Creation in the East, Aforetime, of Old
Another descriptor of God’s Garden is that it is “toward the east.”
(Genesis 2:8) The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
The Hebrew word for east is qedem. Although qedem is often used to mean the direction “east” in the Hebrew Scriptures, it has another significant connotation in various contexts. Qedem also has the meaning “ancient” or “aforetime,” which is an antiquated English word that meant “before time.”
Various connotations of qedem include: “prehistoric, ancient, antiquity, eternal.” According to the scholarly Hebrew lexicon, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) the root verb qdm
“. . . incorporates two basic concepts: first (and most often), ‘to confront (meet) someone with either a good or bad intent,’ and second, ‘to precede someone or something either temporally or geographically.’”[1]
Specifically defining qedem, TWOT states that,
“. . . the noun qedem has either a geographical meaning, ‘east,’ or a temporal notion ‘ancient time, aforetime.’”
Various English translations convey these senses of meaning as illustrated in the following verses where qedem appears in the OT Hebrew text. In the examples below I have underlined the English words that translate the Hebrew and put qedem in brackets.
(Micah 5:2) “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago [qedem], From the days of eternity.”
(Habakkuk 1:12) Are You not from everlasting [qedem], O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct.
(Psalm 74:2) Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old [qedem], Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance; And this Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.
(Psalm 74:12) Yet God is my king from of old [qedem], Who works deeds of deliverance in the midst of the earth.
(Isaiah 45:21) “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old [qedem]? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.
As seen in the above examples, we find an acknowledged and well-known feature of words in Hebrew Scripture—the words are context sensitive. Therefore I would like to examine the words of Genesis in their context and suggest a different translation.
In Genesis 2 the world was newly created and had a strange geography that was similar, but not identical, to our present historical time geography. For example, the Genesis 2 creation has four rivers (Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates), but only two of these (Tigris and Euphrates) are extant in the Middle East of our present historical time world. Our present world seems to be a caricature of the original. Therefore it seems to me that the context of Genesis 2, when the world was newly created and had a strange but similar geography, might permit a translation of Genesis 2:8 like the following:
(Genesis 2:8) “The LORD God planted a garden of delight before time (out of time?), and there He placed the man whom He had formed.” (Paraphrase by Rohr)
The unique use of the word “paradise” for “garden” in the opening chapters of Genesis and in the New Testament references to God’s eternal paradise supports the conclusion that God does not begin in time with a world of death. What God creates in the beginning is very good (Genesis 1:31), and death has no part in it. God begins in His eternal real estate, in Paradise, in His life-giving presence and in intimate fellowship with the people he creates.
But when the first human pair made their sinful choice of self before God they caused their exile from Paradise into the ancient world of death, which was also the creation of God as the proving ground for those who disobey Him. He calls them, and He calls us, from probation in this time shackled world of death. God seeks to deliver them and us, their descendants, into His eternal Paradise. In other words, I think it is consistent with the whole context of the Bible that what will end in Paradise also began in Paradise—with God in intimate relationship with the people He creates.
[1] Harris RL, Archer GL, Waltke BK. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Volume II, pp. 785-786, Moody Press, 1980.
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