Paper 73 Overview: The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden was established as the reception point for Adam and Eve, the biologic uplifters who were dispatched to help advance an evolutionary world that had been hindered by rebellion. The planet's Life Carriers had determined that human biological evolution had reached its apex approximately forty thousand years earlier, which prompted their request for Material Sons to enhance the planetary races. After inspection by Tabamantia, Adam and Eve arrived less than a hundred years later to begin their challenging mission on a world suffering from rebellion and spiritual isolation.

The garden itself was meticulously planned and constructed on a Mediterranean peninsula under Van's leadership, featuring extensive irrigation systems, beautiful landscaping, and the sacred tree of life that sustained Adam and Eve. It was designed to be both a magnificent home and a center for worldwide biological improvement, though it was only one-quarter complete when Adam and Eve arrived. Eventually, the garden peninsula was submerged beneath the Mediterranean Sea approximately four thousand years after Adam left, but this natural occurrence was timed appropriately, as the garden was never meant to be the permanent residence of the Adamites, who were intended to spread their influence throughout the world.

The Caligastia rebellion and subsequent spiritual isolation had severely impacted Urantia's cultural and spiritual development, but biological evolution continued relatively unaffected. Around forty thousand years ago, the Life Carriers noted that the biological development of humans had reached its highest potential, which led them to join with the Melchizedek receivers in requesting biologic uplifters for the planet. This petition was sent to the Most Highs of Edentia, who had been overseeing many of earth's affairs since Caligastia's downfall.

Tabamantia, the supervisor of decimal worlds, inspected the planet and recommended the assignment of Material Sons to Urantia. Within a century following this inspection, Adam and Eve arrived and began their challenging task of untangling the confused affairs of a rebellion-scarred planet under spiritual isolation. Their mission would prove difficult as they attempted to advance a world that had regressed significantly from its earlier progress.

On normal planets, the arrival of a Material Son typically heralds an era of scientific advancement and intellectual growth, but Urantia's situation was far from normal. Ten thousand years after the rebellion, almost all progress made during the Prince's administration had been erased, leaving humanity little better off than if the misguided Planetary Prince had never arrived. Only among the Nodites and Amadonites did the traditions and culture of Dalamatia persist, providing small pockets of advancement in an otherwise primitive world.

The Nodites were descendants of the Prince's rebellious staff, named after their first leader, Nod, while the Amadonites were Andonites who remained loyal to Van and Amadon. Though the Amadonites were primarily Andonite in racial composition, "Nodite" designated both a cultural and racial classification as the eighth race of Urantia. These groups maintained a traditional enmity that often complicated cooperative endeavors, including their later work in Eden. Prior to Adam and Eve's arrival, they had developed into three major geographic divisions and had intermingled with Sangik races, ultimately becoming the most advanced and cultured peoples on earth despite their differences.

For nearly a century before Tabamantia's inspection, Van and his associates had been proclaiming the coming of a promised Son of God who would elevate the races and succeed the traitorous Caligastia. Though most of the world showed little interest in these teachings, those close to Van and Amadon took them seriously and began preparations for the promised Son's arrival. Van shared his knowledge of the Material Sons from Jerusem, and eighty-three years before Adam and Eve's arrival, he proposed dedicating themselves to preparing a garden home for the expected visitors.

Van and Amadon recruited over three thousand willing workers from sixty-one scattered settlements who committed themselves to preparing for the promised Son. These volunteers were organized into one hundred companies, each with a captain and liaison officer, with Amadon serving as Van's personal associate. A special committee was tasked with finding the ideal location for the Garden, while the rest began preliminary work. Despite Caligastia and Daligastia's attempts to interfere with the preparations, nearly ten thousand loyal midway creatures worked tirelessly to advance the project, largely offsetting the evil machinations of the rebellious leaders.

After almost three years of searching, the location committee reported on three potential sites for the Garden: an island in the Persian Gulf, a river location that would later become the second garden, and a long, narrow peninsula extending westward from the eastern Mediterranean coast. The committee nearly unanimously favored the third option, and two years were spent transferring the world's cultural headquarters, including the tree of life, to this Mediterranean peninsula. All but one group of the peninsula's original inhabitants peacefully vacated the area when Van's company arrived.

The Mediterranean peninsula possessed a favorable climate with stable temperatures due to the surrounding mountains and its near-island geography. Though rain was abundant in the nearby highlands, it rarely fell directly in Eden; instead, an extensive network of artificial irrigation channels provided nightly moisture to refresh the Garden's vegetation. The coastline was elevated significantly, and the peninsula connected to the mainland through a narrow neck only twenty-seven miles wide at its narrowest point. A great river watered the Garden, flowing eastward through the peninsula and across Mesopotamia to the sea, fed by four tributaries originating in the coastal hills—these became known as the "four heads" of the river that "went out of Eden," later confused with rivers surrounding the second garden.

When Material Sons, who serve as biological uplifters, arrive on an evolutionary world, their dwelling place is often called the Garden of Eden because it resembles the floral beauty of Edentia, the constellation capital. Van had arranged for the entire peninsula to be dedicated to the Garden, with animal husbandry and pasturage planned for the adjoining mainland. Only birds and domesticated animals were permitted within the park boundaries, and no animals were ever slaughtered there; all meat consumed by Garden workers during construction was brought in from mainland herds.

The first major task was building a brick wall across the peninsula's neck to secure the area, after which the real work of landscape beautification and home construction could proceed unhindered. A zoological garden was created in the space between the main wall and a smaller outer wall, with twelve grand divisions housing various wild animals that served as an additional defense barrier. Walled paths connected these animal enclosures to the Garden's twelve gates, with the river and pastures occupying the central area. Only volunteer laborers were employed in preparing the Garden, with no paid workers ever used. They cultivated the land and tended herds for their sustenance, while also receiving food contributions from nearby believers. Despite the challenging global conditions of those troubled times, the great enterprise was successfully completed.

At the center of the Edenic peninsula stood an exquisite stone temple dedicated to the Universal Father, forming the sacred heart of the Garden. The administrative headquarters was established to the north, worker and family homes to the south, educational grounds to the west, and the domiciles for Adam, Eve, and their offspring to the east. The architectural plans for Eden were ambitious, providing homes and abundant land for one million human inhabitants, although only a quarter of this vision had been realized by the time Adam arrived.

Despite being incomplete, the Garden already featured thousands of miles of irrigation ditches, over twelve thousand miles of paved paths and roads, and more than five thousand brick buildings arranged in clusters. The sanitation arrangements were remarkably advanced for that time period, with strict regulations to maintain drinking water purity, though Van had to repeatedly emphasize the importance of following these rules. Many modern vegetables, fruits, and grains were first cultivated in the Garden, though numerous valuable food plants were subsequently lost to the world. Only about five percent of the Garden was under high artificial cultivation, with fifteen percent partially cultivated, leaving the remainder in a relatively natural state pending Adam's arrival and input on the final design.

In the center of the Garden temple, Van planted the long-guarded tree of life, whose leaves were said to be for "the healing of the nations" and whose fruit had sustained him on earth for an extended period. Van understood that Adam and Eve would depend on this gift from Edentia for their physical survival after materializing on Urantia. While Material Sons living on system capitals do not require the tree of life, they become dependent on it during their planetary assignments when they take on material form.

The tree of life was not merely symbolic but a real botanical entity that existed on Urantia for many years. It originated as a shrub from Edentia, sent by the Melchizedeks when Caligastia was appointed Planetary Prince. This superplant stored space-energies that counteracted aging in certain beings, functioning like a superchemical battery that released life-extension forces when its fruit was consumed. Though useless to ordinary evolutionary beings, it served the materialized staff of Caligastia and the modified Andonites who had contributed life plasm to the Prince's staff. After the rebellion, Van regrew the tree in his temporary camp and later transplanted it to the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve's use. When Adam's plans went awry, the Nodites who invaded Eden found the tree unguarded but could not benefit from it due to their fully mortal nature. During one of their internal conflicts, both the temple and tree were destroyed by fire.

After Adam vacated the first garden, it was occupied by various groups including the Nodites, Cutites, and Suntites, eventually becoming home to northern Nodites who opposed cooperation with the Adamites. These lower-grade Nodites occupied the peninsula for nearly four thousand years after Adam's departure. The Garden's final destruction came through natural geological events—violent volcanic activity, the submergence of the Sicilian land bridge to Africa, and the sinking of the eastern Mediterranean Sea floor carried the entire Edenic peninsula underwater. This submersion occurred gradually over several hundred years, coinciding with significant coastal elevation in the eastern Mediterranean region.

The disappearance of the Garden should not be viewed as a consequence of divine plan failure or Adam and Eve's mistakes, but rather as a natural geological occurrence. Interestingly, the timing of Eden's submersion coincided with the accumulation of sufficient members of the violet race to begin rehabilitating the world's peoples. The Melchizedeks had advised Adam not to initiate racial uplift and blending until his family numbered half a million, as the Garden was never intended to be the Adamites' permanent home. Instead, they were meant to become emissaries of a new life throughout the world, establishing racial, continental, and divisional headquarters managed by their children while Adam and Eve traveled between these centers as advisors and coordinators of their worldwide ministry of biological improvement, intellectual advancement, and moral rehabilitation.