The True ORIGINS of Adam & Eve Will BLOW Your Mind!

the past 150 years of archaeology in the near East have revolutionized our understanding of the Bible and ancient Israelite culture we now know that several of the foundational myths in Genesis particularly the creation of the world and Noah's Ark were predated by Sumerian Assyrian Babylonian and Canaanite versions of those same Stories the parallels between the flood Narrative of Genesis and the flood myths found in eridu Genesis atrahasis and the Epic of goesh are particularly striking leaving no room for doubt that the scribes who pinned the Bible were indebted to the rich literary Heritage of ancient

Mesopotamia finding near Eastern parallels to the story of the Garden of Eden however has always been more difficult what ancient sources of inspiration lie behind this tale did the so-called yahwist writer invent the characters of Adam and Eve himself or did he borrow them from earlier traditions and how did a snake managed to infiltrate the Holy Garden and upset God's plan lands in this documentary we turn our SES to one of the Bible's most foundational stories and its origins in the culture and literature of ancient Canaan and Mesopotamia the Sacred Garden the Tree of Life

the creation of humans and many other elements of the Eden story have well-known antecedants in the myths and art of Israel's older neighbors what's more according to a theory by Old Testament Scholars Mario corpal and johannna C deore even the story of Adam and the serpent has a direct precursor in an obscure text from ancient ugarit if correct their Theory would be a major step forward in tracing the beliefs and myth that shaped the Bible [Music] [Music] at the time when Yahweh God made the earth and the Heaven There was at yet no wild Bush

on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up for Yahweh God had not sent rain on the earth nor was there any man to till the soil however a flood was rising from the earth and watering all the surface of the soil Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden which is in the East and there he put the man he had fashioned the ancient Sumerian myth of Inky and Niners sag recounts a story about the ancient land of dilon before it was inhabited virginal is dilman land pristine is dilman land in dilman a

raven was not yet call a partridge not cackling a lion did not yet slay a wolf did not carry off Lambs ninca said to her father Inky a city you gave a city that has no River you gave me a city a city that has no field Glee or Furrow Inky answered Nicha from the mouth of the running underground Waters fresh waters shall run out of the ground for you at the beginning of the story dilman is a parched desert devoid of plants and animals so the goddess of dilman ninca asks the high God Inky

to supply water Inky hears her plea and causes Springs of fresh water to appear on Dilma making it inhabitable Inky also fertilizes the land with his seamen so it can bring forth plants this is reminiscent of the opening verses of Genesis 2 in which the newly created land is devoid of plants until a spring is produced to water the ground Yahweh then plants a garden in the East causing in the soil to bring forth trees of every kind dilman was apparently a real place and most scholars believe it referred to the island of Bahrain which

was home to a rich commercial civilization for thousands of years the myth of Inky and Niners sag may have originated as an iology for this wealthy Kingdom and its abundant freshwater Springs however in these texts we also see the development of a mythical dilon which is not the island of Bahrain at all but a mountain in the East where the sun rises IDU Genesis the Sumerian flood myth states that the flood hero zud sudra the Sumerian Noah was taken there to enjoy eternal life zud sudra being King stepped up before on and inl kissing the

ground and on and inl after honoring him were granting him life like a gods were making lasting Breath of Life Like A Gods descend into him that day they made zud sudra preserver as king of the name of the small animals and the seed of mankind lived toward the East over the mountains in Mount dmon the later Acadian Epic of Gilgamesh confirms that the flood hero is taken to live in a mythical land beyond the mountains at the source of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers even though the name dilmun is no longer used to reach

this land gilgames must accomplish Feats impossible for ordinary Mortals traveling Beyond even where the sun rises es to the very edge of the world could this Mount dilman be a precursor to the biblical Eden the scholarly position on This is complicated some experts like Dina Katz and Bernard B argue that dilman is a weak parallel to the Garden of Eden batau says there is no indication that humans even primeval humans ever lived there with the lone exception of the divinized flood hero an exception which proves the rule Arthur and Elina George on the other hand

believe that several elements of the Eden story have direct parallels in the dilman myth we do not argue that Jay specifically utilized or even knew of all the above mentioned dilon myths when composing the Eden story but it is apparent that these motifs existed throughout the biblical World much of it was archetypal it appears that Eden like the mythical dilman is also located on a mountain in Genesis 2 Four Rivers originate in Eden the pichan the guihan the Tigris and the Euphrates the headwaters of rivers are usually found in mountains because Rivers obvious viously flow

downhill furthermore Ezekiel 28 which preserves a separate and possibly earlier Eden myth explicitly refers to Eden as a garden on the Holy Mountain of God corpal and deore also argue in their book that it is logical to locate Eden near the site where Noah's Ark was stranded in the mountains of Ararat far to the northeast of Israel even if the Sumerian myth of dilman lies in the background of Eden there might also be parallels closer to home in the tablets of ugarit in important Canaanite city state predated the Israelites we find references to a sacred

mountain with a Vineyard where l or elu the high god of the Canaanite Pantheon resided and Yahweh Elohim made to grow out of the ground all trees Pleasant to look at and good for food and the tree of life in the middle of the garden the tree of knowing good and evil the Tree of Life Motif is well known from Mesopotamian art Assyrian reliefs and cylinder Sills frequently show a sacred tree typically a date palm being guarded by apalus or hybrid bird men according to Helga sqig the Assyrian Tree of Life represented the Divine World

Order maintained by the king sacred trees were also a common aspect of religious life in ancient Canaan most rural religious activity took place at sanctuaries called bot or high places which are mentioned frequently in the Bible these were typically situated near prominent trees on Hills or High Ground eating the fruit of a sacred tree was a direct way of experiencing the Divine outside of Genesis sacred trees are often associated with the goddess Asher who who also went by the name OT the feminine version of L the historical books of the Old Testament imply that Asher

veneration was practiced in Judah and even at the Jerusalem Temple without interruption until the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah archaeological finds from various sites in Judah and Israel confirm her popularity and her association with a sacred tree it was also the case in Anatolian and Syrian art that the storm God Hadad often carried a tree or a tree branch and this became a Divine symbol of the God's fertility as the one who caus the Rains by which the Earth's plants and trees were nourished over time the sacred Tree by itself came to represent Hadad another

version of the tree of life that is surely connected to the Eden story comes from Greek mythology according to numerous Greek authors there were several nymphs called the Hesperides who tended a garden at the western edge of the world this Garden belonged to the goddess Hera and contained a sacred tree that produced magical fruit made of gold to prevent the Hesperides from picking the fruit themselves Hera placed a multi-headed serpent named ladin the name Lin almost certainly comes from lotan the seven-headed chaos Serpent of Canaanite Syrian and hittite tradition this serpent appears in numerous ancient

Bible passages as Leviathan a multiheaded sea dragon vanquished by Yahweh at creation exactly how all these dots connect however is difficult to determine did the yahwist author know both the Canaanite Sacred Garden tradition and the Greek Hesperides tradition or did both the Israelites and the Greeks inherit the garden tree fruit and serpent motifs from a NE Eastern Source these questions remain unanswered for now but we will have more to say about the serpent further on what is distinctive about most examples of sacred Gardens and trees is their link to the Earth goddess the Eden story

however was written by scribes of a religion that venerated primarily Yahweh and as such it features no goddess nevertheless aspects of the earlier goddess mythology might still remain as we shall see despite the ubiquitous appearance of Divine trees with a variety of symbolic meanings in the ancient near East one of the biggest challenges in finding a direct predecessor for the Eden story is the unique function of the two trees the Tree of Life which confers immortality and the tree of knowledge which as its name implies confers knowledge however other well-known myths provide a suitable background

for these elements the ancient Mesopotamian myth of adapa tells a story in which adapa the king of eridu is brought before the court of heaven and offered the food and drink of the Gods which will make him Immortal the god AA however uses trickery to convince adapa to refuse the offer and remain aa's mortal servant on Earth the main Innovation required by the yahwist author was to combine the idea of a sacred fruit bearing tree with the idea that the food of the Gods granted immortality in those who ate it similarly the tree of Knowledge

from which Eve eats is reminiscent of Pandora's so-called box actually a jar like Eve Pandora was the first woman to be created in Greek mythology and like Eve Pandora brought sorrow and calamity into the World by opening The Forbidden jar the tree of knowledge in a sense is just Pandora's jar in another form Yahweh Elohim formed the human of dust from the ground and breathed into his nose life's breath and the human became a living being the creation of humans from dirt or Clay is not unique to Genesis it is a ubiquitous idea found throughout

the Mediterranean and the near East an ancient myth called inanma which is known from both Sumerian and Acadian tablets describes how after the creation of the world the Lesser Gods Tire of their toil and say they need laborers to do their work for them so Inky gives Nama the mother goddess instructions for mixing clay with his blood to create humans a similar story is told in atrahasis the Acadian creation and flood epic this story also begins with the Lesser Gods complaining about the toil of farming so Inky instructs the mother goddess to create humans from

clay mixed with the blood of a slain God and saliva from the other gods bosis the Babylonian historiographer of the helenistic period similarly described the creation of humans from dirt and the blood of a slain God this God kingu took off his own head and the other gods gathered up the blood which flowed from it and mixed the blood with Earth and formed men for this reason men are intelligent and have a share of divine wisdom the Greeks adopted the same myth Prometheus is said to have formed men out of clay while the goddess Athena

breathed life into them the logic in such stories seems to be that human-shaped figurine can be created from clay or inanimate matter but some essence of the Gods blood in many cases is needed to give it life in the Genesis Story the breath of Yahweh accomplishes this interestingly when we consider the parallels between how Yahweh and Prometheus created the first man and how both Eve and Pandora were responsible for unleashing Misfortune on the world through their curiosity it might be this Greek myth that is closest to the Eden story historian Jan Bremer acknowledges these parallels

in his book Greek religion and culture the Bible in the ancient near East but He suggests that both the Greeks and the Hebrews were drawing on near Eastern myths in an article for the website mythology matters historian Author George argues that the serpent of Eden is adapted from the West semetic myth of the chaos dragon lotan or Leviathan he believes the serpent represents the chaos in Eve's heart yahweh's eventual punishment of the serpent represents a mini version of the Dragon combat Motif other Scholars see a connection with the serpent in the Epic of Gilgamesh and

this famous and wildly popular Babylonian text gamesh visits the paradise of dilon at the edge of the world to ask the flood hero UT aish him about the secret to immortality utnapishtim reveals the existence of a magical plant in the sea that can grant immortality but after Gilgamesh acquires it a snake steals the plant and eats it whereupon it sloths off its skin this ability of snakes by the way was one of of the reasons they were associated with immortality by the Ancients thus a snake prevents Gilgamesh from eating the plant of life and living

forever it's not hard to find close points of similarity between the Gilgamesh story and Eden there is no Adam and Eve but the parallels to the tree of life and the crafty serpent are obvious corpal and deore acknowledge the Gilgamesh epic and its importance for understanding The Garden of Eden's story however they believe that the closest predecessor to the biblical story can be found in two obscure tablets from ugarit known as kt100 and kt17 their view has not been widely accepted in Academia at least not yet but regardless of whether or not they are correct

these tablets are interesting in their own right and May challenge how we understand the Eden story kt100 is more or less fully intact but very difficult to interpret k117 is highly fragmentary and not surprisingly also hard to make sense of the two tablets which were found together in the ruins of ugarit are understood to be related and possibly even part of the same text kt100 is sometimes overlooked as a mere incantation for snake bites but according to ugaritic expert Gregorio Del Alo it is actually a canonical mythical text about magic and the power of incantation

it begins with an appeal from an unnamed goddess described as the daughter of shapu and the daughter of sky and deep to the high God L originally pronounced elu in ugaritic who lives at the Fountain Head of the two rivers at the Confluence of the two floods the rivers are are undoubtedly the Tigris and Euphrates and the two floods are probably the cosmic Waters of Heaven and the Deep which meet at the edge of the world U's location sounds much like both Eden and dilman in these details the emergency is that a serpent has invaded

the land and bitten someone or something the goddess systematically calls upon one Canaanite deity after another another Bal Dean anat RF and so on asking for their help to come and destroy the serpent and expel the poison none of the gods and goddesses is able or willing to do so finally she asks Haru for help perhaps you haven't heard of hu most people haven't he was a god of the underworld but he was n well liked at ugarit and did not receive sacrifices there other texts tell us that he was the chief of demons and

perhaps serpents thus he could not only control them to punish people but he could also protect people from them despite his negative aspects honu was venerated at various sites across Canaan and two cities in the Israelite Heartland upper Beth Haron and lower Beth Haron were named after him presumably because a sanctuary to horonu was located there he was also known in Egypt where he was often conflated with Horus and represented as a falcon so honu comes to the aid of the Goddess he travels to the Tigris River and uproots some kind of tree of death

and doing so so he makes the Venom of the serpent disappear saving the garden this is followed by a wedding ceremony in which hanu gives the goddess serpents as a dowy what's going on in this strange myth is far from obvious corpal and deore believe that hu is the god of serpents and therefore the one originally responsible for the serpent attack in the garden this they say is what is meant by a line that says hanu came to the goddess's aid because he she would be bered of his her Offspring with the implied subject being

horonu other interpreters think it is the goddess whose Offspring is in Jeopardy the role of the tree is similarly disputed corpal and deore think it is the Tree of Life which has been turned into a tree of death by the Serpent's Venom and must be removed by hu others think Haru is simply using a tree branch as a magic wand to nullify the Serpent's Venom every aspect of this myth is debated but there is another important Eden parallel we'll come back to the second tablet of Interest kt11 seven appears to take place in the vineyard

of the Gods which is undoubtedly the ugaritic equivalent of Eden in the opening lines which are highly fragmentary a character named adamu appears and is seemingly attacked by a serpent at least that's how corpal and deore interpret the text a bit later on the Serpent's victim is referred to by the name shuga zizu as he is overcome by poison he calls out to shapu the sun goddess after a long Lacuna in the text shapu summons honu to come and bind the serpent horonu appears to dispel the poison while shapu removes a malevolent fog that has

covered the mountains the ending is too damaged to know what happens to adamu and shahu aizu it's easy to see what Drew corpal and deore to this tablet we have an edenic Vineyard of the Gods an attack by a serpent and most importantly a character named adamu which is equivalent to the Hebrew name Adam these two authors further argue that adamu here is a Divine man sent to the sacred Vineyard to save the Tree of Life from The Serpent and prevent the poisoning of the world they even believe they have identified several cylinder Sills from

Cyprus showing a three-headed serpent attacking adamu unfortunately it is difficult to get many to agree with their interpretation since the surviving fragments of kt107 do not mention a tree or explain what adamu role in the story is nevertheless the appearance of the name adamu in a story about the Divine garden and a serpent is interesting who is this adamu is there any reason to think he or she is actually connected to the biblical adom [Music] ancient texts from ugarit ebla Anatolia and even Egypt make occasional reference to a mysterious deity named Adama or adamu the

exact spelling varies in some of these earlier texts Adama is clearly a goddess and the consort of rasef the god of the underworld later however in Anatolia and ugarit adamu is usually paired with The goddest kubaba Who eventually becomes sibili the mother goddess of the frians whether this version of adamu at ugarit is male female or even arogy is unclear although there are a number of theories about the origins of Adama the dominant view according to France vanen and Carol Vander torn and their article for the dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible is

that the name means soil or Earth and would have been fitting for a goddess associated with the underworld furthermore Franchesco espei an expert in Semitic Linguistics believes that the Hebrew word Adam which also happens to mean soil or Earth is in fact demythologized version of the Goddess adamu just as the name of the syyro Canaanite god r Chef often appears in the Bible as a term for plague and destruction this means that even if corpal and deore are mistaken about KTU 1117 as a direct predecessor of the Eden Story the ancient syyro Canaanite Earth deity

Adama might still be lurking in the background of the Eden story and the first man whose name Adam represents the Hebrew words for both man and soil and as we have already seen Earth Mother goddesses are a frequent element of neare Eastern creation stories involving the forming of humans from clay Eve whose name simply means life would correspond to the mother goddess kuapa or sibili in the Eden story albe it in humanized form [Music] those of us raised on the Bible and Christian theology are so used to thinking of the Eden story in terms of

human sin human weakness and human failure that we rarely notice where the real failure of this story lies if we revisit Genesis chapters 2 and three without these theological preconceptions the story is a rather startling admission of the limitations of the Creator himself Yahweh has planted a wondrous Garden but needs someone to till it so he forms a creature from clay to make it come alive he must breathe his own breath into it but the newly created man is lonely which Yahweh has failed to anticipate Yahweh tries to solve the problem by creating the animals

but these prove inadequate Yahweh finally creates a suitable companion in the form of Eve yahweh's failure does not end there however for a crafty serpent infiltrates the Divine garden and tricks Eve into eating the forbidden fruit it is Eve's own god-given human nature that makes her curious about the fruit and susceptible to the Serpent's influence the dominoes continue to fall as ad also eats the fruit and yahweh's entire plan for a man to till his garden is completely ruined left with no means to remedy the situation Yahweh banishes the humans from his garden if the

story of Eden is about anything at all surely it is about how even the plans of a God can go horribly wrong not everything is under the control of the Divine reframed in this manner the ugaritic myth on the tablet KTU 11100 is in fact remarkably similar according to the aforementioned ugaritic scholar Del Almo leate this text is a myth about magic it means to show that at the dawn of creation magic existed as something outside the powers of the Gods who created and Ruled the Earth those gods were powerless to protect the land against

evil creatures and when a serpent came and poisoned the garden they could do nothing to stop it only Haru an underworld deity with no sacrificial cult or place in the pantheon knew the proper magical incantations to dispel the serpent and its poison it is the same with the ugaritic story of Baal and his fight against the Sea Dragon lotan lotan is not part of U's creation he exists as part of the primordial chaos that is outside of the created order Leviathan the biblical chaos serpent fought by Yahweh in many places like Psalm 74 Psalm 89

and Isaiah 27 is no different he is a primordial power that exists outside of yahweh's Will and that opposes yahweh's created order the serpent in the Garden of Eden also represents that same primordial power a chaotic threat present at the beginning of history that Yahweh himself was unable to stop even the tree of life that Yahweh planted in the garden was able to produce effects against yahweh's will as Del amete puts it the main difference between Israelite and ugaritic theology lies in how this ancient conflict ICT was resolved in KTU 11100 Haru marries the sky

goddess and gives her serpents as wedding gifts thus uniting heaven with the underworld and bringing this primeval magic this second power under the control of the Gods the Israelite Solution on the other hand was to reject the practice of magic Del Amo summarizes in any case it is clear that the Primitive two power system is incorporated more or less in the religious conception in ugarit by accepting an independent magical power in Israel by rejecting it yet for centuries it remained active in religious Praxis and was ingrained in Israel's conception of Origins and of the resulting

ethical world the origin and Persistence of evil is affirmed through the Assumption of a primordial agent system that cannot be easily reduced to a unique Divine [Music] protagonist in the final analysis the search for a perfect near Eastern parallel to the Garden of Eden's story still eludes us the theory of corpal and deore that the tablets of ugarit preserve a direct predecessor to this taale is intriguing but must be viewed with skepticism unless a more complete version of the text can be found even so practically every element of the story has wellestablished predecessors in the

myths of the Nations that surrounded Israel and Adam himself has a plot ible origin in Adama the Earth goddess the version of Genesis we possess today however was written centuries or even Millennia later than the earliest myths about primeval Dillan the creation of humans from clay the tree of life and hostile serpents the preference for a single National God over the traditional Pantheon of Canaanite deities necessitated a new approach approach to the older myths and yet those myths never went away completely the deeper we investigate the stories of the Bible the more we are reminded

of that fact