Texts in Conversation
In 3 Enoch, God moves between Eden and its garden. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Berakhot also distinguishes them, reserving Eden as a reward beyond the garden Adam knew.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
3 Enoch 5:5
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
When the Holy One, blessed be He, went out and went in: from the Garden to Eden, from Eden to the Garden, from the Garden to Raqia and from Raqia to the Garden of Eden, then all and everyone saw the splendour of His Shekina and they were not injured, until the time of the generation of Enosh who was the head of all idol worshippers of the world. And what did the generation of Enosh do? They went from one end of the world to the other, and each one brought silver, gold, precious stones and pearls in heaps like mountains and hills making idols out of them throughout all the world. And they erected the idols in every quarter of the world: the size of each idol was 1000 parasangs.
Berakhot 34b:24
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
Earlier, Rabbi Yoḥanan said that there is a reward referred to in the verse: “No eye has seen it.” The Gemara asks: What is this reward about which it is said: “No eye has seen it”? Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: That is the wine that has been preserved in its grapes since the six days of creation and which no eye has ever seen. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: That is Eden, which no creature’s eye has ever surveyed. Lest you will say: Where was Adam the first man? Wasn’t he there and didn’t he survey Eden? The Gemara responds: Adam was only in the Garden of Eden, not in Eden itself.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
“... f. "From heaven to the garden of Eden." A
B; "from heaven to the upper garden." D. The
D reading alludes to the tradition that there is
both a terrestrial and a celestial garden of Eden:
see Seder Gan 'Eden, BHM, vol. 3. pp. I37f.
For the distinction in the text between "Eden"
and "the garden" see b.Ber 34b: "Perhaps you
will say. The garden and £den are the same. Not
so! For the text says, 'A river went out from
Eden to water the garden (Gen 2:10]'; the garden
is one thing and Eden is another." Cf. b.Sanh
99a: b.Ta'an 10a; GenR 15:2; note also Milton,
Paradise Lost, bk. 12, II. 624-29. ...”
Philip S. Alexander
"3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch" in James H. Charlesworth (ed.) The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1
(p. 260) Doubleday, 1983
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,