Early Links between the Temple and the Garden of Eden 800187326 The Garden of Eden and the Temple are linked in the Bible by many shared motifs and by shared imagery. These links went largely unexplored until the prophet Ezekiel began the process of attempting to understand them and expand upon them. In his hands, the Temple became the successor of the Garden in spiritual terms. This idea was further developed by later Jewish thinkers, splitting into two strands. On the one hand Rabbinic exegetes (and some exegetes prior to the destruction) understood that the Temple was intended to succeed where the Garden failed, fixing creation. On the other non-Rabbinic exegetes, notably the Book of Jubilees, understood that the Garden was intended to be a Temple, and acted as such. Biblical Sources for the Connection between Eden and the Temple A number of images which are indigenous to the Garden of Eden can be seen recurring in different contexts within the Bible. The Kherubim in particular are a constantly recurring Edenic motif. In the Garden, they guard the way to the Tree of Life after Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil with a burning sword 1 between them. Thus, especially if accompanied by flame, Kherubim are likely intended to evoke the Garden of Eden. In the entire Bible there are 93 instances of the word "Kherub” appearing in 30 chapters. The first chapter in which they appear deals exclusively with the Garden of Eden. 19 deal explicitly with the Temple in some way and the remaining 10 are about the presence of G-d 2 . Of the incidences which deal with the Temple, almost all are about the Kherubim which stand on the Ark of the Covenant 3 . We see that there is a very strong link between the Kherubim and the Temple 4 . Of particular relevance to our discussion is Ezekiel 10:1-3. There the prophet says: And I saw and behold, in the sky which is upon the head of the Kherubim like the stone of a sapphire like the appearance of the image of a throne became visible to them. And he said to the man who was 1 In Hebrew: "lahat haḥerev haMithapekḥet". The meaning of the word "lahat" is unclear. It might just mean the blade of a sword, as in Rashi᾽s exegesis on this verse, or it can mean a flame, as in Psalms 104:4 and Tanḥuma, Parashat Bereishit, Chapter 25. The Midrash Tanḥuma says that the sword is "mithapekḥet" or turning because it is Gehenom (the place of punishment for sinners aſter death) , which is constantly turning from hot to cold and from cold to hot. This indicates that the idea of heat is present in the verse, likely the word "lahat". 2 For methodological purposes I have not counted references which do not explicitly menon the Temple as having to do with the Temple. If one does not take this very conservave approach, the number of Temple references about Kherubim is even higher. 3 Exodus 25:18 and many mes aſterwards 4 Kang 93-94