One last item about "mist."
The word translated "mist" is the Hebrew 'ed, which derives from the
Akkadian edu. The nominative ending u in Akkadian words is dropped in
Hebrew. Thus edinu for plain or desert becomes Eden, Adamu (a variant
of Adapa) becomes Adam, and edu becomes ed. Theological Wordbook of the
Old Testament comments on this word as it appears in Genesis 2:6:
"Earlier translators did not have access to the ancient
cuneiform languages which help to determine the meaning
of these difficult words." And further: The Akkadian edu
refers to the annual inundation of Babylon by the Euphrates
as well as to irrigation. If Eden was watered by floods and
irrigation rather than rain, it may have been located in an area
like southern Mesopotamia where it does not rain. Such a
location would suggest that the paradisiacal situation was
not worldwide but peculiar to Eden's immediate environs.
Dick Fischer
Dick Fischer, Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Wed Jun 21 19:07:16 2006
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Wed Jun 21 2006 - 19:07:17 EDT