Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 2:8 and 2 Enoch 9:1 and Matthew 25:34 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:8

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament · Targum

Summary

Genesis says the garden in Eden was planted after humans were created. Later traditions such as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Gospel of Matthew, and 2 Enoch say the garden existed before creation and was prepared as a future reward for the faithful.

Passages

Genesis 2:8

Hebrew Bible

7 The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.)

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

2 Enoch 9:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch

1 'This place, Enoch, is prepared for the righteous, who endure all kinds of wrongs from those who torment them, who turn their eyes away from wickedness, and judge justly, and give bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with clothing, and raise up the fallen, and help injured orphans, and who walk without fault before the face of the Lord, and serve him alone, and for them this place is prepared for eternal inheritance.'

1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

Matthew 25:34

New Testament

33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:8

Targum

7 The Lord God created Adam with two inclinations. And He took dust from the site of the sanctuary and from the four winds of the world, and a mixture of all the waters of the world, and created him red, black, and white. And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the breath became in the body of Adam a spirit capable of speech, to give light to the eyes and to give hearing to the ears. 8 Before the creation of the world, a garden had been planted by the Memra of the Lord God from Eden for the righteous, and He made Adam dwell there when He created him. 9 And the Lord God caused to grow from the ground every tree that is desirable to see and good to eat, and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, whose height was a journey of five hundred years, and the tree whose fruit enables those who eat it to distinguish between good and evil.

300–1200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pseudo Jonathan Genesis

References

"... Genesis 2:8, Targum Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:8 ... 2 Enoch 8:1-8 describes Paradise and goes on in 9:1 to say that it had been prepared for the righteous. Compare also with Matthew 25:34. Pirkei d'Rabbi Eleazar 18 has Adam speak of “the place of the abode of the righteous in the garden of Eden” ..."

Michael Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis, ArBib 1B (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992), 23.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

2 Enoch73 chapters

Compare Genesis 2:8 and 2 Enoch 9:1 and Matthew 25:34 and Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:8

Summary

Passages

Genesis 2:8

2 Enoch 9:1

Matthew 25:34

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 2:8

References

Your feedback

Leave a comment

Glossary

Search the Library