Is the Garden of Eden Paradise?
Agamben, Augustine, and Translation
According to Giorgio Agamben, the history of Western thought was fatefully determined by the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew gan into the Persian-Greek paradise. The Persian-Greek, in contrast to the Hebrew, connotes a garden that is royal. Had the Greek translator(s) gone with the less exalted word, kepos, intellectual and political history might have turned out differently.
Translated as paradise, the garden of Eden became the garden of God,. According to Agamben, this translation—by no means necessary—paved the way for Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, according to which the garden of Eden ceased to be a place of earthly abundance and became a signifier of spiritual salvation humans had permanently squandered.
Gardens are clearly artificial—human—interventions. And yet, a home garden is not the same as a botanical garden. The Hebrew gan leaves more room for interpretation; while the Persian-Greek paradise suggests something made specifically for edification and spectacle (rather than just humble utility).
Gardens are trans-cultural phenomena, and yet it’s strange that the West has come to accept unthinkingly the image of salvation as a walled royal garden.
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