This is the case in the Chronicon
Edessenum and in Abyssinian legend, and a trace of this is perhaps
preserved in the name of Eve, as Noldeke thinks. The name
certainly receives this interpretation in Philo (de agric. Noe,
# 21) and in the Midrash Rabba on Genesis iii. 20 (D. M. Z. 1877,
p. 239, 326). Moreover, the true seat of God to the Hebrews was
Mount Sinai, and the original Hebrew life was the nomadic life of
the patriarchs, not gardening or agriculture. And finally we
cannot believe barbarians to have indulged in reflections on the
advantages and disadvantages of civilisation. The materials of
Genesis ii. iii. can hardly have been imported before the time
of Solomon. Where they came from we can scarcely guess; it
would be most natural to think of the Phoenicians or the
Canaanites generally, and this theory is favoured by Genesis iv.
But in JE Babel is regarded as the last home of the primitive
human race, Eden and Nod having preceded it; and the Hebrews
probably derived the legend in the last instance from Babylon.
But this does not prove that this or that parallel brought forward
by Assyriologists is necessarily of value.
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