Garden of Eden
portrayed in the left-hand panel of
Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden
of Earthly Delights, c.1510.US_026-029_Let_us_make_man.indd 27 21/09/17 11:25 am