 |
| Friday, May 30, 2008
The Development of the Garden Trope in the Bible (an excerpt) Writer : Annabelle BokThis piece on the garden in the Bible is an extract from an academic work, "The Development of the Garden Trope in the Bible", written for examination purposes in a secular institution, albeit by a Christian writer. As such, the Bible and its contents and doctrines are referred to as myth. Interested readers will, however, be able to see the spiritual impact of the observations made herein. Repetition is clear sign of a significant plot device and the garden image in the Gospels, with its accompanying images and characters accompanying the four-fold telling of the Christ narrative, indicates its emphasis and importance to Biblical myth in the minds of the NT writers. Where particular incidents, parables or images are repeated within the Gospels themselves, there is strong symbolic significance. For example, the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers is found in three out of four Gospels, and a comparison between good and bad fruit in two of the Gospels. The Parables are almost identical, word for word, in each account, which adds further emphasis to the message: A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But the others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold. (Luke 8:5-8) The similarities to the OT are obvious, especially in the careful way in which the lesson has been softened for the New Testament audience. The careful planning of the Gospel writers is evident both by the echoes of Adam and Eve’s being cast out of Eden, and in John having Jesus recognized as a gardener immediately after His resurrection, who was never associated with gardening before. There is hope where there previously was no hope; although there is reminder of thorns, dryness and failed growth, there is also the potential for a good harvest. A similar message is found in the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son." But when the vinedressers saw the son...they took him and...killed him...when the owner of the vineyard comes...he will destroy those wicked men miserably. (Matthew 21:33-41) As Jesus was referring to the religious leaders (Matthew 21:45), we can gather from the several OT references as well as from the narrative arc of the Gospels that this parable summarizes the history of Israel's relationship with God and the prophets, including Christ Himself. While there are still clear consequences for willful transgression, the NT prophets focus more on free will and the personal responsibility that man has to function as a willing and therefore fertile garden. The stewards can choose to obey the original landowner/gardener, and the land can choose to accept the prophets' words - blessing will result from this, for the kingdom of God "is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade." (Mark 4:31-32) As established, again there is the promise of great blessing in reward for obedience, in the form of prosperous growth and fruitfulness. Despite the fading away of the garden image in the Apostolic Histories and Doctrinal Epistles, there is a reemergence in the apocalyptic account. Here, the composite trope is used in its various associated images and meanings, like Mount Zion, the city, and the figure of the woman. The "great multitude...standing before the throne" in heaven hold "palm branches in their hands" (Revelation 7:9) and are described as sheep with God as their Shepherd in this new pasture (Revelation 7:17). Before one of the great wars described, God's army stands atop Mount Zion; the annihilation of the enemy is described in terms of reaping a harvest with a sickle, gathering the "fully ripe" "clusters of the vine of the earth" into "the great winepress of the wrath of God", resulting in a bloodbath that literally soaks the ground (Revelation 14: 14-20). It is already established that the saints are likened to well-watered trees, and God says, "I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts" (Revelation 21:6). Lengthy descriptions of the New Jerusalem, "the beloved city" (Revelation 20:9), show that it is lavishly "adorned with all kinds of precious stones" (Revelation 21:19) just like the image of the bride as presented by the Old OT prophets; the rivers in the city, the obviously implied presence of palm trees, and the stated presence of the original Tree of Life give us the image of a garden city. Therefore the garden image in Revelation is not a return or reversion to Eden, but something higher. Jesus' remark brings us back to vegetation myth, and Heaven is where rebirth has occurred. It is in the NT that the undertones of an overarching vegetation myth are realized. Hindsight allows for a further analysis of Gethsemane, Golgotha and Arimathea in the light of authorial self-reflexivity, awareness of previous writings, and the clearly intertextual quality of the Bible. The basic plot of leaving a fruitful garden for a desolate wasteland and then a return to the garden runs throughout the Biblical narrative. If viewed through the lens of the mythical blessing-and-cursing context, the gardens indicate a seasonal cycle of life passing to death passing to life again - the basis for vegetation myth. Christ is called "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), therefore making Him a sacrificial victim. Since all the sacrifices made by Israel through the centuries never brought them full atonement and lifted the Edenic curse, and also since after Gethsemane, Golgotha and Arimathea, God becomes a gardener once more and man is granted access to a perfect garden city in Revelation, the Edenic narrative is arguably the beginning fragment of the Bible's vegetation myth narrative. Gethsemane becomes a second Eden, in which Jesus mirrors Adam and as the "second Adam" obeys God's command and makes atonement for the cursed state of the garden by His own death, completing the mythic cycle and allowing for renewal and regeneration. It is also interesting to note that even the figure of the woman is given new life - where Eve is associated with bad news and her failure to recognize God as gardener, Mary calls the resurrected Jesus a gardener and becomes the first messenger of the good news. The result is the elevation of man, a journey that led out of the garden, into the tomb (death), back into the garden; and a reopened, free access to the same Tree of Life that was in the Garden of Eden.
|
| PREVIOUS ARTICLES So indie it hurts. Voyage and Return Remembering Review Writing Making Sense of The Mind by Steve Turner , paraphr... < back to The Bulb's newest posting
|
| | | ||
|
|
 |
 |