Reflections in Babylonia and Assyria

What exactly were these matters that were perhaps taught under a polytheistic setting? Note, for example, the belief expressed in certain Babylonian inscriptions. Halley reports that these ancient religious writings claim that “near Eridu was a garden, in which was a mysterious Sacred Tree, a Tree of Life, planted by the gods, whose roots were deep, while its branches reached to heaven, protected by guardian spirits, and no man enters.” It is seen from this that some memorable features of Eden’s events apparently still lingered in Babylonian minds.

The foregoing belief seems to indicate that the tree of life was something that the ancients could not quite forget about Eden. John Elder in his book Prophets, Idols and Diggers observes: “In old Babylonian literature there are frequent references to a Tree of Life, such as is mentioned in Genesis 2:9. Representations of the tree are frequent in alabaster reliefs and seals. Its fruits were supposed to confer eternal life on those who ate of them. One cylinder seal impression among those found seems to be a depiction of the temptation and Tree of Life.”

The cylinder seal to which Mr. Elder refers is evidently the one housed in the British Museum, in London, England. It is sometimes referred to as the “Temptation Seal.” The impression or picture it leaves when it is rolled on soft clay reflects Edenic happenings. A tree is shown in the center with a man seated on the right and a woman seated on the left. Behind the woman a serpent is seen standing erect as if it is speaking to her. Though the full meaning behind the symbolisms of this Babylonian seal is not known, the resemblances in it justify mention.

Assyrian memories of Eden were not unlike those of Babylon. This is because Assyria’s religious ideas were almost the same as those held by the Babylonians. In fact, generally speaking, the Assyrian gods and goddesses are identical with the Babylonian deities except for one named Asshur.

Prominent among the Assyrian memories of Eden is their sacred tree or “tree of life.” The motif of a sacred tree being guarded by two winged creatures appears often in the sculpture found in their palaces. In some cases the winged creatures are half animal and half human. These distorted mythical representations are perhaps recollections of the posting of cherubs “to guard the way to the tree of life.”​—Gen. 3:24.

The ancient Egyptians, too, had Edenic recollections, as evident in their religious thinking. One of them was their belief that, after their Pharaoh died, there was a tree of life of which he must eat to be sustained in the realm of his heavenly father, Re. This was a most unusual idea for the Egyptians to hold. Why? Because their country is one the landscape of which is relatively treeless, trees not being a prominent feature of it. Yet in spite of this the memory of that tree of life in Eden of which man never partook seemingly persisted.​—Gen. 2:9.

Other Peoples with Recollections of Eden

There are many other races whose beliefs and mythologies are mingled with memorable features of Eden. The book The Migration of Symbols by G. d’Alviella has a chapter of more than fifty pages devoted to the symbolisms and mythology associated with sacred trees. Its text and numerous illustrations give indications of reflections of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad in the beliefs of the Phoenicians, Syrians, Persians, Greeks, Sicilians, Mayans, Mexicans (Aztecs), Javanese, Japanese, Chinese and the natives of India.

For example, we note in this chapter “that the Persians possessed the tradition of a Tree of Life, the haoma, whose sap conferred immortality.” Also “that the belief in a Tree of Life existed amongst the Chinese. Traditions mention seven wonderful trees . . . One of them, which was of jade, conferred immortality by its fruit.”

Furthermore, this same chapter tells us that Scandinavian mythology contains a distorted memory of this feature of Eden. It mentions a sacred tree called Yggdrasill, under one of the roots of which was said to spring a well in which all knowledge and wisdom dwell. Another legend speaks of a goddess who kept in a box the Apples of Immortality, of which the gods would partake in order to renew their youth.

Turning to A.S. Murray’s Manual of Mythology, we read on page 173 that “the Gardens of the Hesperides with the golden apples were believed to exist in some island in the ocean . . . They were far-famed in antiquity; for it was there that springs of nectar flowed by the couch of Zeus, and there that the earth displayed the rarest blessings of the gods: it was another Eden.” The tree that produced the golden apples was entrusted to the care of the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas. However, they could not resist the temptation to pluck and eat its fruit. So the serpent Ladon was placed to keep watch over it. And who held to this idea? The ancient Greeks.

Many of the natives of Papua in the Pacific believe in an invisible tree in and around which all those who have led good lives before they died live eternally, happy and free from care. Harold Bailey in his book The Lost Language of Symbolism reports what a visitor there observed about this belief. He noted that “it is not hard to understand that [the Papuan] still possesses dim memories of faiths learnt from lost peoples of higher development when the world was younger and perhaps nearer its Creator than it is to-day.”

As for what appear to be memories of Eden in the Americas, Harold Bailey writes:

“There is a Mexican manuscript in the British Museum wherein two figures are represented plucking the fruits of the so-called ‘Tree of Our Life.’ The Mayas and other peoples of CENTRAL AMERICA always represented their sacred trees with two branches shooting horizontally from the top of the trunk, thus presenting the appearance of a cross . . . and the first Spanish missionaries in MEXICO found to their great astonishment that the cross was already in use there ‘as symbolising a Tree of Life.’”

[Picture on page 17]

Ancient Assyrian sculptured slab showing cherubic figures standing before a sacred tree. Did the Assyrians know about the tree of life in Eden?