The Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis and
the Golden Age story of the Greek poet Hesiod are perhaps
the two best-known accounts of a primordial paradise. But
the idea of an original, perfect society—one of peace
and plenty, devoid of disease or death, and in which humanity
communed freely with their God or gods—is found in many
forms around the globe. For all their variations in form and
focus, these traditions relate remarkably similar circumstances.
Compare the Biblical account given in Genesis
2:8-10, 16, 17 with the version penned by Hesiod (fl. 8th
century B.C.):
At first the immortals who dwell on Olympus
created a golden race of mortal men. That was when Kronos
was king of the sky, and they lived like gods, carefree
in their hearts, shielded from pain and misery. Helpless
old age did not exist, and with limbs of unsagging vigor
they enjoyed the delights of feasts, out of evil's reach.
A sleeplike death subdued them, and every good thing was
theirs; the barley-giving earth asked for no toil to bring
forth a rich and plentiful harvest. They knew no constraint
and lived in peace and abundance as lords of their lands,
rich in flocks and dear to the blessed sods (lines 110-121).1
Just as in the Garden of Eden, Adam did not
have to "toil" in order to eat (Genesis 3:17). Foodstuffs
seemingly grew of their own accord. Adam and Eve were apparently
meant to be immortal; the first mortals of Greek Mythology
did not grow old, though they did eventually die. And, as
the Lord God could be found "walking in the garden in
the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8), the "golden"
men lived in close proximity to the Olympian gods. Furthermore,
in a striking parallel with the Biblical story in which the
first woman is held responsible for the Fall of mankind (Genesis
3:10), a curious Pandora "with her hands removed the
great lid of the jar and scattered its contents, bringing
grief and cares to men" (lines 95, 96), hence putting
an end to the Golden Age.
The Hebrew and Greek accounts are not alone
in the literature of the ancient Near East. Mesopotamian civilization
and culture are considered to have begun at Sumer, and the
Sumerians had a paradise myth, composed in the 3rd or 2nd
millennium B.C., it consists of an unmistakable parallel with
the Biblical account.2 Likewise, in ancient Egypt,
the theme of an original paradise was pervasive. "There
was plenty of food in the bellies of the people; there was
no sin on the earth; the crocodile did not seize prey, the
serpent did not bite in the age of the primeval gods"3—
a time when men and gods lived together and man was immortal.
This idea was not limited to the Near East.
It is found in the earliest traditions of the Far East as
well. In China, the great Taoist teacher, Kwang-tze (fl. 4th
century B.C.), told of an ancient age when
Birds and beasts multiplied to flocks and
herds; the grass and trees grew luxuriant and long. In this
condition the birds and beasts might be led about without
feeling the constraint; the nest of the magpie might be
climbed to, and peered into. Yes, in the age of perfect
virtue, men lived in common with birds and beasts, and were
on terms of equality with all creatures, as forming one
family.... Equally without knowledge, they did not leave
(the path of) their natural virtue; equally free from desires,
they were in a state of pure simplicity. In that state.
. the nature of the people was what it ought to be.4
The "luxuriant" growth of plants is
once again noted, and the willing submission of animals to
humans is reminiscent of the "dominion" Adam was
given over the animals. Kwang-tze further explained that it
was the excessive "practice of ceremonies" by "sagely
men" which caused people "to be separated from one
another." In other words, worship and sacrifice were
not necessary in the "age of perfect virtue," for
man was already at one with the Tao (the Way) and with his
earthly fellow creatures. As in the Garden of Eden, it was
an unquenchable thirst for knowledge that destroyed the tranquillity—"Great
indeed is the disorder produced in the world by the love of
knowledge" (Writings, p.289). And in at least one Chinese
source it was a "woman, by an ambitious desire of knowledge,"
that brought "misery" upon the human race.5
Meanwhile, in the jungles of ancient Mesoamerica,
a similar account was preserved:
And in this way they (the Creators and Makers)
were filled with joy, because they had found a beautiful
land, full of pleasures.... There were foods of every kind....
They (the first four men) were endowed with intelligence..
they succeeded in knowing all that there is in the world.
When they looked, instantly they saw all around them, and
they contemplated in turn the arch of heaven and the round
face of the earth (Part 3, pp. 166-168).7
This paradise, like the others, was filled with
good things to eat. But the predicament in which the gods
found themselves—that the "created" possessed
knowledge and vision equaling that of the "creators"—was
not to be tolerated for long. Holding council, they resolved
to remove these powers from the realm of mankind (p.169).
This divine dilemma is almost identical to the one described
in Genesis 3:22. Later the first Quiché women were formed
while the men slept (p.170).
These accounts of a primordial paradise are
but a representative sampling of those which survive. It can
be demonstrated that the same story is an integral part of
tribal traditions in places as diverse as Africa, Iceland,
India, the Americas, and Australia.8
In our comparisons of the above accounts, many
conditions were found to be common to most or all of them.
Food was always abundant and animals had no fear of man. And
man had no fear of God or gods, for he lived not only with
Him or them, but he lived as one himself, tasting of neither
infirmity nor death. But in every case this blissful state
came to an abrupt end, usually through human action.
Thus the primordial paradise, like the creation
of the universe and mankind, was a singular event in prehistory,
and, as such, cannot be verified by science. This is not to
imply that a judicious application of the scientific method
of inquiry is of no value here.
Modern theories of mythology are many and complex,
but they ultimately fall into one of two categories—the
myths are either judged to contain historical truth or they
do not. In the case of a primordial paradise, no contemporary
mythologist seems willing even to allow for the possibility
that it might have been an actual state of human affairs at
one time. The idea is therefore hastily relegated to the status
of pseudo-history or allegory—symbolic means of explaining
the "human condition" or expressing the strivings
of the human spirit. It then follows that its nearly universal
currency is due to one of two factors—either it was everywhere
borrowed from another culture (or inherited from an earlier
one) or, conversely, it independently arose the world over
in obeisance to the "psychological unity of mankind,"
that is, that all human beings in the final analysis think
alike.9
The reason for dismissing the Golden Age as
fiction is, in fact, based not so much on the laws of human
nature as on presently accepted theories of human origins.
Evolutionary science claims that man has risen from a primitive
form, and has not fallen from a higher form at all. But Darwinian
evolution today has critics within its own ranks. And evidence
is mounting which proves that ancient civilizations in both
hemispheres were far more sophisticated than had been previously
believed. "Prehistoric" or "primordial"
does not have to mean "primitive."
Appraising the paradise myth with regard to
the above theories brings to light numerous difficulties.
Interpreted as pseudo-history, it should come as a surprise
that there are so many similar stories, for it seems highly
unlikely that people in Greece and Guatemala would invent
the same scenario in order to reconstruct their respective
racial origins. And to ask for "psychological unity"
is, scientifically speaking, asking a lot.
If looked upon as an allegory, the same myth
would be expected to convey more or less the same message,
for it would have been composed with a specific purpose in
mind. Yet we find that in each case the "moral"
of the story is different, and that it appears in a different
context within each culture. Thus the Genesis version focuses
on mankind's separation from God, Hesiod is extolling the
virtues of honest labor, and Kwang-tze is condemning the prevailing
social class structure. These examples support the view that
the tradition itself is of great antiquity—and that its
"truth" is more than poetic.
Some scholars have suggested that the story
was diffused worldwide from a single Sumerian source, either
by direct of indirect borrowing. But when the Sumerian "original"
is placed side by side with its supposed offspring, it is
immediately evident that it does not contain all of the elements
central to the story. As it turns out, no single surviving
version contains all important features found in others. Furthermore,
the logistical problems of global distribution are great.
Historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, has supposed
that the tradition of a primordial paradise reflects a "nostalgia"
for a mythical time when heaven and earth were either closer
together or actually connected, facilitating direct communication
between the gods and man. He observes that the shamans of
Asia regularly engage in rituals devised to restore this "paradisial
life."10 In ancient Egypt, this sharp separation
between divinity and humanity was considered "an irrevocable
event." The early Chinese expressed considerable regret
that they "had no way by which they might. . bring back
their original condition." And in South America, several
Indian tribes still lament that they "no longer know
the route to this `Happy Place.'"
In conclusion, if the idea of a primordial paradise
originated in the imagination of one individual or nation,
one would simply not expect to find it so firmly implanted
in the minds and hearts of peoples everywhere. After all,
it is not only widely known, but widely believed, and there
is a difference. This tradition has not been transmitted as
an interesting tale told by an exotic traveler; it has been
preserved, without exception, as the record of an actual historical
time and place. The primordial paradise is more memory than
myth.
REFERENCES
1. Hesiod: Theosony, Works and Days,
Shield. Translated by AN. Athanassakis (1983).
2. A.B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts
Relating to the Old Testament (1969). Translated by
S.N. Kramer.
3. L. Kakosy, "Ideas About the Fallen State of the
World in Egyptian Religion...," Acts Orientalia (1964)
p. 206.
4. The Sacred books of China, Part I - Translated
hy James Legge (1891).
5. T.W. Doane, Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other
Religions (1948), p.14.
6. L. Spence, The Myths of Mexico and Peru (1925),
pp.208,209.
7. Popoi Vuh - Translated by Adrian Recinos (1950).
8. J. Ries, "The Fall," The Encyclopedia of
Religion (1987), pp.256-258.
9. F.R. Tennant, The Sources of the Doctrines of the
Fall and Original Sin (1968), p.22.
10. M. Eliade, "The Yearning for Paradise in Primitive
Tradition," Daedalus (1959), p. 256.
