Paradise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Paradise (disambiguation).

Paradise by Jan Bruegel.

Paradise is a religious term for a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the supposed miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and idleness. Paradise is often described as a "higher place", the holiest place, in contrast to Hell. Paradisaical notions are cross-cultural, often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both. In eschatological contexts, paradise is imagined as an abode of the virtuous dead. In Christian and Islamic understanding, Heaven is a paradisaical relief, evident for example in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus tells a penitent criminal crucified alongside him that they will be together in paradise. In old Egyptian beliefs, the otherworld is Aaru, the reed-fields of ideal hunting and fishing grounds where the dead lived after judgment. For the Celts, it was theFortunate Isle of Mag Mell. For the classical Greeks, the Elysian fields was a paradisaical land of plenty where the heroic and righteous dead hoped to spend eternity. The Vedic Indians held that the physical body was destroyed by fire but recreated and reunited in the Third Heaven in a state of bliss. In the Zoroastrian Avesta, the "Best Existence" and the "House of Song" are places of the righteous dead. On the other hand,

in cosmological contexts 'paradise' describes the world before it was tainted by evil. So for example, the Abrahamic faiths associate paradise with the Garden of Eden, that is, the perfect state of the world prior to the fall from grace, and the perfect state that will be restored in the World to Come. The concept is a topos' in art and literature, particularly of the pre-Enlightenment era, a well-known representative of which is John Milton's Paradise Lost. A paradise should not be confused with a utopia, which is an alternative society.
Contents
[hide]

1 Etymology and semasiology 2 Religious use

o o

2.1 Judaism 2.2 Christianity

o o

2.2.1 Slavic Christianity 2.2.2 Jehovah's Witnesses 2.2.3 Mormonism

2.3 Islam 2.4 The Urantia Book

3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit]Etymology

and semasiology

Nicolas Poussin, Four seasons of paradise. 166064

The word "paradise" entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, from Greek pardeisos (), and ultimately from an Old Iranian root, attested in Avestan as pairi.daza-.[1] The literal meaning of this Eastern Old Iranian language word is "walled (enclosure)",[1] from pairi- "around" + -diz"to create (a wall)".[2] The word is not attested in other Old Iranian languages (these may however be hypothetically reconstructed, for example as Old Persian*paridayda-).

By the 6th/5th century BCE, the Old Iranian word had been adopted as Akkadian pardesu and Elamite partetas, "domain". It subsequently came to indicate walled estates, especially the carefully tended royal parks and menageries. The term eventually appeared in Greek as pardeisos "park for animals" in the Anabasis of the early 4th century BCE Athenian gentlemanscholar Xenophon. Aramaic pardaysa similarly reflects "royal park". Hebrew ( pardes) appears thrice in the Tanakh; in the Song of Solomon 4:13, Ecclesiastes 2:5 and Nehemiah 2:8. In those contexts it could be interpreted as an "orchard" or a "fruit garden". In the 3rd1st centuries BCE Septuagint, Greek (pardeisos) was used to translate both Hebrew pardes and Hebrew gan, "garden": it is from this usage that the use of "paradise" to refer to the Garden of Eden derives. The same usage also appears in Arabic and in the Quran itself as (firdaws). The idea of a walled enclosure was not preserved in most Iranian usage, and generally came to refer to a plantation or other cultivated area, not necessarily walled. For example, the Old Iranian word survives in New Persian plz (or "jlz"(, which denotes a vegetable patch. However, the word park, as well as the similar complex of words that have the same indoeuropean root: garden, yard, girdle, orchard, court, etc., all refer simply to a deliberately enclosed area, but not necessarily an area enclosed by walls. For the connection between these ideas and that of the city, compare German Zaun ("fence"), English town and Dutch tuin ("garden"), or garden/yard with Nordic garr and Slavic gard (both "city").

[edit]Religious [edit]Judaism

use

The word pardes, borrowed from the Persian word, does not appear before the post-Exilic period (post-538 BCE); it occurs in the Song of Songs 4:13, Ecclesiastes 2:5, and Nehemiah 2:8, in each case meaning "park" or "garden", the original Persian meaning of the word, where it describes to the royal parks of Cyrus the Great by Xenophon in Anabasis. Later in Second Temple era Judaism "paradise" came to be associated with the Garden of Eden and prophesies of restoration of Eden, and transferred to heaven. The Septuagint uses the word around 30 times, both of Eden, (Gen.2:7 etc.) and of Eden restored (Ezek. 28:13, 36:35) etc. In the Apocalypse of Moses, Adam and Eve are expelled from paradise (instead of Eden) after having been tricked by the serpent. Later after the death of Adam, the Archangel Michael carries the body of Adam to be buried in Paradise, which is in the Third Heaven. Later in Rabbinical Judaism the word 'Pardes' recurs, but less often in the Second Temple context of Eden or restored Eden. Tosefta Hagigah14b uses the word of the veil around mystic philosophy.[3] The Zohar gives the word a mystical interpretation, and associates it with the four kinds of Biblical exegesis: peshat (literal meaning), remez (allusion), derash (anagogical), and sod (mystic). The initial

letters of those four words then form p(a)rd(e)s, which was in turn felt to represent the fourfold interpretation of the Torah (in which sod the mystical interpretation ranks highest).

[edit]Christianity
See also: World to Come The New Testament use and understanding of paradise parallels that of contemporary Judaism. The word is used three times in the New Testament writings:

Luke 23:43 by Jesus on the cross, in response to the thief's request that Jesus remember him when he came in his kingdom.

2 Cor.12:4 in Paul's description of a man's description of a third heaven paradise, which may in fact be a vision Paul himself saw.

Rev.2:7 in a reference to the Gen.2:8 paradise and the tree of life

In the 2nd century AD, Irenaeus distinguished paradise from heaven. In Against Heresies, he wrote that only those deemed worthy would inherit a home in heaven, while others would enjoy paradise, and the rest live in the restored Jerusalem (which was mostly a ruin after the JewishRoman wars but was rebuilt beginning with Constantine the Great). Origen likewise distinguished paradise from heaven, describing paradise as the earthly "school" for souls of the righteous dead, preparing them for their ascent through the celestial spheres to heaven.[4] Many early Christians identified Abraham's bosom with paradise, where the souls of the righteous go until the resurrection, others were inconstant in their identification of paradise, such as St. Augustine whose views varied.[5] In Luke 23:43 Jesus has a conversation with one of those crucified with him, he asks: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" and Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise.;[6] which is often understood to mean, that on that same day the thief and Jesus would enter the intermediate resting place of the dead who were waiting for the Resurrection.[7] Divergent views on paradise and when one enters it may have be responsible for a punctuation difference in Luke; for example the two early Syriac versions translate Luke 23:43 differently. The Curetonian Gospels read "Today I tell you that you will be with me in paradise", whereas the Sinaitic Palimpsest reads "I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise". Likewise the two earliest Greek codices with punctuation disagree: Codex Vaticanus has a pause mark in the original ink after 'today', whereas Codex Alexandrinus has the "today in paradise" reading. In Christian art Fra Angelico's Last Judgement painting shows Paradise on its left side. There is a tree of life (and another tree) and a circle dance of liberated souls. In the middle is a hole. In Muslim art it similarly indicates the presence of the Prophet or divine beings. It visually says, 'Those here cannot be depicted.'

[edit]Slavic Christianity
Main article: Rai (paradise)

Slavic languages, and Romanian which is not Slavic but Slavic-influenced, have a distinct term for "paradise", "raj" (read "rai") which is generally agreed to derive from Persian ray and co-exists alongside terms deriving from the Persian word pardeis.

[edit]Jehovah's Witnesses
See also: Jehovah's Witnesses and salvation Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jehovah's purpose from the start was, and is, to have the earth filled with the offspring of Adam and Eve as caretakers of a global paradise. After God had designed this earth for human habitation, however, Adam and Eve rebelled against Jehovah and so they were banished from the Garden of Eden, or Paradise. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the wicked people will be destroyed at Armageddon and that many of the righteous (those faithful and obedient to Jehovah) will live eternally in an earthly Paradise. (Psalms 37:9, 10, 29; Prov. 2:21, 22). Joining the survivors will be resurrected righteous and unrighteous people who died prior to Armageddon (John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15). The latter are brought back because they paid for their sins by their death, and/or also because they lacked opportunity to learn of Jehovah's requirements prior to dying (Rom. 6:23). These will be judged on the basis of their post-resurrection obedience to instructions revealed in new "scrolls" (Rev. 20:12). This provision does not apply to those that Jehovah deems to have sinned against his holy spirit (Matt. 12:31, Luke 12:5).[8][9] One of Jesus' last recorded statements before he died were the words to an evildoer hanging alongside him on a torture stake, "You will be with me in Paradise".Luke 23:43. Witnesses believe scriptures such as Matthew 12:40 and 27:63 and Mark 8:31 and 9:31 show that Jesus himself expected an interval of three days between his own death and resurrection, making impossible a reunion in Paradise on the same day as Jesus' "you will be with me in Paradise" statement.[10]

[edit]Mormonism
In Latter Day Saint theology, paradise usually refers to the spirit world. That is, the place where spirits dwell following death and awaiting the resurrection. In that context, "paradise" is the state of the righteous after death. In contrast, the wicked and those who have not yet learned the gospel of Jesus Christ await the resurrection in spirit prison. After the universal resurrection, all persons will be assigned to a particular kingdom or degree of glory. This may also be termed "paradise".

[edit]Islam
Main article: Jannah In the Qur'an, Paradise is denoted as jannah (garden), with the highest level being called firdaus. The etymologically equivalent word is derived from the original Avestan counterpart, and used instead of Heaven to describe the ultimate pleasurable place after death, accessible by those who pray, donate to charity, read the Qur'an, believe in: God, the angels, his revealed books, his prophets and messengers, the Day of Judgement and the afterlife, and follow God's will in their life. Heaven in Islam is used to describe

the Universe. It is also used in the Qur'an to describe skies in the literal sense, i.e., above earth. In Islam, the bounties and beauty of Heaven are immense, so much so that they are beyond the abilities of mankinds worldly mind to comprehend.

[edit]The

Urantia Book

The Urantia Book portrays Paradise as the "eternal center of the universe of universes," and as "the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates." The book states that paradise is the primal origin and the final destiny for all spirit personalities, and for all the ascending creatures of the evolutionary worlds of time and space.[11]

[edit]See

also

Dilmun Eridu Fiddler's Green Garden of Eden Golden Age Goloka Nirvana Paradise garden Utopia Valhalla

[edit]References
a b

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

New Oxford American dictionary

^ Online Etymology Dictionary ^ JewishEncyclopedia.com ^ Church fathers: De Principiis (Book II) Origen, newadvent.org ^ Jean Delumeau (1995). History of paradise. University of Illinois Press. pp. 29. ISBN 978-0-25206880-5. Retrieved 3 April 2013.

6. 7.

^ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23&version=NIV ^ A. W. Zwiep (1997). The Ascension of the Messiah in Lukan Christology /. BRILL. pp. 150 . ISBN 978-90-04-10897-4. Retrieved 3 April 2013.

8. 9.

^ What Does the Bible Really Teach? (Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, 2005), Chapter 7 ^ Insight on the Scriptures (Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, 1988), 78392

10. ^ "Meeting the Challenge of Bible Translation", The Watchtower, June 15, 1974, page 362363 11. ^ http://www.urantia.org/en/urantia-book-standardized/paper-11-eternal-isle-paradise

Garden of Eden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Garden of Eden (disambiguation).

"The Garden of Eden" by Lucas Cranach der ltere, a 16th century German depiction of Eden.

The Garden of Eden (Hebrew

, Gan Edhen) is the biblical "garden of God", described most notably

in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 2-3), but also mentioned, directly or indirectly, in Ezekiel, Isaiah and elsewhere in the Old Testament.[1] In the past, the favoured derivation of the name "Eden" was from the Akkadian edinnu, itself derived from a Sumerian word meaning "plain" or "steppe", but it is now believed to be more closely related to anAramaic root meaning "fruitful, well-watered."[1] The Eden of Genesis has been variously located at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates in northern Iraq, in Africa, and in the Persian Gulf. The Eden in Ezekiel, however, is unequivocally located in Lebanon. For many medieval writers, the image of the Garden of Eden also creates a location for human love and sexuality, often associated with the classic and medieval trope of the locus amoenus.[2]
Contents
[hide]

1 Summary

o o

1.1 Genesis 2:4-3:24 1.2 Ezekiel and elsewhere

2 Assyrian-Babylonian and Sumerian parallels 3 Location

o o o o

3.1 Lebanon 3.2 Iran (Tabriz) 3.3 Jackson County, Missouri, North America 3.4 Sri Lanka

4 From Eden to Paradise 5 Jewish eschatology

6 Art 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links

[edit]Summary [edit]Genesis

2:4-3:24

"Expulsion from Paradise", marble bas-relief by Lorenzo Maitani on the Orvieto Cathedral, Italy

The second part of the Genesis creation narrative opens with God creating the first human, whom he places in a garden "in the east, in Eden". God tasks the man to tend the garden, but forbids him to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God then forms a woman from a rib of the man to be a companion to the man. The first man and woman break God's command and eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, and God expels them from the garden to prevent them from eating of a second tree, the tree of life, and living forever. God then placed cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth on the east side of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

[edit]Ezekiel

and elsewhere

Main article: Ezekiel's cherub in Eden In Ezekiel 28:12-19 the prophet Ezekiel (the "son of man") sets down God's word against the king of Tyre: the king was the "seal of perfection", adorned with precious stones from the day of his creation, placed by God in the garden of Eden on the holy mountain as a guardian cherub. But the king sinned through wickedness and violence, and so he was driven out of the garden and thrown to the earth, where now he is consumed by God's fire: "All the nations who knew you are appalled at you, you have come to a horrible end and will be no more." The "garden of God" is mentioned in Genesis 14, and the trees of the garden are mentioned in Ezekiel 31, and scattered passages from Ezekiel, Zechariah and the Psalms refer to trees and water in relation to the Temple without explicitly mentioning Eden.[3]

[edit]Assyrian-Babylonian

and Sumerian parallels

Map showing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

Sumerian mythology had a parallel to the Eden garden in Dilmun, the dwelling-place of the immortals where sickness and death were unknown.[4]

[edit]Location

Spanish-Arabic world map from 1109 AD with Eden in east (at top)

Genesis 2-3 locates the garden with reference to four rivers and the regions they flow through: "A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates." Genesis 2:10-14 "Kush" is often incorrectly translated as Ethiopia, which was also known as Cush, but in this case thought to be referring to Cossaea, a Greek name for the Kassite lands north of Elam, immediately to the east of ancient Babylon, which, unlike Ethiopia, does lie within the region being described. [5] InAntiquities of the Jews by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, he identifies the Pishon as what "the Greeks called Ganges," and the Geon as the Nile.[6]

[edit]Lebanon
Ezekiel 31 appears to identify Eden with Lebanon.[7] "[I]t appears that the Lebanon is an alternative placement in Phoenician myth (as in Ez 28,13, III.48) of the Garden of Eden",[8] and there are connections between paradise, the garden of Eden and the forests of Lebanon (possibly used symbolically) within prophetic writings.[9] Edward Lipinski and Peter Kyle McCarter have suggested that the Garden of the gods (Sumerian paradise), the oldest Sumerian version of the Garden of Eden, relates to a mountain sanctuary in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges.[10]

[edit]Iran

(Tabriz)

David M. Rohl (British Egyptologist and former director of the Institute for the Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences) posits a location for the legendary Garden of Eden in Iranian Azerbaijan, in the vicinity of Tabriz upon which the Genesis tradition was based. According to Rohl, the Garden of Eden was then located in a long valley to the north of Sahand volcano, near Tabriz. He cites several geographical similarities and toponyms which he believes match the biblical description. These similarities include the nearby headwaters of the four rivers of Edin, the Tigris (Heb. Hiddekel, Akk. Idiqlat), Euphrates (Heb. Perath, Akk. Purattu), Gaihun-Aras (Heb., Gihon), and Uizun (Heb. Pishon)[11]

[edit]Jackson

County, Missouri, North America

See also: Adam and Eve (LDS Church) Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormons or Latter-day Saints) believe that the Garden of Eden was located in present-day Jackson County, Missouri.[12]

[edit]Sri

Lanka

Sri Pada is named after a footprint-like formation found near the summit of a conical mountain in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist tradition deems it to be the footprint of the Buddha, the Hindu tradition considers it that of Shiva, and in Muslim and Christian tradition the footprint is that of Adam. Moreover, there are four rivers starting from this mountain.

[edit]From

Eden to Paradise

"The Garden of Eden" by Thomas Cole(c.1828)

The Expulsion illustrated in the EnglishCaedmon manuscript, c. AD 1000

The Garden of Eden as depicted in the first or left panel ofBosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych. The panel includes many imagined and exotic African animals.[13]

After c.500 BC the Persian term "paradise" (Hebrew , pardes), meaning a royal garden or huntingpark, gradually became a synonym for Eden. The word "pardes" occurs three times in the Old Testament, but always in contexts other than a connection with Eden: in the Song of Solomon iv. 13: "Thy plants are an orchard (pardes) of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard"; Ecclesiastes 2. 5: "I made me gardens and orchards (pardes), and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits"; and in Nehemiah ii. 8: "And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's orchard (pardes), that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city." In these examples pardes clearly means "orchard" or "park", but in theapocalyptic literature and in the Talmud, "paradise" gains its associations with the Garden of Eden and its heavenly prototype, and in the New Testament "paradise" becomes the realm of the blessed (as opposed to the realm of the cursed) among those who have already died, with literary Hellenistic influences. The Greek Garden of the Hesperides was somewhat similar to the Christian concept of the Garden of Eden, and by the 16th century a larger intellectual association was made in the Cranach painting (see illustration at top). In this painting, only the action that takes place there identifies the setting as distinct from the Garden of the Hesperides, with its golden fruit.

[edit]Jewish

eschatology

In modern Jewish eschatology, it is believed that history will complete itself and the ultimate destination will be when all mankind returns to the Garden of Eden.[14] In the Talmud and the Jewish Kabbalah,[15] the scholars agree that there are two types of spiritual places called "Garden in Eden". The first is rather terrestrial, of abundant fertility and luxuriant vegetation, known as the "lower Gan Eden". The second is envisioned as being celestial, the habitation of righteous, Jewish and non-Jewish, immortal souls, known as the "higher Gan Eden". The Rabbanim differentiate between Gan and Eden. Adam is said to have dwelt only in the Gan, whereas Eden is said never to be witnessed by any mortal eye.[16] According to Jewish eschatology,[17][18] the higher Gan Eden is called the "Garden of Righteousness". It has been created since the beginning of the world, and will appear gloriously at the end of time. The righteous dwelling there will enjoy the sight of the heavenly chayot carrying the throne of God. Each of the righteous will walk with God, who will lead them in a dance. Its Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants are "clothed with garments of light and eternal life, and eat of the tree of life" (Enoch 58,3) near to God and His anointed ones.[19] This Jewish rabbinical concept of a higher Gan Eden is opposed by the Hebrew terms gehinnom[20] and sheol, figurative names for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism, a place envisioned as being at the greatest possible distance from heaven.[21]

[edit]Art
Garden of Eden motifs most frequently portrayed in illuminated manuscripts and paintings are the "Sleep of Adam" ("Creation of Eve"), the "Temptation of Eve" by the Serpent, the "Fall of Man" where Adam takes the fruit, and the "Expulsion". The idyll of "Naming Day in Eden" was less often depicted. Much of Milton's Paradise Lostoccurs in the Garden of Eden. Michelangelo depicted a scene at the Garden of Eden in the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

[edit]See

also

Antelapsarianism Christian naturism Epic of Gilgamesh Eridu Fertile Crescent Golden Age Jannah Persian gardens Tamoanchan The Summerland Utopia

[edit]References

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

a b

Cohen 2011, pp. 228229

^ Curtius 1953, p. 200,n.31 ^ Luttikhuizen 1999, p. 37 ^ Cohen 2011, p. 229 ^ Speiser, 1994. ^ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews. Book I, Chapter 1, Section 3. ^ Stordalen 2000, p. 164 ^ Brown 2001, p. 138 ^ Swarup 2006, p. 185

10. ^ Smith 2009, p. 61 11. ^ Cline, Eric H. (2007). From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible. National Geographic. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-4262-0084-7. 12. ^ Bruce A. Van Orden, I Have a Question: What do we know about the location of the Garden of Eden?, Ensign, Jan. 1994, 5455 13. ^ Gibson, Walter S. Hieronymus Bosch. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1973. p. 26. ISBN 0-50020134-X 14. ^ "End of Days". End of Days. Aish. Retrieved 1 May 2012. 15. ^ Gan Eden - JewishEncyclopedia; 02-22-2010. 16. ^ Gan Eden - JewishEncyclopedia; 02-22-2010. 17. ^ Olam Ha-Ba - The Afterlife - JewFAQ.org; 02-22-2010. 18. ^ Eshatology - JewishEncyclopedia; 02-22-2010. 19. ^ Eshatology - JewishEncyclopedia; 02-22-2010. 20. ^ "Gehinnom is the Hebrew name; Gehenna is Yiddish." Gehinnom - Judaism 101 websourced 02-102010. 21. ^ "Gan Eden and Gehinnom". Jewfaq.org. Retrieved 2011-06-30.

[edit]Bibliography

Brown, John Pairman (2001). Israel and Hellas, Volume 3. Walter de Gruyter. Carr, David M. (2011). "The Garden of Eden Story". An Introduction to the Old Testament. John Wiley & Sons.

Cline, Eric H. (2009). Biblical archaeology. Oxford University Press. Cohen, Chaim (2011). "Eden". In Berlin, Adele; Grossman, Maxine. The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. Oxford University Press.

Curtius, Ernst Robert; [trans. Willard R. Trask, 1990] (1953). European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Princeton UP. ISBN 978-0-691-01899-7.

Marlowe, W. Creighton (2000). "Eden". In Freedman, David Noel. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Amsterdam University Press.

Noort, Ed (1999). "Gan-Eden in the context of the mythology of the Hebrew bible". In Luttikhuizen, Gerard P. Paradise interpreted: representations of biblical paradise in Judaism and Christianity . Brill.

Smith, Mark S. (2009). "Introduction". In Pitard, Wayne T. The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, volume II. BRILL. Speiser, E.A. (1994). "The Rivers of Paradise". In Tsumura, D.T.; Hess, R.S. I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood. Eisenbrauns.

Stordalen, Terje (2000). Echoes of Eden. Peeters. Swarup, Paul (2006). The self-understanding of the Dead Sea Scrolls Community. Continuum. Tigghelaar, Eibert J.C. (1999). "Eden and Paradise". In Luttikhuizen, Gerard P. Paradise interpreted: representations of biblical paradise in Judaism and Christianity. Brill.

Tsumura, D.T (1994). "Genesis and ancient near eastern stories of flood and creation". In Tsumura, D.T.; Hess, R.S. I studied inscriptions from before the flood. Eisenbrauns.

Walton, John H.; Matthews, Victor H.; Chavalas, Mark W., eds. (2000). The IVP Bible background commentary: Old Testament. InterVarsity Press.

Walton, John H. (2006). Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. Baker Academic. ISBN 0-8010-2750-0.

Welch, John Woodland (2009). The Sermon on the Mount in the light of the Temple. Ashgate. Wright, J. Edward (2002). The Early History of Heaven. Oxford University Press. Wright, J. Edward (2004). "Whither Elijah?". In Chazon, Esther G.; Clements, Ruth. Things revealed: studies in early Jewish and Christian literature in honor of Michael E. Stone . Brill.

Wyatt, Nick (2001). Space and Time in the Religious Life of the Near East. Sheffield University Press.