Dr. Dylan Johnson

And this is what I think of when I look at a little bit broader at other discussions about the Eden story.

We have in Ezekiel 28, one of this very important texts that actually describes in great detail the garden, really one of the most vibrant discussions of the garden outside of Genesis 2 and 3.

And it has nothing to do with the man and the woman.

It has to do with the king of Tyre.

And the king of Tyre, who haughtily claims wisdom, again, wisdom, being a fundamentally divine act.

And there, the text is explicitly clear that this king is claiming wisdom and simultaneously claiming to be a god.

And the author of this prophetic text is trying to disabuse him of this view.

You are not a god.

You are mortal.

You will die.

And then it starts talking about the Garden of Eden.

So there we have an ancient reception of the Eden story saying exactly what I've been saying.

It's not about sin.

It's about the boundaries between mortality, immortality between humanity and the gods.

Yeah, I think, I think,

Among all of the figures that are discussed in the Bible, Moses comes the closest to being attributed with certain divine features.

David and Solomon also pretty close.

But Moses is especially important because, number one, he's the only individual said to have seen God face to face.

No other human being was able to do that.

And there's certain descriptions of him.