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Until recently, there were few scientific tools which could shed light on this question
or the related issue of the historicity of Adam and Eve, the first couple always included
in the ancient myths of Paradise. Then, in the late 1980's, Dr. Rebecca Cann and a team
of paleo-geneticists observed that all human beings carry around genetic markers inherited
from our ancient ancestors that might provide clues to when and where we originated. So
Cann took genetic samples from all over the world to reconstruct our genetic family tree.
The results shook the foundations of science. Cann's team discovered that all females
carry a particular genetic marker that must have come from a single woman who was the
sole ancestor of all women now living. Moreover, they found that the time-frame for the
"genetic Eve" to have lived was relatively recent: Between 180,000 and 22,000 years ago.
Paleontologists had previously toyed with estimates as far back as 4,000,000 years for
our common ancestor. So even the 180,000-year age was far too recent for some of them.
But even more disturbing was how the 22,000-year estimate was derived. Cann's team
had argued that, if only two individuals were involved, then the couple must have lived in
even more recent times; the 180,000-year estimate assumed an initial group of thousands
of people among whom the "genetic Eve" had distributed her genes by having sex with a
large number of men However, if only a single couple had started the process, the date of
the pair could have been only about 22,000 years ago.
What upset many scientists was that this time-frame was uncomfortably close to the
chronologies of Genesis and other ancient traditons. They had good reason to be worried.
Other studies began to confirm this recent date. It was found, moreover, that roughly
23,000 years ago mankind had been located somewhere between Egypt and Mesopotamia
--in other words, in the region of Israel, at the time of the emergeance of modern genes.
Studies of domesticated animals were showing similar results, as were various human
migration studies. Again and again, the era around 25,000 years ago was found to be the
starting point for human civilization. Ironically, a book had been written back in the
1980's, before all the new genetic discoveries, which had noted the peculiar fact that all
the first evidences of human inventiveness and true artistic expression emerged rather
suddenly about 25,000 years ago; the title: The Creative Explosion.
The pieces were coming together rapidly in the late 1990's. By 1996, evidence showed
that the world's males had likewise descended from a single "genetic Adam" whose date
was uncertain, but compatible with the 22,000-year age. Further confirmation came in
1997 that all males derive from a single "Adam" and that mankind had not come together
from multiple simultaneous parallel populations developing in different areas, but from a
single population--and apparently a single couple--in one specific area: Near Israel.
According to both Islamic and Jewish tradition, the Garden of Eden was located in the
viciinity of Jerusalem. Although the Greeks spoke of Atlantis as a kind of Paradise, it
was not their Garden of Eden, which they had located in the land of "Cohchis" where the
Grove of fruit trees was guarded by a Dragon or winged serpent-god. Cholchis was to be
found by sailing south and east of Greece, but its exact location was uncertain.
The Nazis searched for Paradise in Tibet because they believed Helena Blavatsky's
claim that she had seen an ancient book in India which said survivors of the Deluge had
landed atop mountains north of India around 9,549 BC. The Nazis assumed these were
the Himalayas, but they could just as easily have been the mountains of eastern Turkey.
The Nazis forgot that the myths of India come from a people who had migrated into the
Indus valley from the north after the Mohenjo-Daro civilization collapsed c. 1,500 BC.
But Blavatsky wrote about survivors of the Deluge, not of the original Paradise.
Much confusion exists between the paradise-like Atlantis and the original Paradise of
the Garden of the first couple. Francis Bacon, the famous occultist said to have edited the
King James Bible, was writing a book when he died called The New Atlantis, in which he
argued for America being the remnant of Atlantis and a pre-flood Paradise.
In the Middle East there is no uncertainty. The Garden was located in the region of
Jerusalem. Genesis implies that Abraham and Lot had seen it during their travels:
"And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well-
watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as
THE GARDEN OF THE LORD, like the land of Egypt, as you come to Zoar."
[Gen. 13:10]
Notice how casually the comparison to the Garden is inserted along with an ordinary
geographic reference to a place in Egypt, apparently the area near the Nile Delta from
which Abraham and Lot had recently come. The obvious implication of the passage is
that Abraham and Lot had also recently passed through "the Garden of the Lord" along
their journeys. And it was seemingly prior to their going into Egypt because Egypt is
mentioned after the Garden. Of course, the scribes knew that Abraham had passed by
the mountains of Moriah around Jerusalem before going on to Egypt. Abraham knew of
these mountains because he was able to recognize them from afar off when he later would
bring Isaac there. Indeed, the particular mountain that would first have been recognized
from a distance was the highest mountain around Jerusalem: The Mount of Olives. And
it was this mountain Abraham was already familiar enough with that he could identify it
from a great distance, perhaps because of its peculiar pyramid shape.
Mount Olivet has long been a mysterious place. Historian Ernest Martin has shown
that it is the very mountain upon which Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac, as well as being
the site of the crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. It is where Jesus
cursed the fig tree, wept over Jerusalem, and made his triumphal Palm Sunday entrance to
the city. It is the forbidden hillside facing Jerusalem where no one was allowed to dwell,
but which had from ancient times been a cemetery and a place of gardens. On the summit
is a very old altar stone, the Miphkad altar, where the Red Heifer was burned so that its
ashes could purify the Temple. It is the spot to which Christ will return and at which the
nations are to be judged. It is also the "Footstool" of God, the easternmost extension of
the Temple, hence, the true foundation of the Temple. Many believe it is here Jacob had
his vision of a 'ladder' extending into heaven upon which angels ascended and descended.
It was near here that Melchizadek, the first man called a priest in the Bible, offered up a
Cup of wine and bread, and bestowed honors upon Abraham, the heir of kingdoms.
If Olivet is not Eden, it should be, for it is clearly the prime focus of Biblical events
related to the fate of man. Like Olivet, Eden was atop a mountain [Ezekiel 28:13-14].
Both had cursed trees. Both brought forth thorns and thistles. Both were gardens. Both
were places people were forbidden to live. Both were cemeteries, for legend has Adam
buried there. Both had angels guarding them. Both are said to be places of thrones and
altars, for Ezekiel implies a throne was there and Jewish legend says Adam sacrificed
there at the Gate. The Gate of Sheol or Hades is there, and it was into this place that
Jesus descended, Peter says. Revelation places the Tree of Life in the future Jerusalem,
while the prophets say Olivet will split in half and become a chasm of refuge at the End.
What, then, is this strange place, if not Eden? How did Olivet become so sacred? Why
did Jacob name it "THE GATE OF HEAVEN"? What is the origin of the strange word,
"GOLGATHA," which the Gospels call the summit of Olivet? It is "The Place of THE
SKULL"--but whose skull? How is this skull linked to the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail?
And why does the Bible appear to date Eden only 6,000 years ago, if the true date was
23,000 years ago? These questions have answers, but they are perilous to behold....
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