Enki And Ninhursag: A Comparative Analysis

According to the Old Testament, God created the Garden of Eden or the biblical "garden made by God" for the purpose of Adam and Eve to live in. Furthermore, in Genesis 2 and 3, God explains to Adam and Eve that they can eat any of the fruit of the plants and trees except that fruit which comes from the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." Eventually, Eve becomes persuaded by a serpent to taste the forbidden fruit and afterwards coaxes Adam to eat the same fruit. After eating the forbidden fruit, both Adam and Eve become embarrassed of their nakedness and cover themselves with leaves. God discovers what they did, makes them clothes to cover their nakedness and because of their disobeying his rule God expels them from the Garden of Eden to live out the rest of their lives as mortals. The Sumerian myth of Enki and Ninhursag, written in 2500BC, contains similarities or parallels to the …show more content…
The version of the Creation Story in Genesis 1:11 and 27, by the Priestly source, God creates a garden then forms a male and female. The version in Genesis 2:5-8, 15, 21-22, by the Jahwist source, describes that God forms a man, produces a garden, places man in the garden and then later forms a female. The order of creation in Genesis 1 details that first the garden, followed by the creation of a male and female, however, in Genesis 2 it specifies the order of creation is man first, then the garden, followed by the female. The name "Eden" in ancient Hebrew means "delight" coming from the Akkadian word "edinu" that began as a Sumerian term "E'din" meaning "plain or steppe." Even though the word garden, plain or steppe does not describe a similar type of environment, but according to the Sumerians the word "E'din" was used to refer to the Mesopotamia Valley as the "valley of E'din," meaning the fertile lands between the Tigris and