When in 1498, during his third voyage, Christopher Columbus reached the gulf of Paria at the mouth of the Orinoco river (in what is now Venezuala) he thought that he had found the outward traces of the Garden of Eden, the biblical earthly paradise. Although he believed the garden itself must lie further inland and be situated high up, he thought that the waters of the Orinoco river he saw coming down to form the gulf must come from the primeval river that flowed out of Eden. He wrote in his journal I do not suppose that the earthly Paradise is in the form of a rugged mountain, as the descriptions of it have made it appear, but that it is on the summit of the spot which I have described as being in the form of the stalk [or stem end] of a pear; the approach to it from a distance must be by a constant and gradual ascent; but I believe that, as I have already said, no one could ever reach the top; I think also that the water I have described may proceed from it, though it be far off, and that stopping at the place I have just left, it forms this lake. It might seem incredible that an explorer like Columbus, intelligent and knowledgeable, would think that he had found the Garden of Eden. The most obvious question is why he or anyone else would ever have thought that the Garden of Eden was located in South America? The answer of course is that Columbus didn't know he had discovered the Americas - he was hoping to reach China and India (i.e. the 'East') by sailing west, and the biblical story located Eden in the east. It made perfect sense to Columbus that by sailing to the furthest point east he could imagine, he might discover the location of paradise But more fundamentally we might wonder why Columbus imagined he might find paradise on earth in the first place. Wasn't Eden a mythical garden? Wasn't it part of the primeval history in the book of Genesis, that collection of mythological stories about creation of the cosmos in seven days, the formation of the first humans out of clay and bones, impossible towers to heaven and a world-wide flood that wiped out all living creatures except those who were hiding in the giant boat Noah made (and the fish!). Why in the 15th century would an intelligent cultured European explorer think that he had found the mythical land of Eden? And the answer to that is that ever since the book of Genesis was written countless Jewish and Christian readers of that story in the subsequent centuries continued to believe that the Garden of Eden, paradise, was a real place, a location in space and time. Even though the story tells us that the garden God made was 'far, far away' and 'long, long ago' it was, in their minds, nonetheless a real place, where two historical human beings had once lived and where events took place that were drastically to shape their own history. Some writers and thinkers reflected on that story and believing that it was a story about a real place in the real world and reading that the tree of life had once stood there in the centre of the garden, began to imagine ways in which human beings might find their way back to paradise and to that tree which would heal them of their terrible propensity to die! Paradise became the object of intense speculation and aspiration. People believed that it still existed and they wanted to go back there. And so, over the centuries, people wrote stories trying to describe what may or may not have happened to Adam and Eve during their time in the garden and afterwards; they wrote imaginary visionary tales in which biblical heroes were taken by angels to visit the paradise garden; some people thought about how they could get to paradise without physically going there i.e by ascending to paradise through contemplation of the divine throne/chariot (that Ezekiel had seen); and, in the medieval era, people drew maps of the world in which paradise always featured at the top, as the historical and theological 'starting point' of the history of the world. When Columbus sailed to 'the east' (in a westerly direction!) he was fully aware that he was heading towards that 'far away and long ago place' where paradise lay. I have no idea whether he expected to find it on his voyages but when he discovered the rich, luxuriant beauty of the new land and saw the great Orinoco river flowing into the gulf of Paria, he had no problem in thinking that he had found the earthly paradise or, at least, signs of its proximity. In this post I want to explore the way in which the story of that first garden in Genesis came to have such powerful effect on subsequent expectation in Judaism and Christianity that one day we might find our way back there, and how the nature of the Genesis story laid the foundations for the subsequent paradise tradition.
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According to the gospel of Luke, as Jesus hung on the cross, the two criminals crucified on either side of him both commented on his condition. One, usually depicted in Christian art on Jesus' left, taunted him. He seems to have been contemptuous, delighted that someone who claimed to be the righteous Son of God should now hang where he hung. He was delighted that the 'goodness' of Jesus, had apparently achieved nothing, that the world of evil and violence which his own life represented, had proved bigger and stronger than the claims of a man like Jesus. The other criminal, usually depicted on Jesus' right, seems to have recognised that the cross was not a symbol of the failure of divine love but a symbol of the extent of it, the depth of it. This was indeed Goodness, a goodness that reached down into the very depths of human suffering and wickedness, a goodness which could embrace even his history of failure and rebellion against the Divine Law. One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ Luke 23.39-43 NRSV In Christian art, the two criminals came to represent the two destinies of mankind, salvation and damnation. In many pictures the links are made explicit by the sight of their souls being taken to their respective destinations - paradise and hell. The picture above, the crucifixion scene by Altichiero da Zevio, is one such picture as the details below reveal. It's easy to miss when you look at the main picture!
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Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
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