PAPER 76
THE SECOND GARDEN
76:0.1 WHEN Adam elected to leave the first garden
to the Nodites unopposed, he and his followers could not go west, for the
Edenites had no boats suitable for such a marine adventure. They could not go
north; the northern Nodites were already on the march toward Eden. They feared
to go south; the hills of that region were infested with hostile tribes. The
only way open was to the east, and so they journeyed eastward toward the then
pleasant regions between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. And many of those
who were left behind later journeyed eastward to join the Adamites in their
new valley home.
76:0.2 Cain and Sansa were both born before the
Adamic caravan had reached its destination between the rivers in Mesopotamia.
Laotta, the mother of Sansa, perished at the birth of her daughter; Eve
suffered much but survived, owing to superior strength. Eve took Sansa, the
child of Laotta, to her bosom, and she was reared along with Cain. Sansa grew
up to be a woman of great ability. She became the wife of Sargan, the chief of
the northern blue races, and contributed to the advancement of the blue men of
those times.
1. THE EDENITES ENTER MESOPOTAMIA
76:1.1 It required almost a full year for the
caravan of Adam to reach the Euphrates River. Finding it in flood tide, they
remained camped on the plains west of the stream almost six weeks before they
made their way across to the land between the rivers which was to become the
second garden.
76:1.2 When word had reached the dwellers in the
land of the second garden that the king and high priest of the Garden of Eden
was marching on them, they had fled in haste to the eastern mountains. Adam
found all of the desired territory vacated when he arrived. And here in this
new location Adam and his helpers set themselves to work to build new homes
and establish a new center of culture and religion.
76:1.3 This site was known to Adam as one of the
three original selections of the committee assigned to choose possible
locations for the Garden proposed by Van and Amadon. The two rivers themselves
were a good natural defense in those days, and a short way north of the second
garden the Euphrates and Tigris came close together so that a defense wall
extending fifty-six miles could be built for the protection of the territory
to the south and between the rivers.
76:1.4 After getting settled in the new Eden, it
became necessary to adopt crude methods of living; it seemed entirely true
that the ground had been cursed. Nature was once again taking its course. Now
were the Adamites compelled to wrest a living from unprepared soil and to cope
with the realities of life in the face of the natural hostilities and
incompatibilities of mortal existence. They found the first garden partially
prepared for them, but the second had to be created by the labor of their own
hands and in the "sweat of their faces."
2. CAIN AND ABEL
76:2.1 Less than two years after Cain's birth, Abel
was born, the first child of Adam and Eve to be born in the second garden.
When Abel grew up to the age of twelve years, he elected to be a herder; Cain
had chosen to follow agriculture.
76:2.2 Now, in those days it was customary to make
offerings to the priesthood of the things at hand. Herders would bring of
their flocks, farmers of the fruits of the fields; and in accordance with this
custom, Cain and Abel likewise made periodic offerings to the priests. The two
boys had many times argued about the relative merits of their vocations, and
Abel was not slow to note that preference was shown for his animal sacrifices.
In vain did Cain appeal to the traditions of the first Eden, to the former
preference for the fruits of the fields. But this Abel would not allow, and he
taunted his older brother in his discomfiture.
76:2.3 In the days of the first Eden Adam had indeed
sought to discourage the offering of animal sacrifice so that Cain had a
justifiable precedent for his contentions. It was, however, difficult to
organize the religious life of the second Eden. Adam was burdened with a
thousand and one details associated with the work of building, defense, and
agriculture. Being much depressed spiritually, he intrusted the organization
of worship and education to those of Nodite extraction who had served in these
capacities in the first garden; and in even so short a time the officiating
Nodite priests were reverting to the standards and rulings of pre-Adamic
times.
76:2.4 The two boys never got along well, and this
matter of sacrifices further contributed to the growing hatred between them.
Abel knew he was the son of both Adam and Eve and never failed to impress upon
Cain that Adam was not his father. Cain was not pure violet as his father was
of the Nodite race later admixed with the blue and the red man and with the
aboriginal Andonic stock. And all of this, with Cain's natural bellicose
inheritance, caused him to nourish an ever-increasing hatred for his younger
brother.
76:2.5 The boys were respectively eighteen and
twenty years of age when the tension between them was finally resolved, one
day, when Abel's taunts so infuriated his bellicose brother that Cain turned
upon him in wrath and slew him.
76:2.6 The observation of Abel's conduct establishes
the value of environment and education as factors in character development.
Abel had an ideal inheritance, and heredity lies at the bottom of all
character; but the influence of an inferior environment virtually neutralized
this magnificent inheritance. Abel, especially during his younger years, was
greatly influenced by his unfavorable surroundings. He would have become an
entirely different person had he lived to be twenty-five or thirty; his superb
inheritance would then have shown itself. While a good environment cannot
contribute much toward really overcoming the character handicaps of a base
heredity, a bad environment can very effectively spoil an excellent
inheritance, at least during the younger years of life. Good social
environment and proper education are indispensable soil and atmosphere for
getting the most out of a good inheritance.
76:2.7 The death of Abel became known to his parents
when his dogs brought the flocks home without their master. To Adam and Eve,
Cain was fast becoming the grim reminder of their folly, and they encouraged
him in his decision to leave the garden.
76:2.8 Cain's life in Mesopotamia had not been
exactly happy since he was in such a peculiar way symbolic of the default. It
was not that his associates were unkind to him, but he had not been unaware of
their subconscious resentment of his presence. But Cain knew that, since he
bore no tribal mark, he would be killed by the first neighboring tribesmen who
might chance to meet him. Fear, and some remorse, led him to repent. Cain had
never been indwelt by an Adjuster, had always been defiant of the family
discipline and disdainful of his father's religion. But he now went to Eve,
his mother, and asked for spiritual help and guidance, and when he honestly
sought divine assistance, an Adjuster indwelt him. And this Adjuster, dwelling
within and looking out, gave Cain a distinct advantage of superiority which
classed him with the greatly feared tribe of Adam.
76:2.9 And so Cain departed for the land of Nod,
east of the second Eden. He became a great leader among one group of his
father's people and did, to a certain degree, fulfill the predictions of
Serapatatia, for he did promote peace between this division of the Nodites and
the Adamites throughout his lifetime. Cain married Remona, his distant cousin,
and their first son, Enoch, became the head of the Elamite Nodites. And for
hundreds of years the Elamites and the Adamites continued to be at peace.
3. LIFE IN MESOPOTAMIA
76:3.1 As time passed in the second garden, the
consequences of default became increasingly apparent. Adam and Eve greatly
missed their former home of beauty and tranquillity as well as their children
who had been deported to Edentia. It was indeed pathetic to observe this
magnificent couple reduced to the status of the common flesh of the realm; but
they bore their diminished estate with grace and fortitude.
76:3.2 Adam wisely spent most of the time training
his children and their associates in civil administration, educational
methods, and religious devotions. Had it not been for this foresight,
pandemonium would have broken loose upon his death. As it was, the death of
Adam made little difference in the conduct of the affairs of his people. But
long before Adam and Eve passed away, they recognized that their children and
followers had gradually learned to forget the days of their glory in Eden. And
it was better for the majority of their followers that they did forget the
grandeur of Eden; they were not so likely to experience undue dissatisfaction
with their less fortunate environment.
76:3.3 The civil rulers of the Adamites were derived
hereditarily from the sons of the first garden. Adam's first son, Adamson
(Adam ben Adam), founded a secondary center of the violet race to the north of
the second Eden. Adam's second son, Eveson, became a masterly leader and
administrator; he was the great helper of his father. Eveson lived not quite
so long as Adam, and his eldest son, Jansad, became the successor of Adam as
the head of the Adamite tribes.
76:3.4 The religious rulers, or priesthood,
originated with Seth, the eldest surviving son of Adam and Eve born in the
second garden. He was born one hundred and twenty-nine years after Adam's
arrival on Urantia. Seth became absorbed in the work of improving the
spiritual status of his father's people, becoming the head of the new
priesthood of the second garden. His son, Enos, founded the new order of
worship, and his grandson, Kenan, instituted the foreign missionary service to
the surrounding tribes, near and far.
76:3.5 The Sethite priesthood was a threefold
undertaking, embracing religion, health, and education. The priests of this
order were trained to officiate at religious ceremonies, to serve as
physicians and sanitary inspectors, and to act as teachers in the schools of
the garden.
76:3.6 Adam's caravan had carried the seeds and
bulbs of hundreds of plants and cereals of the first garden with them to the
land between the rivers; they also had brought along extensive herds and some
of all the domesticated animals. Because of this they possessed great
advantages over the surrounding tribes. They enjoyed many of the benefits of
the previous culture of the original Garden.
76:3.7 Up to the time of leaving the first garden,
Adam and his family had always subsisted on fruits, cereals, and nuts. On the
way to Mesopotamia they had, for the first time, partaken of herbs and
vegetables. The eating of meat was early introduced into the second garden,
but Adam and Eve never partook of flesh as a part of their regular diet.
Neither did Adamson nor Eveson nor the other children of the first generation
of the first garden become flesh eaters.
76:3.8 The Adamites greatly excelled the surrounding
peoples in cultural achievement and intellectual development. They produced
the third alphabet and otherwise laid the foundations for much that was the
forerunner of modern art, science, and literature. Here in the lands between
the Tigris and Euphrates they maintained the arts of writing, metalworking,
pottery making, and weaving and produced a type of architecture that was not
excelled in thousands of years.
76:3.9 The home life of the violet peoples was, for
their day and age, ideal. Children were subjected to courses of training in
agriculture, craftsmanship, and animal husbandry or else were educated to
perform the threefold duty of a Sethite: to be priest, physician, and
teacher.
76:3.10 And when thinking of the Sethite priesthood,
do not confuse those high-minded and noble teachers of health and religion,
those true educators, with the debased and commercial priesthoods of the later
tribes and surrounding nations. Their religious concepts of Deity and the
universe were advanced and more or less accurate, their health provisions
were, for their time, excellent, and their methods of education have never
since been surpassed.
4. THE VIOLET RACE
76:4.1 Adam and Eve were the founders of the violet
race of men, the ninth human race to appear on Urantia. Adam and his offspring
had blue eyes, and the violet peoples were characterized by fair complexions
and light hair color -- yellow, red, and brown.
76:4.2 Eve did not suffer pain in childbirth;
neither did the early evolutionary races. Only the mixed races produced by the
union of evolutionary man with the Nodites and later with the Adamites
suffered the severe pangs of childbirth.
76:4.3 Adam and Eve, like their brethren on Jerusem,
were energized by dual nutrition, subsisting on both food and light,
supplemented by certain superphysical energies unrevealed on Urantia. Their
Urantia offspring did not inherit the parental endowment of energy intake and
light circulation. They had a single circulation, the human type of blood
sustenance. They were designedly mortal though long-lived, albeit longevity
gravitated toward the human norm with each succeeding generation.
76:4.4 Adam and Eve and their first generation of
children did not use the flesh of animals for food. They subsisted wholly upon
"the fruits of the trees." After the first generation all of the descendants
of Adam began to partake of dairy products, but many of them continued to
follow a nonflesh diet. Many of the southern tribes with whom they later
united were also nonflesh eaters. Later on, most of these vegetarian tribes
migrated to the east and survived as now admixed in the peoples of
India.
76:4.5 Both the physical and spiritual visions of
Adam and Eve were far superior to those of the present-day peoples. Their
special senses were much more acute, and they were able to see the midwayers
and the angelic hosts, the Melchizedeks, and the fallen Prince Caligastia, who
several times came to confer with his noble successor. They retained the
ability to see these celestial beings for over one hundred years after the
default. These special senses were not so acutely present in their children
and tended to diminish with each succeeding generation.
76:4.6 The Adamic children were usually Adjuster
indwelt since they all possessed undoubted survival capacity. These superior
offspring were not so subject to fear as the children of evolution. So much of
fear persists in the present-day races of Urantia because your ancestors
received so little of Adam's life plasm, owing to the early miscarriage of the
plans for racial physical uplift.
76:4.7 The body cells of the Material Sons and their
progeny are far more resistant to disease than are those of the evolutionary
beings indigenous to the planet. The body cells of the native races are akin
to the living disease-producing microscopic and ultramicroscopic organisms of
the realm. These facts explain why the Urantia peoples must do so much by way
of scientific effort to withstand so many physical disorders. You would be far
more disease resistant if your races carried more of the Adamic life.
76:4.8 After becoming established in the second
garden on the Euphrates, Adam elected to leave behind as much of his life
plasm as possible to benefit the world after his death. Accordingly, Eve was
made the head of a commission of twelve on race improvement, and before Adam
died this commission had selected 1,682 of the highest type of women on
Urantia, and these women were impregnated with the Adamic life plasm. Their
children all grew up to maturity except 112, so that the world, in this way,
was benefited by the addition of 1,570 superior men and women. Though these
candidate mothers were selected from all the surrounding tribes and
represented most of the races on earth, the majority were chosen from the
highest strains of the Nodites, and they constituted the early beginnings of
the mighty Andite race. These children were born and reared in the tribal
surroundings of their respective mothers.
5. DEATH OF ADAM AND EVE
76:5.1 Not long after the establishment of the
second Eden, Adam and Eve were duly informed that their repentance was
acceptable, and that, while they were doomed to suffer the fate of the mortals
of their world, they should certainly become eligible for admission to the
ranks of the sleeping survivors of Urantia. They fully believed this gospel of
resurrection and rehabilitation which the Melchizedeks so touchingly
proclaimed to them. Their transgression had been an error of judgment and not
the sin of conscious and deliberate rebellion.
76:5.2 Adam and Eve did not, as citizens of Jerusem,
have Thought Adjusters, nor were they Adjuster indwelt when they functioned on
Urantia in the first garden. But shortly after their reduction to mortal
status they became conscious of a new presence within them and awakened to the
realization that human status coupled with sincere repentance had made it
possible for Adjusters to indwell them. It was this knowledge of being
Adjuster indwelt that greatly heartened Adam and Eve throughout the remainder
of their lives; they knew that they had failed as Material Sons of Satania,
but they also knew that the Paradise career was still open to them as
ascending sons of the universe.
76:5.3 Adam knew about the dispensational
resurrection which occurred simultaneously with his arrival on the planet and
he believed that he and his companion would probably be repersonalized in
connection with the advent of the next order of sonship. He did not know that
Michael, the sovereign of this universe, was so soon to appear on Urantia; he
expected that the next Son to arrive would be of the Avonal order. Even so, it
was always a comfort to Adam and Eve, as well as something difficult for them
to understand, to ponder the only personal message they ever received from
Michael. This message, among other expressions of friendship and comfort,
said: "I have given consideration to the circumstances of your default, I have
remembered the desire of your hearts ever to be loyal to my Father's will, and
you will be called from the embrace of mortal slumber when I come to Urantia
if the subordinate Sons of my realm do not send for you before that
time."
76:5.4 And this was a great mystery to Adam and Eve.
They could comprehend the veiled promise of a possible special resurrection in
this message, and such a possibility greatly cheered them, but they could not
grasp the meaning of the intimation that they might rest until the time of a
resurrection associated with Michael's personal appearance on Urantia. And so
the Edenic pair always proclaimed that a Son of God would sometime come, and
they communicated to their loved ones the belief, at least the longing hope,
that the world of their blunders and sorrows might possibly be the realm
whereon the ruler of this universe would elect to function as the Paradise
bestowal Son. It seemed too good to be true, but Adam did entertain the
thought that strife-torn Urantia might, after all, turn out to be the most
fortunate world in the system of Satania, the envied planet of all Nebadon.
76:5.5 Adam lived for 530 years; he died of what
might be termed old age. His physical mechanism simply wore out; the process
of disintegration gradually gained on the process of repair, and the
inevitable end came. Eve had died nineteen years previously of a weakened
heart. They were both buried in the center of the temple of divine service
which had been built in accordance with their plans soon after the wall of the
colony had been completed. And this was the origin of the practice of burying
noted and pious men and women under the floors of the places of worship.
76:5.6 The supermaterial government of Urantia,
under the direction of the Melchizedeks, continued, but direct physical
contact with the evolutionary races had been severed. From the distant days of
the arrival of the corporeal staff of the Planetary Prince, down through the
times of Van and Amadon to the arrival of Adam and Eve, physical
representatives of the universe government had been stationed on the planet.
But with the Adamic default this regime, extending over a period of more than
four hundred and fifty thousand years, came to an end. In the spiritual
spheres, angelic helpers continued to struggle in conjunction with the Thought
Adjusters, both working heroically for the salvage of the individual; but no
comprehensive plan for far-reaching world welfare was promulgated to the
mortals of earth until the arrival of Machiventa Melchizedek, in the times of
Abraham, who, with the power, patience, and authority of a Son of God, did lay
the foundations for the further uplift and spiritual rehabilitation of
unfortunate Urantia.
76:5.7 Misfortune has not, however, been the sole
lot of Urantia; this planet has also been the most fortunate in the local
universe of Nebadon. Urantians should count it all gain if the blunders of
their ancestors and the mistakes of their early world rulers so plunged the
planet into such a hopeless state of confusion, all the more confounded by
evil and sin, that this very background of darkness should so appeal to
Michael of Nebadon that he selected this world as the arena wherein to reveal
the loving personality of the Father in heaven. It is not that Urantia needed
a Creator Son to set its tangled affairs in order; it is rather that the evil
and sin on Urantia afforded the Creator Son a more striking background against
which to reveal the matchless love, mercy, and patience of the Paradise
Father.
6. SURVIVAL OF ADAM AND EVE
76:6.1 Adam and Eve went to their mortal rest with
strong faith in the promises made to them by the Melchizedeks that they would
sometime awake from the sleep of death to resume life on the mansion worlds,
worlds all so familiar to them in the days preceding their mission in the
material flesh of the violet race on Urantia.
76:6.2 They did not long rest in the oblivion of the
unconscious sleep of the mortals of the realm. On the third day after Adam's
death, the second following his reverent burial, the orders of Lanaforge,
sustained by the acting Most High of Edentia and concurred in by the Union of
Days on Salvington, acting for Michael, were placed in Gabriel's hands,
directing the special roll call of the distinguished survivors of the Adamic
default on Urantia. And in accordance with this mandate of special
resurrection, number twenty-six of the Urantia series, Adam and Eve were
repersonalized and reassembled in the resurrection halls of the mansion worlds
of Satania together with 1,316 of their associates in the experience of the
first garden. Many other loyal souls had already been translated at the time
of Adam's arrival, which was attended by a dispensational adjudication of both
the sleeping survivors and of the living qualified ascenders.
76:6.3 Adam and Eve quickly passed through the
worlds of progressive ascension until they attained citizenship on Jerusem,
once again to be residents of the planet of their origin but this time as
members of a different order of universe personalities. They left Jerusem as
permanent citizens -- Sons of God; they returned as ascendant citizens -- sons
of man. They were immediately attached to the Urantia service on the system
capital, later being assigned membership among the four and twenty counselors
who constitute the present advisory-control body of Urantia.
76:6.4 And thus ends the story of the Planetary Adam
and Eve of Urantia, a story of trial, tragedy, and triumph, at least personal
triumph for your well-meaning but deluded Material Son and Daughter and
undoubtedly, in the end, a story of ultimate triumph for their world and its
rebellion-tossed and evil-harassed inhabitants. When all is summed up, Adam
and Eve made a mighty contribution to the speedy civilization and accelerated
biologic progress of the human race. They left a great culture on earth, but
it was not possible for such an advanced civilization to survive in the face
of the early dilution and the eventual submergence of the Adamic inheritance.
It is the people who make a civilization; civilization does not make the
people.
76:6.5 Presented by
Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden."
