WHY ADAM LEFT EDEN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3148, 18 December 1922, Page 7

WHY ADAM LEFT EDEN.

A Babylonian clay tablet dating from 2100 B.C. which has been deciphered at the University nf Pennsylvania by Professor Edward Chiera contains what is claimed to be the original source from which the Hebrews obtained the Bible story of the Garden of Eden.

It represents Adam as expelled from Eden, not as a punishment, but to prevent him obtaining Godlike knowledge. Hero is Professor Chiera's literal translation of God's message to the first man as recorded on the Babylonian, tablet:--

"Thy humanity, thy body has not been, freed. For mankind words of wisdom are not. Finish thy weeping. From My presence go to the desert. The plant which frees from death inferior beings thou shalt not take. "As an outcast thou shalt not return to My field for irrigating it. As tin outcast'thou shalt not return to My field for working it. As an outcast thou shalt not return to the land for working it. As a hunted one thou shalt not return. "Go, work the laud. Raise lood loteating. . . Humanity, thou art to know abundance." Professor Cbiera points out that God's speech apparently ends in the blessing on man. which supports his interpretation of the story that Adam was driven from Kdcu to prevent him obtaining food which might make him immortal.

The table, in Hie Sunierian language, belonged to the library of the temple at Nippur, where the University o! Pennsylvania expedition has excavated several thousand tablets. Professor Cbiera says that the account of man's fall is in' the form of a, dialogue between a man and a god. It resembles the Biblical story in its references to forbidden fruit, man's disobedience, man's unlawful attainment of knowledge, his expulsion into the desert, and his compulsion to labor. Man's adoption of clothing in consequence of his new knowledge is indicated, but there is no allusion to a serpent or tempter.