摘要
The story of the Garden of Eden is familiar to most people,readers of the Bible or otherwise.I intend in the present article to look afresh at this story and to raise questions about how it is traditionally understood.To begin,what does the reader of the first book of the Bible,commonly known as“Genesis”,learn about the garden?We are told that trees grow there(Gen 2,9),and rivers have their source there(2,10).Among the trees,three are signalled out for their importance:the tree of life,which stands in the middle of the garden,and which is intimately associated with the tree of the knowing of good and bad.A third tree,which is easily ignored,is a fig tree.When the human couple become aware of their nakedness,we are told that they“sew together fig leaves and make themselves loin clothes”(3,7).(Never mind how they got hold of needle and thread!The nature of the first two of the above-mentioned trees indicates that the reader is introduced into a world of mythology).
