FROM GARDEN TO CITY
Keywords:
Bible, Garden, Genesis, Creation, Earth, Religion, Society, Cosmos, Common HomeAbstract
The opening chapters of the Bible present us with the scene of a garden, as the culmination of God’s creation of the world, and as the immediate prelude to the creation of humans: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed” (Gen 2:8). The word “garden” occurs a dozen times in Gen 2 & 3. However, the last chapter of the Bible concludes with a vision of “the holy city” (Rev 22:2, 19). It is “the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2). If the garden is the work of God, we might say that the city is the work of humans.
References
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Hymn of the Universe, New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 1991.
Message for the 2008 World Day of Peace, N. 7: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20071208_xli-world-day-peace_en.html.
New Jerome Biblical Commentary (NJBC), TPI, Bangalore, 1991.
Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1994.
