Two Gardens

  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’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but 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.’”

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

 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:1-6)

 

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (Matthew 28:1-10)

 

A friend shared a reel in which a woman claimed that the Abrahamic religion stole the origin story from women. Her version affirms the whole idea of the snake imparting wisdom. It’s an old story. Supposedly, it was written down before the Genesis account was, and to some, that means it had to be the first account, and the more accurate account. The thing that attracts my attention is that the Sumerian (etc.) versions do precisely what one would expect a borrowed version to do. It glorifies someone (in this case Woman). The Genesis account makes both man and woman guilty.

I’ve been hearing a fair amount about the parallels of the garden of Eden and the fall with the garden in which the resurrection took place. Of course, they were both gardens. Of course, death was in both at some point in the story. An angel was present – once to bar the gate, and once to welcome the visitors. In Eden, the snake defeated man. In the garden where the resurrection took place, the snake was defeated. In both accounts, women played a major role, one corruptive, the other redemptive.

The interesting thing is that the account of the resurrection does the exact opposite of the Sumerian account of the origin. In the Sumerian story, as noted, woman was glorified in her relationship with the serpent. At the time of the resurrection, women’s testimony was considered worthless,  yet the men who wrote the accounts repeatedly gave women credit for bringing the news. The account of the resurrection makes men look cowardly rather than glorifying them. In other words, the Sumerian story is precisely what we should expect women to tell to make themselves look good. The resurrection account is precisely what we should not expect men to tell to make themselves look good. So if there is a false story, I’m inclined to believe that the story that goes against human nature as the true. It’s less likely to be made up.