The Garden of Eden (V.C. Woodhull): The Garden of Eden
I take up this book and call your attention to it. You perhaps will say, "Oh, that is the old Bible, worn threadbare long ago. We do not wish to be fed with its dry husks. We want living food and drink." Well, that is what I am going to give you.
We must remember that the Bible does not pretend to be a scientific book at all. It deals altogether with the inspirational or spirit side of the universe. St. Paul informs us that the God of the Bible "is a spirit." At least the translators have made him state it thus; but it is not exactly as he wrote it, although in the end it has the same significance, since if God is a spirit, a spirit is also God. The original Greek of ibis, which is what Paul meant to say, and did say, and which is the truth, religiously and scientifically also, is Pneuma Theos--Pneuma, meaning spirit, and Theos God. According to St. Paul, then, spirit is God, and according to science, the life that is in the world is its creative cause; so both agree in their fundamental propositions, however much the priestcraft of the world may have attempted to twist St. Paul into accordance with their But I do not purpose to enter into a detailed discussion of the relations which the Bible creation bears to the demonstrations of geology and astronomy. I desire to show merely that the Bible Creator, God, is not at all incompatible with the power which science is compelled to admit as having been the creative cause, of all things. If we take the Darwinian theory and endeavour to find where and how man came, we are led necessarily to a time when there was nothing existing higher than that type of animal by which man is connected with the brute creation, and through which be came to be man. Man is an animal; but he is something more as well. He knows good and evil, and this is to be more than an animal. There was a time, however, when man did not know good and evil. It was then that the form-the human man was in existence; and it is easy to conceive that the whole face of the earth may have been occupied by human beings who were nothing more than animals, as it is now occupied by them being more than animals. These were the male and female whom God created according to the first chapter of Genesis. It does not mean at all that they were a single male and female. They were not Adam and Eve then. They were simply male and female man, or Adam; for in chapter v. verse 2, we are told, "Male and female created he them and called their name Adam;" that is, the human animals that inhabited the earth were called Adam. The probability is, however, that these names refer to conditions and not to individuals. Indeed, it may as well be said now, as later, that the Bible is not a history of individuals and nations at all, but rather the condition and development of universal man, sometimes, perhaps often, using historical facts by which to typify them, but for all that, intended to refer to the interior instead of the exterior progress of man; that is, the Bible relates to the building and progress of God's holy temple. It is upon the consequences of the fall of man, which is therein set forth, that the necessity for a plan of redemption rests. Take away the first three chapters of Genesis and the superstructure of orthodox religion would topple and fall. So, then, it becomes necessary, since Christians have made them vital, to inquire into what these chapters mean--to inquire what was the 10 "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11 "And the name of the first river is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 12 "And the gold of that land is good. 13 "And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14 "And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates." These six verses comprise the physical description of the garden, and it is upon them that the structure, now to be taken in pieces and examined, rests. For a moment let us look at the language in its literal sense and see whether in this way it appears as if it were probable even that it may be true. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden." Bible geographers and commentators say that the locality of the garden is lost, and they do not pretend to tell where Eden is, or was, to say nothing about a particular spot in Eden where the garden was planted. It is supposed that E den was somewhere in Asia; in fact, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the holy city. If they who say so knew how nearly they have hit upon the truth without knowing what the truth is, the ministers would indeed be astonished. But where is eastward in Eden? Since the best informed Christian geographers can give no help to aid us in the search which we propose to make for this famous garden, we might as well conclude that it is anywhere else in the world as to conclude that it is in Asia. But an astute person suggests that it must have been in Western Asia, because the rivers named as being in the garden But what about that tree of life which was in the midst of the garden? What has become of that? Is that lost also? Is that perished? and if so, are there any more in the world? The Lord God expelled Adam from the garden "lest he should put forth his hand and take of the tree of life, and eat and live
Thousands of the wisest men of Oriental nations have searched Asia over and over, and have failed to find a single tree of life anywhere. Has the logic of this fact ever had its legitimate weight in the consideration of this matter? I think not. The generality of people have never thought upon this subject at all, or about anything else connected with their religion. In the second chapter of Genesis we are told all about the countries in which the garden was located, and the rivers that bounded it. From what I have already said, however, it is understood that I do not believe in this garden as commonly understood; nor do I believe that so important a spot as this garden is claimed to be, should be summarily given up as lost. The most important clue is the course of one of the rivers of this garden. Let us follow it to its source; for, in the tenth verse, it says, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads;" that is to say, it gave off four branches. Let us see which of the four rivers we shall select as the basis of operations, and on which to make the ascent to find the place where it divides from the main river. The first river, as we have seen, is called Pison. As we can find no geographical mention of this river, we shall be obliged to omit Pison. The next in order is the Gihon. We are told (2 Chronicles xxxii. 30) that King Hezekiah turned the upper water-course of Gihon so that it should run by the City of David. That ought to be definite; but we fear, if we Having failed with Havilah, we will go on to the next. "And the name of the second river is Gihon," says Moses, "the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." Now, Ethiopia, is a large country--a very large country--and Moses says that the whole land was compassed by this river Gihon; a river that should encircle the whole of this land of Ethiopia must be no less than three thousand miles in length. It were impossible to lose such a river as this; hence, if it ever had an existence anywhere, it must be now in existence somewhere. Besides it must have been a still larger river even than this from which so large a one could have been given off. But what is this that Now, suppose that Paul had. not entered into any explanation about this story regarding Abraham. Of course we should have been left to suppose, conjecturing after the manner of the suppositions about the Garden of Eden, that Abraham really had these two children as described; and so he did. But Paul says it is an allegory; meaning that they represented all children born under both covenants; those of the first being children of bondage--that is, born in sin--and those of the latter being free-born, or born free from sin. This is still more evident when the last verse quoted is interpreted. Jerusalem always It is now generally admitted that the account of the creation contained in the first chapter of Genesis is wholly allegorical. Having admitted so much, it would be preposterous to not also conclude that the allegory extends into the second chapter, and includes the Garden of Eden. If the first chapter refers to the creation of the physical universe, it is not too much to say that it is a wonderfully correct picture of the manner in which the world was evolved. If we apply the same statement to the second chapter, then we are ready to inquire what the subject is which this allegorical picture represents. First in the allegory is the name of the garden, then its rivers, and lastly the countries through which they run. Passing, for the time, the name of the garden, we will begin by inquiring into the rivers. The name of the first is Pison; that of the second is Gihon; and that of the third is Hiddekel; and that of the fourth is Euphrates. These were the names of all the rivers mentioned as being in the garden. Turning to Cruden's Concordance, quarto edition, there will be found what is called "An alphabetical table of the proper names in the Old and New Testaments, together with their meaning or signification in the original languages." That is what we want. And the study of it will convince everybody of what and where the Garden of Eden is, and make it clear why its locality has been lost, as superficial students of the Bible say it has. "Gihon--The Valley of Grace, or breast, or impetuous." In other authorities this word is held to mean "Bursting forth as from a fountain, or from the womb." "Hiddekel--a sharp voice or sound;" other authorities say, "Swift, which refers to the swiftness of the current." "Euphrates--that makes fruitful or grows." Now we may inquire into the meaning of the names of the countries in which these rivers were situated. "Havilah--that suffers pain, that brings forth." "Ethiopia--Blackness--[Darkness]--heat, burning." Assyria is the country of, and signifies Ashur, "One that is happy," which would make the meaning of Assyria to be, the land of the happy; or the land. in which the happy dwell. And the whole of these rivers and countries combined form the Garden of Eden, which, as we learn, means: "Pleasure or delight." So, the Garden of Eden into which the Lord God put the man whom be had formed, "to dress it and to keep it," was the garden situated in the land of pleasure or delight. Remember that these words are not mine, but that I quote them from that acknowledged authority, Cruden's Concordance. It will be necessary to give the meaning of one more word before entering upon the application of the meaning of these words, and that is "East." The direction of east is always to the light, let the light be of whatsoever kind--physical, mental, or moral. Toward the west means going, following, or looking after the receding light. These are astrologic terms, and were taken from the ancient magi, who derived them from the sun. When the light of the sun is looked for as coming, it is toward the east that the eye is turned, because it always comes from that direction; but when we look toward the west to observe it, it is to see the departing light which precedes darkness. So, east, in our investigations, means toward or into the light. We "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed." The signification of these words would make the text read thus: "And the Lord God planted a garden in pleasure or delight, the fruit of which was to be, or was, a new revelation in, or a new light to, the world." "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first river was Pison; that is, it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold." If this language be transposed into the signification of its words it would read thus: "And a river went out of the garden in which there is pleasure or delight, which river watered, fed, and drained the garden; and to water, feed, and drain the garden it was divided into four channels. The first of these new rivers, and the main one in which all the others found their sources, was the extension of the mouth; and as this river ran onward in its course, compassing or encircling that which suffers pain and brings forth fruit, the character of its waters was constantly changing by reason of its giving food and receiving refuse from the land through which it ran; and in this land there were things of great value, besides the bdellium and the onyx-stone." This is the full meaning of the 10th, 11th, and 12th verses of the second chapter. The 13th verse reads thus: "And the name of the second river is Gihon; the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." This, transposed into its signification, would read thus: "And the second river of the garden bursts forth as a fountain, or from the womb, from the valley of grace, in which valley it flows in darkness and in heat."
The last sentence of the 14th verse is: "And the fourth river is Euphrates." The rendering of this, according to the significance of this word, would be this: "And the fourth river is that one which makes the garden fruitful; that is, in which the garden yields its fruit." Summing up the signification of the several rivers and countries, we have, first, the river that is the extension of the mouth, which, changing the character of its waters as it flows, encircles the whole of that which suffers pain and brings forth; second, a river that bursts forth from the valley of grace, which is in darkness, and where there is heat; third, a river that runs with a swift current and a sharp sound to the light, in front of the happy land; and fourth, a river that makes the garden fruitful. The meaning of this summary is too evident to be escaped. The signification of these rivers is descriptive of the functions and of the various physical facts and capacities of the garden; they inform as how that garden is fed with new, and how drained of refuse or old and worn-out matter; they set forth the method by which the garden is made productive. Can there be anything more added to point the application with greater directness and force, save to designate the garden by the name by which it is now commonly known? This Garden of Eden is a very much despised place; and if I were not to prepare the way, and guard every word I utter The last two chapters of the Revelation refer to the human body saved, and as being the dwelling place of God. The first two chapters of Genesis refer to the body, cursed by the acts of Jesus said, that "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Judged by this standard of purity, who are not adulterers? I will tell you who, and who only. Only those are not who can stand the test of natural virtue; and this test is never to do an act for which, under any circumstances, there is cause to be ashamed. Adam and Eve were not ashamed until they had eaten the forbidden fruit--the fruit of the tree which stood in "the midst of the garden," "whose seed is within itself;" but the moment they had done what they knew to be a wrong, when they had learned of good by knowing evil as its contrast, by reason of having done the evil, then they were ashamed and made covers for themselves. They are sexually pure and virtuous who enter into the most sacred and intimate relations of life just as they would go before their God, and by being drawn to them by the Spirit of God, which is ever present in His temple. This is to have natural virtue. This is to have natural, in place of artificial purity. People who are pure and virtuous may be brought into intimate relations, and never have a lustful thought come into their souls. Now, this is the kind of virtue, Anyone who will read the second. chapter of Genesis, divorced from the idea that it relates to a spot of ground anywhere on the face of the earth, must, it seems to me, come to, or near, the truth. I have shown, conclusively, that it is not a garden in the common acceptance of that term: indeed, that the Garden of Eden, according to Moses, is a physical absurdity, if it be interpreted to mean what it is held to mean by the Christian world. The Garden of Eden is the human body; the second chapter of Genesis was written by Moses to mean the body; it cannot, mean anything else. Furthermore, Moses chose the language used because it describes the functions and uses of the body better than any other that he could choose without using the plain terms. Could there have been a more poetic statement of what really does occur? What more complete idea could there be formed of Paradise than a perfect human body--such as there must have been before there had been corruption and degradation in the relation of the sexes? "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."--(1 Cor. iii. ver. 16, 17.) "What! Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? Therefore glorify God in your body."--(1 Cor. vi. ver. 19, 20.) But now let us go on with the application of our former inquiries into this garden: "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four beads. The name of the first river is Pison, as we And this is the river that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia--the land of blackness (darkness), and where there is heat (see Psalm cxxxix. 12). That is to say, the intestines occupy the abdominal cavity, which is the land of darkness in Eden. All the movements that are made therein are made in darkness, and therein also is the heat which signifies the warmth that gives and maintains life; that maintains the old and that produces the new; that sustains the temperature of the body, and that gives it the power to reproduce. Physiologically this is absolutely true, just as are all the other descriptions and allegories that are given by Moses of the garden. "And the name of the third river is Hiddekel, that is it uterus, bladder, and urethra. This is the river Hiddekel; or the stream that runs with a "swift current" and a "sharp sound." Search the language through and through for a more appropriate description for the elimination of the waste matter, by the means of the urinary organs than this one given by Moses. And this river of Eden runs toward the east of Assyria, which is the "land of the garden," in the midst of which is the tree of life. That this may be still more evident, it is proper to remark here, that it is the female human body which is referred to by Moses, because it is her body that suffers pain in bringing forth; and it was the producing part of the garden--the reproductive female power--that was the land which was cursed in Eden by the transgressions, by eating of the fruit of the tree of life improperly. It was by this curse that woman's "sorrows and conceptions were multiplied," as stated by Moses. So the Garden of Eden is the producing land of the human family into which the Lord God put the man whom he had formed, "to keep it and to dress it," so that it might be fruitful. Do you not see how perfect the allegorical statement is, which Moses made? "And the fourth river is Euphrates." The last river of the Garden of Eden is that one which renders it fruitful; that makes it yield its fruit, and that flows through the reproductive system. Euphrates means fruitfulness, and this river, the last one in the order of physiological sequence, is the fruit or the result of the perfected action of all the others combined. This river was in its natural, healthful, primitive state of purity, from which physical purity primitive man and woman fell by the improper use of the functions of the garden, which were committed to their care, the same as people continue to do, and are cursed--die in Adam. Pliny in his "Natural History" speaks of human beings and of monkeys, but of the things wherein they are alike no mention was made. Was Pliny ignorant of this fact? Monkeys and women are the only animals which menstruate. They are the only mammals which copulate promiscuously and at every season. Monkeys are still monkeys in spite of this fact; they have not evolved to something higher, so neither menstruation nor the increased excitation of' the generative organs could have been the cause of subsequent development. Pflüger has said "that menstruation is the result of the growing follicle action, as an irritant to the terminations of the nerve fibres embedded in the stromas of the ovary. This irritation finally brings about congestion of the genital organs by an afflux of blood to these organs. Other animals besides monkeys and women. have ovaries and yet the pressure of the It may be asked, what stimulated monkeys to copulate for other purposes than propagation? When the transition took place from the attitude of the quadruped to that of the biped, the pelvic viscera, by impact, were pressed down towards the pelvic outlet. Undue secretion of the mucous glands of the vagina corresponding to the æstus or rut of No animal menstruates which copulates for reproduction only. Some scientists have suggested to me that this may have been the cause of the subsequent intellectual development of the human race. I see no scientific truth in this theory. Idiots have their generative organs abnormally developed. There is a great scientific truth in this which I am investigating for a future work. Except in morbid pathological conditions, the cerebral soul developes in degree as it overcomes the abdominal soul. The licentious monkeys and savages with their thick protruding lips, indicating great sensuality and small mental capacity would negative this hypothesis were there no other refutation. But if it needed any further refutation I have only to give an example from history. Ovarian activity therefore always means a loss to the female, a drain upon her available energy. The female organism being called upon to produce aborted life in the form of the monthly or frequent maturation of the Graafian follicle, the false corpus luteus of menstruation is a drain upon and waste to the maternal organs and no benefit to the race. Woman, as she is to-day, can be said to be undergoing perpetual childbearing, her generative organs are never at rest, except before puberty, and after she has ceased to be fruitful. The hypothesis has been advanced, that longevity or length of life is the adaptation to the needs of the offspring, that where animals deposit a large number of eggs, there is more likelihood of some surviving, therefore the maternal organism dies young, in some instances death follows immediately. In those cases where there are a small number of offspring, or the number is limited, there is a tendency for the life of the maternal organism to be prolonged to secure the perpetuation of the species. If this hypothesis is true, the frequent maturation of the Graafian follicle is so much loss of vitality to the human race. In those races where puberty of the female is retarded she retains her youth longer, and the average duration of the life Sir Spencer Wells, in his book on "Ovarian and Uterine Tumours," published in 1882, gives a brief sketch of the history of Ovariotomy, and quotes the following:-- "A paper was laid before a late meeting of the Anthropological Society of Berlin for publication in their Transactions which reports that the aborigines of Australia and The preceding indicates that certain savages have at least some regard for the future members of their community. It is to be hoped, however, that when the responsibilities of parentage become more fully recognized that neither method--preventives nor spaying, will be necessary; the force of educated public opinion will deter the unfit from propagating their kind: but if human beings have not sufficiently evolved to realize that the function of their generative organs is reproduction, I would recommend the remedy of the ancient Greeks. Scientific propagation is not a new idea which has originated with our nineteenth century civilization. Menstruation is the result of the excitation of the ovaries, and the function of the ovaries is to develop and bring to maturity the Graafian follicle; and, as function has always preceded structure, we must seek the cause of the deviation of structure in the pathological condition of the ovaries--inflammation, cystic degeneration, dropsy, &c. The same may be said of the changes which the fertilized ovum may undergo in the uterus, or why is the purity of an animal's blood lost when it has once been crossed? It cannot be that the developing fœtus can affect a future ovum which is not yet mature. It is because the function of gestation is affected, and, if so, what effects uterine inflammation, tumours, cancer, &c., must have! What functional derangements may not be given to the developing fœtus? This negatives the hypothesis that differentiation of species is the But this river of life has been left to waste away the health and strength--the vigour and vitality--of the race, and no efforts have been made to remedy the destruction which it threatens, a disaster involving the fruitfulness of the garden itself, and the consequent wiping out of the race. This wasteful process is considered to be a natural function, and necessary to health and life, and so indeed it is, in the unnatural conditions in which we live, and in which the world has lived since this river was turned to waste, as described by Moses, allegorically, in the 4th and 7th chapters of Exodus. This wasting away of the life of the race is the vicarious atonement by which death is averted for the time. The fulness of time is not yet; the race, for a time, must rush madly onward toward destruction and extinction; but when the New Jerusalem (which is the purified woman) shall come in the new heaven and the new earth, as seen by St. John on Patmos, then this river of waste will return again to be "a pure river of water of life proceeding, out of the throne of God"--proceeding out of His highest creative place, the Garden of Eden, through which flows the fruitful river Euphrates. The Garden of Eden then is the human body, and its four rivers, which have their source in the extension of the month, "If any man defile the temple, him shall God destroy." Does He not do this? Does not death follow the defilement of the temple? In the temples that man has erected, and into which be enters on every seventh day to worship God, He does not dwell. These are the figures or the images only, as Paul said, of the true temple. Neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem shall man worship; but in spirit and in truth, said Jesus. The fact that there are so many temples made with hands, into which all the professedly Christian world feels it to be necessary to enter and worship, is a certain evidence that their temples, not made with hands, are not yet the abode of God. Not having consciously the kingdom of heaven within them, where God comes and dwells with them, they still go after Him; and they are so blind that they do not see their own condemnation in the act. If a person has God dwelling in him, he need mot go to church to worship Him, nor by so doing to make it evident to others that he is one of God's people, to whom He has come, and with whom He has taken up His abode. Why has God permitted His people to live in darkness and Interpret the arbitrary commands of the Bible by the language of natural law, by which alone God works, and the reconciliation between God and nature, between religion and science, between inspiration and evolution, is completed. Inspiration is the language of men who were permeated with Divine essence, but knew nothing about the law of cause and effect. They attributed the destruction of a city by fire or by an earthquake, in short, every visitation of painful effects upon men, as a direct and arbitrary command of God as punishment for sin; while by the light of science they are only the natural effects of immutable laws, occurring because they must occur, in the evolution of the universe. All the sins and punishments of which man has been made the subject are of the same order. It was impossible that man, being an animal, should be made a son of God, save by the very process through which he has had to pass.