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In Gilgamesh, a towering cedar on a divine mountain serves as the world tree connecting heaven and earth. Ezekiel echoes this tradition when he describes Pharaoh as a cedar in the garden of God whose top reaches the clouds.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Epic of Gilgamesh V
Ancient Near East
Where Humbaba would walk there was a trail, the roads led straight on, the path was excellent. Then they saw the Cedar Mountain, the Dwelling of the Gods, the throne dais of Imini. Across the face of the mountain the Cedar brought forth luxurious foliage, its shade was good, extremely pleasant. The thornbushes were matted together, the woods were a thicket ... among the Cedars,... the boxwood, the forest was surrounded by a ravine two leagues long,
Date: 2100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Ezekiel 31:3
Hebrew Bible
3 Consider Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade, and extremely tall; its top reached into the clouds. 4 The water made it grow; underground springs made it grow tall. Rivers flowed all around the place it was planted, while smaller channels watered all the trees of the field. 5 Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches grew long, because of the plentiful water in its shoots. 6 All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth; in its shade all the great nations lived. 7 It was beautiful in its loftiness, in the length of its branches; for its roots went down deep to plentiful waters. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it, nor could the fir trees match its boughs; the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches; no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty. 9 I made it beautiful with its many branches; all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it.
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Notes and References
... Descriptions of the gardens in ancient Near Eastern literature mention springs, trees possessing divine attributes, and the overall beauty and fertility of the place. The trees on "the cedar mountain, the dwelling of the gods" mentioned in the Gilgamesh Epic, are said to be luxuriant. No mortal is intended to enter there. In the biblical material, Ezekiel 31:2-18 compares Pharaoh to a great tree. Verse 9b states that "all the trees of Eden which are in the garden of God" became jealous of the tree which represented Pharaoh. From further description it becomes evident that this tree grows in the divine enclosure. The divine garden is often the source of life-giving waters that refresh the earth. The land of Dilmun, the most celebrated example of the garden of the gods in Mesopotamian literature, is described in the Sumerian myth called Enki and Ninhursag ...
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