Myth #27:

Adam and Eve lived a simple primitive lifestyle while in the Garden of Eden.

The Myth: And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it…

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And 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. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.…And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Gen. 2:15, 18-20, 25)

The Reality: The sketchy images of life in Eden derive from Sumerian descriptions of primitive humanity.

Genesis gives us only a brief glimpse of life in Eden. God created man to till the garden, which provided an abundance of food. But man was lonely so God created animals to help him and provide companionship. In addition to the helpful animals, God also brought forth from the ground all the other fowl and animals, but they did not alleviate man’s loneliness. God then created a woman to assist him. The man and woman were naked and unashamed, but after eating the forbidden fruit, their nakedness became an embarrassment. Other than the incident with the serpent and the subsequent punishments, we have no other details about life in paradise.

The images presented in Genesis parallel those in the early Sumerian legends. In one Sumerian account from the seventeenth century B.C., we learn about a time when:

Mankind’s trails when forgotten by the gods were in the high (i.e., not subject to flooding) desert.

In those days no canals were opened, no dredging was done at dikes and ditches on dike tops .

The seeder plough and ploughing had not yet been instituted for the knocked under and downed people.

No [one of] all the countries were planting in furrows.

Mankind of [those] distant days, since Shakan [the god of flocks] had not [yet] come on the dry lands, did not know arraying themselves in prime cloth, mankind walked about naked.

In those days, there being no snakes, being no scorpions, being no lions, being no hyenas, being no wolves, mankind had no opponent, fear and terror did not exist. (Lines 1–15.)

When Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursaga
fashioned the black-headed [people(—i.e., the Sumerians)],
they made the small animals [that come up] from [out of] the earth come forth in
abundance
and had let there be, as befits [it], gazelles, wild donkeys, and four-footed beasts in
the desert. (Lines 47–50.)

The text resumes after a gap of about thirty-seven lines with an indication that kingship had been established from heaven and that the designated leader should oversee the labor of the others and teach the nation “to follow unerringly like cattle!”

The view set forth above shares many similarities with the portrayals in Genesis. As in the biblical story, it focuses narrowly on the need to develop farming and the nakedness of humanity. It also tells us that helpful creatures were brought forth from the ground. And, implicit in the Sumerian text, humanity knows nothing about morality. People existed to serve the gods and follow direction like cattle. The king, representing the gods, would teach them what they needed to know.

The above text has no story about an expulsion from paradise, but in the few remaining passages preserved on the tablet we have an account of the building of the first cities. This continues the parallels to the Genesis story line, which tells us that Cain, son of Adam and Eve, built the first city after the expulsion.