Dr. Dylan Johnson

All creation stories.

Why are we here?

Why are we here?

It's not a very nice answer.

It's to toil.

It's to do exactly what we've been doing every day.

It's partially punishment, a loss of this paradise,

in Milton's words.

But it's not all negative, I think, also.

Because for as much as we lost, I think it's also important to focus on what's gained in the narrative, which is, of course, we have consciousness, we have knowledge, we are partially divine.

So I think that would have been the takeaway in an ancient Israelite or ancient Judahite setting, just as I think the takeaway from Mesopotamian narratives in the same respect.

Yeah, I mean, there's absolutely a potential connection there.

Now, there we would expect a really royal connection, because it's not everyone who gets to have a garden.

These paradises, as they say, the paradisos and stuff, isn't it?

Yeah, and it'd be great, because pardes is a Hebrew word that we get from Persian, but it's not there in the garden story.

But again...

The conception is.

So what I would imagine here is kind of a royal estate.

This is what the Garden of Eden.

And even the name Eden, which for centuries we had no idea what it meant.