The Garden of Eden is the second world center of civilization to project onto a normal planet, after the headquarters city of the Planetary Prince. A great planetary university of culture destined to endure forever. [1]
When an Adam and Eve begin their sojourn on an evolutionary world, their place of abode is often called the Garden of Eden because it is characterized by the floral beauty and the botanic grandeur of Edentia, the constellation capital. [2]
After three years the site commission selected three candidates: an island in the Persian Gulf, the river site on the Euphrates that later became the Second Garden, and a long, narrow peninsula, almost an island, projecting westward from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The third was chosen. [3] The Garden was prepared by 3000 volunteers recruited by Van and Amadon. [4] It was built 37,000 years ago. [5] To establish the garden the existing residents were evicted. [6] The architectural plans for Eden provided homes and abundant land for one million human beings. [7]
The coast line of this land mass was considerably elevated, and the neck connecting with the mainland was only twenty-seven miles wide at the narrowest point. [8]
At the time of Adam’s arrival, though the Garden was only one-fourth finished, it had thousands of miles of irrigation ditches and more than twelve thousand miles of paved paths and roads. [9]
A zoological garden was created by building a smaller wall just outside the main wall; the intervening space, occupied by all manner of wild beasts, served as an additional defense against hostile attacks. [10] A brick wall across the neck of the peninsula was built. [11]
This Mediterranean peninsula had a salubrious climate and an equable temperature; this stabilized weather was due to the encircling mountains and to the fact that this area was virtually an island in an inland sea. [12] The mountains surrounding the Garden abounded in precious stones and metals, though these received very little attention. [13] There was a mount, inaugural mount, from which Adam spoke. [14] The site chosen for the Garden was probably the most beautiful spot of its kind in all the world, and the climate was then ideal. [15]
The sanitary arrangements of the Garden were far in advance of anything that had been attempted theretofore on Urantia. The drinking water of Eden was kept wholesome. [16]
Adam discouraged animal sacrifice in the Garden. [17] No animals ever slaughtered in Garden of Eden. [18] In the early days, the violet race remains relatively segregated but they receive suitable candidates from the races of the world. [19] Life in the Garden of Eden was far from utopian. [20]
There were 1200 loyal Edenites at time of Adan and Eve default. [21]
The Garden dwellers had been in contact with the Nodites since the early days of Eden. From these mixed descendants of the defaulting members of Caligastia’s staff they had received much valuable help and co-operation. [22]
The children of Adam, except for four years’ attendance at the western schools, lived and worked in the “east of Eden.” They were trained intellectually until they were sixteen in accordance with the methods of the Jerusem schools. From sixteen to twenty they were taught in the Urantia schools at the other end of the Garden, serving there also as teachers in the lower grades. [23]
When word had reached the dwellers in the land of the second garden that the king and high priest of the Garden of Eden was marching on them, they had fled in haste to the eastern mountains and left the territory vacated for Edenites. [24]
When Adam elected to leave the first garden to the Nodites unopposed, he and his followers could not go west, for the Edenites had no boats suitable for such a marine adventure. [25] The Edenic ideal of family was the whole family as gardeners. [26] The tongue of Garden of Eden was Andonic dialect as spoken by Amadon. [27] Edenites massacred nearby Nodites upon learning of Eve’s folly with Cano. [28] They practiced scrupulous burial of all waste. [29]
When Eden was disrupted, there were over one hundred primitive manufacturing plants in operation, and extensive trade relations with the near-by tribes had been established. [30]
After default of Adam and Eve, Adam abandoned the Garden to Nodites and caravanned to the second garden. [31]
After the first garden was vacated by Adam, it was occupied variously by the Nodites, Cutites, and the Suntites. It later became the dwelling place of the northern Nodites. [32]
4,000 years after the departure of Adam and eve, due to the violent activity of the surrounding volcanoes and the submergence of the Sicilian land bridge to Africa, the eastern floor of the Mediterranean Sea sank, carrying down beneath the waters the whole of the Garden of Eden. [33]
The teachings of Adam and Eve constituted the second epochal revelation. [34] 7 commandments of Eden were definite taboos, expressed in the same negative form as were the most ancient prohibitions. [35] The aborted teachings of Adam were carried on by the Sethite priests, and some of these truths have never been entirely lost to the world. [36] The laws of the Garden were based on the older codes of Dalamatia and were promulgated under seven heads: [37]
See also: UB 73:5.