Was The Garden of Eden Temporally Displaced?

The origin of mankind, at least the very specifics are a mystery to believers and those of the secular world.

Much of our history has been lost to time and there is much debate since Darwin's theory of evolution. For Catholics there is no dogmatic teaching on the exact details of how God created the universe and the world; the faithful can freely choose to believe in evolution or creationism.

Sadly there is much debate and anger on this subject. People from various christian traditions have lost their faith when scandalized by science because of a fundamental belief or upbringing in a literal biblical interpretation of scripture. On the other side of the same coin are those who do not lose their faith but reject science entirely. 

Historically both Jewish and Christian fathers of faith have taught that the biblical canon is made up of different types of books ranging from literal to allegorical or prophetic. Some of these ancient teachers taught that the days of creation were not necessarily six twenty four hour days or six millennia but different stages of creation or epochs in the formation of the world.

Some interesting information that illuminates the mystery of Genesis are that some scholars believe the Book of Genesis was a Jewish apologetic response to The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Mesopotamian view on creation. The first two chapters of Genesis tell two different creation narratives, Genesis 1 that is detail oriented illustrating each day's process of creation and Genesis 2 a generalization that focuses more on the creation of mankind. 

Because of these two narratives an 8th to 10th century folklore tradition within Judaism through mythology and talmudic writings found in the Alphabet of Ben Sira speculated and taught that the reason for the two narratives was because Eve was not the first woman created but the second from the rib of Adam and that Adam's first wife who was named Lilith would not be subservient to her husband and so left the Garden of Eden to copulate with Satan or the fallen Archangel Samael and became the mother of demons.

This myth was in part based on Mesopotamian demonology and some scholars believe it is loosely connected to the demon Lamashtu. Others identify her with the Babylonian goddess Inanna or Ishtar  The name Lilith is derived from the Hebrew term lilû, lilitû, lilî, the word used for screech owls, night hags, and night terrors. The myth of Lilith however predates the writings in the Talmud and she was generally thought to be a Daughter of Cain who took one of the Watcher's for a husband and became herself a hideous harpy like Demon who terrorized people during their sleep as a Nightmare or a Succubus stealing the seed of men to give birth to monsters. In the Latin Vulgate Bible Lilith is translated to Lamia in Isaiah 34:14. The Lamia is the Greco-Roman counterpart to the Hebrew Lilith.

In the Gnostic Gospel of Philip a heretical gospel rejected by the Church for being historically inauthentic and theologically erroneous Eve is said to have copulated with the Serpent or Satan and that Cain was not the child of Adam but in fact the Devil. This was another reason for the expulsion from the Garden of Eden besides our first parents' disobedience of God. This points to the interpretation of the Nephilim being the intermingling of the children of Seth and Cain considering in this story Cain was not entirely human. This is called Serpent Seed Theory and is very similar to the Genesis 6 Conspiracy. 

In some Evangelical circles Christians believe that the flood was not just due to the creation of Nephilim through Fallen Angels known as Watchers mating with human women giving birth to Giants but also through Eve's adultery with the Serpent and Cain's demonic bloodline. Serpent Seed Theory is an ancient heresy originating from the arch heretic Valentinus that was later compiled in the Gnostic work The Gospel of Philip. This doctrine and these writings were condemned by the early Christian Church in the 1st century and by Saint Irenaeus in his book Against Heresies. 

While these stories are mythological or apocryphal and some condemned as heretical they illuminate the ancient mindset pertaining to the two creation narratives.

It should also be noted that the common interpretation of Genesis 6 amongst Apostolic Christians be they Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox is that the Nephilim were the offspring of the intermingling of the Sons of Seth and the Daughters of Cain. The Sethite Men were contemplative monks who lived on Mount Hermon and were seduced by the Daughters of Cain and so left the holy mountain and their vocation to God to take on wives who gave birth to men who would become tyrannical leaders and warlords and the later divinized by their subjects becoming the mythologized false gods of paganism or men of renown. This interpretation is the very interpretation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church whose Biblical Canon contains 88 books of the Bible which includes the Book of Enoch.

Some of the earliest Church Fathers however did believe in literal angelic human hybrid giants such as St Justin Martyr, St Irenaeus of Lyons, St Ambrose of Milan, St Clement of Rome.

Those who objected were Sextus Julius Africanus the historian, St Augustine of Hippo, St Cyril of Alexandria and many more after the 4th century. Part of the reason for this shift was that the enemies of Christendom were using the Angel offspring interpretation to attack Christianity particularly Celsus the Greek Philosopher and Julian the Apostate. Another reason for this shift was the defense of Priestly celibacy in the Western Latin Church. Prior to the Western Churches shift to only celibate clergy there had always been married clergy alongside celibate. This is a discipline that is practiced in the West that could potentially be lifted by the Pope. Otherwise Eastern and Oriental Christians in both Catholic and Orthodox Churches have always had both married and celibate clergy.

So while most of the Church's history has held the Sethite interpretation the Angelic interpretation was the original and traditional interpretation held by the Jews of antiquity and the Patristic Fathers and so is not completely without merit or consideration.

A modern explanation for the two creation narratives is Gap Theory, the idea that each day of creation was several eons allowing for evolution and the dying off of several prehistoric and ancient life forms. A version of Gap Theory is Lucifer's Flood, the idea that during the Angelic Fall and War in Heaven Lucifer and the Fallen Angels had destroyed the physical universe and that the universe that we occupy is the reconstructed one. Some speculate with the concept of Lucifer's Flood that a race of people dubbed pre-adamites were wiped out in this cataclysm. Another version is that God flooded or destroyed the world after the Fallen Angels had corrupted it in the manner written about in The Book of Enoch and some interpretations of Genesis 6.

The late Father Malachi Martin spoke about this reconstructed universe on an episode of Coast To Coast with the late Art Bell in the 1990’s. It should also be noted that although he later became a controversial and sensational figure his priestly career originated in serious scholarly work particularly with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The 2nd chapter Genesis could be interpreted as two creation narratives in one chapter as it details the creation of the world and all God's creatures but then the creation of man and then his placement in the Garden of Eden and animals and plants made within the garden. It would seem that there were animals and other living things made first outside of Paradise and then inside of it and then the creation of Eve from Adam's rib within the garden.  

Personally I would like to think of myself as an optimistic creationists. I would like to believe God created the earth in six literal days as through God all things are possible. It's possible He could have done just that and that our scientific instruments can only detect how long it would take the earth in the natural world to form by itself in this physical plane of existence. It's also possible that the earth and life did take billions of years to form and that this was by the design of God much in the same way a software engineer creates code for a program or operating system. However it actually happened is irrelevant and I firmly believe both sides of the coin miss the mark. It does not matter how God created existence and the universe, what matters is that God exists and He created everything and that everything was created good even the Fallen Angels who were originally good and that we are all created good even in a fallen world.

Due to the fundamentalism of some religious groups some christians believed that the discovery of dinosaur fossils was demonic in origin and that the devil planted dinosaur bones in the earth to confuse and scandalize mankind. Others believe Dinosaurs died in the flood and that humans coexisted during and after the flood with dinosaurs like the Flinstones. Some individuals go even as far as to say that the dinosaurs on the Ark were very tiny or were babies. 

What I propose in my opinion is that perhaps both creationism and evolution are neither wrong but rather a combined reality. What if God did create the earth in six literal days and that the Garden of Eden was temporally displaced from atrophy so that neither Adam or Eve or the animals inside experienced time passing or the effects of aging and bodily deterioration. What if during this time in paradise in the outside world animals evolved and died out and that the Garden protected Adam of Eve from the ferocious prehistoric animals and natural disasters such as asteroids and other cataclysmic events.

Another confusing bit of Scripture is that before Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden God gave the first human couple skins to wear. Some Gnostics would interpret this to mean that as punishment God gave them physical bodies since one of many heresies of Gnosticism is that only spirit is good and that physicality is evil. However Humans are composites, we are made up of both body and soul. We are more than the angels because we have both a physical and spiritual nature. Since there was no death in the Garden of Eden it would seem that perhaps God slew an animal from the outside world, probably a lamb. However It's entirely possible a greater sacrifice occurred and that perhaps the animal likely a lamb was sacrificed within the garden the place of its origin in place of Adam and Eve so they did not have to die and then they were expelled into a world that already contained death and generation but now as sin entered the physical universe the world was out of equilibrium and chaotic now rebelling against man who was made to be it's caretaker and master as God gave Adam and mankind dominion over the earth.

In essence what I propose is that the Garden of Eden was a time capsule that protected the first people from the passing of time and the dangers of the elements or perhaps an angelic war waging across the globe until it infiltrated the garden through the serpent and Adam's neglect for his wife by not informing her of the forbidden fruit or stopping her from eating it. 

There are other theories as well but they do not necessarily appear to have any obvious scriptural foundation besides old biblical models of the world which include the Pillars of Earth and Sheol. Sheol or Hades otherwise known as Abraham's Bosom was the underground cavernous place of the shade where the deceased resided. When Christ died on the cross and was placed in the tomb he descended into the underworld to liberate the imprisoned spirits who were in Sheol. Some speculate that Earth is hollow and that there is a lost world inside its pockets or its core. They believe Adam and Eve were in the hollow earth before being expelled to the surface world. Many Native American and First Nations peoples have similar creation stories believing that the first humans came from underneath the ground.

Others believe that not only did our first parents come from beneath the earth but that other things reside there as well such as remnant Giants or Bigfoot otherwise known as Sasquatch or Hairyman or even Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. One of theories involving hollow earth and Giants or Sasquatch is that they have an underground civilization and sometimes kidnap people for food or reproductive purposes like the Morlocks from H.G Wells novel The Time Machine. This is a popular opinion amongst Missing 411 circles.

The idea of a hollow earth is not a new one within literature Dante's Inferno and The Divine Comedy being a prime example as well as many science fiction novels such as Jules Verne's Journey To The Center Of The Earth and Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar series that began with At The Earth's Core. 

In recent films Legendary’s Monsterverse uses hollow earth in Godzilla vs Kong and Godzilla X Kong New Empire.

In real life Admiral Richard E. Byrd was purported to have made a 1935 flight to Antarctica where he witnessed and recorded footage of prehistoric life within a hollow opening from within the Earth.

Another interpretation is that the Garden of Eden was in an entirely different dimension perhaps on this very planet but in a different plain of existence. Others have theorized Adam and Eve came from a different planet altogether. Similar theories involve Noah and his Ark which they believe to have been a starship.

As wild as many theories stand many Eastern Orthodox theologians believe that the Garden of Eden was in a different realm or mode of existence and so perhaps the Garden being a time capsule that is temporally displaced or the Garden being in a different dimension or in an unreachable netherrealm is not as fringe as it may sound.

In either case the message of Genesis is not focused on the metaphysics of creation or the specifics but that God created everything out of love and goodness.