Where The Heck Is Eden?

It goes without saying that no one will ever be able to prove or disprove the Creation, and although it is considered myth by skeptics, it was not fabricated by the Israelites. They believed it was part of their history that had been handed down through oral tradition. Some of that history can be verified through texts discovered in Mesopotamia as well as other areas. The Israelites did not “steal” history from the people who inhabited those areas, they helped make that history. The Hebrews lived among them and was very familiar with their culture, and their land. One of the things they would have been familiar with was the Garden of Eden. For the skeptic the first inhabitants may not have been named Adam and Eve, but there is no reason to believe it should have been so. Biblical chronology places the creation around 2,000 years before the first Biblical manuscript would have been written. There are no record from Sumaria that have the name Adam, although they do have a record of what has been interpreted as an expulsion from paradise:

Like vegetable food (?) .....

a. To do that in rebellion he has....

b.... he did not obey (?) him.

My heart is full, is full of....

.......is given,

Fear, lo lamentation is given

Unto me thou dost call;

And I at thy call

In my weakness was fleeing.

And I in my person.....

Thy humanity, thy body has not been taken away.....

For humanity the words of understanding are not....

End thy weeping!

From my midst go forth to the stepp!

a. To me forever, having taken the clothing--establishing-tree

b. as an outcast thou shalt not return!

a. The death-emancipating reed the enlightened children who are wretched

b. Shall not take

Reverse

Thou shalt never take.

In no way here after shalt thou attain release.

To my ox for threshing, as an outcast thou shalt not return!

To my field for irrigating as an outcast thou shalt not return!

To my field for tilling as an outcast thou shalt not return

To my work to do it as an outcast thou shalt not return!

Go; perform the work; raise the food to eat!

I! I will never receive thee!

a. Men like thee will perform the work; their mothers and their fathers

b. shall eat of heaven's food.

Since the hand of the son of the menial has divided their food, their eyes are opened.

As for themselves each has taken 10 measures of barley;

The children who are servants of their fathers have each taken 10 measures of barley for himself:

For each of their fathers barley has been threshed;

Barley, oil, wool, sheep have been brought unto them.

O humanity, be abundant!

Source: George Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, 7th Edition, p. 315

The text has been interpreted as the expulsion of a slave, but the words do not seem to indicate that.Owners normally did not release slaves because of disobedience. They beat them or killed them and sometimes sold them.The words "In no way here after shalt thou attain release," is contradictory to a released slave.The Hebrews were familiar with Sumerian history, which is apparent from the Dead Sea Scrolls that mention the very real King Gilgamesh and the Sumerian Anunnaki,the Biblical Annikim.


The place humanity was expelled from may have been the area of Mesopotamia known as Gu-Edinna. It was the most fertile region and was mentioned in several texts. Some scholars believe it was the southern end of the valley, while others believe it reached from the Tigris river to the border of Egypt. Sumerian texts place it along the Euphrates river and apparently wasn’t very large.