When Was Eden created

Eden was created on the third day of creation as a way of introducing the astral mythologies to follow in the rest of the Bible.

There are two common interpretations about where the creation of the Garden of Eden fits into the six days of creation in Genesis 1. One interpretation says it stands on its own and completely contradicts the first account of creation. The second interpretation says that it is a more detailed elaboration of the first account. Both are wrong.

To pagan and Hebrew priests of ancient Mesopotamia, it was the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars that rule over earth and its inhabitants, not man. To understand God, they studied the heavens. The motion of the patterns in the sky was the way by which God "revealed" his secrets of the universe. What makes the Bible hard to understand for what it is is the way its mythological accounts of the movements of the constellations refer obliquely to events in heaven as if they happened on earth.

Some of this secret divine knowledge can now be found in garden variety astrology books. The astrological properties that relate to creation are: one supreme ethereal God; two sex genders, four physical elements, seven planetary deities, ten creation commands and the twelve deified constellations of the Zodiac. The magic numbers, 1, 2, 4, 7, 10 and 12 appear often throughout the Bible.

Here is my thesis. The Genesis 2 account was meant to append to the third day of creation. It was on the third day when god said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear". And it was so. God called the dry land Earth.". If we jump over to Genesis 2:4b, it starts out with, "the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens".

Which day was that? It was on the third day after "heaven" and "dry land" appears. Genesis 2 continues when God waters earth, creates man, animals, woman, and the zodiacal Eden with its twelve deified constellations. (For more detail on how the Garden of Eden associates with the Zodiac, see The Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve.)

As background to my reasoning, it is no secret that in biblical days, pagan mythologies were fabricated in accordance with the movements and positions of the constellations. The Bible has survived because so many of its myths seem historical, and because politics has played a major role in perpetuating these myths as historic. Because of this dearth of information associated with astrology, even to long time nonbelievers like myself, I admit to have fallen for this line of reasoning until recently.

Let's return to my thesis and see how it plays out.

On the third day, God made dry land appear from the water under the heavens.

⁹And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
¹⁰God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (Gen. 1:9-10)

+++++++++++++++ Begin Genesis 2 in the Garden of Eden ++++++++++++++++++

In the day God made the earth and heavens-the third day.

In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (Gen 2:4b)

The phrase, "in the day", can interpreted to mean creation took place in one day. That is not what it necessarily says. It says, "In the day", which means the same as, "on the day". This is the loophole which fundamentalists took to argue the second account was an expansion of the first account. They are right on that accord, but then they run into a host of other contradictions which will be explained later.

Day 3: On that day, (the third day) earth was bare and the ground was dry; there was no water.

⁵when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up-for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; (Gen 2:5)

Day 3: Mist came up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

⁶but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground (Gen. 2:6)

Day 3: He formed man from dust and breathed into his nostrils to give him life.

⁷then the LORD God formed man [soul] of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Gen 2:7)

This is earth man-the first human with a soul. There is a double meaning which relates to the planet Mars. According to "Alan Okun's Complete Astrology", Mars in Hebrew is Madim, a word closely associated with Adam. Mars reddish color gives an appearance of red clay.

Day 3: He planted a garden in Eden in the east and put the man there.

⁸And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Gen. 2:8)

"East" is biblespeak for heaven, because heavenly bodies rise from the east.

Day 3: Out of the ground, he made plants pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle, he made the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

⁹And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:9)

Allegorically, the ground is the sky, the trees are the stars, and the trees in the middle are the North Pole stars Polaris and Thuban. Polaris is dead center now, but 2,500 years ago, they clustered close the North Pole.

Day 3: One river flowed out of Eden where it divided into four rivers.

¹⁰A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
¹¹The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
¹²and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.
¹³The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush.
¹⁴And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen. 2:10-14)

There is a river in the Zodiac, called Eridanus. It flows south below the horizon as if it touches earth. In Mesopotamia, there is no river that branches out in four directions.

Day 3: He put the man in the garden to till it and keep it.

¹⁵The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Gen 2:15-17)

After he made the human on earth from earth, he put him in the garden in heaven. He could be the constellation Ophiuchus the serpent bearer or Bootes the herdsman. If the Garden was on earth, we might wonder where the man was before God created the Garden. The answer is: he was on earth or he was the planet Mars.

Day 3: Man was alone without help. So, from the ground the creator made animals and birds. The man gave them all names. Alas, none of the animals were fit to help.

¹⁸Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." ¹⁹So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
²⁰The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. (Gen. 2:18-20)

The Zodiac has an assortment of animals and birds. The word "zoo" is etymologically related to Zodiac, which means "circle of animals".

Day 3: He put the man to sleep, took one rib and closed the wound. Then he made the rib into a woman and brought her to the man.

²¹So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh;
²²and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
²³Then the man said,"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." (Gen. 2:21-23)

Sky maps show Bootes with one arm raised in the direction of Virgo the virgin. The raised arm exposes his rib cage.

Day 3 continues with the saga of Adam and Eve. Their fall occurs astronomically when the constellations Bootes and Virgo crossed over the autumnal equinox, when the sun sinks into the wintry months. See Adam and Eve

+++++++++++++++ End Genesis 2 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Day 3: Let earth produce vegetation, yielding seed according to its kind.

¹¹And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth." And it was so.
¹²The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
¹³And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. (Gen. 1:11-13)

We are back to the remainder of the third day of creation in Genesis 1. Earth has been watered and man and woman inhabit earth. The other plants and animals remain in the heavenly Eden.

Day 4: The lights in the firmament separate day from night, give signs, seasons, days and years. The sun rules the day and the moon rules the night.

¹⁴And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,
¹⁵and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so.
¹⁶And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
¹⁷And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth,
¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. (Gen.1:14-19)

Phrases like "let the lights be for signs" and let them "rule over the day and night" are definitely astrological. Let apologists deny it all they want.

Day 5: He created sea monsters, sea creatures and birds were created according to their kind, and domestic animals, reptiles and beasts from earth.

²⁰And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens."
²¹So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
²⁴And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.
²⁵And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Gen.1:20-25)

These animals were created on earth. The animals created in Genesis 2 are in heaven.

Day 6: God made man in our image after our likeness and gave him dominion over every living thing.

²⁶Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen.1:26-27)

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and have dominion over every living thing.

²⁸And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing [includes humans] that moves upon the earth." (Gen.1:28)

Every interpretation I have seen asserts God gave humans dominion over every living thing on earth. It doesn't fit. To astrologers, it is the sun, moon, planets and stars that exert dominion over every living thing, not man. Even theologically, it would be blaspheme to believe God delegated authority to man while he passively watched.

Second, keeping with my thesis that God created man and woman on the third day in Genesis 2, there is no reason to do it twice. It is either a wholesale contradiction or it is not.

Third, verse 26 looks suspiciously like God is talking to someone else when he says "Let us make man in our image". Either God is androgynous or there is a companion female god. We see this same plurality in Gen. 3:22 below. (The Jewish and Christian gods are supposed to be entirely male.)

²²Then the LORD God [lord of gods] said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Gen. 3:22)

Fourth, either God has flesh and bones or there is some kind of a cosmic man and woman. For this reason, the case for a cosmic man and woman looks stronger. One clue comes from the phrase "sons of God". Probably they are the planets. Several passages support the cosmic view.

1. Sons of God had children by earth women.

⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. (Gen. 6:4)

2. God separated the sons of men from the sons of God.

⁸When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. (Deut. 32:8)

3. Sons of God met with God. Satan came too.

⁶Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. (Job 1:6)

4. The morning stars and the sons of God shouted for joy.

⁷when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)

Who are these male and females which God created in his image? All indications point to the planets. To this day, astrology books assign a sex gender to their signs; each of the planetary bodies rules a day of the week. This is where the days of the week got their name.

⁸For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath."(Matt. 12:8)

male	Sun	rules	Sunday (light on the first day)
female	Moon	rules	Monday
male	Mars	rules	Tuesday (from Tiu'sday)
male	Mercury	rules	Wednesday (from Woden's day)
male	Jupiter	rules	Thursday (From Thor's day)
female	Venus	rules	Friday (from Freitag, meaning Venus day)
male	Saturn	rules	Saturday (the Sabbath day of rest)

Two Different Creations

Hard core believers can't accept the thought of two contradictory accounts of creation. To convince themselves that the Bible has no errors, they rationalize the second account as a more detailed elaboration of the first. Let there be no doubt that they are two distinct creation stories. Without the astral connotations as discussed above, they can't be made to fit.

1. In the first, the earth emerged from the waters and was initially saturated with moisture. In the second, earth had to be watered after it was created dry.

2. In the first account, god is said to have created the lower animals first and man and woman last. In the second account, he created man first, the animals second and the woman last.

3. In the first, the birds and beasts were created before man. In the second, man was created before the birds and beasts.

4. In the first, all flying fowl were made from the waters. In the second, the fowl of the air were made out of the ground.

5. In the first, man was made in the image of god. In the second, man was made from dust and brought to life by breathing into him.

6. In the first, man was given dominion over the whole earth. In the second, he was placed in the Garden of Eden only, to dress it and keep it.

7. In the first, the man and woman were created together near the end of creation. In the second, man was created first, then the birds and beasts, and the woman was made last.

8. In the first, man and woman was created in the image of the gods. In the second, man was created from clay and the woman from the man's rib.

9. In the first, man and woman were created together and told to be fruitful and multiply. In the second, the man was created alone and offered animals as helpmates, before he was found in need of a woman.

10. In the first, the creator creates by speaking. In the second, he creates silently.

11. In the first, creation took six days. In the second, it took one day.

12. In the first, the creator is called Elohim (god). In the second, he is called Yahweh Elohim (lord god).

13. In the first, all breathing animals are given every green plant for food. In the second, man was forbidden to eat from the tree of good and evil and the tree of life.

Differences
Subject (symbol)	Gen. 1:1-2:4a Who, when, how	Gen. 2:4b-25 Who, when & how
Length of time	Six days	One day
Creator	"God" (Elohim)	"LORD God" (Yahweh Elohim)
Method of creation	Speaking	Acting
Sea monster (evil)	Before the beginning	No mention
Air (spirit of God)	Before the beginning	No mention
Water (chaos)	Before the beginning	Spouts from earth.
Light (fire)	1^st day	No mention
Firmament (roof)	2^nd day. Separated waters	No mention
Earth (foundation)	3^rd day. From lower waters.	From nothing, made bare & dry.
Plant life	3^rd day. From dry land before man	From earth and water after man
Sun, moon & stars (lesser gods)	4^th day, after light on first day	From nothing
Sea life	5^th day from water	No mention
Birds	5^th day from water, before man	from ground after man
Land animals	6^th day from earth, before man	from ground after man
Man	6^th day in gods' image	From dust in ground. Breathed in life.
Woman	6^th day with man	After man from man's rib.
Day of rest	7^th day. God rests?	God doesn't rest
Man's dominion	Over entire earth	Over Eden
Garden of Eden	No mention	Somewhere in the east.
Marriage	No mention	Became one flesh
Called creation good	Yes	No
Forbidden fruit	No mention	Made man like the gods

Compared to the Geological record

Finally we compare the two creation stories against the geological record. Each column shows its particular sequence. The two Genesis accounts do not align with the geological record or with each other.

GEOLOGICAL DISORDER
Geological	Gen. 1:1-2:3	Gen. 2:4-25
Stars	Water	Heavens
Sun	Light	Earth
Earth	Firmament and heaven	Water
Sea life	Earth	Man
Plants	Plant life	Garden of Eden
Reptiles	Sun, moon & stars	Plant life
Dinosaurs and mammals	Sea life and birds	Rivers out of Eden
Birds	Mammals	Animals including birds
Humans	Humans	Woman

Fundamentalist Fudge

What do they do fundamentalist do when they see an "error?" Why they reinterpret it. Expediency has a higher priority over the sacredness of "God's Word".

The idea of second creation presents a critical theological problem. If there was life prior to Adam and Eve, it would imply there was death before Adam and Eve sinned. This contradicts several other important passages which say that sin was the cause of death. Sin must come before death for salvation to have purpose.

³but God said, "you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." (Gen. 3:3)

¹²Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned (Rom. 5:12)

²¹For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
²²For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:21-22)

Their problem is that they need the first account because God creates by speaking. And they need the second account because it leads to the Adam and Eve story about sin. The quick fix is to reinterpret them by ignoring the obvious contradictions. By cross linking the two, it comes out as if the second account was an elaboration of the first account; God creates ex nihilo by speaking.

Genesis 1:1-2:3	God speaks	Creates from air and water
Genesis 2:4-25	Lord God doesn't speak	Creates from nothing
Creationist solution	God speaks	Creates from nothing

Whenever theological quandaries disagree with science, the religious impulse is to either reinterpret scripture to agree with science, or ignore science altogether. Their superstitious concerns for salvation are so strong that the idea of a six day creation cannot be abandoned even when it is off by billions of years. To make the second creation story appear as a continuation of the first creation story, newer bibles underwent some creative editing.

Cooking the Book

From experience when comparing the texts between different bibles, I've come to learn that bibles are something like tax law. Whenever an embarrassing phrase (or tax loophole) gets too well known, it gets rephrased in the next revision. Older revisions aimed for literal accuracy, while newer revisions strive for popular acceptance. Revisionists have a little bit of conscience. The art of appearing honest, when rewriting bibles, is by making subtle changes in context. Do not think that the new revisions are an improvement in the literal sense; they are improvements only in the propaganda sense. Comparisons between the King James (KJV) and the New International (NIV) versions are especially illustrative.

Gen. 2:4b

The phrase "in the day" implies a second creation within one day, so the revisionists leave out the term. According to Strong's dictionary, the source Hebrew version contains the word yom, which means 'day.' The newer versions make it appear as a detailed account of the six day creation.

⁵God called the light Day[yom] (Gen. 1:5)

In the day yom] that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (KJV)

This is the account[yom]of the heavens and the earth when they were created. (NIV)

GENESIS 2:4b
Old versions	New versions
"in the day"	'day' is edited out
King James	New International
Revised Standard	Contemporary English
Young's Literal Translation	Tanakh (Jewish)
Douay-Rheims(Catholic)	New American (Catholic)
New Revised Standard	First Century
American Standard	New Living Translation
New King James	God's Word

Gen. 2:8

The KJV says "God planted" a garden on the day of second creation. The NIV solution is to insert had, so it reads "God had planted," as if it were a past event from the first creation.

⁸And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (KJV)

⁸Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. (NIV)

Gen. 2:9

KJV explains that the ground was the basic material from which trees were made. The NIV solution is to rearrange the phrase to read "grow out of the ground." It suggests they came from seed, which was not the case.

⁹And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (KJV)

⁹And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (NIV)

Gen. 2:16-17

In the KJV, God warns Adam; "in the day" you eat from the tree you will die. As it turns out, God did not carry out his threat to kill Adam on the day he ate from the tree. Adam lived for another 930 years after he sinned (Gen. 5:5). The NIV solution is to change "in the day" to "when," so it implies Adam will lose immortality in the future if he eats from the tree.

¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (KJV)

¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man,"You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
¹⁷but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (NIV)

Gen. 2:19

In the KJV, the phrase "God formed," implies present tense in the second creation. The NIV solution is to add "had" so it reads, "had formed," as if it were an past event from the first creation.

¹⁹And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. (KJV)

¹⁹Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. (NIV)

Conclusion

If there was a God, who in truth, revealed his message to the original scribes who wrote the Bible, one would think that every literal word would be considered too sacred to alter and that God would have guided the translations. Considering the dozen or so conflicting interpretations in English alone, there can be no such thing as the word of God.

That newer Bible translations have more of an eye towards modernization, than they do fidelity with their source material, is an indication of a credibility problem. Because the Bible was supposed to be a perfect document from the time it was written, newer translations, in effect, undermine the foundation upon which they are built on. If this was science, it would be okay; it is the nature of science to keep refining and improving. But because the Bible's supporters claim perfection when it was written, it can only degrade with each revision.

Whatever faults creationists find with the Darwin theory of natural evolution, they are petty compared to faults in the Bible. No competent scientist could get away with basing his findings on faith.

End