The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production. Music provided by Joseph McDade. He is your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to the Ancient Tradition podcast. I’m your host, Jack Logan. Great to have all of you listening in today. In our last episode, we established that both the ancient Egyptians and ancient Mesopotamians unequivocally claimed that their religious traditions were revealed to human beings by a supreme being. In the ancient Egyptian record, we find hundreds and hundreds of references inscribed inside the tombs.

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on temple walls, on steles, as well as written on important papyri like the Book of the Dead and the Turin Pyrrhus, claiming the god Thoth revealed every single aspect of ancient Egyptian temple worship and the accompanying funerary rites to human beings. And I haven’t exposed to you a lot of those references yet, but they’ll play an important role in reconstructing the ancient tradition in the near future. They’re definitely in the pipeline.

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We also read a fascinating account in the Epic of Gilgamesh where Unapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah, recounts to King Gilgamesh, quote, a matter most secret, a mystery of gods, in which before he and his wife entered the ark, the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon and Lil appeared in the ark and beckoned Unapishtim and his wife to join him on the boat. And there the god Anil

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Revealed a mystery and performed a sacred rite the outcome of which you napished him and his wife received eternal life And in both cases the religious tradition was revealed by a supreme being And in both cases the supreme being either revealed the religious tradition in a temple setting or the religious tradition was directly Connected to a temple context. There’s a lot more in the epic of Gilgamesh that’s relevant to our discussion So if you haven’t had a chance to read the epic of Gilgamesh

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then check out our sister podcast, The Ancient Tradition, Audio Rit, and there you’ll find an audio recording of the full epic. It’s worth your time and we’ll definitely come back to it in future episodes. Today’s episode is, did God reveal the ancient tradition in the Garden of Eden? So in this episode, we’re gonna look at what the ancient Hebrews claimed. In particular, we’re gonna dive into the Garden of Eden story in the Bible starting in Genesis chapter two.

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Our main objective here is to see if there’s any evidence in the text that God revealed the ancient Hebrew religious tradition to Adam and Eve in the very beginning while they were in the Garden of Eden. A lot of important things are going on in this account. So I’ll be reading from the King James Version. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, but I’m going to draw upon the original Hebrew in a couple of places because it’ll help clarify some important aspects of the story.

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Whatever your background is though, I guarantee you that you’re gonna learn something new today about the Garden of Eden story that you didn’t know previously. So let’s start in Genesis chapter two. Chapter two starts where chapter one leaves off, God has just spent six days or eras creating the heaven and the earth. And it reads, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.

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And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,

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and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pisan, that is which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

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and the gold of the land is good, there’s delium and the ankhs stone. So let’s stop there for a minute and start with a really important first question. What is the Garden of Eden? Now, most of you would probably say, well, it’s a garden, but a closer examination of the text tells us that there’s much, much more to this garden than a quick pass would lead us to believe.

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And much of what I’m gonna share with you comes from a fantastic article written by an Old Testament scholar by the name of Richard Davison, who in 2015 examined the key terminology and he looked at the literary structures and the themes of the Garden of Eden story. And he found that there was substantial textual evidence to conclude that the Garden of Eden was Earth’s first sanctuary or temple. And this is what he says.

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There’s an emerging consensus among biblical scholars that the pre-fall garden of Eden and its surroundings is to be regarded as the original sanctuary on earth. The biblical evidence for this conclusion has been documented by scores of biblical scholars. In other words, the evidence within the text and links with other biblical texts

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have led these scholars to conclude that the first thing God built on his newly created earth was a holy sanctuary or a temple where he could dwell. So let’s take a look at some of that textual evidence, the evidence that led these scholars to this conclusion. The first is the eastward orientation. The Genesis text states that God planted his garden eastward in Eden. Now Eden and the garden are not the same things.

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Eden’s the name that’s given to a large area of land. And so according to the text, God planted a garden in the eastern section of this land, the land Eden. Thus the garden was called the Garden of Eden. So God planting the garden in the east area of Eden or eastward, this corresponds with later Israelite sanctuaries, which were built with an eastward orientation so that the…

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morning sun could shine on the front doors of the temple. And this can be seen in the mosaic tabernacle and in King Solomon’s temple. And it’s even apparent in the end times temple in Ezekiel’s account. Ezekiel chapter 47 says, “‘Afterward he brought me again “‘unto the door of the house. “‘And behold, waters issued out “‘from under the threshold of the house eastward, “‘for the forefront of the house stood toward the east.'”

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The house of course spoken of here refers to the end time temple. So there’s a clear connection here between temples and eastward orientation. Second in Genesis chapter two verse eight, which says, and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. The Hebrew word for plant is not to and in Exodus 1517, Moses uses this same Hebrew verb not to to plant.

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refer to his holy sanctuary on Mount Sinai and it reads, thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance in the place oh lord which thou has made for thee to dwell in in the sanctuary oh lord which thy hands have established. So Moses is clearly stating here that the lord was the one who built his temple in the mountain so that the lord would have a place to dwell on earth and that god’s people were to be planted in the temple.

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because it was their inheritance. The Genesis account clearly states that it was God who planted the garden, the first sanctuary on earth. It wasn’t made by human beings. The first temple on earth was made or planted on earth by God. Third, the most important feature of the Garden of Eden was a tree, the Tree of Life.

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which stood in the midst of the garden. And the ancient Hebrews kept a stylized version of the tree of life in their temples, and we know it as the seven-branched lampstand or the menorah. The menorah was a key feature in both the Mosaic tabernacle and King Solomon’s temple. Fourth, Genesis chapter 2 verse 9 states, And out of the ground may the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight.

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and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The placement of the tree of life in the midst of the garden is extremely important. The midst is generally associated with the middle or the very center of the garden. The tree of life was in the central most point of the garden that was within the land of Eden. The Hebrew word for midst, betoch, is according to Davison.

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the precise term for the living presence of God in the midst or the toll of his people in the sanctuary. In the mosaic sanctuary and Solomonic temple, the Ark, which symbolized the presence of God on his throne, was located at the exact center of the quadrangle of holy space containing the sanctuary building proper. In other words, the tree of life symbolized God in the center of all things.

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or God dwelling in the center of his holy sanctuary or earthly temple. Fifth, the Genesis account also notes that a river of flowing water went out from Eden. The Hebrew scriptures are replete with examples of living sacral waters flowing from the temple. And flowing waters were also a key feature of the end times temple that Ezekiel saw in vision. As we read just a minute ago in Ezekiel chapter 47, it says,

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afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward for the forefront of the house stood toward the east.” We find a similar thing in Joel chapter 4 verse 18 which also speaks of the end time temple and it says a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord. In the Christian account of John the

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John writes in Revelation chapter 22 verse 1, and he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb. The association between temples and flowing waters is widespread in the ancient Near East and especially in ancient Hebrew temples, but we also find this association all over the world. From John’s account in Christianity, the waters flowed directly from God’s throne.

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which in the Garden of Eden account is represented by the Tree of Life. Sixth, the Genesis account notes that the river of flowing water split into four heads. So we read in Genesis chapter two verse 10, and a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The river splitting into four rivers is significant because in the ancient Near East, the number four was symbolic of two really important

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another way to symbolize the center of all things. So if one started from the cardinal points and drew a line directly from each point towards the middle, the lines would intersect in the very center. In fact, the word temple is actually associated with this very concept. In Greek, the word temenos, from which our word temple is likely derived, means to cut, and this refers to

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the Cardo being the north-south line and the Decumanus, the east-west line. In other words, the four rivers flowing from the Garden of Eden emphasized in yet another way that God dwelt in his temple in the center of all things. And if we follow the four rivers back to their origin, we are back to the absolute perfect center of all things and all life, which would be God’s throne. And second, in ancient Near East, the number four also represented geographic totality.

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So to say that the waters of Eden flowed from God’s throne to the four corners was just another way of saying that God’s influence, his light and goodness flowed out from his temple and then covered the entire earth. Seventh, the Genesis account gives us good reason to think that the Garden of Eden was planted on elevated land, like on a hill or on a mountain. Richard Davison notes, quote,

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The Genesis 2 creation account implies that the Garden of Eden was placed on an elevated position, for example, a mountain. The four rivers flow from a common source in four different directions, and this seems possible only if the rivers are flowing down from an elevated mountain location. This comports with the location of the heavenly sanctuary on the mountain of God. So this association between temples and mountains is ubiquitous in the world. In fact,

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connection between the two ideas is so tight that the two words, temple and mountain, in the ancient world are practically synonyms for each other. God appears to Moses on Mount Sinai. Solomon’s temple was referred to as the mountain of the Lord. And there’s also a really important scripture in Ezekiel chapter 28 which actually describes the Garden of Eden as a mountain. Verses 13 and 14 say, and this is in reference to Adam, Thou hast been an Eden

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garden of God. Thou are the anointed cherub and I have set thee so. Thou was upon the holy mount of God.” Next we have a reference to precious metals in the Genesis account which also implies that the Garden of Eden was a holy temple. If we look at Genesis chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 it says the name of the first and this is referring to the river Pisan that is it which compasseth the whole

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the gold of the land is good and there’s delium in the onks stone. So precious stones and minerals are mentioned in the scriptures in connection with the mosaic tabernacle and also Solomon’s temple. The furniture and the utensils of Solomon’s temple were made of gold and God himself in the book of Revelation is also symbolized by precious stones. In Revelation chapter four verses two and three it describes God in these terms.

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Behold a throne was set in heaven and one set on the throne And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper in a sardine stone And there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald And this account by john the revelator also mentions that the stylized tree of life was present in god’s throne room, too John writes in verse 5 And out of the throne

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proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne. Ninth, one of the most important features of the Garden of Eden account that points to the garden as a temple or sanctuary is the tripartite division of the geography. So first we start in Genesis with this land called Eden, and then second, eastward in that land of Eden, God plants a garden.

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And then third in the midst of the garden or in the middle of the garden was a special tree, the tree of life. So we have three divisions there. These three divisions represent degrees of holiness. And we find a similar tripartite division in the mosaic tabernacle and also in Solomon’s temple. Both the mosaic tabernacle and Solomon’s temple were surrounded by a courtyard. And then in the courtyard was a building designated as the holy place.

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then within the holy place was the most sacred holy place known as the holy of holies. And there the ancient Israelites kept the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat which was the throne of God. If you go to our companion website thea you’ll find an illustration of the tripartite division in the Garden of Eden compared to the tripartite division in Israelite sanctuaries. You just need to click on evidence and then in the drop down menu you’ll

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illustrations along with quotes, all the quotes I’m giving you today and full citations and pictures of everything that we discuss in this episode. The first illustration you’ll see presents the tripartite division as a series of concentric squares which share a common center, the Garden of Eden, and the Tree of Life marks the center, the holiest point. And in the Israelite sanctuary, the Holy of Holies marks the center, the holiest point.

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And from there you get a series of squares, each marking a lesser degree of holiness as they spread out farther and farther from the center. In the second illustration, you’ll see this same tripartite structure juxtaposed against the backdrop of a mountain. So in the Garden of Eden version, which we just established was likely planted on a elevated ground like a hill or mountain, the Tree of Life is perched on the summit.

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In the Israelite sanctuary version, the Holy of Holies is depicted in the center of a platform slightly elevated above the holy place. And they usually did this architecturally with a step or a series of steps or stairs to show that increase in elevation. In both of these cases, the depictions link holiness to ascension. So as one increases in holiness, one moves closer and closer to the center.

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to either the tree of life or the holy of holies, but one also moves upward, higher and higher. And you can also reverse it likewise as one decreases in holiness. One moves farther and farther away from the center, away from the tree of life or the holy of holies, and one also moves downward, lower and lower. And we can see this exact same tripartite structure of holiness in Moses’s Mount Sinai account.

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Moses ascends to the summit of Mount Sinai and there he meets God face to face. And in Exodus chapter 19 verses 18 and 20 it says, the Mount Sinai was all together on a smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mount and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount and Moses went up. Interestingly, Moses also encounters a burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai.

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Exodus chapter 3 verses 1 and 2 say, Now Moses came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. Mount Horeb is just another name for Mount Sinai. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. Hopefully you caught that this burning bush on Mount Sinai was Moses’ encounter with the tree of life.

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And note how this entire account is in complete conformity to the tree of life at the summit of the mountain, marking the holiest point where God dwells. The tripartite division is further delineated in the Moses account when God confines the Israelite people to the foot of the mountain for their lack of faith and their disobedience. Yet God invites the priests and the elders to ascend Mount Sinai about halfway.

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So in Exodus chapter 24 verses one and two, it says, and he the God said unto Moses, come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him. So here we have that tripartite division, the house of Israel is confined to the foot of the mountain.

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The priests and elders are allowed to ascend partway up the mount and worship there, and Moses is allowed to fully ascend to the summit, where in Exodus 24 verse 16 it says, quote, the glory of the Lord abode. So it’s clear from this account that the holiest space around God is restricted only to those who meet certain thresholds of holiness.

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God’s light emanates from the center expanding outwards and all of the Israelites can fill a portion of God’s light and glory as they note in Exodus 24 where it says, the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. So the Israelites could clearly see by looking up at the mountain this glory of the Lord and they could feel some of that but yet

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The fullness of God’s presence was restricted in this account to individuals who met God’s threshold of holiness, of which the Israelites did not. I don’t want to get too far off topic. The point here is that Moses, in this Mount Sinai account, is giving us yet another confirmation of that tripartite division of holiness that we see in the Garden of Eden account, which implies that the Garden of Eden, like Mount Sinai, was a sanctuary or temple where God could dwell.

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So this far into the Garden of Eden account, there are so many features. You have the eastward orientation of the garden. You have the tree of life in the midst of the garden. You have living water flowing out of the garden into four rivers, the presence of precious metals, and this tripartite division of holiness in a mountain context, all of which directly point to a temple context for the Garden of Eden story. And so here we are among the ancient Hebrews,

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back to a temple context just like we saw when the god Bayami descended from his mountain abode to the aboriginal peoples in New South Wales Australia and the god Mahatala who descended from his mountain sacred land to the Dayak peoples of Borneo as we talked about in episode number one and this parallels the temple context of the account given by the ancient Egyptians and the god Thoth in the account of Unapishtim in the epic of Gilgamesh

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where God imparted to the people sacred gifts and established the first religious ceremonies like we talked about in episode number one and number three. The question now is whether something similar occurred in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Did God give to Adam and Eve sacred gifts? Did he reveal to them spiritual truths or sacred ceremonies as we see in those other accounts that we’ve discussed so far? And we’ll need to jump back into the Genesis account to see.

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So let’s go back to Genesis chapter two and look at verses seven and eight. God forms man and it says, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom he had formed. So immediately after forming Adam, God places Adam directly in the garden sanctuary or the temple, the temple that he God planted.

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or built so that he, God, had a place where he could dwell on earth. In other words, the first thing God does with Adam is place him in the holiest place on earth, in his temple, where Adam can be in direct contact with God. And this is reinforced in chapter two of Genesis, verse 15, which says, And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And sometimes dress it is translated as to tend.

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In this verse, God gives Adam his very first instructions. Adam’s responsibilities are to take care of the garden, to quote, dress it, and to quote, keep it. The Hebrew words for dress and keep here are extremely important. This is what Richard Davison says. When viewed in this light of their sanctuary context, the paired use of the two Hebrew terms avad, to dress or to tend, and shamair.

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to keep in Genesis 2, 15, to describe the work of Adam and Eve in the Eden Garden, becomes highly significant. According to this verse, the first couple were put in the garden to tend avod and to keep shamair. These Hebrew terms literally mean to serve and guard respectively, but apply more than the fact that Adam and Eve were entrusted with a responsible stewardship of serving and protecting their environment.

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These two Hebrew words, when used together elsewhere in the Pentateuch and elsewhere in the whole Old Testament, in the setting of the sanctuary, consistently function as a technical expression for the service of the priests and Levites in the sanctuary. Thus, the use of this paired terminology in the setting of the Eden Garden Sanctuary clearly implies a priestly function for the first couple in the Garden of Eden. In other words, in Genesis chapter 2 verse 25, the very first thing

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we’re told God does after forming Adam, is assign him the responsibility to work in his temple sanctuary. And if you’re paying close attention, it’s here in this verse that God institutionalizes religion on earth. And the religion he institutionalizes is a temple-based religion, a temple-based theology. It’s in this verse that we see the institutionalization of God’s priesthood

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It’s here that God instructs Adam to serve or work in his temple as a priest. It’s here that God ordains Adam, the first priest on earth. In addition, there are a couple of indications in the garden account that God not only ordained Adam as the first priest, which he did in his garden temple, but the God also ordained Adam along with Eve as the world’s first king and queen.

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And we can glean this from Genesis chapter 1 verses 27 and 28, which read, The garden is where God dwells.

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which makes it the Holy of Holies. And it’s here that God gives Adam and Eve dominion over everything on the earth that he’s just finished creating, where he charges them to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it. And those words subdue and dominion are tightly associated with rulership or kingship. So it appears here as though God instituted not only his priesthood in the garden sanctuary.

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but also some sort of structure of civil authority, which was characterized by kingship and queenship. Here, God gave Adam and Eve the power to rule over the entirety of his earthly creation. So in the Garden Sanctuary, God made Adam the first king priest or sacral king, and Eve the first queen priestess or sacral queen. And I have tons.

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that I want to add to this discussion on Adam as the world’s first king, which I will definitely do in the future since it’s absolutely central to the ancient tradition. But suffice it here to point out that the ancient tradition imparted in the garden temple by God was deeply connected to the concepts of temple, kingship and priesthood. Now, I know there’s a lot of people in the world who reject institutionalized religion, but it’s clear from what we’ve read so far in Australia, Borneo, Egypt, Mesopotamia,

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And here in the Bible, that the ancient record is replete with examples of God instituting a religious tradition on earth, along with a priesthood, sacred teachings and sacred rituals or ceremonies. From what we’ve learned so far, the ancient tradition imparted to human beings in the beginning was an institutionalized temple based religious tradition. In Genesis chapter two, verse 15, it’s not the only evidence we have in the Garden of Eden account.

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kind of come to this conclusion. We can also see in verse 24 that God is institutionalizing marriage between Adam and Eve and it reads, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. Elcott’s commentary notes the great and primary objective of this part of the narrative is to set forth marriage as a divine ordinance. He who at the beginning made them male and female

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pronounced the divine marriage law that man and wife are one flesh. What’s interesting is that Jesus expands on this verse in Matthew chapter 19, verses 4 through 6, and he’s talking here to the Pharisees, and Jesus says this, Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh?

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Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together Let no man put asunder.” So Jesus is clearly stating here that God was the one who in some formal way or as Elcott’s commentary said, through a religious ordinance or ritual married Adam and Eve. And let’s not forget that in the garden account where this marriage took place, the marriage between Adam and Eve took place in the garden

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which we established was a sanctuary or a temple. So in other words, God married Adam and Eve in his temple, the holiest place on earth, at the top of the mountain, on the summit, by the tree of life, or the bush that burned with fire, which represented the fiery glory of God himself. And I also wanna point out that from Jesus’s account in Matthew, Jesus seems to say that it was God himself who conducted the marriage ritual between Adam and Eve.

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And in this light, we can see God as the great high priest in his temple performing the marriage ritual that binds Adam and Eve together. And I don’t know about you, but this draws me back again to the aboriginal God, Bayami, whom the Aboriginals said was the one who taught them the rituals and the gestures and the acts of the Bora, their sacred initiation ceremony. So here we have in both accounts, it’s God himself who performs the initial rituals and then teaches them.

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human beings. Both the Genesis account and Jesus’s account in Matthew highlight the sanctity of marriage, but they also indicate that marriage, God’s sanctioned marriage, was performed in God’s temple and constituted an important part of the temple tradition that God institutionalized in the garden. After Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, the Genesis account says that their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked.

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Naked is a loaded word here. There’s a lot we could discuss, but I’m going to force myself to stay on topic. Suffice it to say that there’s a lot of neat stuff here that we’ll have to tackle at some point. But they recognize their nakedness, so Adam and Eve scramble and they sew together some fig leaves from the garden to cover themselves. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 8 reads, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

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and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” At this point in the narrative, Adam and Eve are still in God’s temple. They haven’t been cast out yet. And so as a quick side note, I think it’s interesting here that Adam and Eve hear God walking. Perhaps they hear his footsteps? I’m not sure. This is just one of the many, many references in the Bible to God having the form of a body, a mouth, ears, a face, arms.

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here in this case legs and feet. These are the anthropomorphic features of God. Just a little side note. The description of God walking in the garden is interesting because it reinforces the notion that this was the place where God dwelt on earth, where he roamed or walked, where his presence was revealed. So Adam and Eve discuss with God the issue of having eaten the forbidden fruit and God tells them a little bit of what it’s gonna be like now.

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they’ve eaten of this fruit was going to be like outside of the garden or outside of his temple. And he says in verse 17 and 18, cursed is the ground, thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat. So it’s not a very nice place outside of God’s temple. At this point however, before God casts them out of the garden, he does something really interesting. He clothes them.

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In verse 21 it says, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. So why would he do this? They already have fig leaf aprons. Well, this is what Richard Davison says, before Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the garden, God clothed and the Hebrew word for that is lavash, clothed them with tunic coats, which in Hebrew is kotonez.

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Genesis 321 and these are the very terms used to describe the clothing of the priests Aaron and his sons by Moses acting on behalf of God The combination of God’s clothing with tunics or coats Describes a divine conferral of status the rare occasions where God clothes humans in the Old Testament always Concerned the dressing of priests Adam and Eve were indeed dressed as priests

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The unmistakable and consistent linkage within the Hebrew Bible of this pair of terms to clothe, lavash, and tunics or coats, kotoneh, with the clothing of Israel’s priests, viewed in the larger setting of the Garden of Eden as a sanctuary, clearly points to Adam and Eve’s inauguration as priests in the post-fall world. By highlighting God’s clothing of Adam and Eve with the skins of sacrificial animals, instead of the fine linen of the later priests, the final canonical form of the text, the

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Further emphasizes the divine confirmation that Adam and Eve are to be identified as priests for the skin of the sacrificial animals belonged exclusively to the priests in the mosaic cultus. By bestowing on Adam and Eve the skin of the sin offering, a gift strictly reserved to priests, the Genesis story implicitly recognizes Eve as a priest alongside Adam. So here God clothes Adam and Eve in priestly coats before he casts them out of the garden.

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clothing Adam and Eve like this seems to strongly suggest that God wanted them to continue their priestly duties after the fall and that that priesthood organization God had institutionalized in his garden sanctuary was to be perpetuated after the fall. And this will become more clear in just a moment. In verse 23 it says, “‘Therefore the Lord God sent him Adam, forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from when he was taken.'”

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So he drove out the man. Upon driving Adam out of the garden, Adam and Eve have children. And then the story jumps to an interesting controversy between Cain and Abel about what constitutes an acceptable sacrifice. And we don’t need to get into the details of the story here, but the story is important because it establishes that temple worship did not stop after Adam and Eve were removed from the garden. Richard Davison says,

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thoroughly instructed regarding a sacrificial system. Genesis chapter four verses three and four do not indicate the location to which Cain and Abel brought their offerings, but this is probably implied in verse seven. Recent studies of this verse provide evidence from the original Hebrew that the word chekta, which can either mean sin or sin offering, should better be translated as sin offering. And the word petach, door or opening,

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here refers to the cherubim guarded door or the gate of paradise, where sinful humans were to bring their sacrifices, paralleling the numerous uses of pechah in the Torah describing the door of the tabernacle. In this verse, God is encouraging Cain to offer up an animal sacrifice for his sin at the Eastern door of the garden where the post fall sanctuary was located. Adam and Eve and their children came to the Eastern gate of Eden to worship God, build their alders.

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bring their sacrifices. Here the Shekinah glory was manifested as God came down to hold communion with them. We know from the biblical record that the Israelites go on to pattern their earthly sanctuaries after the prototype sanctuary in the Garden of Eden. And what’s pretty remarkable is that the Israelites are not the only ones to do this. In the coming months you’ll see that this happens all over the world. To close out this episode,

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What’s really important is to point out that one of the primary aims of the ancient Hebrews and the later Israelites was to continue the temple tradition that had been begun in the Garden of Eden by God. To summarize today’s episode, let’s quickly recap what we learned about the ancient tradition. First, we learned that significant textual evidence in the Garden of Eden account given in Genesis indicates the garden in Eden was a sanctuary or temple planted by God.

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this garden sanctuary functioned as God’s primary residence on earth and was understood as the holiest place on earth. Second, we learned that after forming Adam, God put Adam in the garden sanctuary and there within the temple precinct, God gave Adam and Eve dominion over his newly formed creation, which established Adam and Eve as the reigning civil authorities over the earth or as the earth’s first king and queen.

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Third, we learned that God charged Adam and Eve to tend and to keep the garden, which are Hebrew words, which were directly tied to priestly responsibilities in the mosaic tabernacle. In addition, before God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden sanctuary, he clothed them in priestly skins. And all of this points to Adam and Eve having been ordained by God in his temple as the earth’s first priest and priestess. Fourth, while in the garden temple, the holiest place on earth, God himself performed the marriage rite.

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between Adam and Eve. Fifth, the entire garden account in Genesis points to God having revealed to Adam and Eve a religious tradition centered in temple worship as well as a temple theology deeply connected to kingship, priestship, and marriage. So yes, the ancient biblical record indicates that God did reveal an ancient tradition to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Genesis account gives us a lot to think about.

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If you’re interested in listening to a recording of Richard Davison’s full article, which I referred to several times in this episode titled Earth’s First Sanctuary, you can find it on our sister podcast, The Ancient Tradition Audio-Rid. It’s a great article. In our next episode, I’ll introduce you to one of my absolute favorite non-canonical writings, as well as dive into the accounts of God-revealed religion amongst the Hindus, Mandians, the Ellusian mysteries, Islam, and a couple of Native American tribes.

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That’s it for me. I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare. Knowledge is the wing we’re with. We fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan. I’ll see you on the next edition of the ancient tradition.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production.