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In the Epic of Gilgamesh, divine scorpion-beings guard Mount Mashu, whose gate connects heaven and earth. Genesis 3 echoes this tradition, also describing divine beings guarding the boundary between heaven and earth.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Epic of Gilgamesh IX
Ancient Near East
and whose flank reaches as far as the Netherworld below, there were Scorpion-beings watching over its gate. Trembling terror they inspire, the sight of them is death, their frightening aura sweeps over the mountains. At the rising and setting they watch over the Sun. When Gilgamesh saw them, trembling terror blanketed his face,
Date: 2100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis 3:24
Hebrew Bible
22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. 24 When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
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Notes and References
“... After creation, the function of the sea monsters changed, mostly in a guarding function. In the Gilgamesh Epic, ferocious scorpion men guarded the mountain at the edge of the world, wanting to prevent Gilgamesh to enter the garden of the gods. The כְּרֻבִים had the same function in Genesis 3:24. One of the assigned duties of the sea-monsters, was to guard the gates of the netherworld. The hellhound Cerburus guarded the netherworld in Greek mythology and Aker, in the form of a double-sphinx, guarded the underworld in Egypt. ...”
Dyssel, Allan
Sea Monsters and Other Mythical Creatures Associated with the Primeval Flood in the Old Testament. A History of Denial?
(p. 179) University of South Africa, 2017
* 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.
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