The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a City - Topics in Biblical Studies: The Tree of Knowledge

By Gwen Frangs / Cambridge, UK / December 2020

As I grew in my Christian faith it seemed to me that knowing the nature of the Father in Whose house one is going to be living for eternity is of integral importance to the Christian believer. I recognized that this question regarding what the Father is really like, is the question that is most important in Christianity. From the first time that I heard the story of the Garden of Eden it frightened me because of the way that it portrayed God. As I grew older I found it impossible to reconcile the God who punished Adam and Eve so severely because they ate a fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with the God that Jesus spoke about in the parable of the prodigal son. The harsh, unforgiving God of the Garden of Eden did not seem to be the same person as the loving father who watched out for his disobedient and ungrateful son to return and then greeted him with such enthusiasm, giving him a ring and a robe and having a feast in his honour.

It was distressing for me to see that pastors and ministers seemed content to present a Jekyll and Hyde type of God to their congregants. If a psychiatrist encountered this kind of contradiction in personality in a human being, they would diagnose the person with some sort of personality disorder. But there seemed to be general consensus among theologians that because God is God, it is okay for Him to display a dissociative identity disorder which, if observed in a human being, would be characterized as mental illness.

It was with profound relief that, when reading a passage in the book of Ezekiel, namely Ezekiel 31:1-9, I discovered the solution to this problem regarding the apparent difference between God, as He is portrayed in Genesis 2 and 3 and as He is revealed by Jesus in Luke 15. I discovered that God is not insane, but rather that theologians and Bible translators have let us down when it comes to the story of the Garden of Eden, by not searching for clues regarding what the story is actually about in other places in the Bible.

As we read Ezekiel 31:1-9 we must remember that the apostle Paul described scripture as God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Ezekiel 31:1-9 is a communication to us from the Holy Spirit and He does not lie. Therefore, we can take what He says in this passage as an accurate description of the situation that actually existed in the Garden of Eden.

In Ezekiel 31:1-9 we read:

In the eleventh year, in the third month on the first day, the word of the Lord came to me: ²“Son of man, say to ‘Pharaoh’ king of Egypt and to his hordes: “Who can be compared with you in majesty? ³Consider Assur, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest; it towered on high, its top above the thick foliage. ⁴The waters nourished it, deep springs made it grow tall; their streams flowed all around its base and sent their channels to all the trees of the field. ⁵So it towered higher than all the trees of the field; its boughs increased, and its branches grew long, spreading because of abundant waters. ⁶All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs, all the animals of the wild gave birth under its branches; all the great nations lived in its shade. ⁷It was majestic in beauty, with its spreading boughs, for its roots went down to abundant waters. ⁸The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor could the junipers equal its boughs, nor could the plane trees compare with its branches — no tree in the garden of God could match its beauty. ⁹I made it beautiful with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God.

(NIV translation but, with Assur left as Assur, rather than being replaced with Assyria. The name Assur is what is in the original Hebrew text)

Assur, also known as Ashur and Qal’at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian Empire, the Middle Assyrian Empire, and for a time, of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

The name ‘Assur’ is what appears in the original Hebrew in Ezekiel 31:3. However, for some reason many Bible translators have chosen to replace the word ‘Assur’ in Ezekiel 31:3 with the word ‘Assyria’. A small group of Bible translators have kept ‘Assur’ in the text. For example:

Young’s Literal Translation

Bishop’s Bible

Complete Jewish Bible

Wycliffe

I agree with these translators. The reason why I agree with these translators is because within the context of the passage it makes greater sense that Assur refers to the ancient capital city Assur rather than to Assyria. This is because Assyria is a nation and too many trees are described in verses 9 and 10 as being in the Garden of Eden for the trees to be nations. I will explain what I mean by this.

In Ezekiel 28:13 God says:

You were in Eden,

the garden of God…

Ezekiel 28:13 NIV

We see that Eden is described as the Garden of God.

According to David Rohl, the author of Legend: The Genesis of Civilization, Eden was located around Lake Van and Lake Urmia.

I agree with Rohl that Eden was located around Lake Van and Lake Urmia. However, I believe that Eden was larger than Rohl thinks and that it also extended down between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. I believe that Eden included this area for two reasons:

Firstly, it does not make sense that the very fertile area between the Tigris and Euphrates, which we know to be the cradle of civilization, would not have formed part of Eden.

Secondly, after studying the ancient Hebrew text of Genesis 2:10, I believe that it should be read as saying that Eden, rather than the river that went out of Eden, was separated between the four headwaters. In other words, it is Eden that is the subject of the verse and the ‘it’ in the verse refers to Eden and not to the river.

In Genesis 2:10 the Hebrew word וְהָיָ֖ה translated ‘and became’ can also be translated as ‘shall extend’ (Numbers 34:3) or ‘shall correspond’ (Leviticus 25:50). There is a preposition on the word לְאַרְבָּעָ֥ה (four). It is ignored by most Bible translators. It is the preposition ‘to’ https://www.pealim.com/dict/6014-le/. Therefore, the verse is saying that from the river, Eden separates and extends or corresponds to four headwaters.

Therefore, it is my understanding that the verse should read as:

A river, watering the garden, flowed from Eden; from there it (Eden) was separated and extends (corresponds) to four headwaters. (Bold mine)
Genesis 2:10

Verses 11-14 name the four headwaters that demarcate the area of Eden. Eden was separated into the area between the Gihon and Phison rivers, which Rohl identifies as the Araxes and Uizhun rivers (Legend: The Genesis of Civilization pages 56, 57 and 58) and the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Rohl points out that the Araxes river was originally called the Gaihun and that the letter ‘U’ could be changed to ‘P’ in the ancient world; so that, in fact, the Uizhun is actually the Phison river, with the ‘ison’ of Phison, spelt differently as ‘izhun’, instead of as ‘ison’

This means that there was not enough geographical area for a large number of nations to fit into Eden. Also, historically very few nations had existed in this area. So Ezekiel 31:8-9 could not be referring to an accumulation of nations over the passage of time. Therefore, it has to be cities that are being spoken of in these verses and not nations.

In Ezekiel 31:3 God compares Assur to a cedar tree. According to Yahweh, the city of Assur was a beautiful and majestic tree which was the envy of all the trees in Eden. In other words, Assur was the envy of all the cities in the Garden of Eden. It is quite hard to take this in because we are so used to the traditional understanding that the trees in Eden were literal trees. However, in this passage from Ezekiel it is quite clear that the Spirit of God is comparing the city of Assur with a tree. The Spirit of God is saying that it was more beautiful than the trees in Eden. Therefore, it follows that the trees in Eden must also have been cities. This means that cities existed in the Garden of Eden.

It may be confusing for the modern reader that Assur is called a cedar in Lebanon in verse 3. This is because Assur was not a Lebanese city. However, in Isaiah 2:12-13 Yahweh uses the expression ‘the cedars of Lebanon’ as a metaphor to describe something as proud and lofty (Isaiah 2:12-13) and in Psalm 92:12 He uses the expression ‘a cedar of Lebanon’ to describe the prosperity of righteous individuals (Psalm 92:12). Therefore, in Ezekiel 31:3, Yahweh is not speaking about the location of Assur, but is speaking about the characteristics of Assur – a proud and prosperous city.

It must be remembered that the authors of Ezekiel and Genesis were inspired by the same Spirit of God. It is clear that He uses the metaphor of trees as cities in Ezekiel 31. It makes sense that He would also have used this same metaphor in Genesis 2 and 3. If one applies the metaphor of trees as cities used in Ezekiel 31 to Genesis 2 and 3, it means that the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were cities. Therefore, when Yahweh instructed Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was instructing Adam not to partake of anything coming out of that city.

This interpretation explains where Adam’s sons got their wives, as it is clear that there were cities in the area that was the Garden of Eden and, so, many people were living in the Garden of Eden, not just two, as we have been traditionally taught. In the New International Version Acts 17:26 reads as:

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
Acts 17:26 NIV

However, the word ‘man’ is not present in the original Greek text. It has been added in by the Bible translators. The original Greek text reads:

He made then of one, every nation of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined the appointed times and the boundaries of the habitation of them.
Acts 17:26 Bible Hub Interlinear

Therefore, we see that the apostle Paul was not saying that every nation came from one man, but that every nation came from one nation. He understood that there was a nation of people living in the Garden of Eden and not just two people.

The word for ‘the Adam’ in Genesis 2 and 3 can also be translated as ‘mankind’:

Strong’s Concordance

adam: man, mankind

Original Word: אָדָם
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: adam
Phonetic Spelling: (aw-dawm’)
Definition: man, mankind
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/120.htm

I believe that the word ‘ha-a-dam’ is used in Genesis 2 and 3 to denote both the individual man, Adam, and mankind collectively. I believe that the first reference to ‘ha-a-dam’ being placed by God into the Garden (Genesis 2:8-9) refers to mankind being placed into the Garden by God. The second reference to ‘ha-a-dam’ being placed into the Garden (Genesis 2:15) is a reference to ‘the Adam’, the individual man, being placed into the Garden. This explains why we are told twice that Adam was placed by God into the Garden of Eden.

When Yahweh made Adam to tend the Garden of Eden, he was not creating Adam to tend a garden full of actual trees. He was created to be the priest king of the cities in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2:15 we are told that Yahweh took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and to keep it. However, the Hebrew word traditionally translated as ‘tend’ can be translated as ‘serve’:

Strong’s Concordance

abad: to work, serve

Original Word: עָבַד
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: abad
Phonetic Spelling: (aw-bad’)
Definition: to work, serve
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5647.htm

The word traditionally translated ‘keep’ can be translated as to ‘watch’ to ‘preserve‘ or to ‘guard’:

Strong’s Concordance

shamar: to keep, watch, preserve

Original Word: שָׁמַר
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: shamar
Phonetic Spelling: (shaw-mar’)
Definition: to keep, watch, preserve
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8104.htm

Genesis 3:24
HEB: הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת לִשְׁמֹ֕ר אֶת־ דֶּ֖רֶךְ
NAS: which turned every direction to guard the way
KJV: which turned every way, to keep the way
INT: sword turned to guard the way to the tree

Genesis 41:35
HEB: אֹ֥כֶל בֶּעָרִ֖ים וְשָׁמָֽרוּ׃
NAS: authority, and let them guard [it].
KJV: of Pharaoh, and let them keep food
INT: food the cities guard
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8104.htm

I would argue that what the verse is saying is that ‘the Adam’ was placed in the Garden to serve and guard the people living in the Garden. This explains why the apostle Paul teaches that Adam was a type of Jesus, who is a priest king who serves and guards His sheep as the good shepherd and who is to rule over the new earth. The apostle Paul said in Romans 5 that Adam was a type of Christ. This means that he was the foreshadowing of a priest king who was going to live in the city of life and to rule the earth. Unfortunately, Adam became corrupted when he partook of the knowledge of good and evil in the city located in the middle of the garden.

God created Adam, the priest king, in Genesis 2:7. Then in Genesis 2:8 mankind is placed into the Garden of Eden by God. The tree of life is a city that is in the Garden where the inhabitants serve God. Then the city of the knowledge of good and evil became present in the Garden and God places ‘the Adam’, the priest king, into the Garden to protect the people from becoming further influenced by that city. The city of the knowledge of good and evil became present in the Garden in Genesis 2:9 between the time when God placed mankind into the Garden and the time when God placed ‘the Adam’, the priest king, into the Garden.

The fact that Adam was different from the other people in the Garden is signified by the fact that the word used in the ancient Hebrew when referring to Adam is ‘ha-a-dam’ which means ‘the Adam’, and not just the proper name Adam.’ The definite article ‘ha’ signifies that ‘the Adam’ was a special man created by God to rule over the Garden.

There is physical evidence that a man who was different from the people that were living in ancient Sumer was introduced into the area by God. In her article Mysterious Sumerian Statues With Big Blue Eyes – A Sign From The Gods Ellen Lloyd discusses how the Sumerians made several ancient statues of beings who had very big and blue eyes and that these ancient statues were placed in high temples on top of ziggurats. She says that it seems clear that the eye motif on these figures was very significant to our ancestors. She says the following in her article:

Forensic archaeologist Jane Shuter studied several Sumerian burial grounds that contained skeletons. According to her, Sumerians were short and solid. They had thin lips, straight thin noses, and eyes that sloped downward. Shuter and other archaeologists suggest that Sumerians were dark-skinned, dark-eyed and dark-haired. Sumerians also referred to themselves as “the dark-haired people.”……

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have tracked down a genetic mutation, which took place 6-10,000 years ago, and is the cause of the eye color of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today. It is possible that some Sumerians did have blue eyes, but if that was the case it is unlikely it was many people. Blue eyes were by no means common among Sumerians.

Like many other ancient civilizations, the Sumerians considered blue eyes to be a sign of gods. Some eyes are outlined and those without anything but white for the eyes have most likely lost the color that was inserted when the sculpture was new.

The ancient Sumerian statues with big blue eyes have symbolic meaning. Each of these statues is different. The faces and clothing are not alike. This means the statues were not created to represent one important individual, but many different persons.

According to Irene J. Winter at the Columbia University, New York, “the enlarged, staring eyes of Mesopotamian votive statues have often been remarked upon as a characteristic stylistic feature, only occasionally with the proposition that their function must have been to denote attentiveness toward the presumed object of their gaze. Yet, it is known that these statues were placed in shrines either seated within their own chapels or standing in direct visual contact with the resident deity.“

Without access to contemporary texts, it is difficult to say with certainty what the Sumerians were thinking when they created the big blue-eyes statues. However, blue eyes were associated with the gods and since many of the beings are looking up, we can distinguish a heaven and earth connection….

Blue was a very significant color in ancient times and having blue eyes was considered divine. Most likely our ancestors believed that people with blue eyes stood closer to the gods.

I disagree with Lloyd’s assessment that the blue eyed statues are of different persons. I think that the statues were all of one man, Adam the priest king, but that the statues were made after Adam was no longer the priest king and was no longer living in the Garden.

In the same way that artists have made representations of Jesus, although never having seen Him, the artists who created the statues of Adam had never actually seen Adam themselves, but were trying to capture his resemblance as best as they could from what they had been told about him. All that they really knew for sure was that he had blue eyes and had been the intercessor between God and man.

The fact that the statues were ‘placed in shrines either seated within their own chapels or standing in direct visual contact with the resident deity’ indicates the role that Adam had played as an intercessor between man and God. The ancient Sumerians placed these statues in the temples of their new gods hoping that these gods would look favourably upon them because of a statue of the former priest king being present in the temple.

According to Lloyd:

‘blue eyes were associated with the gods and since many of the beings are looking up, we can distinguish a heaven and earth connection…. Blue was a very significant color in ancient times and having blue eyes was considered divine. Most likely our ancestors believed that people with blue eyes stood closer to the gods.’

I would argue that the reason that that our ancestors believed that people with blue eyes stood closer to the gods was that Adam had stood close to God. The statues look up attentively towards ‘the presumed object of their gaze’ that object being God. The statues are physical evidence of the fact that a special priest king lived either in or close to ancient Sumer 6 -10 000 years ago.

After ‘the Adam’ is placed into the Garden, God creates those animals which inhabit fields. These are referred to in Genesis 3 as ‘the beasts of the field’ and are probably domesticated animals and the type of wild animal that farmers find in their fields. These are named by ‘the Adam’ indicating his authority over the Garden. However, none of these animals are a suitable helper for ‘the Adam’ and God decides to create a special woman out of the special man to be his equal. He would not have been able to find a wife for Adam in one of the cities in Eden because by the time that God placed ‘the Adam’ into the Garden to be a priest king, the people in all of the cities had been affected by the influence of the city of the knowledge of good and evil. So, there would not have been a woman in these cities who would have been suitable as a wife for ‘the Adam’. This does not mean that the people in the cities were in a state of sin, however, as sin entered the world through Adam. The apostle Paul makes it clear that sin is only imputed when there is law. These people had not received any law from God. It was Adam who received the instruction from God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His disobedience brought sin into the world.

It is only after Adam and Eve sin that Eve receives the name ‘Eve’ from Adam. Genesis 3:20 says that Adam called his wife Eve because she was to become the mother of all living. However, Adam is not speaking here in a biological sense, but is speaking here prophetically. The verse needs to be understood in the context that it is written. Yahweh has just told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:19 that they were taken from dust and would return to dust, indicating to them that they were going to die. In verse 20 Adam calls his wife Eve, thereby prophesying that she will become the mother of all living. This is because through her line, the Messiah was going to be born into the world. The Messiah would reverse the death brought about by Adam’s sin. Therefore, Adam’s act of naming his wife Eve, is a spiritual act and the ‘living’ that Adam is referring to here are those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as Lord and saviour.

Adam’s failure to protect the people in the Garden resulted in ancient Sumer becoming infested by a group of fallen angels who taught forbidden knowledge to the people and who intermarried with human women. Study of the Mesopotamian gods reveals that they were all fallen angels. Genesis 6 talks about sons of God who came to earth and married human women. Jude 1:6 speaks about angels who did not keep to their own domain and are now being kept in darkness in chains by God until the day of judgement.1 Enoch describes the chaos caused by these angels:

7.1 And they took wives for themselves, and everyone chose for himself, one each. And, they began to go into them, and were promiscuous with them. And they taught them charms, and spells, and they showed them the cutting of roots and trees.
7.2 And they became pregnant and bore large giants. And their height was three thousand cubits.
7.3 These, devoured all the toil of men, until men were unable to sustain them.
7.4 And the giants turned against them in order to devour men.
7.5 And they began to sin against birds, and against animals, and against reptiles, and against fish, and they devoured one another’s flesh, and drank the blood from it.
7.6 Then the Earth complained about the lawless ones.

8.1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and daggers, and shields, and breastplates. And he showed them the things after these, and the art of making them; bracelets and ornaments, and the art of making up the eyes, and of beautifying the eyelids, and the most precious and choice stones, and all kinds of coloured dyes. And the world was changed.
8.2 And there was great impiety, and much fornication, and they went astray, and all their ways became corrupt.
8.3 Amezarak taught all those who cast spells and cut roots, Armaros the release of spells, and Baraqiel astrologers, and Kokabiel portents, and Tamiel taught astrology, and Asradel taught the path of the Moon.
8.4 And, at the destruction on the Earth, men cried out, and their voices reached Heaven.

The people began to worship these angels instead of worshiping God and they built temples for these gods in the cities of ancient Sumer.

Azazel is my prime candidate for the serpent figure in Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:1-5 NIV

He may also be the cherub that God speaks to in Ezekiel 28:

¹¹The word of the Lord came to me: ¹²“Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘You were the seal of perfection,
    full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
¹³You were in Eden,
    the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you:
    carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,
    topaz, onyx and jasper,
    lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.^[a]
Your settings and mountings^[b] were made of gold;
    on the day you were created they were prepared.
¹⁴You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
    for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
    you walked among the fiery stones.
¹⁵You were blameless in your ways
    from the day you were created
    till wickedness was found in you.
¹⁶Through your widespread trade
    you were filled with violence,
    and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
    and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
    from among the fiery stones.
¹⁷Your heart became proud
    on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
    because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
    I made a spectacle of you before kings.
¹⁸By your many sins and dishonest trade
    you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you,
    and it consumed you,
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground
    in the sight of all who were watching.
¹⁹All the nations who knew you
    are appalled at you;
you have come to a horrible end
    and will be no more.’”
Ezekiel 28:11-19 NIV

Recent scholarship places the writing of the account of the Garden of Eden as soon after the Babylonian Exile. Jerusalem fell in 597 BCE and Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and took Jeconiah, his court and other prominent citizens, one of whom was more than likely the author of Genesis 2, back to Babylon where they would have been confronted by the Babylonian religion and the Babylonian religious history. Babylon itself, was a city that was located in the area which had once been Eden. It adopted the gods of ancient Sumer and Mesopotamia as its own. According to this history, the god Enki, with the assistance of other Mesopotamian gods, created agriculture and civilization in ancient Sumer. It is probable that the author’s God inspired reaction to Babylonian religious history would have been to write a polemic against this history. Therefore, Genesis 2 and 3 can be seen to be a polemic against the false teaching of the religions of ancient Sumer, Mesopotamia and Babylon.

Conclusion

The story of the garden of Eden can be regarded as a polemic against Mesopotamian history which said that the Mesopotamian god Enki created agriculture and civilization in ancient Sumer, and which attributed the creation of man to the Mesopotamian gods. The story shows that it was Yahweh that created man and populated the earth, not the Sumerian god Enki. The story shows that Yahweh was the One who introduced civilization to the earth. The author uses the same imagery of cities as trees that is used by Ezekiel, who was writing his book at around the same time. Both authors were inspired by the same God to write what they wrote. It seems clear, given the evidence of the blue-eyed statues that have been found, that a man who was different in appearance to the Sumerians and who acted as an intercessor between them and God, lived in ancient Sumer.

To understand the true nature of ‘the Adam’s’ sin, it is vital to understand that in Genesis 2 and 3 the trees in the Garden are symbolic of cities. By failing to teach that the trees in Genesis 3 are in fact cities and that ‘the Adam’ was a priest king and not merely a gardener, the church has made God appear to be petty and vindictive, condemning people for the simplest misdemeanour. However, what ‘the Adam’ did was not a small misdemeanour, it was hugely serious because he was the priest king, the ruler placed in a position of authority over many cities and God’s representative on the earth. He was someone with great responsibility, who disobeyed God after he was given instruction by God, which he knowingly disregarded and for these reasons failed in his role to serve and protect the people whom God placed in his care.

Fortunately, for us, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, does not repeat the failure of the first Adam and we are safe in His care and we benefit daily from His service as the intercessor on our behalf to the Father and as the provider of everything that we need in our lives. While ‘the Adam’ took his eyes off those who were in his care, Jesus never takes His eyes off you and me. He protects us every day. Do not be discouraged by what you see going on in the world around you, because He is with you.