Eden and the Land of Promise

Abstract

This chapter discusses a possible explanation for the idea of the so-called Land of Promise. It demonstrates that the traditionists of the Old Testament not only metaphorically and symbolically but also geographically used the conception of Eden in Gen. ii to describe the primary phase of the Land of Promise and also its final restoration. When Deuteronomy opens the Deuteronomistic work of history, it gives in i 7 the order to enter the land, and interestingly, although the people stand just east of the River Jordan, the land is described according to the pattern of the land of Promise. In the prophecies and still more in the intertestamental literature the future Jerusalem was identical with the garden of Eden. Temple and kingship were central conceptions, and Ezekiel's mentioning of the well of the temple has its origin in the mythology of Eden. Keywords: Deuteronomy; Eden; Jerusalem; land of promise; Old Testament