Was the Garden of Eden Snake Environmentally Unfriendly?

“Szzzzz, c’mon, honey; just take a little bitty bite of this delicious fruit”

This question has been asked by much of Mankind ever since the dawn of the Creation: was the snake that enticed Eve and Adam to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge really environmentally unfriendly? And is it fair to blame the snake for making  the life of Mankind more difficult? After all, the Garden of Eden was supposed to have been a perfect environment with plenty of food for Adam and his wife Eve; and climatically controlled to allow them to go around naked and not be embarrassed by this. Then the Snake came alone and told them that “your eyes will be opened you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.”

Forbidden Fruit

The rest of the story is well known, and can apply even to the present day, when the innocence of childhood is replaced by the knowledge of adulthood – for good and otherwise.

Adam and Eve, after becoming aware of themselves as sexual beings, were forced to leave their perfect environment and fend of themselves in the real world.

And by “knowing” each other, they began the procreation of their species, the pain of childbirth, the first murder (Cain against Able), and the trials of being wanderers and nomads.

What is important to note is that the Bible teaches that with knowledge comes responsibility; that is to work hard to get food and shelter in order to survive. Bringing this ancient story up to present day, with all its implications, there is still speculation as to where the Garden of Eden actually was – if it was.

Some biblical historians place the garden in the Mesopotamian Marshlands in what is now southern Iraq.

Garden of Eden today?

This is an area where other biblical characters are said to have originated from, including Noah, and Abraham, the father of both the Jewish and Muslim peoples.

The world was a much wetter and more sustainable place many thousands of years ago; and locations like desert areas in Iraq and north Africa, including large parts of the Sahara desert in Libya, were much wetter than they are today, and were home to a variety of wildlife that has long since disappeared.

Thus, there were many “Gardens of Eden” on this planet when it was still unspoiled by large human populations as it is today.

As for the snake, its descendants are still “cursed from among all cattle from among the beasts of the field”. Gen. 3.14

And it still “goes on its belly and eats dust all the days of its life.”

So in the end, Mankind got a better deal than the snake, despite being expelled from Paradise. The dilemma now for Mankind is how to restore a little bit of paradise to what has been trashed by billions of descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Read about Garden of Eden areas as they are today:

Restoring Iraq’s Garden of Eden; the Mesopotamian Marshlands

Will Libya’s Unrest Trash Their Historical Sites?

8 Exquisite and Endangered Animals of the Middle East

Author: Maurice Picow

Maurice Picow grew up in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., where he received a B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Following graduation, Maurice embarked on a career as a real estate broker before making the decision to move to Israel. After arriving in Israel, he came involved in the insurance agency business and later in the moving and international relocation fields. Maurice became interested in writing news and commentary articles in the late 1990’s, and now writes feature articles for the The Jerusalem Post as well as being a regular contributor to Green Prophet. He has also written a non-fiction study on Islam, a two volume adventure novel, and is completing a romance novel about a forbidden love affair. Writing topics of particular interest for Green Prophet are those dealing with global warming and climate change, as well as clean technology - particularly electric cars.

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