Garden of Eden accounts in Genesis and Ezekiel

[Clair B]

Poetic Epic of the Garden of Eden existed prior to Genesis

• According to Cassuto, the Genesis 2-3 author appears to have taken material from the creation saga & extra-biblical Garden of Eden accounts.
  
• The author rejected and nullified by silence or by critical remarks that which was considered objectionable in the material of the time.

Ezekiel 28 compares the King of Tire to to a cherub from the Garden of Eden.  Ezekiel refers to an older, already known epic -- apparently a cherub or one of the cherubim (plural for cherub) who dwelt in the Garden of Eden on the top of the mountain of God (which was as high as the the heavens).  The cherub sinned in his pride and was punished by being driven from the garden and cast to earth.  This may be related to stories of angels being cast down to the earth elsewhere.

• Similarities between Ezekiel and Genesis stories of the Garden of Eden
  
• Garden is in Eden
• Miraculous trees
• cherub associated with the garden
• a creature dwells in garden (man in Genesis, cherub in Ezekiel)
• Creature sins and is expelled
• Similar phrases
  
• "on the day when you were created" (Ezekiel) / "from the day you were created" (Genesis)
• "when they were created" / "In the day that the Lord God made .. in the day when they were created"
• "In the midst of the stones of fire (of the garden of Eden) you walked"/ "walking in the garden"
  
• "I turned you to ashes (Hebrew epher) upon the earth" / "for you are dust (Hebrew aphar) and to dust you shall return

• Differences between Ezekiel and Genesis stories of the Garden of Eden
• Garden of God (Ezekiel) vs Garden for Man (Genesis)
• Garden on Sacred Mountain (Ezekiel).  Genesis implies rivers flow from the garden, so garden must be up high
• Precious stones & gold in the garden (Ezekiel) and as a covering for the cherub vs  gold and soham out of the garden in the Land of Havilah (Genesis 2:11-12)
• Stones of fire (similar to stones of lightening in Ugaritic & Akkadian texts) vs the Cherubim & a flaming sword in Genesis
  
• Cherub inhabits & is cast out of garden (Ezekiel) vs man inhabiting and being cast out of the garden (Genesis)

[Walter Nicholes]

Is there a possibility that the source for this alternate creation story could be found in non-biblical references?  That would be a strong support for the alternate theory.

Of course, oral history presents a challenge, in much the same sense that translation does (as you have noted.)  One possibility is that prior to being put into writing the oral history was passed down from Adam to the flood.  Then, with only 8 souls surviving, the oral history was retold.  How much "drift" could the story have taken over about 1500 years?  As there was an angel in the garden, or there were cherubim with flaming sword in the garden (to guard the way of the tree of life,) or there was God in the garden to pass the penalty for the decision that Adam and Eve made.  Could it not be that one teller, not of the line of Shem, got confused and related that there was "something about a cherub and someone getting kicked out."

We read in the Book of Mormon that Angels appeared to Korihor, for instance, and told an entirely different version of the "gospel" than was true.  We are told that Satan went into the land and told the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve to "believe it not."  It is not much of a stretch to me that all through history, wherever there was a narration of the Garden of Eden story Satan would do what he could to transform the truth into a fable.  It is one of his methods.

So there could be, by this line of thinking, that there could be many creation tales, each stranger than the next.  The origin according to Shiva in Hindu tradition.  The biblical version of God, the version held by the Chinese.  The version that trickled down to the native Americans about mother earth and such.  Like the old gossip game, the telling and retelling could so distort the original story that it would be difficult to discern that the source material, the "truth" if you will, was all the same.

A scholar could identify the similarities and declare that all were myth.  Another scholar could select one and call it true and the others myth.

What we have in Genesis and the Book of Moses is the version (reasonably the "true" version,) as told to Moses by God Himself.  That version was put into writing, probably soon, but certainly during the lifetime of Moses.  That story was handled by one one reporter.  Other stories clearly would have been passed down through at least 500 generations before being written down - if, indeed, they were even written then.  Some creation stories among native americans and africans weren't written until anthropologists took on the task of writing the histories as related by a tribal historian or shaman.

What is the most probable accurate version?

Walt

[Clair B]

Walt,

There certainly is drift going on in the creation stories of the middle east.  How that drift took place, and from what to what has occupied a lot of religious thinkers.

As to their being just one reporter of the Book of Moses, consider there is (1) a scribe writing down words dictated by (2) Joseph Smith, who is receiving the words from (3) God, who says these are the words from God to Moses.  We then hear from an (4) unnamed narrator who then quotes (5) God's words to Moses.  And it is possible that we may have a (6) 2nd narrator (see vs 1 and 42 of chapter 1).