PAPER 73
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
73:0.1 THE cultural decadence and spiritual poverty
resulting from the Caligastia downfall and consequent social confusion had
little effect on the physical or biologic status of the Urantia peoples.
Organic evolution proceeded apace, quite regardless of the cultural and moral
setback which so swiftly followed the disaffection of Caligastia and
Daligastia. And there came a time in the planetary history, almost forty
thousand years ago, when the Life Carriers on duty took note that, from a
purely biologic standpoint, the developmental progress of the Urantia races
was nearing its apex. The Melchizedek receivers, concurring in this opinion,
readily agreed to join the Life Carriers in a petition to the Most Highs of
Edentia asking that Urantia be inspected with a view to authorizing the
dispatch of biologic uplifters, a Material Son and Daughter.
73:0.2 This request was addressed to the Most Highs
of Edentia because they had exercised direct jurisdiction over many of
Urantia's affairs ever since Caligastia's downfall and the temporary vacation
of authority on Jerusem.
73:0.3 Tabamantia, sovereign supervisor of the
series of decimal or experimental worlds, came to inspect the planet and,
after his survey of racial progress, duly recommended that Urantia be granted
Material Sons. In a little less than one hundred years from the time of this
inspection, Adam and Eve, a Material Son and Daughter of the local system,
arrived and began the difficult task of attempting to untangle the confused
affairs of a planet retarded by rebellion and resting under the ban of
spiritual isolation.
1. THE NODITES AND THE AMADONITES
73:1.1 On a normal planet the arrival of the
Material Son would ordinarily herald the approach of a great age of invention,
material progress, and intellectual enlightenment. The post-Adamic era is the
great scientific age of most worlds, but not so on Urantia. Though the planet
was peopled by races physically fit, the tribes languished in the depths of
savagery and moral stagnation.
73:1.2 Ten thousand years after the rebellion
practically all the gains of the Prince's administration had been effaced; the
races of the world were little better off than if this misguided Son had never
come to Urantia. Only among the Nodites and the Amadonites was there
persistence of the traditions of Dalamatia and the culture of the Planetary
Prince.
73:1.3 The Nodites were the descendants of
the rebel members of the Prince's staff, their name deriving from their first
leader, Nod, onetime chairman of the Dalamatia commission on industry and
trade. The Amadonites were the descendants of those Andonites who chose
to remain loyal with Van and Amadon. "Amadonite" is more of a cultural and
religious designation than a racial term; racially considered the Amadonites
were essentially Andonites. "Nodite" is both a cultural and racial
term, for the Nodites themselves constituted the eighth race of
Urantia.
73:1.4 There existed a traditional enmity between
the Nodites and the Amadonites. This feud was constantly coming to the surface
whenever the offspring of these two groups would try to engage in some common
enterprise. Even later, in the affairs of Eden, it was exceedingly difficult
for them to work together in peace.
73:1.5 Shortly after the destruction of Dalamatia
the followers of Nod became divided into three major groups. The central group
remained in the immediate vicinity of their original home near the headwaters
of the Persian Gulf. The eastern group migrated to the highland regions of
Elam just east of the Euphrates valley. The western group was situated on the
northeastern Syrian shores of the Mediterranean and in adjacent
territory.
73:1.6 These Nodites had freely mated with the
Sangik races and had left behind an able progeny. And some of the descendants
of the rebellious Dalamatians subsequently joined Van and his loyal followers
in the lands north of Mesopotamia. Here, in the vicinity of Lake Van and the
southern Caspian Sea region, the Nodites mingled and mixed with the
Amadonites, and they were numbered among the "mighty men of old."
73:1.7 Prior to the arrival of Adam and Eve these
groups -- Nodites and Amadonites -- were the most advanced and cultured races
on earth.
2. PLANNING FOR THE GARDEN
73:2.1 For almost one hundred years prior to
Tabamantia's inspection, Van and his associates, from their highland
headquarters of world ethics and culture, had been preaching the advent of a
promised Son of God, a racial uplifter, a teacher of truth, and the worthy
successor of the traitorous Caligastia. Though the majority of the world's
inhabitants of those days exhibited little or no interest in such a
prediction, those who were in immediate contact with Van and Amadon took such
teaching seriously and began to plan for the actual reception of the promised
Son.
73:2.2 Van told his nearest associates the story of
the Material Sons on Jerusem; what he had known of them before ever he came to
Urantia. He well knew that these Adamic Sons always lived in simple but
charming garden homes and proposed, eighty-three years before the arrival of
Adam and Eve, that they devote themselves to the proclamation of their advent
and to the preparation of a garden home for their reception.
73:2.3 From their highland headquarters and from
sixty-one far-scattered settlements, Van and Amadon recruited a corps of over
three thousand willing and enthusiastic workers who, in solemn assembly,
dedicated themselves to this mission of preparing for the promised -- at least
expected -- Son.
73:2.4 Van divided his volunteers into one hundred
companies with a captain over each and an associate who served on his personal
staff as a liaison officer, keeping Amadon as his own associate. These
commissions all began in earnest their preliminary work, and the committee on
location for the Garden sallied forth in search of the ideal spot.
73:2.5 Although Caligastia and Daligastia had been
deprived of much of their power for evil, they did everything possible to
frustrate and hamper the work of preparing the Garden. But their evil
machinations were largely offset by the faithful activities of the almost ten
thousand loyal midway creatures who so tirelessly labored to advance the
enterprise.
3. THE GARDEN SITE
73:3.1 The committee on location was absent for
almost three years. It reported favorably concerning three possible locations:
The first was an island in the Persian Gulf; the second, the river location
subsequently occupied as the second garden; the third, a long narrow peninsula
-- almost an island -- projecting westward from the eastern shores of the
Mediterranean Sea.
73:3.2 The committee almost unanimously favored the
third selection. This site was chosen, and two years were occupied in
transferring the world's cultural headquarters, including the tree of life, to
this Mediterranean peninsula. All but a single group of the peninsula dwellers
peaceably vacated when Van and his company arrived.
73:3.3 This Mediterranean peninsula had a salubrious
climate and an equable temperature; this stabilized weather was due to the
encircling mountains and to the fact that this area was virtually an island in
an inland sea. While it rained copiously on the surrounding highlands, it
seldom rained in Eden proper. But each night, from the extensive network of
artificial irrigation channels, a "mist would go up" to refresh the vegetation
of the Garden.
73:3.4 The coast line of this land mass was
considerably elevated, and the neck connecting with the mainland was only
twenty-seven miles wide at the narrowest point. The great river that watered
the Garden came down from the higher lands of the peninsula and flowed east
through the peninsular neck to the mainland and thence across the lowlands of
Mesopotamia to the sea beyond. It was fed by four tributaries which took
origin in the coastal hills of the Edenic peninsula, and these are the "four
heads" of the river which "went out of Eden," and which later became confused
with the branches of the rivers surrounding the second garden.
73:3.5 The mountains surrounding the Garden abounded
in precious stones and metals, though these received very little attention.
The dominant idea was to be the glorification of horticulture and the
exaltation of agriculture.
73:3.6 The site chosen for the Garden was probably
the most beautiful spot of its kind in all the world, and the climate was then
ideal. Nowhere else was there a location which could have lent itself so
perfectly to becoming such a paradise of botanic expression. In this
rendezvous the cream of the civilization of Urantia was forgathering. Without
and beyond, the world lay in darkness, ignorance, and savagery. Eden was the
one bright spot on Urantia; it was naturally a dream of loveliness, and it
soon became a poem of exquisite and perfected landscape glory.
4. ESTABLISHING THE GARDEN
73:4.1 When Material Sons, the biologic uplifters,
begin their sojourn on an evolutionary world, their place of abode is often
called the Garden of Eden because it is characterized by the floral beauty and
the botanic grandeur of Edentia, the constellation capital. Van well knew of
these customs and accordingly provided that the entire peninsula be given over
to the Garden. Pasturage and animal husbandry were projected for the adjoining
mainland. Of animal life, only the birds and the various domesticated species
were to be found in the park. Van's instructions were that Eden was to be a
garden, and only a garden. No animals were ever slaughtered within its
precincts. All flesh eaten by the Garden workers throughout all the years of
construction was brought in from the herds maintained under guard on the
mainland.
73:4.2 The first task was the building of the brick
wall across the neck of the peninsula. This once completed, the real work of
landscape beautification and home building could proceed
unhindered.
73:4.3 A zoological garden was created by building a
smaller wall just outside the main wall; the intervening space, occupied by
all manner of wild beasts, served as an additional defense against hostile
attacks. This menagerie was organized in twelve grand divisions, and walled
paths led between these groups to the twelve gates of the Garden, the river
and its adjacent pastures occupying the central area.
73:4.4 In the preparation of the Garden only
volunteer laborers were employed; no hirelings were ever used. They cultivated
the Garden and tended their herds for support; contributions of food were also
received from near-by believers. And this great enterprise was carried through
to completion in spite of the difficulties attendant upon the confused status
of the world during these troublous times.
73:4.5 But it was a cause for great disappointment
when Van, not knowing how soon the expected Son and Daughter might come,
suggested that the younger generation also be trained in the work of carrying
on the enterprise in case their arrival should be delayed. This seemed like an
admission of lack of faith on Van's part and made considerable trouble, caused
many desertions; but Van went forward with his plan of preparedness, meantime
filling the places of the deserters with younger volunteers.
5. THE GARDEN HOME
73:5.1 At the center of the Edenic peninsula was the
exquisite stone temple of the Universal Father, the sacred shrine of the
Garden. To the north the administrative headquarters was established; to the
south were built the homes for the workers and their families; to the west was
provided the allotment of ground for the proposed schools of the educational
system of the expected Son, while in the "east of Eden" were built the
domiciles intended for the promised Son and his immediate offspring. The
architectural plans for Eden provided homes and abundant land for one million
human beings.
73:5.2 At the time of Adam's arrival, though the
Garden was only one-fourth finished, it had thousands of miles of irrigation
ditches and more than twelve thousand miles of paved paths and roads. There
were a trifle over five thousand brick buildings in the various sectors, and
the trees and plants were almost beyond number. Seven was the largest number
of houses composing any one cluster in the park. And though the structures of
the Garden were simple, they were most artistic. The roads and paths were well
built, and the landscaping was exquisite.
73:5.3 The sanitary arrangements of the Garden were
far in advance of anything that had been attempted theretofore on Urantia. The
drinking water of Eden was kept wholesome by the strict observance of the
sanitary regulations designed to conserve its purity. During these early times
much trouble came about from neglect of these rules, but Van gradually
impressed upon his associates the importance of allowing nothing to fall into
the water supply of the Garden.
73:5.4 Before the later establishment of a
sewage-disposal system the Edenites practiced the scrupulous burial of all
waste or decomposing material. Amadon's inspectors made their rounds each day
in search for possible causes of sickness. Urantians did not again awaken to
the importance of the prevention of human diseases until the later times of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before the disruption of the Adamic
regime a covered brick-conduit disposal system had been constructed which ran
beneath the walls and emptied into the river of Eden almost a mile beyond the
outer or lesser wall of the Garden.
73:5.5 By the time of Adam's arrival most of the
plants of that section of the world were growing in Eden. Already had many of
the fruits, cereals, and nuts been greatly improved. Many modern vegetables
and cereals were first cultivated here, but scores of varieties of food plants
were subsequently lost to the world.
73:5.6 About five per cent of the Garden was under
high artificial cultivation, fifteen per cent partially cultivated, the
remainder being left in a more or less natural state pending the arrival of
Adam, it being thought best to finish the park in accordance with his
ideas.
73:5.7 And so was the Garden of Eden made ready for
the reception of the promised Adam and his consort. And this Garden would have
done honor to a world under perfected administration and normal control. Adam
and Eve were well pleased with the general plan of Eden, though they made many
changes in the furnishings of their own personal dwelling.
73:5.8 Although the work of embellishment was hardly
finished at the time of Adam's arrival, the place was already a gem of botanic
beauty; and during the early days of his sojourn in Eden the whole Garden took
on new form and assumed new proportions of beauty and grandeur. Never before
this time nor after has Urantia harbored such a beautiful and replete
exhibition of horticulture and agriculture.
6. THE TREE OF LIFE
73:6.1 In the center of the Garden temple Van
planted the long-guarded tree of life, whose leaves were for the "healing of
the nations," and whose fruit had so long sustained him on earth. Van well
knew that Adam and Eve would also be dependent on this gift of Edentia for
their life maintenance after they once appeared on Urantia in material
form.
73:6.2 The Material Sons on the system capitals do
not require the tree of life for sustenance. Only in the planetary
repersonalization are they dependent on this adjunct to physical immortality.
73:6.3 The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"
may be a figure of speech, a symbolic designation covering a multitude of
human experiences, but the "tree of life" was not a myth; it was real and for
a long time was present on Urantia. When the Most Highs of Edentia approved
the commission of Caligastia as Planetary Prince of Urantia and those of the
one hundred Jerusem citizens as his administrative staff, they sent to the
planet, by the Melchizedeks, a shrub of Edentia, and this plant grew to be the
tree of life on Urantia. This form of nonintelligent life is native to the
constellation headquarters spheres, being also found on the headquarters
worlds of the local and superuniverses as well as on the Havona spheres, but
not on the system capitals.
73:6.4 This superplant stored up certain
space-energies which were antidotal to the age-producing elements of animal
existence. The fruit of the tree of life was like a superchemical storage
battery, mysteriously releasing the life-extension force of the universe when
eaten. This form of sustenance was wholly useless to the ordinary evolutionary
beings on Urantia, but specifically it was serviceable to the one hundred
materialized members of Caligastia's staff and to the one hundred modified
Andonites who had contributed of their life plasm to the Prince's staff, and
who, in return, were made possessors of that complement of life which made it
possible for them to utilize the fruit of the tree of life for an indefinite
extension of their otherwise mortal existence.
73:6.5 During the days of the Prince's rule the tree
was growing from the earth in the central and circular courtyard of the
Father's temple. Upon the outbreak of the rebellion it was regrown from the
central core by Van and his associates in their temporary camp. This Edentia
shrub was subsequently taken to their highland retreat, where it served both
Van and Amadon for more than one hundred and fifty thousand years.
73:6.6 When Van and his associates made ready the
Garden for Adam and Eve, they transplanted the Edentia tree to the Garden of
Eden, where, once again, it grew in a central, circular courtyard of another
temple to the Father. And Adam and Eve periodically partook of its fruit for
the maintenance of their dual form of physical life.
73:6.7 When the plans of the Material Son went
astray, Adam and his family were not permitted to carry the core of the tree
away from the Garden. When the Nodites invaded Eden, they were told that they
would become as "gods if they partook of the fruit of the tree." Much to their
surprise they found it unguarded. They ate freely of the fruit for years, but
it did nothing for them; they were all material mortals of the realm; they
lacked that endowment which acted as a complement to the fruit of the tree.
They became enraged at their inability to benefit from the tree of life, and
in connection with one of their internal wars, the temple and the tree were
both destroyed by fire; only the stone wall stood until the Garden was
subsequently submerged. This was the second temple of the Father to
perish.
73:6.8 And now must all flesh on Urantia take the
natural course of life and death. Adam, Eve, their children, and their
children's children, together with their associates, all perished in the
course of time, thus becoming subject to the ascension scheme of the local
universe wherein mansion world resurrection follows material death.
7. THE FATE OF EDEN
73:7.1 After the first garden was vacated by Adam,
it was occupied variously by the Nodites, Cutites, and the Suntites. It later
became the dwelling place of the northern Nodites who opposed co-operation
with the Adamites. The peninsula had been overrun by these lower-grade Nodites
for almost four thousand years after Adam left the Garden when, in connection
with the violent activity of the surrounding volcanoes and the submergence of
the Sicilian land bridge to Africa, the eastern floor of the Mediterranean Sea
sank, carrying down beneath the waters the whole of the Edenic peninsula.
Concomitant with this vast submergence the coast line of the eastern
Mediterranean was greatly elevated. And this was the end of the most beautiful
natural creation that Urantia has ever harbored. The sinking was not sudden,
several hundred years being required completely to submerge the entire
peninsula.
73:7.2 We cannot regard this disappearance of the
Garden as being in any way a result of the miscarriage of the divine plans or
as a result of the mistakes of Adam and Eve. We do not regard the submergence
of Eden as anything but a natural occurrence, but it does seem to us that the
sinking of the Garden was timed to occur at just about the date of the
accumulation of the reserves of the violet race for undertaking the work of
rehabilitating the world peoples.
73:7.3 The Melchizedeks counseled Adam not to
initiate the program of racial uplift and blending until his own family had
numbered one-half million. It was never intended that the Garden should be the
permanent home of the Adamites. They were to become emissaries of a new life
to all the world; they were to mobilize for unselfish bestowal upon the needy
races of earth.
73:7.4 The instructions given Adam by the
Melchizedeks implied that he was to establish racial, continental, and
divisional headquarters to be in the charge of his immediate sons and
daughters, while he and Eve were to divide their time between these various
world capitals as advisers and co-ordinators of the world-wide ministry of
biologic uplift, intellectual advancement, and moral
rehabilitation.
73:7.5 Presented by
Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden."
