1 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:09,760 Adam and Eve in Paradise. 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,280 It is arguably the most influential story of all time. 3 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,760 The first man and woman living in blissful innocence. 4 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:31,280 Until temptation destroys everything. 5 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:44,840 For disobeying God, Adam and Eve are banished from Eden, 6 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:47,920 to a life of toil, suffering and death. 7 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,360 Paradise lost. 8 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:02,080 It's a story central to Christianity, justifying the need for a saviour. 9 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:07,040 If humankind didn't fall away from God in the first place 10 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:08,800 we wouldn't need a redeemer. 11 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:17,600 For centuries, Adam and Eve have been viewed as the archetypal man and woman. 12 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,680 Their story is our story. 13 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,080 Their crime, our crime. 14 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,400 Even if you're not a believer, 15 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:34,280 the story has had a devastating grip on the Western imagination. 16 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:40,160 It's help shape the belief that human nature is fundamentally bad. 17 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:47,160 I'm Francesca Stavrakopoulou. I'm a Biblical scholar 18 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,520 and I'm on a quest to uncover the original meaning of this story. 19 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:59,040 Hidden in the pages of the Bible there are clues pointing to the real Eden. 20 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,800 I believe the Garden of Eden was a real place and the story 21 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,720 is about a very specific moment in our distant past. 22 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:10,440 And because of this, I think we can locate Eden's exact spot. 23 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:14,040 But I'm not a fundamentalist who takes the Bible as fact. 24 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:16,600 I think the truth is much more interesting. 25 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:21,800 What if it wasn't all about Eve? 26 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:26,880 What if the serpent wasn't a villain at all? 27 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:33,600 And what if the story wasn't about all humankind, 28 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:38,280 but a particular figure in a particular place, 2,500 years ago? 29 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:45,240 I think the real story of Eden is too important to ignore. 30 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:09,240 My search for the real Eden begins in the depths of Snowdonia. 31 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:16,440 I'm about to meet a Creationist - someone who believes 32 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,600 the garden of Eden story is literally true. 33 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:25,480 This is the story many people perhaps doubt or consider not to be true 34 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:29,520 and it's the Garden of Eden and it's where God made the world. 35 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:32,920 He's come here to talk to a group of young Christians 36 00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:36,360 and I'm interested to hear why he thinks the Eden story is so important. 37 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,960 It's the entrance of sin that wrecks God's world 38 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:41,840 and it comes in through subtleness. 39 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,560 When the Devil wants to wreck my life or your life, 40 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:49,960 he brings things in very subtly. He tempts you with things. 41 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:55,080 And in doing so, he gets you to stumble, he gets you to fall. 42 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,720 Vinny Commons thinks that to doubt the historical veracity 43 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,240 of the story of Eden is to doubt God himself. 44 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:07,240 I believe there was a literal garden 45 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:11,080 and a literal Adam and a literal Eve. 46 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,360 So it's very real to me, part of ancient history. 47 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:20,800 What would it mean for you as a Christian if it wasn't true? 48 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:24,920 Well, if I can't trust Genesis One and Two, why trust Exodus? 49 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,960 Why should I trust Matthew, Mark, Luke... Any other book? 50 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:34,440 And so I think what is at stake here is the authority of scripture. 51 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:40,720 That was a really interesting experience for me. 52 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:44,800 For Vinny, the garden of Eden story is absolutely crucial to his faith. 53 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:47,440 If it wasn't real, if it didn't actually happen, 54 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,240 it would completely undermine his Christianity. 55 00:04:55,560 --> 00:05:00,840 Not all Christians read the Eden story as historical fact. 56 00:05:00,840 --> 00:05:03,680 Many today see it as an allegory of sorts - 57 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:06,720 a story communicating profound religious truths. 58 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,560 You have been taught that when we were baptised... 59 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:13,520 But even then its message remains essential to the Christian faith. 60 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:17,360 Almighty and ever living God, you sent your only son Jesus Christ 61 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:21,560 into the world to cast out the power of Satan, spirit of evil, 62 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,760 and bring us into the splendour of your kingdom of light. 63 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:31,320 Here at Salford Cathedral, Kian Andrew Goldrick is being baptised. 64 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:34,360 He is being welcomed into the Catholic Church. 65 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:36,920 And of the son. 66 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:40,720 Kian is also having his sins washed away. 67 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:42,880 We pray for Kian Andrew. 68 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:47,800 Set him free from original sin, make him a temple of your glory, 69 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:53,160 and send your holy spirit to dwell within him through Christ, Our Lord. 70 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:54,280 Amen. 71 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:58,440 This belief has arisen directly from the Eden story. 72 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:00,560 Original sin is... 73 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:04,240 the disobedience of our first parents. 74 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:08,280 We call them, figuratively, Adam and Eve. 75 00:06:08,280 --> 00:06:12,800 But it is a disobedience which has landed us 76 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:16,800 in the situation of war, violence and all the rest of it. 77 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,640 How important is the Garden of Eden story to Catholics? 78 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:25,320 It's very important because if you don't have original sin, 79 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:30,520 if humankind didn't fall away from God in the first place, 80 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:32,480 we wouldn't need a redeemer. 81 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,040 We wouldn't need Christ, therefore we wouldn't need the church, 82 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:40,760 so our very existence comes from there. 83 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:54,120 The very foundations of Christianity are built on the themes in the Eden story. 84 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:57,160 On the view that it speaks to us all. 85 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:02,920 An interpretation enforced by western art and literature. 86 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:09,200 But what if it wasn't a story about all of humankind? 87 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,320 Some of its assumed timeless themes 88 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,960 don't actually appear in the Biblical story at all. 89 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:20,880 They've been read into it. 90 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:25,960 Take the serpent. 91 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:30,000 In Christianity the serpent is Satan, the devil, and so it's the devil 92 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,560 who persuades Adam and Eve to eat the fruit forbidden to them by God. 93 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:39,800 For Christians, this act of disobedience 94 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,080 is known as original sin. 95 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:44,720 It's a shorthand label for the inherent evil 96 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:48,240 they believe is in all of us. 97 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:52,400 The thing is, none of these Christian themes are actually in the text. 98 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:55,920 There's no inherent sin, there's no fall of mankind 99 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:58,400 and the serpent is not Satan. 100 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:03,080 All of these Christian ideas are completely alien to the book of Genesis. 101 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:12,320 In fact, it's not just Christians who've read into the story 102 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,640 details that are simply not there. 103 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:21,080 The Bible doesn't name the fruit at the centre of the story, 104 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,960 but the idea of the apple has crept up on us over the centuries. 105 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:27,360 It probably derives from ancient Greek culture, 106 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:29,880 in which the word for apple can also mean breast, 107 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,880 and in which apples were erotic tokens, symbols of sexual desire. 108 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,880 The story's most famous image, the apple, 109 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,880 doesn't even feature in the Bible. 110 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:49,160 Much of what we associate with the story has been imposed by later generations. 111 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:55,480 As a result, it's become a story telling us that we are all fundamentally bad. 112 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:57,880 A belief that has had a huge impact on us, 113 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:01,240 way beyond the Christian faith. 114 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:04,200 The imagery of the Eden story has enriched our literature, 115 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:07,240 our art and our music, but it's always had a very big 116 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:11,320 influence on the way in which we view ourselves and each other. 117 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:15,400 In particular, it's had a very negative impact on the way in which women are viewed. 118 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,560 For centuries, Eve's actions have been used 119 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:22,880 as a reason to suppress women, to be fearful of female sexuality. 120 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:24,880 And Eve's ability to lead Adam 121 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,880 astray has led to a lot of hang-ups about sex. 122 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,760 But I think this is most unfair. 123 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:37,720 The story was never intended as a metaphor for the human condition. 124 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:41,040 I think its real meaning has been lost. 125 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:48,560 I want to search back through time to rediscover the real Eden. 126 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:54,480 I think it was a particular place in history. 127 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:58,880 And there are clues to the real Eden in the Bible itself. 128 00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:03,680 But we'll need the help of archaeology to decipher them. 129 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:13,640 The first clue is the word "garden". 130 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:17,080 The book of Genesis says that God created a garden with trees, 131 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:19,000 rivers, animals and birds. 132 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:23,400 Given that the story is at the start of the Bible, 133 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:25,640 we've tended assume the garden is an idyllic, 134 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:30,160 other-worldly paradise at the beginning of time. 135 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:33,360 But I disagree. 136 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:35,680 I want to argue that the real Eden was a garden 137 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:39,640 constructed by human hands at a much later point in history. 138 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:45,320 To find the real Eden, we need to cast aside later traditions 139 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:50,520 and rediscover what the story first meant at the time it was written. 140 00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:58,360 Scholars agree that the Bible 141 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:02,800 was crafted and written by groups of scribes, in the first millennium BC. 142 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,720 It's the age of the great Ancient Near Eastern civilisations. 143 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:13,560 The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians. 144 00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:17,480 The Eden story is filled with religious and political references 145 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:23,640 that can only be fully understood by getting to know this ancient world. 146 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:27,800 And one of the best collections of treasures from this time is in the British Museum. 147 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:32,720 Here there's a vital clue to the real Garden of Eden. 148 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:37,920 This Assyrian relief from the city of Nineveh is a good illustration 149 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:40,760 of what an Ancient Near Eastern garden would have been like. 150 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:43,840 They were statements of power, 151 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:47,160 high status statements of control over the land. 152 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:52,360 Here we have a palace on a hill with the king clearly visible. 153 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:57,840 To the side of it, an aqueduct channelling water through the garden 154 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:01,920 to irrigate the land to produce rich, fertile soil 155 00:12:01,920 --> 00:12:04,760 for the trees and shrubs and plants. 156 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:11,280 This fits Biblical portrayals of the Garden of Eden. 157 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:16,560 In Genesis waters rise up from the earth and split into four rivers to irrigate the land. 158 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:21,120 These gardens are manifestations of carefully controlled order. 159 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:26,760 They symbolise the imposition of cultivated fertility on the barren wilderness. 160 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:30,840 The Ancient Near East, like the Middle East today, was a harsh environment. 161 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:35,200 Much of the land is desert so controlling that environment is essential. 162 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,480 Order meant life, wilderness meant death. 163 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:46,160 The conventional wisdom is that Eden is a place where nature runs free, 164 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:50,080 but Genesis specifically describes Eden as a garden. 165 00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:55,720 And these reliefs show us what the writers of the story had in mind. 166 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,600 A place filled with architecture, 167 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:04,160 built to demonstrate control over the environment. 168 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:10,560 It's been over 1,000 years since the gardens of these ancient civilisations graced the earth. 169 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:14,800 But it IS possible to experience what they would have been like. 170 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:31,680 There exists today a garden which has adopted this tradition. 171 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:35,560 'And it's inspired by ancient perceptions of Eden itself. 172 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:43,080 'This isn't the Middle East. I've come to the south of Spain, 173 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:47,760 'to the Generalife, literally meaning "architect's garden", 174 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:52,000 'the gardens surrounding the palace of the Alhambra in Grenada.' 175 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:59,120 These are a world-class example of Islamic gardens. 176 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:02,160 Gardens which evolved directly from Ancient Near Eastern, 177 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:04,400 and especially Persian, designs. 178 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:15,360 For Muslims, Eden isn't a place on earth at the beginning of time, but heaven itself. 179 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:23,480 'Islamic gardens are inspired by the description of Eden in the Qur'an. 180 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:29,800 'They are seen as representations of heaven here on earth. 181 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:32,600 'And these carefully structured, medieval gardens 182 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:37,280 'are a glimpse into what I think was the real Eden of the Bible. 183 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:48,040 'Elegant structures delicately reflect the natural world.' 184 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:53,960 In the Alhambra stands a forest of slender columns sculpted into palm trees. 185 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:02,080 I think Eden, too, was made by human hands. 186 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:06,560 Carefully crafted 187 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:10,200 and lovingly designed. 188 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:13,600 A perfect pairing of architecture and nature. 189 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:19,960 We're familiar with the idea of Eden being the perfect place, 190 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:24,000 paradise, and this is true of the historical garden of Eden 191 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,040 but not in some abstract, esoteric way. 192 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,800 It was a real place, like this. 193 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:32,080 The Arabic word for paradise, Janna, 194 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:35,240 is directly related to the Biblical Hebrew word for garden, 195 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:40,560 gan or gannah. This garden was believed to be paradise on earth. 196 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:42,840 This is what paradise really meant. 197 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,560 Both the relief from Nineveh and the Alhambra suggest that the writers 198 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:56,920 of the Eden story wouldn't have been describing a paradise at the beginning of time, 199 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,360 but a man-made garden. 200 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:09,720 But there's a problem. Genesis says that Eden was home to the first man and woman - 201 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:12,760 the ancestors of all humanity. 202 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:21,560 And some might argue that does make it a timeless story about human nature. 203 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:27,600 But that's not what the evidence shows. 204 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:32,280 For when we look at Genesis in the context of the world in which is was written, 205 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:36,320 we find out who the real occupant of the garden was. 206 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,000 And this will help us find the real Eden. 207 00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:51,160 'I think Eden was a garden built by humans for their God. 208 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,040 'The people of the Ancient Near East believed their Gods 209 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,720 'had particular dwelling places here on earth. 210 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,680 'We find evidence of this belief in Genesis itself.' 211 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,280 There's a detail in the Eden story that I particularly like. 212 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:14,520 It describes the man and the woman listening to the sound of God 213 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:18,240 walking in the garden in the cool of the evening breeze. 214 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:22,640 It's a really intimate portrayal of God and it shows him enjoying this garden, 215 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:25,800 and that's a key difference between the way we think about God today 216 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:28,880 and the way in which Ancient Near Eastern people thought about the Gods. 217 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,040 They had human-like qualities and characteristics. 218 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,240 And here's God enjoying the pleasures of his garden. 219 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:41,280 The belief that gardens were places where the Gods dwelt 220 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:43,760 was widespread in the Ancient Near East. 221 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:49,200 And the Bible confirms that the Eden story comes from this tradition 222 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:52,160 in a detail lost to many readers today. 223 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:02,840 'Genesis tells us that guarding the entrance to Eden are cherubim, or cherubs.' 224 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:11,680 Today when people think of cherubs, they tend think of chubby, naked, winged babies, 225 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:16,000 a bit like these examples here on this Christian fountain. 226 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,360 But originally cherubs were really different, 227 00:18:19,360 --> 00:18:22,800 they were frightening, composite, mythical beings, 228 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:26,960 and it was their job to accompany Gods and Goddesses in the Ancient Near East. 229 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:31,120 Most importantly, one of their roles was to mark and to guard 230 00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:35,480 sacred space, and this is exactly what they do in the Garden of Eden. 231 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:40,000 Cherubs mark the dwelling place of God. 232 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,560 At the British Museum we find fantastic examples 233 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:53,880 of the creatures who once guarded the domain of the Gods. 234 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,960 This is what they would have looked like. 235 00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:03,160 Terrifying cherubs, thousands of years old. 236 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:09,480 Surviving remnants from the Ancient Near Eastern World. 237 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,160 The Eden story draws on strong traditions from this time. 238 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:15,760 It's made up of several elements that once had 239 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:18,640 very specific meanings but are now lost to us. 240 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,400 The fact that a monstrous being like this, for example, 241 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,320 appears in the story is often completely overlooked. 242 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:35,480 'But if Eden is God's garden, what then are Adam and Eve doing there? 243 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,480 'The answer will help us find Eden. 244 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:48,040 'And the Assyrian relief provides a clue. 245 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,680 'The lone figure in the palace is a king. 246 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:56,600 'And I think Adam was originally a king, too. 247 00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:59,840 'Archaeology can show us why.' 248 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,080 I've come to a remote corner of Syria, 249 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:10,600 very close to the border with Iraq. 250 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:17,160 Today this particular region feels very much off the beaten track. 251 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:22,520 But thousands of years ago this area belonged to a prosperous Ancient Near Eastern city. 252 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:32,360 'And a huge palace and garden complex from this time has been discovered here.' 253 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,800 You can begin to get a sense of the grandeur that was once here. 254 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:45,600 But what's so striking is that this was home 255 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:50,240 to a really lush, fertile, cultivated, carefully crafted garden. 256 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:56,680 This is the site of Mari, the home of a king in the 18th century BC. 257 00:20:56,680 --> 00:20:59,600 It offers us a remarkable insight 258 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:02,800 into the role of kings in the Ancient Near East. 259 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:07,680 'And this is crucial in the search for the real Eden. 260 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,440 'The gardens dried up many centuries ago. 261 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,760 'But evidence of the king's palace has survived.' 262 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,520 You can see just how old this settlement is 263 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:23,960 by how far down it is, it's so deep. 264 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:27,400 The archaeologists would have had to dig down metres and metres 265 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:29,840 and metres to get down there. 266 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:33,920 But it looks very well preserved. The brick work looks amazing. 267 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,040 Oh, wow! 268 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:46,560 We've got a whole complex of passageways 269 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,080 and small rooms or courtyards. 270 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:54,000 It just goes on forever. Everywhere you look, there's another doorway, 271 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:55,640 another passageway. 272 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:27,720 You get a bit of a better sense about what this building would have been like. 273 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,600 The palace wasn't just a bureaucratic, political centre, 274 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:32,600 it was a religious centre, 275 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:36,280 very sophisticated heart of a complex culture. 276 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,320 And it was intended to be completely impressive. 277 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:43,200 Ancient Near Eastern architecture was all about monumentality, 278 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:47,280 sort of a way of showing off, saying, "Look how big and strong and powerful this king is. 279 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:50,480 "Look at the kind of buildings that a king can produce." 280 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:58,600 And it's this role that links kings directly to the Eden story. 281 00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:03,400 The idea is that a king could only produce this kind of building, 282 00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:05,360 because he had the wisdom of the Gods, 283 00:23:05,360 --> 00:23:07,760 the real architects of the cosmos. 284 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,920 And because he's got this wisdom, this divine knowledge, 285 00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,680 he can build these completely impressive buildings, 286 00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:18,520 these palaces, that really showed how strong and in control of the cosmos he was. 287 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:27,680 'The king was the crucial link between the human and heavenly worlds, 288 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,600 'enjoying a special relationship with the Gods. 289 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,800 'And this tells us exactly who Adam symbolised in the Eden story.' 290 00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:40,400 Sacred gardens were built and maintained by kings. 291 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:43,720 In the Ancient Near East there was no distinction between religion 292 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,560 and politics, and the King embodied this. 293 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:50,000 He functioned as a link between the divine realm and the earthly realm, 294 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,040 mediating the relationship between his people and the Gods. 295 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:56,680 And his role in the sacred gardens reflected this. 296 00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:01,280 He was granted access by the Gods to the garden in order to tend it 297 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,440 and to cultivate it. In essence, he was the gardener of the Gods. 298 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,360 'And this is exactly the role Adam plays in Eden.' 299 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:16,400 Not only does he enjoy privileged access to his God in the garden, 300 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:20,280 but he's placed in Eden in order to tend and cultivate the garden. 301 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:23,360 According to Ancient Near Eastern belief systems, 302 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:25,920 Adam fulfils the role of a king. 303 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:40,560 'I think that Eden, then, was a garden built as an earthly dwelling place for a God.' 304 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,640 A garden tended by a king. 305 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,520 It's a view that turns upside down 306 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,160 the conventional understanding of Adam. 307 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:59,000 'In Judaism, Adam is emphatically the first man. 308 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,400 'So I put it to Rabbi Brodie from Manchester's Jewish Court, 309 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:07,000 'the Beth Din, that in my view Adam is best understood as a king.' 310 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,880 By definition, first of all, a king has to have people. 311 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,360 Adam and Eve were created without anyone else. 312 00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:14,960 Eventually, obviously, they had their children. 313 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,640 So, no, we do not see Adam as a king in that sense. 314 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:21,280 But we see Adam and Eve as the progenitors of mankind, 315 00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:24,440 as the very first couple. We certainly see them 316 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:26,960 as being the handiwork of God himself. 317 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:32,000 I see Adam as a royal figure, he's created in order to do 318 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:36,320 work in the garden. He's the gardener of God. What do you think of that? 319 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:41,760 To consider Adam and Eve as an early gardening couple is very... 320 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:46,640 alien to the Jewish concept. We don't see them as gardeners and we certainly don't see them 321 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:53,000 as being royal in the sense of having...of being king or queen or having a divine nature. 322 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,280 They are human and God is God. 323 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,960 I can see why those who are familiar with the Genesis story 324 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,880 will be surprised at my idea that Adam represents a king. 325 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:10,360 There is, after all, no mention of a king in Genesis. 326 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,640 But there is elsewhere in the Bible. 327 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:18,920 And it's not buried in an obscure or fleeting text. 328 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,440 'There's another version of the Eden story, rich in detail, 329 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:29,240 'and which many scholars believe is older than the Genesis version. 330 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,720 'In it there's no Eve and there's no serpent. 331 00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:34,520 'For Biblical scholar, Nicolas Wyatt, 332 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,600 'it sheds much more light on who Adam symbolises.' 333 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:42,240 Genesis isn't the only place that we read about Eden. 334 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:45,040 No. The other place of great interest, 335 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:48,600 I think, in our discussion, is Ezekiel 28. 336 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:51,600 We have two oracles against the King of Tyre, 337 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,240 the island kingdom, as it then was, on the coast of the Lebanon. 338 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:59,120 And in the second of these oracles, verses 12 and following, 339 00:26:59,120 --> 00:27:03,800 it describes the King as walking on the holy mountain of God in Eden. 340 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,840 And it's a place filled with fiery stones on which the King walks. 341 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:12,320 Ezekiel's portrayal of Eden is very different from that in Genesis. 342 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:15,960 We don't have a couple in this story, we have a king, 343 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,400 who's expelled from the garden. Yes. 344 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,040 And he's expelled for two specific crimes. 345 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:26,760 Trade - capitalism, with all the sins that go alongside it. 346 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,600 And violence - presumably military adventures. 347 00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:35,880 So according to Ezekiel, Eden isn't the setting for a story about human origins. 348 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:41,760 In this much earlier tradition, in Ezekiel, it's nothing to do with the beginnings of the world. 349 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:45,000 No, not a hint of that. It's all about a king. 350 00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,280 In his palace and temple complex, yes. 351 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:51,080 Eden seems to be a cipher for a real place. 352 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:53,360 A real geographical location. 353 00:27:55,960 --> 00:28:00,680 'The Ezekiel version of the Eden story is very probably earlier 354 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:04,920 'than that in Genesis. And that to me, is a strong indication that Eden 355 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:09,920 'was not originally understood as a utopia from the dawn of creation.' 356 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,080 'The conventional picture of Eden, 357 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:19,360 'imposed by later religions, Western literature and art, is wrong. 358 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:23,600 'The story reads less and less like a tale about all humanity. 359 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:30,120 'If Adam IS a king, then Eden is a story about a real place in time. 360 00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:36,000 'And now at last we can pinpoint its exact location.' 361 00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:47,360 'The desire to find Eden has burned for centuries. 362 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,640 'The travels of Marco Polo 363 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:56,040 'and Christopher Columbus were inspired by the hope of finding it. 364 00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:00,760 'Columbus thought he HAD found it in Venezuela. 365 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:05,440 'But this river has proved the biggest draw for Eden hunters. 366 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:12,760 'It's fed some of the great civilisations of the Ancient Near East. The Euphrates.' 367 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:17,840 There are clues in the Bible that suggest a real geographical location. 368 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,880 The water in Eden is said to split into four rivers. 369 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:24,040 The Euphrates is one of them, but there's also the Tigris, 370 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,360 the Pishon and the Gihon. 371 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,160 'The mention of the Tigris and the Euphrates in the Genesis story 372 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:42,040 'often leads people to this part of the world, towards modern-day Iraq. 373 00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:47,080 'This was once the east of the fertile crescent. Ancient Mesopotamia. 374 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,520 'The cradle of civilisation.' 375 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,920 It's the perfect place for what generations of people have thought Eden to be, 376 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,240 a utopia at the beginning of time. 377 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:07,200 'But explorers who search here are not only looking in the wrong place, 378 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:10,040 'they are looking in the wrong time. 379 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,360 'I don't think Eden was a primeval paradise.' 380 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,960 I think it was a garden, located in the Ancient Near East, 381 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:20,560 a dwelling place of a God tended by a king 382 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,440 around 2,500 years ago. 383 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:27,040 This is the time and place we need to look. 384 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,920 The bigger and better clue to its real location is another river 385 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,400 mentioned in Genesis. 386 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:48,240 And this is it, the Gihon. It's not exactly a river but a spring, 387 00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:50,880 and it matches the description in Genesis 388 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:52,720 of the water that feeds the garden. 389 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,760 Waters that bubble up through the earth just like a spring. 390 00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,200 The Gihon's mentioned quite a few times in the Bible and it seems 391 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:02,640 to play an important ceremonial role in the enthronement of kings. 392 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:06,320 And, importantly, this water also feeds a city. 393 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,400 Other clues in the Bible also point to Eden 394 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:13,600 being in this city. 395 00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:16,880 We've seen Eden described elsewhere in the Bible. 396 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,760 The Prophet Ezekiel calls it the holy mountain of God. 397 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:25,120 And according to the Bible, the holy mountain of God is Mount Zion. 398 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:36,520 I think Eden was in the city of Jerusalem. 399 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,680 Today Mount Zion is known to Jews as the Temple Mount 400 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,080 and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif. 401 00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,960 'The iconic building standing here is the Dome Of The Rock, 402 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:56,120 'the Islamic shrine marking the place where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven.' 403 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,440 Here on this site once stood the ancient Jerusalem Temple, 404 00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:07,560 and I think this is the location of the Garden of Eden. 405 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,880 I believe Eden is the ancient Jerusalem Temple. 406 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,440 'Like gardens in the Ancient Near East, the Jerusalem Temple 407 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:19,720 'was at the heart of religious, political and cultural life. 408 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:22,960 'And, just as gardens were the abodes of the Gods, 409 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:27,120 'so the temple was where the God of the Bible dwelt. 410 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:30,800 'And it was tended by a king.' 411 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:33,280 According to the Bible, the Jerusalem Temple 412 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:37,000 was built by Solomon, son of the legendary King David. 413 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,720 David's descendants, the kings, had a very privileged 414 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:43,640 and special place in the religion of Jerusalem. The King was able 415 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:48,440 to access God in the temple. He had a very intimate relationship with God. 416 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,160 He was the servant of God. He was called the Son of God, 417 00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:54,360 the Anointed One, the Messiah. 418 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:07,160 Everything points to the Jerusalem Temple being the real Eden. 419 00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:11,760 But how can a temple - bricks and mortar - be a garden? 420 00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:18,320 'Excavating such a hotly contested site is out of the question. 421 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,400 'But archaeological finds elsewhere in the region 422 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:24,640 'can help us find the answer.' 423 00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:40,240 The Bible contains some surprisingly detailed descriptions 424 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:42,320 of the Jerusalem Temple. 425 00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:44,680 It offers us the size, the shape, 426 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:47,040 the measurements of all its dimensions. 427 00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:50,840 And in recent years archaeologists have come 428 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,480 to an incredible conclusion, that the Biblical portrayal 429 00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,640 of the Jerusalem Temple is almost identical 430 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:02,160 to the remains of this ancient temple in Syria - Ain Dara. 431 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:11,400 Standing isolated in the countryside of northern Syria, 432 00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:15,960 there's been nothing to prevent the excavation of these ancient remains. 433 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:21,800 'This temple is from the same period as the Jerusalem Temple, 434 00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:25,320 'about the 10th to the 8th century BC, 435 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:29,280 'and it's remarkably similar in its dimensions and architecture.' 436 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:34,800 These are impressionistic plans 437 00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:36,400 of two temples. 438 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:41,840 This one is the temple I'm sitting in now - Ain Dara in Syria - 439 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:46,040 and this one is based on descriptions in the Bible, 440 00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:47,920 of the Jerusalem Temple. 441 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:50,360 When we compare the two, 442 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:53,400 you can see just how similar they are. 443 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,840 So, let's look at Ain Dara. 444 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,920 A long oblong, with the entrance down here at the bottom. 445 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:05,960 And a tripartite structure. There are three areas, if you like. 446 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,840 One courtyard here, an inner room here, 447 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,920 and then at the very back, what we tend to call The Holy of Holies, 448 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,560 the most sacred place in the temple, where the God dwelt. 449 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:19,600 When we look at the Jerusalem Temple, 450 00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:22,160 we find a very similar layout. 451 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:27,120 And it's not just in the basic set-up of the temples that they compare. 452 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:32,120 They've got some other features too that suggest a remarkable correlation between them. 453 00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:36,080 The pillars here, either side of the threshold, 454 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,840 marking that boundary into the sacred space. 455 00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:45,440 Then the steps going up and up again into the most sacred area, the holy of holies. 456 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:48,720 This temple is the closest we get to understanding 457 00:35:48,720 --> 00:35:51,280 what the Jerusalem temple would have looked like. 458 00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:57,600 Being here at Ain Dara, it's possible to get a real 459 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:01,440 sense of the purpose and function of the Jerusalem temple. 460 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,840 These massive footprints belong to the deity whose temple this is. 461 00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:11,480 It's probably the goddess, Ishtar, a powerful military goddess. 462 00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:16,680 Here's where she first appears on the threshold of her temple, 463 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,560 and here's her first stride across the threshold 464 00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:24,440 and then the next footprint, all the way over there going in to the holy of holies. 465 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:31,960 Now I haven't got the smallest feet in the world, but if you compare the size of my feet to hers, 466 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:36,160 you can see just what a super-sized deity she is and that's the point 467 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:40,880 about temples, they're massive dwelling spaces for massive gods and 468 00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:44,720 I think the Jerusalem temple would have been really similar to this. 469 00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:48,040 And that's why Ain Dara is my favourite of all temples, 470 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,920 because you get a real sense of what it was really like. 471 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:55,080 It was a living temple. The god was actually present here. 472 00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:02,280 Ain Dara is a close parallel to the Jerusalem temple. 473 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:07,760 Still, the question remains, how could a temple be a garden? 474 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:11,720 The answer lies with the cherubim I encountered earlier. 475 00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:16,240 This imposing creature is a cherub. 476 00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:20,040 Genesis tells us cherubim guarded the entrance to the Garden of Eden 477 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:21,680 and they do the same here, 478 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:24,720 keeping watch at the boundaries of the temple. 479 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:27,560 And they were also in the Jerusalem temple. 480 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:30,080 In the Book Of Kings, we're told cherubim are found 481 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:31,840 on every wall in the temple. 482 00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:34,880 It portrays them as huge, monstrous creatures, 483 00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:39,640 10 cubits high, with a wingspan of another ten cubits. 484 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:46,160 Ain Dara shows us that the cherubs of the Jerusalem temple 485 00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:48,520 marked the boundaries to God's garden. 486 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:55,400 In other words, the Garden of Eden was found inside the temple. 487 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,920 And the Bible tells us precisely how. 488 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:08,280 The Book Of Kings describes in sumptuous detail 489 00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:12,160 how every surface was embellished with intricate decorations, 490 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:16,320 rich in horticultural symbolism. 491 00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,320 The walls were not stone, but completely covered 492 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,800 in sweet-smelling cedar wood. 493 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:29,120 And everywhere you looked were engravings of palm trees, 494 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,120 open flowers. The tops of pillars were shaped like lilies. 495 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,560 Adorning them, hundreds of pomegranates. 496 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,640 This temple was a lavish display 497 00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,840 of the best produce of the fruits of the earth. 498 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,280 It was a beautiful garden. 499 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:01,040 But Eden wasn't just any garden, 500 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:04,680 it was the point where the heavenly realm and the earthly realm became one. 501 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,360 And this was true of the Jerusalem temple. 502 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,760 Stepping inside was nothing less than stepping into the heavens. 503 00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:47,920 And that's the secret of the Garden of Eden. 504 00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,360 It was both mythical and real. 505 00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:54,840 It was a historical, tangible temple, where the King worshipped 506 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:57,280 and it was the place where heaven and earth met, 507 00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,720 and where the God of the Bible was present. 508 00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:08,080 In Jewish and Christian tradition, 509 00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:12,280 Eden was created and lost at the beginning of time. 510 00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:19,160 But if I'm right, Eden was located at a place still accessible today. 511 00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:24,320 This challenges the Biblical account of Creation, held dear by many Jews, 512 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,320 and taken literally by some. 513 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,640 For a Jew, the reading of the Bible is taken very literally, 514 00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:35,240 that it's an actual, physical location here, on earth, 515 00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:36,800 somewhere in the Middle East. 516 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:41,360 I don't think Judaism believes that the Garden of Eden was actually situated in Jerusalem. 517 00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:46,280 But I think it would be fair to say, that if there was one place on earth 518 00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:50,920 where the close spiritual relationship with God manifested itself, 519 00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:54,960 certainly as a Jew, you would look to the temple in Jerusalem. 520 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:03,560 For Muslims, Eden is the afterlife - paradise, heaven. 521 00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:10,080 I met Muhsin Yusuf, a professor of Islamic history, to put to him 522 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:12,480 that Jerusalem was the site of Eden. 523 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,320 For a Muslim, definitely not! HE LAUGHS 524 00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,120 We are here in Jerusalem 525 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:26,040 and we look around and see all kind of, you know, not nice things. 526 00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:30,520 Dirty streets, people say bad words. 527 00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:35,120 And they don't worship God as supposedly. 528 00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:37,800 And all kind of really negative things. 529 00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:42,080 In Islam, 530 00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:46,480 heaven is perfect, clean, nice. 531 00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,240 People don't say bad things, and totally different. 532 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:55,280 I can see why the idea of finding paradise at the centre of one of 533 00:41:55,280 --> 00:42:00,960 the most troubled places on earth may be too much for many to accept. 534 00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:06,640 I think the temple of Jerusalem was the real Garden of Eden. 535 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:11,920 The dwelling place of the God of Israel. Tended by a king. 536 00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:15,160 The story of Eden is not timeless. 537 00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:22,640 But there's much more to the Genesis account. 538 00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,280 It doesn't have a happy ending. 539 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,600 Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden forever. 540 00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:35,720 And it's this part of the story that really matters to the Western mindset. 541 00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:47,880 In Christianity, the story of Adam's expulsion or "fall" 542 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,760 underpins the core of faith. 543 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:54,800 This is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. 544 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:59,000 According to tradition, this is where Jesus was crucified 545 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,920 and buried, and where he rose from the dead. 546 00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:11,840 The site of his crucifixion is marked by this elaborately decorated chapel. 547 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:15,560 Underneath is another chapel, 548 00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:19,040 simple and often overlooked by pilgrims. 549 00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:24,200 But it's just as significant. The Chapel of Adam. 550 00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:27,200 Tradition says this is where Adam was buried. 551 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,760 In Christianity, Adam's act of disobedience 552 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,320 shatters the order of God's Creation. 553 00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:39,240 But Jesus restores that order. He is Adam made anew. A second Adam. 554 00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,400 And that's why, to become a Christian, a child too 555 00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:50,480 needs to be made anew or born again, through the ritual of baptism. 556 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:57,400 Adam's disobedience was the first sin, passed down the generations. 557 00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:02,080 Only baptism in the name of Jesus can wipe away the stain of that sin. 558 00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,000 It could be argued that it's not really 559 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:11,680 the location of Eden that matters, but the expulsion from Eden. 560 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:14,240 It's that act of disobedience which gives rise 561 00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:16,720 to the bleak view of human nature. 562 00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:21,920 I agree that the Eden story is ultimately about the loss 563 00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:24,360 of a close, intimate relationship with God. 564 00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,560 But not for the reasons Christianity gives. 565 00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:31,480 I think the banishment from Eden reflects a real moment in time, 566 00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:35,680 a devastating event in the life of the ancient Israelites. 567 00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:45,520 Evidence of this traumatic event can still be seen in Jerusalem today. 568 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:51,000 I'm in the southern part of the city, 569 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:56,080 very close to the area commonly known as the Temple Mount. 570 00:44:56,080 --> 00:45:00,160 This is a building in Jerusalem dated to the 6th century BC. 571 00:45:00,160 --> 00:45:02,560 We're not entirely sure what its function was. 572 00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,560 Some people have argued it was a library, because evidence 573 00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:08,680 of documents has been found here. Other people say it was 574 00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:12,160 a trader's house and those documents were his receipts and records. 575 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:17,320 But whatever it was, it's what happened to this building that's so interesting. 576 00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:21,360 This is a bulla. It's a small lump of clay that was used to seal 577 00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:24,720 rolled up documents, and the reason why we have this 578 00:45:24,720 --> 00:45:27,760 and all the others that were found here, is that they were 579 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:30,800 baked hard by a huge fire that tore through this area. 580 00:45:37,720 --> 00:45:41,000 In the 6th century BC, Jerusalem was part of Judah, 581 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:45,320 a vassal kingdom under the control of the powerful Babylonian Empire 582 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:50,000 and at the mercy of the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar. 583 00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:57,440 Eventually, relations between the two nations broke down. 584 00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:06,120 Being a vassal meant to pay tributes at regular intervals. 585 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:11,240 But twice in the history of Judah, the kings refused to pay tribute 586 00:46:11,240 --> 00:46:15,120 and that is why Nebuchadnezzar came with his army, he besieged 587 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:19,480 the city of Jerusalem and the second time he lost his patience, 588 00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:24,560 and his, erm, his general entered the city, destroyed the city, 589 00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:29,520 destroyed the royal palace and also the temple. The temple went up in flames. 590 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:32,720 How do you think the people of Jerusalem would have responded 591 00:46:32,720 --> 00:46:36,080 to seeing this foreign king come against their city, their God, 592 00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,480 their temple, and seeing the temple in flames? 593 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:41,840 For them, it must have been terrible for an ancient Oriental temple 594 00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:45,120 and this applies also for Jerusalem, was the centre of the world, 595 00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:47,160 the place of Creation, 596 00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:51,400 the combination where heaven and earth come together, and seeing 597 00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:55,920 this temple aflame meant that the cosmic order was heavily disturbed. 598 00:46:55,920 --> 00:47:00,040 So from that point onward, everything had to go wrong. 599 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:06,320 The temple, the holiest place on earth, 600 00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:10,320 the place where the god of Jerusalem lived, had been destroyed. 601 00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:16,000 The King, who was God's representative on earth, had been dethroned 602 00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,880 and all his successors captured or killed. 603 00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:24,320 The link between God and his people had been lost. 604 00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:28,040 It was an overwhelming blow. 605 00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:33,880 The people of Jerusalem had lost everything. Access to their God, their king, their land. 606 00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:43,040 This is what I think the loss of Eden is really about. 607 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:50,560 And this has a huge bearing on both faith and culture today. 608 00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:53,320 For many, Adam represents all humanity. 609 00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:58,480 And his disobedience shows that all humans are bad. 610 00:48:04,720 --> 00:48:08,680 But if I'm right, then the blame does not lie with all of us, 611 00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:11,480 but with an ancient King of Jerusalem. 612 00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:15,760 All the little features of the story points to Adam as a royal figure, 613 00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:17,760 and of course the King is to blame, 614 00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:20,480 he's responsible for the kingdom after all. 615 00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:26,000 And therefore he's to blame when it's destroyed. So according to Genesis, the destruction of Jerusalem, 616 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:31,080 the destruction of the temple, isn't God's fault, it's the King's fault? What kings and presidents 617 00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:35,040 and military leaders do, determines the fate of a whole nation. 618 00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:39,120 So, here we have the obvious question being asked about why was Jerusalem 619 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:40,720 sacked by the Babylonians? 620 00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:44,560 Why? Because the King misbehaved, he had sinned. 621 00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:50,680 By eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 622 00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:53,920 Adam seeks to gain the wisdom of God. 623 00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:56,960 And this is the King's crime. 624 00:48:56,960 --> 00:49:00,360 His ego has got the better of him and he has abused his position. 625 00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:03,360 When the kingdom is destroyed, the writer, is of course, 626 00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,320 looking for an explanation of why this has happened, 627 00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:09,560 see that his wisdom has led him into perversity. 628 00:49:09,560 --> 00:49:11,800 It is not wisdom which has elevated him, 629 00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,160 it is wisdom that has now corrupted him. 630 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,920 If the Eden story is a tale of the hubris of a king, 631 00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:23,160 then the rest of us are off the hook. 632 00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:27,240 It's not a story about our sins at all, 633 00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:32,320 but about the political actions of a monarch, 2,500 years ago, 634 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:35,840 actions which bring about the fall of his kingdom 635 00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:37,800 and the end of a royal line. 636 00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:44,280 But are we entirely free from blame? 637 00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:48,960 The Book of Genesis ultimately points the finger at 638 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:51,720 the two real villains of the story - 639 00:49:51,720 --> 00:49:54,680 Eve and the serpent. 640 00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:58,440 The fall guys, the corrupters of humanity. For centuries, 641 00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:03,800 they've both had a bad press, but I think wholly undeserved. 642 00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:13,360 There is no reference in Genesis to the snake being Satan 643 00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:17,000 or the Devil, so what exactly is it doing in the story? 644 00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:22,880 I think that originally, the canny creature was not a villain at all. 645 00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:32,480 Elsewhere in the Bible, we find evidence of the snake 646 00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:36,320 once playing a very positive role. The great Biblical hero, Moses, 647 00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:41,400 carries a staff that becomes a serpent as he leads his people to the Promised Land. 648 00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:45,440 And originally, the serpent also played a key role 649 00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:47,800 in the Jerusalem temple. 650 00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:51,520 The Bible describes winged creatures, seraphs or serpents, 651 00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:54,800 who fly around the Throne of God in the temple. 652 00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:58,480 But these are not Satan, or a manifestation of evil. 653 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:03,360 They are the faithful servants of God, who fly about him singing his praises. 654 00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:09,160 This imagery derives from serpent worship which was once an accepted part of the Jerusalem temple, 655 00:51:09,160 --> 00:51:13,520 where people would make offerings to a bronze serpent called Nehushtan. 656 00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:18,760 Serpents were considered to be death-defying creatures, they held the secrets of life and death. 657 00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:24,200 They stored venom in their bodies, they shed their skin and they could regenerate themselves. 658 00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:27,680 As a result of this, they were powerful agents in healing cults. 659 00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:37,840 But there is a point in the history of the Bible when the snake turns bad. 660 00:51:37,840 --> 00:51:40,920 Serpent worship was once a normal part of religion. 661 00:51:40,920 --> 00:51:45,520 But by the time the Garden of Eden story was written, it was no longer acceptable. 662 00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:48,960 The serpent fell from grace when the temple was destroyed. 663 00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:53,520 The destruction was seen as a punishment from God for the crimes of his people. 664 00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:57,760 The religious crimes committed in the temple. And that included serpent worship. 665 00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:05,880 The inclusion of the serpent as the crafty villain 666 00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:10,240 of the Eden story is a deliberate move to discredit the snake cult. 667 00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:18,440 But the demonising of the snake wasn't entirely successful. 668 00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:21,040 Its original symbolism did survive, 669 00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:25,800 and it lives on to this day as an emblem of healing. 670 00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:31,040 The other villain of the Eden story is perhaps 671 00:52:31,040 --> 00:52:35,000 the most notorious woman in Western culture. 672 00:52:36,360 --> 00:52:39,200 The Bible suggests that she is ultimately to blame 673 00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:42,520 for the loss of paradise. 674 00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:46,280 She conforms to an all-too depressing and familiar pattern. 675 00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:50,760 In the Bible there are lots of stories about men disobeying God. 676 00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:53,440 But often, it's because of their wives. 677 00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:58,280 King Solomon builds temples to foreign deities to please his wives. 678 00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:00,760 King Ahab is the most idolatrous of all monarchs, 679 00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:04,360 but only because his wife, Jezebel, eggs him on. 680 00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:08,440 The same can be said of Adam and Eve. Adam's disobedient, 681 00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:11,880 but only because Eve puts him in that situation. 682 00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:13,480 It's all Eve's fault. 683 00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:20,040 And it's not just Eve who is ultimately condemned. 684 00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:23,320 It's all of womankind. A damning indictment, 685 00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:27,440 but we now know this was never the original intention of the Eden story. 686 00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:32,320 For it was only when the Bible was compiled into the form 687 00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:36,600 we now recognise, by later scribes, well after the 6th century BC, 688 00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:40,160 that the Eden story was placed right at the beginning. 689 00:53:41,800 --> 00:53:44,400 It then became a part of the account which explained 690 00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:47,480 the Creation of the whole world. 691 00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:52,680 This reordering of earlier traditions loaded the story with 692 00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:54,840 a radically different meaning. 693 00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:00,840 According to Biblical scholar, Judith Hadley, 694 00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:05,320 it's this which had such devastating results for women. 695 00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:09,360 Well, it's, it's really actually very unfair, because, 696 00:54:09,360 --> 00:54:15,080 the Garden was not even considered to be a Creation story 697 00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:18,720 in the first place, until it was placed after Genesis Chapter One, 698 00:54:18,720 --> 00:54:22,120 that of course, is the text which the early Christian interpreters 699 00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:25,800 had received, and so therefore, that's what they worked with. 700 00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:29,040 But she is not meant to be the first woman, 701 00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:34,240 and so therefore nothing that she does, even if it were detrimental, 702 00:54:34,240 --> 00:54:37,800 which I am not so sure it was, could be blamed, 703 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:40,920 could she be blamed for bringing sin into the world. 704 00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:47,600 So simply by virtue of the story appearing at the start of the Bible, it's become an archetype, almost. 705 00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:51,840 Every man and every woman are related somehow to this first man and this first woman. 706 00:54:51,840 --> 00:54:55,200 And their sins are somehow transmitted to generation 707 00:54:55,200 --> 00:55:02,000 after generation after generation, with the end result that women have somehow inherited the sin of Eve. 708 00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:06,480 I think that's absolutely crucial. It's only because people started 709 00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:11,120 to look at it and say, "If these are the first two humans, 710 00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:14,200 "and we no longer live in the Garden, then it must be their fault 711 00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:21,320 "for some reason, and so therefore that's why everything has gone wrong." 712 00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:26,280 And I don't think that was the intention of the original account at all. 713 00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:31,880 My research has led me to conclude that the real Eden tradition 714 00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:35,640 was about the Jerusalem temple and the failings of a king. 715 00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:41,360 It's not about the fall of humanity. 716 00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:46,760 But the idea that we are all born corrupted by sin 717 00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:49,920 is not something that Christians are quick to give up. 718 00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:54,200 Even when they acknowledge that the story could have been reinterpreted. 719 00:55:54,200 --> 00:55:59,280 Christians are still likely to read it in its re-contextualised 720 00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:03,520 location, ie, where it now is in Genesis, 721 00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:07,240 part of Creation, prior to the Flood, etc, etc. 722 00:56:07,240 --> 00:56:13,080 Christians have usually wanted to concentrate on the literary context, 723 00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:17,120 rather than the... necessarily, the context of origin. 724 00:56:17,120 --> 00:56:22,080 So the story is about a natural human tendency to sin? 725 00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:27,280 That would be something like the way I am inclined to read it, yes. 726 00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:32,080 For me, the ancient story about the Garden of Eden 727 00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:34,200 is not about the human condition. 728 00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:37,440 It's not saying that you and I are inherently bad. 729 00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:39,120 It's about the religion 730 00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:44,280 and politics of a particular people 2,500 years ago. 731 00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:50,120 Some people may see this as reductive, that somehow I'm not embracing 732 00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:53,760 the full richness of the story. But I think the real motivation 733 00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:57,360 of the story is far more exciting. It allows us to engage 734 00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:01,200 with the real passions and anxieties of a people from long ago. 735 00:57:06,280 --> 00:57:10,160 But does that mean the story doesn't speak to us any more? 736 00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:12,600 Well, it might speak to Jews, Christians 737 00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:16,640 and Muslims more eloquently than we'd imagine. 738 00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:25,200 For people of faith, religion is a way of reconnecting with the divine, 739 00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:29,040 with the unity found in the Garden of Eden, but lost in the distant past. 740 00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:39,560 The idea of a lost paradise sits strongly in our collective psyche, 741 00:57:39,560 --> 00:57:43,720 and I think nowhere more so than here. 742 00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:48,840 The place where the Dome of the Rock now stands is Jerusalem's most hallowed piece of real estate. 743 00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:52,000 It's where people believe Abraham nearly sacrificed his son. 744 00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:56,680 It's where the Jewish temple stood, where Mohammed ascended to heaven. 745 00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:59,920 Thousands have fought for this patch of earth. 746 00:57:59,920 --> 00:58:04,800 It's the spot where God met Man. This was heaven on earth. 747 00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:07,520 And this was the Garden of Eden. 748 00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:10,880 Is it any wonder that no-one wants to give it up? 749 00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:41,360 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 750 00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:44,400 E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk