God begins with simple language in Genesis.

From the Eden narratives in Genesis 2 He uses the same

symbols throughout the Bible to Revelation chapter 21, when God Himself will dwell on the New Earth
as His new headquarters of the New Heavens. Only when the universe is subjected to Christ, and
Christ subjects Himself, yielding all power and authority to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24–28), only
then does it appear that a new phase of God’s plan begins. Only then will the use of the
Eden/Tabernacle/Temple 1 symbolism cease. One thing is sure: we will all be there. We will all
participate. Enjoy the article, "The Temple Symbolism in Genesis".

Various elements of the Temple symbolism in the Eden narratives of the book of Genesis have long
been recognized by scholars. But the linkage has never been as strongly demonstrated as in this article
by Dr. Ernest L. Martin. He is the first scholar to my knowledge to understand the text as presented,
and as it was likely understood by various readers and audiences throughout the centuries up to the
destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. To be sure, scholars have seen elements of Eden symbolism in the
Temple, but no one has developed the linkage so strongly.

The reason for this is that modern scholars all too often do not accept that the text of the Bible reflects
events that have a real time, a real place, real people and with real occurrences. But the events did
happen just as they are recorded in the Bible. They are not a myth, a fantasy, an imagining or a
creative metaphor that requires the creation of a scholarly “lying truth” more bizarre than any Greek
myth or work of fantasy.

Why have scholars looked at the Eden events and missed their significance? The answer is simple. The
original audiences of the Old Testament and the New Testament fully understood and did not need
explanations of the symbolism connecting the Eden narratives in Genesis with Temple rituals,
architecture and meaning. That understanding was lost during the period of the Early Church after the
destruction of the Temple. 2 An example of this understanding is shown in a passage from Hosea. His
audience knew about Eden. Hosea notes that Adam violated a “covenant” (Hebrew, berith) in a manner
similar to Israel:

“For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt
offerings. But like Adam they [the tribes of Israel] have transgressed the covenant; There they
have dealt treacherously against Me.”

 Hosea 6:6–7

Of course, since Dr. Martin’s article first appeared in 1977 others have written about the identification
of the Eden narratives with Temple symbolism. One such work is by Joshua Berman, The Temple: Its
Symbolism and Meaning, Then and Now. 3 This conservative Jewish presentation even includes a
chapter specific to our discussion, titled “Temple as Garden of Eden,” but not even this chapter realizes
the evidence Dr. Martin developed. Berman wrote 20 years after Dr. Martin, and referenced Jewish
writings extensively, but he did not touch on all the points Dr. Martin brought out. No one has done so.
Even so, credit must be given to Berman who caught the basic theme of the Eden narrative:

“Throughout the Bible, the Sanctuary is described via language and terms that are borrowed
from the Eden narrative of Genesis, chapters 2 and 3. ... the Temple is reflective of the
garden of Eden, the first environment in which man encountered God. Eden serves as a
paradigm for communion with God in the Sanctuary in terms of man’s strict accountability
for his misdeeds. ... All these are parallels that imply an identity between Eden and
Sanctuary, as environments wherein man enters the realm of the divine.”

 Berman, The Temple, p. 26–27 [emphasis mine]

The reason Dr. Martin understood the texts so clearly was that he read the Eden narrative from a
geographic and structural point of view, in addition to the elements of the story itself. He recognized
that the different areas, boundaries — and divisions between the areas — was an important point of
contact between Eden and Temple. While not recognizing these factors, Berman does understand that,

“... both language and imagery borrowed from the garden of Eden narratives of Genesis,
chapters 2 and 3 permeate many of the Bible’s references to the Tabernacle and Temple. ...

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The fact that the cherubim appear in only two places in the entire Torah implies an analogy
between the two contexts.”

 Berman, The Temple, p. 21 (italics his)

No other scholar has “put it all together,” insofar as I have found, but I will cite additional insights that
add to Dr. Martin’s overall explanation in footnotes. The symbolism of Eden and the Temple permeates
all of “salvation history.” Oscar Cullmann notes that apart from the origins of human sin in Eden the
whole history of salvation would be unintelligible. 4 The Eden narratives gave Israel a fully developed
understanding of the need to return to God’s presence. Sin established barriers to God. The Temple
was a means for Israel to overcome those barriers and again come into God’s presence, but not on a
permanent basis. Israel’s purpose, as a light to the Gentiles, is based on the need, both by Israel and
the Gentiles to be reconciled to God. In Romans (particularly Romans 5:8–21) death is associated with
Adam.

Thank You

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We hope you continue to help us get out the Gospel each month. For those of you who have supported
us for a long time, in some cases supporting the ministry of Dr. Martin for over 30 years now, since
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Let me ask those of you who have never supported us — who have received and read this material
that has opened your mind to the Word of God (in some cases for months and years) — I ask you to
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(http://www.askelm.com/tithing/index.asp) and we rely on God and contributions from those He put in
their minds to assist us.

1 When I say Temple symbolism, I mean the symbolism of the Tabernacle as well. They are inexorably
linked.

2 Claus Westerman notes that there is no tradition of Genesis 2–3 throughout the Old Testament,
“and this has impressed a number of scholars in recent times. It is not quoted and is never
mentioned.” Genesis 1–11: A Commentary, trans. John Scullion (Minneapolis: SPCK, 1984), p. 276.
Gerhard von Rad comments that, “The contents of Genesis, chapter 2, and especially chapter 3
are conspicuously isolated in the [Old Testament]. No prophet, psalm or narrator makes any
recognizable reference to the story of the fall.” Genesis, A Commentary, trans. John Marks
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961), p. 24.

Jacob Neusner resolves this apparent dilemma by noting that discussions of background elements of
cultic practice occur only when there is a question about the basic necessity of the cult to exist at all.
When no such questions of necessity exist, there are no discussions or writings about the background.
In other words, the audience understood the background. Neusner, “The Idea of Purity in Ancient
Judaism” in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, #43, March 1975, pp. 17–20. The Eden
narratives (as true events) were written up by Moses in a style that was recognizable and familiar to
Israel under the Old Covenant system.

In the Mishnah and later Jewish writings Eden is said to be a paradise located in heaven, contrasted
with Gehenna (for example, Mishnah, Aboth 5:22, 24). See also “Paradise” in Encyclopaedia Judaica,
vol. 13 (Jerusalem 1971), and particularly Enoch 23–28, Baruch 4, and 2 Esdras 7:52, apocryphal
works where Eden is seen as a paradise for the redeemed.

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3 Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1995, pp. 25–34. Berman feels that the connection only “implies”
an identity.

4 Salvation in History, trans. Sidney G. Sowers (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), p. 161.

The Temple Symbolism in Genesis

by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D, 1977
Edited and expanded by David Sielaff, March 2004

Read the accompanying Newsletter for March 2004

The Bible is consistent from Genesis to Revelation. The matter of the

Temple and its symbolism is an example of this. In this Exposition we show the beginning
and ending of God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. It is a glorious plan from which
God has never varied — in the typical sense.

I recommend that you read the Newsletter for March 2004 in conjunction with this important article. It contains additional
biblical information and teaching.

David Sielaff, Director

Associates for Scriptural Knowledge

Listen to the Byte Show Interviews on this article:

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The temple was a physical replica of God’s heavenly abode. When Moses was first ordered to construct
a temple, he was told to make it portable — it was a tent, or tabernacle.

“Let them make me a sanctuary: that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show
you, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even
so shall you make it.” 1

 Exodus 25:8–9

In the Book of Hebrews we are told that the tabernacle, and all its services, were “patterns of things
in the heavens” (Hebrews 9:23). The physical objects associated with the earthly sanctuary were
“figures of the true” (Hebrews 9:24) — the “shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). Each
physical item had its spiritual counterpart in heaven. So, as long as there was a tabernacle or temple
on earth, there was a material reflection of God’s heavenly palace for mankind to see. 2 The temple
represented God’s home on earth. Of course, God does not literally dwell in temples made with hands
(Acts 17:24), and though the temple at Jerusalem was a true image of the heavenly, in Hebrews it is
made abundantly clear that the earthly sanctuary of God is “not the very image of the [heavenly]
things” (Hebrews 10:1). It was only “figures of the true” (Hebrews 9:24). 3

If we wish to know what God’s heavenly abode is really like, then we must understand the significance
of the three general compartments in the earthly sanctuary, the furniture, and the persons (the
priests) who served within the holy areas. All these physical things typify spiritual counterparts in
heaven. The heavenly dwelling place is where God is at the present.

In the Book of Revelation, which depicts a period of time yet future to us, John is transported by the
Spirit into heaven (Revelation 4:2). While there, he saw a throne with God seated on it. Around the
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throne were 24 elders and four living creatures (Cherubim). Before the throne was a seven branched
lampstand and a sea of glass. The heavenly beings gave glory and honor to the Father who sat on the
throne (Revelation 4:2–11). Inside this heavenly temple — the inner temple — John also saw
individuals worshipping God who no longer needed the sun for light (Revelation 7:14–16). In the inner
temple he witnessed the true “ark of the testament” (Revelation 11:19) and the pot of manna
(Revelation 2:17). And finally, the inner sanctum contained “the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7).

Outside the Holy of Holies and just to the East of it was the general Holy Place. In it John saw a golden
altar with incense and a censor associated with it (Revelation 8:3). Located in front of this incense
altar, outside the Holy Place, was another altar under which were the “souls of them that were slain
for the word of God” (Revelation 6:9).

Everyone of these heavenly features was represented in typical form by the physical sanctuary on
earth. The complete and permanent temple was that of Solomon which he built in Jerusalem. It had all
the heavenly factors exhibited. The celestial throne of God was portrayed by the mercy seat located in
the Holy of Holies.

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest [the Holy of Holies] by the
blood of Jesus through the vail.”

 Hebrews 10:19–20

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy.”

 Hebrews 4:16

The throne of God is one of mercy. Also within the holiest area of Solomon’s temple was “the golden
pot of manna” (Hebrews 9:4). Those who will eat of this manna “shall serve him day and night in
his [inner] temple [the Holy of Holies] ... they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more”
(Revelation 7:15–16).

The Ark of the Covenant

Alongside this pot of manna was the “ark of the testament” (Hebrews 9:4). In the earthly tabernacle
of Moses and the temple of Solomon the slabs of stone on which were inscribed the Ten
Commandments were placed within this ark, a box-like structure supported by two horizontal poles
that enabled it to be carried. 4 These stones were called the “tables of the covenant” (Hebrews 9:4).
These physical stones with their laws were meant only for Israel under the Old Covenant. 5 Spirit
beings do not need these Old Covenant physical regulations, so the ark of the testament in heaven
does not have within it the two tables of stone or the extra scrolls positioned in its sleeves (Exodus
40:20; Deuteronomy 31:26).

Only the ark itself is in heaven. It represents the external witness that God has the power to make any
necessary laws for the supervision of the universe. The ark could figuratively contain different laws for
the administration of the various phases of divine government that God imposes on His creatures.
Thus, the tables of stone which originated from the granite outcroppings at Mt. Sinai were never
positioned in the heavenly ark. They were carved out of Sinai and only placed in the tabernacle in the
time of Moses.

Indeed, just before the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in the 6 th century B.C., those stones,
according to Jewish tradition, were deposited East of the Dead Sea by Jeremiah near where Moses was
buried (2 Maccabees 2:4–8). Jeremiah was supposed to have prophesied that the physical ark will one
day be found at the end of the age and it, along with the stones thereof, will be replaced in the
Millennial temple. This is highly probable. One thing for certain: Those material stones were never
placed within the heavenly ark. They are buried East of the Dead Sea. As far as we know, there is
nothing (in a literal sense) within the heavenly ark.

The Holy of Holies

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But what else was located in the Holy of Holies? In heaven there were twenty-four elders. On earth
these were typified by the twenty-four priestly courses (each headed by a chief priest) who performed
the regular daily services in the temple on a rotation basis (2 Chronicles 24:1–19). The father of John
the Baptist was portraying the role of one of these heavenly elders when he administered in the eighth
course of the twenty-four orders (Luke 1:5, 8).

There were also the Cherubim in the heavenly temple. Statues were made of them and placed near the
mercy seat in the earthly temple. Also within the Holy of Holies was “Aaron’s rod that budded”
(Hebrews 9:4). This staff was made from a limb of an almond tree (Numbers 17:8). The almond is the
earliest of the springtime trees to blossom in the Holy Land. It represents new life — the first new life
of every new year. This rod made from an almond tree was typical of the tree of life located in the
Garden of Eden.

“To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the
paradise [park or garden] of God”

 Revelation 2:7

With this reference to the tree of life, we are ready to investigate the theme of this Exposition: “The
Temple Symbolism in Genesis.” The events associated with the story of Adam and Eve, the Garden of
Eden, Cain and Abel, the land of Nod, etc., will take on normal temple features which anyone in the
time of Moses would have recognized. Even in the New Testament the scenes within the Garden of
Eden were reflections of things in God’s heavenly temple. John told the Ephesian church that they
could have a right to partake of “the tree of life” located in God’s paradise in heaven (Revelation 2:7).
There was once an actual “tree of life” in the Garden of Eden.

If all the symbolic features have literal counterparts (which they do) then this “tree of life” must have
been represented by a real almond tree growing in the Garden of Eden. But there was also another
tree in the Garden called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). Our first
parents were allowed, at the beginning, to eat of any tree of the Garden (including even the tree of
life). Only the tree of good and evil was off-limits to them. If the tree of life was the almond tree, what
was this latter tree? The identification may also be given in the Bible. We will show this in due course.

The Plan of the Temple

It is necessary to recognize the basic patterns of the temple before one can grasp what happened (in a
symbolic way) with the story of Adam and Eve. The temple had three compartments with major pieces
of furniture located within each of them.

Note that the entrance into the temple was from the East. Only Israelites were permitted to pass the
eastern gate and enter the court of Israel. On the West side of this court, and just before the entrance
into the Holy Place, was the “altar of burnt offering.” This was the altar on which animals were
sacrificed. Into the next compartment (the Holy Place) only the priests could enter — they also entered
from the East. And into the third room (the Holy of Holies) only the High Priest could go on the Day of
Atonement — again he could only enter it from the East. I am emphasizing that the entrance to all
compartments was from the East. There is an important reason for this that I will explain in a moment.

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The Temple and the Garden of Eden

When Adam and Eve were put into the Garden they were in a state of moral and spiritual perfection. 6
As a result they were able to observe God in a visible sense and even talk with Him at particular times
of the day. Only after they sinned was this privilege taken away. This occurred when they were cast
out from the Garden.

Before they sinned, however, they were in a very privileged state. Of all the multitudes of spiritual
beings in the universe, how many of them are able to have such a close and daily contact with the
Creator God? Just very few — probably those associated with the throne itself such as the Cherubim
and the twenty-four elders. But in the Garden were two human beings in the closest of association with
God Himself. It must have been like a heaven on earth! And indeed, that’s just what it was, in a
symbolic way. It was as if God’s celestial palace temporarily had come to earth. Even the Garden, the
Cherubim of the Garden, the altar built by Cain and Abel, the land of Eden, and the land of Nod are all
connected with the temple symbolism and are direct images of God’s heavenly abode. And for the brief
period of time before the sin of Adam and Eve, "heaven” was really here on earth.

In the Garden our first parents were able to talk face to face with God. But note an important point.
They only had conversations with Him at certain times of the day. They did not see Him on all
occasions. It was “in the cool of the day” that they came into “the presence of the Lord” (Genesis
3:8). The expressions “cool of the day” and “the presence of the Lord” were a part of temple
language. 7 “The cool of the day” was the period when the Sun got lower in the sky and the cool sea
breezes normally swept over the Palestinian region. This was the time of the evening sacrifice (1 Kings
18:36; Daniel 9:21) — about three in the afternoon. This was the time when the animals were being
regularly sacrificed (and also in the morning about nine o’clock). At these times the people were then
reckoned as being “in the presence of God” (2 Chronicles 20:19).

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Finally, Adam and Eve sinned. They ate of the tree of which they were forbidden. This tree, like the
tree of life, was also in the middle of the Garden. But with their partaking of it, God was angry and
sent them out of the Garden. Never again could they enter the Garden in this life.

“And the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’:
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from
whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of
Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of
life.”

 Genesis 3:22–24

This episode has some very significant features associated with it. Observe they were expelled East of
the Garden. Cherubim (angelic beings — later connected with temple symbolism) were also stationed
at the East gate to the Garden with a flaming sword to prevent Adam and Eve from re-entering. 8
When this happened, the tree of life became off-limits to them. Their face-to-face contact with God
came to an end. The Cherubim guarded the East entrance (the only gate) into the Garden and forbade
anyone to enter. We will see in a moment that these features represent precise arrangements found in
the later tabernacle and temple.

Cain and Abel

Our first parents were cast out of the Garden — never to re-enter in this life. They still remained,
however, in the territory of Eden. It is important to note that the “Garden” and the country of “Eden”
were not synonymous. The Garden was in Eden, but the Garden did not represent all Eden. Look at a
modern example. My residence is in Pasadena, California. Pasadena is in California, yet not all
California is Pasadena. Adam and Eve were simply expelled from the Garden in Eden. They were still
able to live in other regions of Eden.

Adam and Eve then had children. The first of which we have record were Cain and Abel. Cain became a
tiller of the ground — he raised fruits and vegetables. Abel was a sheepherder (Genesis 4:2).

“And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an
offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat
7
thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his
offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the
Lord said unto Cain, ‘Why are you wroth? and why is your countenance fallen? If you do
well, shall you not be accepted? and if you do not well, sin lies at the door. And unto you
shall be his desire, and you shall rule over him.’ And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it
came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and
slew him.”

 Genesis 4:3–8

There are three major points to consider in this narrative. First, both men decided to bring offerings at
a set time of the year — on a particular day. The phrase “in process of time,” in Hebrew, means “at
the end of days.” It often signified the end of the agricultural (or civil) year (1 Kings 17:7) and was
near the beginning of Autumn. Recall that the Israelites were required to appear three times in the
year at the temple (Exodus 23:14–17). One of these occasions was “at the end of the year” (verse
16). This was the season of Tabernacles. Cain brought token offerings of his crops “at the end of
days.” This shows the brothers must have appeared before God at a precise time near the Autumn of
the year. This means they must have been told by God when to bring them.

Second, they also must have been told where to bring them because they “brought” their offerings to
one altar.

Third, they were no doubt told what to bring. God would hardly have been angry with Cain unless he
brought offerings not sanctioned by God.

This is similar to what happened with the later Israelites in regard to the temple. They were told when,
where, and what to bring to the temple. All sacrificial offerings could only be presented at the
sanctuary. Under no circumstances was any other location allowed (Deuteronomy 16:5–6, 11, 16).
With Cain and Abel, the same factors are in evidence. Back at that time, they went to the area where
they knew God had been dwelling — He was a resident of the Garden. They built their altar as close to
God as possible near the East entrance (the gate or door) to the Garden.

When the proper time came they both offered their gifts, waving them in sacrificial praise to God whom
they believed to be in the Garden. God then issued His approval of Abel's offering, but He was
displeased with Cain’s offering. The older brother no doubt had been told to bring a lamb or goat, but
Cain offered fruit and vegetables. God was not pleased and Cain’s countenance fell. God then
answered:

“Why is your countenance fallen? If you do well [in the future and bring the proper sacrifice],
shall you not be accepted? And if you do not well, sin [a sin offering] lies at the door.”

 Genesis 4:6–7

Many people for generations have stumbled over the meaning of this verse. Yet it is quite clear what is
meant if one understands that temple language is being used. God was really being merciful to Cain.
The mercy was this: If Cain would repent and still bring the proper offering (“if you do well”), then
he would be accepted; but if he did not do so, then “sin [a sin offering] lies at the door.” This “sin”
was a sin-offering. God said that He would provide a sin-offering which would lie “at the door.” What
was this door?

The Gate of the Garden, the Door of the Temple

The matter becomes understandable once this “door” is identified. The word in Hebrew is pehthagh and
refers in other parts of the Old Testament to the entrance of any tent (Genesis 18:1), but more
particularly to the “door of the tabernacle” (Exodus 29:4), or the “door of the temple” (Ezekiel
8:7, 16), or “the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house” (Ezekiel 10:19).

In the case of Cain and Abel, they constructed their altar at the East gate of the Garden just in front of
the Cherubim which guarded its entrance (Genesis 3:24). God was indicating to Cain that he still had a
8
chance to obtain a proper offering and offer it. Cain, on the other hand, was a tiller of the ground. He
had no lamb to give unless he got one from his brother. God understood the problem, so He added
further: “if you do not well” (even if Cain was unable to obtain the proper animal sacrifice) God
would have a sin-offering to lie “at the door” of the Garden where the altar was located. 9

The next phrase has been an enigma to many. “And unto you shall be his desire, and you shall
rule over him.” This expression is explained in Genesis 3:16. Like a wife desired her husband and like
a husband ruled his wife in Old Testament times (Genesis 3:16), so Cain would have a sin-offering
provided for him that would allow him to rule over “sin.” It simply meant that Cain would gain mastery
over sin — over his mistakes — by an offering provided by God. (Genesis 4:7). This was a noble
gesture of grace on God’s part. Yet in spite of this act of mercy Cain did not obtain the proper animal,
nor did he accept God’s grace of supplying a sin-offering for him to master sin. He responded with
something very bad and in no way in accordance with the divine command. He offered up his own
brother.

“And Cain talked with Abel” (Genesis 4:8). The margin has “quarreled”. They got into an
argument. “Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him” (Genesis 4:8). This murder took
place in the field. God then reprimanded Cain. “What have you done? the voice of your brother’s
blood cries unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). In later times it was recognized that the
murder of Abel was a sacrifice of one of God’s saints. Such sacrifices symbolically took place on the
altar of God. Jesus said:

“That upon you [Pharisees] may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the
blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew
between the [inner] temple and the altar.”

 Matthew 23:35

In Revelation the blood of righteous saints was also reckoned as flowing from the altar from whence
they were figuratively sacrificed.

“I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy
and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth.’”

 Revelation 6:9–10

This is very similar to what God said about Abel. “The voice of thy brother’s blood cries unto me
from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Clearly, a New Testament connection was made between Abel and
the end-time martyrs mentioned in Revelation. Like Abel, their blood was dripping down from their
sacrificed bodies into the pool located under the altar. This receptacle for blood was supposed to be for
that of animals, but in the case of righteous Abel (and all the other martyred saints), their deaths were
considered human sacrifices — killed on the altar of God. Abel’s murder was too much for God to take:

“Now are you [Cain] cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your
brother’s blood from your hand ... a fugitive and a vagabond shall you be in the earth.”

 Genesis 4:11–12

Whereas Cain had worked in the same area of Eden with his brother and parents, he was now to be
sent away from the land. He was to be a wanderer — one without a fixed abode. He was to live at a
distance from God, even “out of His sight.” Cain considered this almost too much to carry.

“My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me out from the face of
the earth [the land where Cain lived]; and from your face shall I be hid.”

 Genesis 4:13–14

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Cain’s punishment involved him being “driven out” from the land he formerly tilled, and away from the
“face” of God.

“And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod [Wandering],
on the east side of Eden.”

 Genesis 4:16

What marvelous teaching is found in this latter scripture once it is understood that temple language
was being used by Moses. Note that Cain was sent OUT OF EDEN. He went East of Eden. And by
leaving Eden, he “went out from the presence of the Lord.” Now look at the second diagram. It
will be similar to the outline of the temple which we gave earlier, but this time we will involve the story
of Adam and Eve, the Garden, the Cherubim with the flaming sword, the altar of Cain and Abel, the
land of Eden, and the land of Nod [Wandering]. It has excellent teaching.

The Tabernacle of Moses

The whole story revolves around the later design of the tabernacle of Moses — and the temple of
Solomon. The Garden in which Adam and Eve were first placed was later represented by the Holy Place
into which only priests could enter. When Solomon built the temple at Jerusalem he decorated the
outside and inside walls of the Holy Place in a way that made it look like a garden.

“He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm
trees and open flowers, within [on the inside walls] and without [on the outside walls].”

 1 Kings 6:29

Israelites came into the court of the temple and looked westward beyond the altar of burnt offerings
towards the Holy Place, it looked like a garden protected by Cherubim. This exactly depicts the Garden
in Eden.

When Adam and Eve were at first in the Garden, they could talk with God at certain times. He was
“among the trees” (Genesis 3:8). The two important trees (the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil) were located “in the midst of the Garden” (Genesis 2:9). And in the
Holy of Holies (in the “middle” of the temple), was placed Aaron’s rod that budded and produced
almonds. This rod was not attached to the earth; it needed no water or nutrients to cause it to grow. It
represented life coming from a supernatural source. It was a fit description of the tree of life. The tree
of life was no doubt symbolized by the almond tree.

But there were many kinds of trees in the Garden (Genesis 2:9; Ezekiel 31:9). But the main type that
Solomon most associated with the Garden was the palm — the date palm (1 Kings 6:29). In fact, in
Solomon’s temple only the date palm figured prominently. 10 This was also the case with Ezekiel in his
future temple. So, alongside the main almond tree, it could well be that a date palm represented the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes” (Genesis 3:6). This could well describe the dates that grow in clusters near the
top of the palm tree.

Maybe it was or maybe not, but within the future temple as described by Ezekiel there are
representations of Cherubim and palm trees directly inside the Holy of Holies (Ezekiel 41:18–20, 25–
26). 11 This could show that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the midst of the Garden
alongside the tree of life (the almond) was the date palm. It is interesting that Jeremiah considered the
palm was a tree connected with good and evil (Jeremiah 10:5). Of course, there is nothing wrong with
date palms or the dates they produce, but if God said not to eat from a tree of the Garden (be it any
type of tree), it became bad — not for the tree — but for any who would partake of it. This is the
essence of the narrative.

Further Temple Teaching

10
Cain was sent into the land of Nod, East of Eden, away from the presence of God. He became cut off
from the Eternal. God then gave him a “mark” to show that Cain was not completely forgotten and that
a measure of protection would be afforded him and his descendants. Cain became a representative of
all Gentiles. They were reckoned as being in Nod (wandering — without a fixed spiritual home). And
while they could approach the East entrance to Eden, they could not go in. A barrier was placed around
Eden. The altar which Cain and Abel constructed in the area of Eden near the East gate (door) of the
Garden was out of bounds to those who lived in Nod.

This condition existed throughout the antediluvian period. But with the great flood of Noah, everything
was destroyed — the Garden, the altar, the barriers, etc. When Noah and his children began to
repopulate the earth, none of these former things were retained — except in the memory of man, and
only in symbol. In the time of Moses, however, God selected the Israelites to be His nation — in
favored status to Him. Moses was ordered to build a tabernacle which resembled the condition that
existed in the pre-flood age. Outside the tabernacle was represented the land of Nod. The court on the
inside of the tabernacle (the court of Israel) was Eden. The Holy Place was the Garden. The Holy of
Holies was the center of the Garden. The tabernacle not only represented Eden and the Garden, but it
was also a physical type of God’s heavenly abode.

The Israelites were reckoned as being in Eden like Adam and Eve were. However, even the privileged
nation could only go to the East entrance to the Holy Place — which represented the Garden. Into the
Holy Place (the Garden) only the Aaronic priests could go at the time of the morning and evening (the
cool of the day) sacrifices. And even the priests were barred from entering “the midst of the
Garden” — the Holy of Holies. They were only able to get close to the curtain that separated the outer
Garden from its midst.

Only once in the year was anyone allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. On the Day of Atonement the
High Priest, after many ceremonies of purification, and after he clouded the entire inner chamber with
incense so that the mercy seat would be hidden from view, was able to push the curtain aside and
briefly step into the inner sanctum. After he did his required duties, the curtain came down once again,
and the Holy of Holies (the midst of the Garden) became closed for another year. This showed that
while the tabernacle stood, God still reckoned barriers between Himself and mankind. 12

While Adam and Eve before they sinned were able to witness God’s presence, their sins caused them to
be sent from the Garden (the Holy Place). Cain and his descendants were sent further East — they
were expelled from Eden and went to Nod. But when the Flood came the Garden, the altar, Eden, etc.
all disappeared from earth. Mankind now found itself without any physical area on earth in which God
dwelt. That’s why the early descendants of Noah wanted to build a tower “to reach to heaven”
(Genesis 11:1–9). They wanted to reach God, to have access to His heavenly presence. But God would
not allow it. He had been angry with man for his ways, so He changed their languages and scattered
them into all the earth. He sent all mankind into a condition of “Nod.”

Finally, God selected Abraham to be the father of a nation which would be responsible for leading man
(in a step-by-step way) back to God. By the time of Moses, the Abrahamic family had now reached
nationhood. Moses built the tabernacle, and Israel was brought back into Eden once again. A middle
wall of partition was erected, however, that kept all Gentiles out. God even put restrictions on Israel.
Even they were told to stay out of the Holy Place (representing the Garden). The Aaronic priests were
allowed to go in. But no one was permitted in the Holy of Holies except the High Priest on the Day of
Atonement — and even then he (the holiest man on earth, symbolically) was not allowed to see the
mercy seat. All of this shows that God still had several barriers which kept many sections of mankind
away from an intimate association with Him.

The Revelation of “the Mystery”

Through Christ (who was the sin-offering that God first told Cain about, which God would place on the
altar at the door of the Garden by grace) through that offering the whole barrier system was to be
abolished. Instead of a step-by-step expelling of man eastward into relative oblivion (as happened with
Adam, Eve, Cain, the antediluvian world, and those at the tower of Babel), all the barriers to God as
shown by the temple (and the Garden) were to be removed in Christ. Paul said, “The middle wall of
partition” has now been broken down (Ephesians 2:14). This means that the Gentiles (like Cain) who
were in a state of wandering and without any fixed spiritual home, can come into the court of Israel
11
where the altar is located. This got them back to Eden. But there is more than simply getting access to
the holy altar.

Once the “sin-offering at the door” is accepted they can join hands with Israelites (with both
peoples now called “the new man” — not Israelite or Gentile), and both walk up the fifteen steps into
the Holy Place. The Cherubim no longer will keep them out with their flaming sword. They are now
back in the Garden from whence our first parents were expelled. But that is not the end. When Christ
died on the cross, the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (“the
midst of the Garden”) was supernaturally torn in two from the top down (Matthew 27:50–51). In
Hebrews we are told that the destruction of this final barrier now gives us “boldness to enter into
the holiest [the Holy of Holies] by the blood of Christ ... through the vail” (Hebrews 10:19–20).

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need.”

 Hebrews 4:16

What glorious teaching! All the obstacles that God set up in a progressive sense to alienate Himself
from man (in a spiritual way) from the time of Adam and Eve onward, He has systematically abolished
through the work of Christ Jesus.

“Having ABOLISHED in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances [decrees of separation]; for to make in himself of two one new man, so making
peace.”

 Ephesians 2:15

All the commandments and decrees which God formerly ordained to separate Himself from various
peoples, have been removed in Christ. Adam and Eve, Abel and Cain, Israelite and Gentile, you and I,
are now back “in the Garden” — and now in the very midst of it. We do not even have to wait for “the
cool of the day” to come into contact with our Father. We now have a constant presence — in a
spiritual sense. And the day is soon coming when we ourselves will be spirit beings (1 Corinthians
15:42–55).

When that day arrives, we will not only be able to talk with God face to face as did our first parents,
but “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). As God is Spirit, so will we
be. We will then be “as he is” — as His own Spirit-born children. This is far more glorious than it was
with our first parents. Indeed, reaching this position is the very purpose for living. Our experience with
sin, with an alienation from God, with suffering, will help us for all eternity to love God our Father in a
much greater way than our first parents were able to experience. What a glorious future awaits
mankind through Christ.

The Holy of Holies is now open to all people on earth without social, racial, or outward religious
distinction. It is Christ who has redeemed Adam and his family to Himself. Christ’s death on the cross
and His resurrection from the dead are mankind’s guarantee of a certain salvation. It comes to us by
God’s grace, not man’s works. One day all humanity will understand this truth.

ELM

Appendix 1: The Garden of Eden and the Temple

In what kind of geographical region was the Garden of Eden? The Bible gives the answer. Moses said
that a stream watered the Garden. From its midst it became the headwaters of four major rivers. Since
it is self evident that rivers flow down slope, this is an indication that the Garden was located in an
elevated area of the earth — probably on a mountain. Ezekiel said that Eden “the garden of God”
was “the holy mountain of God” (Ezekiel 28:13–14). 13 When the tabernacle was established in the

12
land of Palestine by Joshua, he placed it on the mound of a hill called Shiloh. Recall that the tabernacle
and the temples represented the Garden and the Land of Eden. They were each placed on a “high
place” in order to resemble the “mountain of God” in which our first parents saw Him. This is why
Solomon followed the same pattern and constructed the temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem (2
Chronicles 3:1).

All peoples of the world recognized that the Garden of God had first been located on a mountain. This
is why they almost always erected their pagan altars or temples on “high places” in order to mimic
this primeval situation. While this point in itself was proper, they combined such heathen practices with
their worship that the prophets felt compelled to vilify those “high places” (Numbers 22:41; Jeremiah
48:35). The pagans held the belief that their temples on “high places” made them in closer contact
with their gods in the heavens. This was a very early belief and is reflected in the building of the Tower
of Babel not long after the Flood. They built it high so that its “top may reach unto heaven”
(Genesis 11:4). They wanted God to come in contact with them at this Mesopotamian shrine.

Professor Mercea Eliade, the famous historian of ancient religious beliefs, said: “According to
Mesopotamian beliefs, a central mountain joins heaven and earth.” 14 This “mountain” was the
means of reaching heaven. So it was either a temple on a mountain or a high tower into the heavens
that the ancients used as a means of worshipping their gods or even the true God. When Jacob was at
a site called Luz he saw a ladder that seemed to reach into heaven. “Behold a ladder set up on the
earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold angels of God ascending and
descending on it” (Genesis 28:12). So impressed was Jacob over this event that he named the place
“Bethel” — the House of God. This term was synonymous with the later word “temple.” And
interestingly, the region where Jacob had this experience was called “Mount Bethel” (1 Samuel
13:2).

All of this reflects the fact that the original Garden of Eden (where God first came in contact with man)
was on a mountain — a “high place.” The Garden, as we have shown in the body of the Exposition,
was looked on as an archetype of the heavenly abode of God. The later tabernacle and temples showed
the same thing. Even the Gentiles wanted their temples (or holy areas) to resemble — in their way of
thinking — the living places for the gods. Plato’s ideal city was reckoned as having a celestial
counterpart (Plato’s Republic, 592b; cf. 500e). The pagans reckoned that God would come and visit
them if they constructed a home or a city on earth like the one He lived in among the stars. And true,
God told Moses (and later David) to build Him a home on earth like His home in heaven. So, the
tabernacle and the temple were constructed. These were only types, but they served to give mankind
an example of what the palace of God was really like. Knowing God’s home helps us know Him.

Ernest L. Martin, 1977

Edited by David Sielaff, March 2004

Appendix 2: Salvation, the Garden, and the Temple

Eden fits the accepted descriptions of what a “temple” is. John Lundquist in his article “What Is a
Temple? A Preliminary Typology,” lists 15 descriptive motifs for Near East temples. 15 It is interesting
that although most temples do not fit more than a majority of these motifs, Eden fits them all to some
degree. Lundquist notes that Near East Temples:

1. Are architectural examples of “cosmic mountains.” The temple is the mountain itself

2. Are on mountains that arose from waters covering the primordial earth during creation

3. Have waters of life coming from them (figurative if not actual)

4. Are built on set-apart or sacred space

5. Are oriented to all four cardinal directions

13
 6. Have an architectural orientation toward heaven

7. Have architectural plans revealed to man by divinity

8. Are central institutions (a) for social unity & prosperity, (b) their loss is a disaster for the
community

9. Are where kings, priests, worshippers and images of the gods hare made holy for contact with
deity, eternal life and sacred marriage

10. Are the connecting point “between this world and the next”

11. Are for ritual meals

12. Are for communication with deity

13. Are where deity gives law to man

14. Are for sacrifice

15. Are a place of secrecy.

In fact, it is likely more correct to say that Eden was the archetype or the pattern for all subsequent
temples in the Near East, including the Tabernacle and the Temples in Jerusalem. Yes, as Dr. Martin
correctly points out at the beginning, the author of Hebrews does say that the Tabernacle was a
shadow of heavenly things, but for the period before the flood, Eden was where God Himself walked.
And, as far as we know, Eden continued to exist until the flood at the time of Noah. As Dr. Martin notes
above, Eden continued until the Flood. Eden was a place of direct contact with God where earth was
connected with heaven, albeit Eden was off limits after Adam’s sin, just as much as heaven is to us
today.

If we put all the factors side by side, the parallels between Eden and the Temple can be summarized as
follows (items in italics are unique to one side) 16:

17

14
God did not live in the Garden, but it was where His presence was. God did not live in the Tabernacle,
but it was where He met with Israel. The Tabernacle was a tent of meeting (Exodus 25:22, 29:42,
30:36). neither did YHWH live in the Temple (2 Chronicles 6:21, 33). The Garden, the Tabernacle and
the Temple were where God was present at various times.

The relationships between the following schemes of progression can be understood by another
diagram:

The top scheme has to do with God’s relationship with various people. It relates to the ritual system.
The Gentiles could only approach God through Israel (a kingdom of priests). This will be the case even
in the Millennium when the Gentiles will come to God through Israel (Isaiah 2:2–4 and Micah 4:1–3).
As a result the Gentiles will not only recognize YHWH as their God, but they will begin to serve Him as
well. Until Christ, Israel could only approach God through the Levites and the Priests. The Priests could
only approach God at certain times and in certain places that God chose. That has ended and all
requirements have been fulfilled in Christ, and God the Father can be approached, symbolically face-
to-face.

For you and me the entire scheme is simplified. We can approach God directly with only one mediator,
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1
Timothy 2:5, see also Galatians 3:19–24 and Hebrews chapters 8 and 9). Barriers to God no longer
exist for you and for me.

Temple symbolism is fulfilled in you, not in a place, or in a scheme of boundaries, or in days of the
year, or in tasks to be performed, but simply in the person of the resurrected Christ Jesus. He alone
brings us directly into the presence of God the Father through the Spirit of God, “the Power of the
Highest” (Luke 1:35) which comes from the Father and Christ through to you so that are now a child
of God:

“You have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit itself
bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be
also glorified together.

 Romans 8:15-17
15
You have every right to act and relate to other people as the child of God that you truly are, acting
with love and consideration for others. It is your inheritance — realize it, embrace it, live it.

DWS

1 See the article “The Patterns of the Temple” ( http://www.askelm.com/temple/t031102.htm) which

shows the same word “pattern” (or model or diagram) first used in Exodus for the Tabernacle is
used later in relation to the Temple. DWS

2 Consider that the Tabernacle/Temple symbolism lasted in some manner from the time of Moses
about 1450 B.C.E to 70 C.E., with an interruption with the destruction of the Temple, the exile of
the Jews to Babylon and the rebuilding of the Temple in about 520 B.C.E. This is remarkably long
period of some 1,450 years (1,520 years if you count the 70 years land’s rest and the people’s
exile). Now the ekklesia of God is the Temple of God and the household of God (Ephesians 2:19–
22; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:2–6, 1 Peter 2:5). DWS

3 In Hebrews 12:24 the blood that Jesus sprinkled in heaven is compared to the blood of Abel from
Genesis 4:8.

4 For more information about the ark and the Cherubim that enfolded it, see the article, “The
Cherubim Had Wheels” at www.askelm.com. DWS

5 Note that not all the laws of the Ten Commandments recorded on the stones are applicable to spirit
beings. Since God or spirit beings cannot commit adultery nor break the Sabbath, these laws on
tables of stone are redundant for them. The Sabbath was made only for man (Mark 2:27) — and
God always works on the Sabbath (John 5:17). Besides, the Ten Commandment legislation, though
beautiful for the time it was intended, was recognized by Paul as “the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones ... the ministry of condemnation” (2 Corinthians 3:7, 9).
“The letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). Such legislation as a system of
government “was to be done away” (2 Corinthians 3:7). “Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). ELM

6 Note God’s action, “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put
the man whom he had formed. ... And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Genesis 2:8, 15. Adam was in Eden. YHWH “took”
and “put” Adam into the garden of Eden from outside. As Walter Vogels notes, the verb, “‘took’ is
used in many biblical texts to express the idea of a bringing out for the purpose of an
entry (Dt. 30:4; Ezek. 36:24, 27:21; Is. 14:2). The verb contains at the same time the
idea of election.” See God’s Universal Covenant: A Biblical Study (University of Ottowa Press,
1986), p. 19. He notes that this idea of election no longer comes through in any of our translations.
Vogels asks why,

“Did this marvelous paradise and garden of God, with all the trees good for food (2:9), need
to be cultivated? And what could be the meaning of ‘keep this garden’? Against Whom? The
understanding can well become much easier when seen in the context of the covenant.”

 Vogels, p. 20

To Vogels “covenant” means the entire ritual system including the Tabernacle and Temple. DWS

7 Isaac Hellmuth notes that the Rabbis considered the “face” or “presence of YHWH to be indicative of
the Shekinah glory. See Biblical Thesaurus, Genesis (London, 1884), p. 49 on Genesis 3:8. DWS

8 Adam was to protect the Garden. When Adam was expelled, the Cherubim were assigned to guard
the Garden, apparently transferred from where God was (in the midst of the Garden) to outside the
garden. Umberto Cassuto in A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Jerusalem, 1961), p. 122,
notes that the Hebrew word shamar used to describe the function of the Cherubim, “to keep the
16
 way of the tree of life,” is the same word as in Genesis 2:15 when Adam is commanded while in
the Garden of Eden, “to dress it (Hebrew, abad) and to keep it (Hebrew, shamar)”. Shamar
means not only to keep, but also to guard and to protect. So too Noah was to “keep” the animals
(Genesis 6:19–20, 7:3) and Abraham and Israel were admonished to “keep” God’s covenant. The
priests and Levites were also to serve (abad), protect (shamar) and guard (another Hebrew word,
mishmereth) the sanctuary from unauthorized people, with the sword if necessary. See Numbers
1:51–53, 8:26, 18:2–7, 31:30, 47; Joshua 22:27 and Ezekiel 44:8, 15. See Edmund P. Clowney,
“The Final Temple” in Westminster Theological Journal, vol. 35 (Winter 1973), p. 160, available
complete online at http://www.beginningwithmoses.org/articles/finaltemple.htm DWS

9 This was recognized by Edmund Clowney in “The Final Temple” in The Westminster Theological
Journal v.35 (Winter 1993), p. 160. DWS

“The gate of the garden was barred by ... the Cherubim [who held swords]. ... In the
tabernacle and the temple the sword [held by priests and Levites] continues to keep the gate.
But the altar of sacrifice offers a victim ... so that the worshipper may come before God.”

10 Solomon constructed the Temple according to the pattern King David received from God Himself (1
Chronicles 28:11–13). Psalm 92 (which talks about a future Sabbath rest for the righteous) evokes
Eden-like symbolism. DWS

“The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree [a date-palm], He will grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, They will flourish in the courts of our God.”

 Psalm 92:12–13

11 Again, the cherubim are symbolically guarding the trees in the midst of the Garden, even in the
Solomonic Temple. DWS

12 Joshua Berman notes in The Temple: Its Symbolism and Meaning Then and Now (Northvale, NJ:
Jason Aronson, Inc., 1995), p. 30 that Cherubim, in addition to guarding the way to the Tree of Life
in the Garden. They also covered or guarded the tablets of the Law in the ark of the testament in
the Holy of Holies in both the Tabernacle and Temple. Remember that touching the ark caused
death (2 Samuel 6:7) just as the Cherubim threatened to do with their swords at Eden. They
symbolized the inaccessibility of man to God.

13 Ezekiel 28 is filled with imagery from both Eden and the Temple. For example, Berman in The
Temple, p. 26, notes that the 9 precious stones listed in Ezekiel 28:13 are 9 of the 12 stones
present in the High Priests breastplate depicted in Exodus 28:17–20. In fact there are several
points where the Eden of Genesis identifies with the Eden of Ezekiel 28: both have a garden, both
have miraculous trees within the garden, both have at least 1 cherub associated with them, both
are in mountains, both have creatures that transgress, both contain phrases that closely resemble
each other (“in the day ... created,” “walking” in the Garden), both have the guard being the
transgressor, both transgressors are expelled and both are made to be examples for others.

14 Mercea Eliade, Cosmos and History, trans by Wullard Trask (New York: Harper & Row, 1959) p. 13.

15 In The Quest for the Kingdom of God: Studies in Honor of George F. Mendenhall, ed. By H.B.
Huffman, et al. (Winona Lake, IN, 1983), pp. 207–219.

16 By the way, these diagrams, schemes and models are for illustration only.

17 There are differences, of course, between Eden and the Tabernacle/Temple. The Garden has no
elements like the pot of manna, the ark, the table of shewbread, altar of incense or lampstand. The
proportions and sizes of the Garden are not given to us.

17
 Running Water
at the Temple of Zion
By George Wesley Buchanan
Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C.

Reprinted with permission from

The Expository Times
http://www.continuumjournals.com/journals/index.asp?jref=24
Vol. 115 No. 9 (June 2004): 289-292

Read the accompanying Newsletter for January 2005

In a recent issue of Expository Times (“The Tower of Siloam,” Expository Times 115.1 (2003): 37–45), I
reported the exciting experience I enjoyed when I went to Jerusalem to see the ruins of the Tower
of Siloam. When I thought of Ezekiel’s account of the way the water would flow out from under
the threshold of the temple and on down to the Dead Sea where it sweetened the water of the Dead
Sea (Ezekiel 47:1), I immediately realized that the Jerusalem temple had to be located on the ridge
above the spring of Siloam and not on the dry mound where the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa
Mosque are now located. Ezekiel was a good geographer. He had lived in Jerusalem, and he knew
the topography and geography of the land. Ezekiel was one of the First Testament authors to
identify the boundaries of the Promised Land. He was not just imagining the way things had once
been. 1 Since that article was published, I have found even more evidence to support that claim,
which I will present here to supplement the earlier article. 2

Two centuries before the time of Herod, Aristeas saw the spring water flowing through the temple, flushing
out the blood from sacrifices. When Yadin was editing the Qumran Temple Scroll, he quoted the text
that gives directions for establishing a place where priests could change their garments, bathe and change
into priestly garments before participating in the temple services. This place for bathing required flowing
water with a canal to direct the bath water away into a drain that escaped into the ground (1QT 32.11–
15). The mixture of blood and water was forbidden to be touched before it vanished into the drain,
because it would have been defiled with blood (1 QT 31.14–15). Rabbis said it would flow into the
brook Kidron (mMid 3.2). The canal which drained the bath water away may also have been the same
canal that washed away the blood from the sacrifices.

Yigael Yadin noticed that there was a great deal of agreement among the sources regarding the necessity of
flowing water for sacrifices, but he seemed not to wonder what the source of all this water was if the
temple was up north on the platform of the Al Aqsa Mosque, where there is no water flowing. 3 Like
Shanks, Yadin defined one situation without noticing how that insight effected other details. Warren
knew that the temple required lots of water for sacrifices. He assumed that the area that contains the
Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque was also the temple area. He did not know where all that water
came from, but he thought there must be a spring somewhere north of the northern wall of the Al Aqsa
area, although he was not able to find one. 4

It is clear from the literary testimony that there had to be water flowing through the temple area. It is also
obvious that there was no such water available in the area of the Dome of the Rock, but there was also
no spring up on the top of the ridge in the City of David, either. There was the huge Spring of Siloam
down in the Kidron Valley, but the temple was many metres away, up on top of the ridge where the City
of David was located, far above the Spring of Siloam. How did the water get up to the temple area?
There is an answer to that question.

There is a shaft that still exists that goes almost straight up from the level of the spring to a platform area
where it joins a tunnel that goes several metres horizontally to the west before it comes out of the
ground. At the end of the war between the Jews and the Romans (AD 70), Simon, one of the messianic
18
 rebels that led that war, surrendered to the Romans by appearing out of the ground at the place where the
temple had stood before it was destroyed. He appeared dressed in royal garments of white and purple to
show that he claimed royalty, and he demanded to see the top general. As a pretending king, he claimed
royal respect. He had obviously been hiding in that tunnel under the temple, which had also been a
fortress — the last defence of Jerusalem (War 7.28–30).

This shows the direct route from the spring to the temple area. The temple was also a fortress, and fortresses
always have to be built where water can be made accessible for a large number of troops. Fortresses,
such as Megiddo, Gezer and Hazor all have good water systems. It was no accident that the temple-
fortress at Zion was built in relationship to the Spring of Siloam. The last of the war between Rome and
Israel had been fought at the temple, 5 and Simon had evidently been in that fortress as the temple had
begun burning. He took the normal route for refuge through the nearby tunnel. The temple had been built
over that channel where, if it was dry, might provide an escape route for the fortress. It was more
important, however, that it provide the necessary water both for the fortress and for the temple sacrifices.
Faust argued that this huge shaft, sometimes called Warren’s shaft, was used to dip water in buckets for
the city. 6 After they had been pulled up to the tunnel level, they would still have to be carried through
the tunnel to become accessible to the city. The city needed more water than could be provided in small
buckets, dipped and pulled up long distances with ropes. Think of the number of ropes this would wear
out as they rubbed along those rocky walls!

Faust recognized some problems with his conjecture. He knew that pulling water up by the bucketfuls was
not easy, and he suggested that it would have been used only in emergencies. He also noted that in order
for water to be reached by buckets on ropes, the water would have to have been dammed up at the
bottom of the shaft, so that water could have been forced several metres up the shaft to bring the water
level closer to the reach of the platform on which the people stood when they drew the water. 7 He
neglected only to consider the possibility that the dam could have worked to allow the water to be forced
all the way up the shaft, through the tunnel, and out on to the top of the ridge in the temple area.

It is more likely that the shaft was constructed originally to bring water up to the city by force. This shaft
was known as the water channel (tsee-nohr, ‫( )צנור‬Second Samuel 5:8) at the time that David took the
city. A water channel is normally designed and used to allow water to flow from one place to another.
There was no water up on the ridge to flow down to the spring, so the water must have flowed upward
from the spring to the top of the ridge, where it poured out the way Aristeas and the temple scroll
testified. It evidently had to be possible, because Josephus said that was the precise spot where the
temple had been before it was destroyed, and Aristeas claimed to have seen the water flowing up on the
temple level.

The next question is, “Where did the water get all of the power required to force the water up the channel?”
There seems to be only one answer. The huge Spring of Siloam (Gihon) was blocked somewhere near
the spring and diverted the water up the chimney-like channel where it could join the horizontal tunnel,
taking the water to the temple area where Simon appeared. If this was actually functioning in David’s
time, as the evidence seems to show, it would mean that the Jebusites had a superb running water system
operating in that little town, perched on a ridge, three thousand years ago!

If this was really so, then the Jebusites were justly confident that their little city was secure. It was well
defended and supplied with all the water it needed. That is why the Jebusites thought David could never
conquer this town. They had steep walls on two sides of their triangular ridge. According to Strabo, there
was a wall and moat that was 60 feet deep on the north side of the city at the time of the Hasmoneans. It
may not have been 60 feet deep at the time of David, but some such defence was required to provide the
Jebusites with the military confidence they expressed. 8 The water channel was not an entrance into the
city. It was filled with rapidly running water. How could anyone lead troops into this city?

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The text says that David conquered the town by approaching through the water channel (wuh yee-gáh buh
tsee-nóhr, ‫)ויגע בצנור‬. If the water was running at full speed, that would have seemed impossible. The
walls would have been slippery, and the force of the water would have prevented any human movement
through that large canal. David’s team probably had to break into the channel and turn away the water
first. If they diverted the water, they could have climbed up the shaft — still with difficulty — but they
also would have cut off the water supply for the city at the same time, forcing the Jebusites to surrender.

The spring is large and strong. It also swells every day, just the way `Old Faithful’ emerges in the state of
Wyoming. That makes the water level in Hezekiah’s tunnel rise regularly. If Hezekiah’s tunnel were
non-existent or dammed up, that water would be forced to rise up and fill that shaft and run through the
tunnel to appear in the temple area. This is evidently the way it happened, and Josephus’ testimony tells
exactly where the temple was. This channel was a huge tube through which water could be channelled
from the spring to the temple, just as Aristeas and the temple scroll testify. If there had been a rope
ladder at the east end of the tunnel, and the water had been turned off, Simon could probably have
escaped through the spring. The fact that he confronted the Romans from the west end of the tunnel
means that he had no other exit. 9

The topography and geography of Ezekiel’s vision fit perfectly, once it is recognized that the temple was
closely associated with the Spring of Siloam that provided all of that water. He was learned in this
geography. He would not have pictured a temple high on the dry hill north of the spring where there
would have been no water to flow down to the Dead Sea. Enoch also claimed to have seen the holy
mountain with a stream that flowed underneath that mountain toward the south (1 Enoch 26:2–3). There
is no such stream flowing underneath the platform of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
All Warren could find was a sewage drain down the Tyropoeon Valley, but no water running into the
Dome of the Rock area.

Hezekiah’s tunnel does not flow north, but it had been constructed before Ezekiel’s time. The holy mountain
was obviously Mount Ophel, located just above the Spring of Siloam. This is the location which
Josephus pinpointed — 600 feet south of the Roman city of Antonia and right at the western end of the
water tunnel (War 6.144). It is also the location of which Ezekiel spoke, where the stream that flowed
underneath the mountain also flowed underneath the temple near Siloam. That was a reference to
Hezekiah’s tunnel. 10

Before Hezekiah’s tunnel, there would have been more water pouring through that canal than either the town
or the temple required. Where did the water go? There are several possibilities.

1. It might have filled the defence moat at the north edge of the town that Strabo described (Strabo,
Geography 7.16, 2, 40), and after it was full, the run-off might have run either

2. down the Tyropoeon Valley, where Warren found a huge sewage drain, or

3. it might have run into the Kidron Valley, as the rabbis held.

Either way would have made an abundance of water available for those outside of the city, including foreign
armies. Hezekiah’s tunnel was probably designed partly so that the amount of water that ran outside of
the city could be controlled. The Chronicler said Hezekiah built that tunnel as part of his defence system
against the Assyrians. He stopped up the water of the spring that was outside of the city (2 Chronicles
32:3). He must have built the tunnel to prevent the run-off from existing. This would have involved a
system whereby part of the spring could still fill the water channel and provide all the needed water in
the city, but the rest would have been channelled through the tunnel to the Pool of Siloam. Kathleen
Kenyon thought the Pool of Siloam would have had a roof over it so that no one outside of the city
would have known that it existed. 11

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This meant that Hezekiah planned to have the spring controlled, without huge amounts of water pouring
down the banks of the Kidron Valley to provide water for an attacking enemy. This would not have kept
him from having a special pond near the spring to provide water for the Assyrians when they gathered —
a special pond that could be poisoned from inside the city. The scripture does not say that the Jews
poisoned the water the Assyrians drank, but it reports that Isaiah knew the day before that it was going to
happen, and the military intelligence of the nation risked the lives of all the people in the city on the
basis of their plan. True to their plan, there were 185,000 Assyrians dead in the Valley the next day.

Conclusions

None of us was there to see all of this happening, and there may be some flaws in this conjectured
reconstruction of events, but there are several points that all come together to indicate the location of the
temple behind the spring, in addition to all of the biblical testimony reported in the first article. Some of
them are these:

1. The testimony of Ezekiel, indicating the water flowing out from the temple to the Dead Sea.

2. The testimony of Aristeas and the temple scroll of the huge amount of water that flowed through the
temple area to wash away the bath water and the blood from the sacrifices.

3. The testimony of Tacitus (Hist 11.12) and Enoch (1 Enoch 26:2–3) of the relationship of the flowing
water to the temple.

4. The anointing of Solomon at the spring of Gihon, because that was where the anointing oil was kept
in the Tent of Meeting near the altar.

5. Josephus told of a hand-to-hand battle that took place between Antonia and the temple and said the
space was narrow for that purpose. It was only 600 feet wide (a stab-dái-ahn, σταδαιαν) (War
6.144). When he told that Simon appeared out of the ground at the very place where the temple had
been (War 7.28–30), he provided still more specific information about the location of the temple.

6. When attention is called to the water channel into which Simon was hiding, it suggests the way all of
the water was brought up to the temple from the spring.

These facts and conjectures provide possible answers to questions that have puzzled historians and
archaeologists for many years.

1 Buchanan, "From River to River," The Consequences of the Covenant (Leiden: Brill, 1970), 911-1103;
"Withering Fig Trees and Progression in Midrash," The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, eds. C.A.
Evans and W.R. Stegner (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, c. 11994), 252-69.

2 Hershel Shanks first aroused my interest in the City of David in his article, "Everything You Ever Know
about Jerusalem is Wrong," Biblical Archeology Review 25.6 (1199), 20-25.

3 Y. Yadin (ed.), The Temple Scroll (Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society, 11983), I, 222.

4 C. Warren, Underground Jerusalem (London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1876), 352.

5 Remnants of the war continued, however, for two more years until Machaerus and Masada were taken.

6 A. Faust. "Yes, It Really Was Used to Draw Water," Biblical Archaeology Review 2-9.5 (2003), 70-76.
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7 Faust, "Used to Draw Water," 73-74.

8 M. Steiner, Excavations by Kathleen Kenyon in Jerusalem 1961-1967, Vol. III (London: Sheffield
Academic Press, 2001), 21, may have found that wall and moat.

9 For a different opinion see, H. Shanks, "I Climbed Warren's Shaft (But Joab Never Did)," Biblical
Archaeology Review, 24.6 (1999), 31-35.

10 See E. Martin, The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot (Portland: ASK Publications, c. 2000), 277-80.

11 Kenyon, Jerusalem, 70-77.

The River of Ezekiel's Temple

Eschatological Streams of Healing in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament

Introduction

The last nine chapters of the book of Ezekiel describe a

mysterious, eschatological temple that has probably
puzzled commentators as long as the book has existed.
Particularly intriguing and fascinating is the account in
chapter 47 of the miraculous stream of water that flows
from the Temple eastwards, down towards the Jordan
valley and into the Dead Sea. This paper will examine
the eschatological significance of Ezekiel's stream in
both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.

After describing Ezekiel's vision, we will first consider

the role of Ezekiel's Temple within the literary structure
of the whole book of Ezekiel, and then the role of the river within the context of the Temple. Next, we will
examine the main traditions in the Hebrew Bible that underlie Ezekiel's Temple stream: Jerusalem and Zion
as the Lord's cosmic mountain, the symbolism of water as a prophetic sign of eschatological healing, and the
Garden of Eden. We will see how these traditions converge into forming a single thematic unity effectively
used by Ezekiel, where Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord, and Eden are considered to be identical.

From there, it will be useful to examine the celebration of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, and in particular
how the water libation ceremony in the Temple recalled and actualized these salvific themes, while at the
same time anticipating God's future outpouring of the Holy Spirit as foretold by the prophets. This will be
an appropriate bridge to move into the New Testament. We will consider the words Jesus uttered during the
feast of Sukkot, and how in the process he identified himself with Ezekiel's temple and declared himself to
be the giver of the waters of life - the Holy Spirit. Finally, we will consider the eschatology of the book of
Revelation and examine how the vision of "a pure river of water of life" proceeding from the throne of God

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recapitulates and expands Ezekiel's vision by incorporating into it themes developed by other prophets and
especially Jesus' revelation about himself.

The River Flowing from Ezekiel's Temple (Ezek 47:1-12)

After having completed his comprehensive tour of the temple (chapters 40-46), Ezekiel is led by his guide to
the door of the temple. From there the prophet sees a trickle of water emerging from under the temple's
threshold, flowing eastward, passing south of the altar, and trickling out from under the wall of the east gate
(47:1-2). The guide begins to move away from the temple, pausing at four 1,000 cubit intervals where he
has Ezekiel pass through the waters. The flow of the water miraculously increases at each step, first
reaching to the prophet's ankles, then to his knees and waist, until it becomes too deep for him to stand in
(47:3-5). The guide leads Ezekiel back to the bank of the river, where he sees many trees on both sides of
the stream (47:6-7). The guide then describes the continued flow of the river: The waters will flow
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eastward, down into the Aravah valley (the south end of the Jordan valley) and into the Dead Sea, whose
"waters shall be healed" and miraculously revived. Wherever the river goes there will be a multitude of fish
"and everything will live" (47:8-10). Fishermen will spread their nets from Ein Gedi to Ein Eglaim, and
"their fish will be of the same kind as the Great Sea, exceedingly many." However, the swamps and
marshes around the sea will not be healed but "will be given over to salt" (v. 11). The vision concludes with
a return to a more detailed description of the abundant growth of fruitful trees along the river: "Along the
bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither,
and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary.
Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine" (v. 12).

Ezekiel's Temple within the Literary Unity of the Book of Ezekiel

In order to better grasp the significance of the miraculous healing stream flowing from Ezekiel's temple, we
must first situate it within the context of the book's overall literary structure. The book of Ezekiel opens
with the prophet's awesome vision of the Merkavah, God's holy and terrifying presence seated on his throne
in the midst of a whirlwind and cloud of raging fire, accompanied by four fearsome living creatures and
moving wheels. Out of this vision Ezekiel receives his calling to become a "watchman for the house of
Israel" (chapters 2-3), a calling which he carries out in the following twenty chapters as he warns his people,
using dramatic imagery, of the impending destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians (chapters
4-24). Worse yet, the coming downfall of the city is anticipated by the people's spiritual death described
within these chapters as the result of Israel's cultic and moral abominations: The glory of the Lord, the
shekhinah, leaves the temple and the city of Jerusalem in three stages - first moving from between the
cherubim in the Holy of Holies to the threshold of the temple (9:3), then to its eastern gate, (10:19), and
finally above the mount of olives on the east side of the city (11:23). The destruction of the city will now
come to pass as the inevitable consequence of the Lord having abandoned his people because of their
transgressions.

At this point, Ezekiel's role passes from that of a prophet of doom to that of a prophet of hope.

Following several chapters of prophecies to the nations, he begins to paint an eschatological picture of the
restoration of Israel, describing the future rebirth of the mountains of Israel, the resettling of its cities, and
even a new heart and new spirit to his people. The flourishing nation will be so transformed that it will be
said: "This land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined
cities are now fortified and inhabited" (36:35). The miraculous resurrection of Israel is also dramatically
portrayed in the well-known vision of the valley of dry bones (37:1-14), followed by the promise that Israel
and Judah will be united under the Son of David who will be their king and shepherd forever (37:15-28).
The section concludes with the promise that God will establish his sanctuary and dwelling place in their
midst forever:

I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish
them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be
with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the
LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.(37:26-28)

This idyllic and peaceful vision of hope, though brutally interrupted by the frightening war of Gog and
Magog in the next two chapters, returns and is actualized in Ezekiel's mysterious Temple described in
chapters 40-48. Amidst somewhat technical and tedious descriptions of the Temple's dimensions, of the
regulation of the cult, ministry of priests and Levites, and of the division of the land, occurs the central event
of this astounding vision, already promised in chapter 37: The glory of the Lord returns to the temple (43:1-
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12), coming from the east, in the same form as it initially appeared to the prophet by the river Chebar. "And
behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house" (43:5). Of the temple God declares "this is the place of My
throne... where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever" (43:7).

This brief sketch allows us to see the essential literary unity of the book of Ezekiel: the initial vision of the
Lord's glory is tragically followed by His departure and the destruction of the temple and city because of the
sins of the people. There follows the promise of the restoration of the city, of the land and of its inhabitants,
interrupted by an eschatological battle, but accomplished through the establishment of the eschatological
temple out of which God's abundance and healing will flow to the land. The symmetry of the structure of
the book of Ezekiel could thus be illustrated in chiliastic form:

Vision of the Glory of God (1)

Sins of the people, warnings of judgment (4-24)

The Glory of God departs (9-11)

Oracles to the nations (25-32, 35)

Destruction of the temple and city, desolation of land (33)

God will shepherd His people (34:11-31)

Rebuilding of the land, resettling of the cities (36-37)

Destruction of the enemy nations (38-39)

The Glory of God returns (43)

Assurance that Israel will no longer defile God's name (43:7-10)

God dwells among his people (44-48); healing flows from the Temple (47:1-12)

Within this framework, Ezekiel's vision of the river flowing from the temple is the culmination of God's
miraculous salvation to his people. Whereas they brought destruction onto themselves, he restores them in
successive steps, bringing judgment onto enemy nations, but becoming the fountain and source of
restoration and healing to Israel. It is thus fitting that the book would close with the naming of the city to
"The Lord is there."

Commentators have discerned two principal mythical traditions in the Hebrew bible that underlie Ezekiel's
vision of the healing stream flowing from the temple: The first is Zion / Jerusalem as the Lord's cosmic
mountain, and second is the Garden of Eden.

Zion / Jerusalem as the cosmic mountain

In the beginning of Ezekiel's vision of the temple, we read that the temple from which the river flows is set
upon a mountain, with "something like a city" towards its southern side (40:2). Though this mountain and
city are not explicitly named, they are without a doubt Mount Zion and Jerusalem - elevated to the status of
a mythical divine mountain (see Ezek 20:40). As Darr notes, Zion is often pictured in the psalms as "the
inviolable mountain upon which Yahweh dwelt, and where the supranatural effects of the divine presence
were manifested."[1] Mount Zion is God's holy hill on which is situated his holy city, the city of the great
King, to which all people will flow and out of which will go forth the Torah and word of the Lord:

25
"I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion." (Ps 2:6)

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion... the city of the great King. (Ps 48:1-2)

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people
shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of
Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isa 2:2-3)

Psalm 46 explicitly adds the tradition of a sacred river of God's blessing flowing from God's holy dwelling,
reflecting ancient mythological language about the mountain of the gods:

There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holiest dwelling-place of the Most High.
(Ps 46:4)

The idea of a spring flowing from the Temple mount would also have been inspired by the nearby presence
of the Gihon spring which served as the primary water source for Jerusalem during the First Temple period,
eventually channeled through Hezekiah's tunnel (2 Chr 32:30). As Zimmerli has pointed out, Isaiah
considers "the waters of Shiloah that go softly," fed by the small flow of the Gihon spring, to be a symbolic
representation of God's assurance, in contrast to "the waters of the River [Euphrates], mighty and many, the
king of Assyria and all his glory; and he will go up over all his channels, and go over all his banks." (Isa 8:6-
8).[2] Thus the small stream of the Gihon is to be Israel's lifeline, and not the abundant waters of the
Euphrates and the deceptive strength of the king of Assyria, which will turn into a dangerous and destructive
power. The vital role of the modest Gihon spring, in supplying life-giving water to the city of Jerusalem, is
dramatically given an even greater role by Ezekiel as source of water of life, even capable of healing the
contaminated waters of the Dead Sea as a sign of God's healing. The Dead Sea indeed evokes death,
recalling the cataclysmic destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 and bearing the curse and judgment of God.
This grim symbolism of dead barrenness makes the wondrous reviving of the Sea and purification of its
waters an even more startling contrast, strongly reminiscent of the reviving of the dry bones in chapter 37.

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters (Isa 55:1)

Ezekiel's River as Eschatological Sign of Healing to Israel

The Hebrew bible makes abundant use of the imagery of water as a sign of God's healing and salvation.
Perhaps the archetype of this theme is the famous episode during Israel's wanderings in the wilderness when
the people suffered from thirst. In answer to their complaints, God commanded Moses to strike a rock, from
which water flowed abundantly to quench the people's thirst (Num 20:1-13). God's providence in supplying
water to refresh dry and thirsty palates is frequently expanded upon by the prophets to signify the spiritual
refreshing of dry and thirsty souls. Isaiah,[3] more than any biblical writer, uses the imagery of water
profusely to depict God's wondrous salvation: "with joy" those who trust in Him "will draw water from the
wells of salvation" (Isa 12:3). Those who seek salvation will look upon Zion and see Jerusalem as "a quiet
home, a tabernacle that will not be taken down. There the majestic LORD will be for us a place of broad
rivers and streams... And the inhabitant will not say, 'I am sick'; the people who dwell in it will be forgiven
their iniquity" (Isa 33:20-21, 24). Thus Zion and Jerusalem, as the dwelling place of God, will become a
source of physical healing and of forgiveness through the waters that flow from it.

26
Like the lush banks of Ezekiel's river flowing through the Judean desert down to the Dead Sea, Isaiah also
depicts a miraculous blossoming of the parched desert with all kinds of trees, accompanied by the healing of
the blind, deaf and lame. The irrigation and vivifying of the natural environment is depicted as the
quenching of the thirsty souls of the poor and needy, the satiating of their hunger and protection from the
elements of nature:

The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the
rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing... Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue
of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. (Isa 35:1-2, 6-7)

The poor and needy seek water, but there is none, their tongues fail for thirst. I, the LORD, will hear them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst
of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in
the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress
tree and the pine and the box tree together. (Isa 41:17-19)

They shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them will lead them, even by the springs of water He will guide them. (Is 49:10)

The wondrous outpouring of water which revives nature and restores the weary soul is also associated with
the outpouring of God's Spirit on those who come to the waters, who will themselves become a watered
garden and permanent spring of refreshing water:

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.

(Isa 44:3-4)

The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones. You
shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. (Isa 58:11)

Jeremiah, by contrast, depicts the shame of those who depart from the Lord as having "forsaken the LORD,
the fountain of living waters" (Jer 2:13, 17:13).

The Rivers of the Garden of Eden

The stream of God's abundant salvation flowing from His holy mountain and holy city causing the
blossoming of the land, the healing of the sick, and the restoration of the weary soul naturally leads to the
second main theme associated with Ezekiel's river: the Garden of Eden. Both Isaiah and the psalmist
associate the eschatological hope of the blooming wilderness with the primeval paradise and garden of the
Lord:

For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD;
Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. (Isa 51:3)

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the
shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them

27
drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. (Ps
36:7-10)

As many commentators have noted, Ezekiel's life-giving river surrounded by lush and fruitful trees certainly
draws from the tradition of the Garden of Eden, described in Genesis 2 as a place of great abundance of
water:

Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is
Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is
the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen 2:10-14)

Several parallels can be made between this passage and the themes we have examined above. First, since
the four rivers of Eden flow down from a common source in four different directions, this source must be
situated on top of a mountain, as is Ezekiel's temple. Second, it is interesting to note that one of the rivers of
Eden is called Gihon, just as the spring in Jerusalem. Third, Ezekiel himself, as we have seen, compares the
restoration of the land of Israel to Eden (36:35), and in his lamentation for the king of Tyre he identifies
Eden, the garden of God, with the holy mountain of God:

You were in Eden, the garden of God... You were the anointed cherub who covers;
I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God. (Ezek 28:13-14)

Another book which uses the Edenic imagery of abundant waters is the Song of Songs, with its erotic
depiction of human love traditionally seen as an allegory of God's love for Israel. Here the lover describes
his beloved as "a garden enclosed... a spring shut up, a fountain sealed" out of which spring up an abundance
of plants, fruits, spices, and "a well of living waters."

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an orchard
of pomegranates with pleasant fruits... A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from
Lebanon. (So 4:12-15)

Jerusalem and the Temple as Eden

It has often been noted that the two main themes underlying Ezekiel's river, Zion as the cosmic mountain,
and the Garden of Eden, really were considered one and the same theme by ancient Israel. Ezekiel did not
innovate as he wrote his vision of the paradisiacal stream flowing from the temple on God's holy mountain,
but rather drew from a long established tradition which considered the Temple of Solomon, the temple
mount and all Jerusalem to be "a symbol as well as a reality, a mythopoeic realization of heaven on earth,
Paradise, the Garden of Eden."[4] Lawrence E. Stager, in his article Jerusalem as Eden, describes how at
the time of the Davidic kingdom Jerusalem was considered to be the sacred center where Yahweh dwelt. As
we have seen, the sacred mountain, Mt. Zion, was thought to be the cosmic mountain which linked heaven
and earth, established already at the time of creation, and renewed and maintained through the ritual temple
worship. It was there that Adam and Eve were buried according to Jewish tradition.[5] Stager further
describes how in ancient Biblical and Near Eastern cosmology "the earth is an island floating on the cosmic
waters that rise in the Garden of Eden, where they benefit humankind."[6] Of particular interest to us is how
"in Solomonic Jerusalem, topography, hydrology, architecture, iconography, parks and gardens were all part
of the sacred center patterned after celestial archetypes."[7] The Temple on Mt. Zion was God's dwelling,
just as he dwelt with Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden. The carving of cherubim, palm trees and

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flowers on the doors of the temple made it clear that the Temple was meant to replicate paradise, as well as
the actual cherubim who spread their wings over the ark of the covenant as a reminder of the two cherubim
who guarded the entrance of paradise after the expulsion of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:24).

Ronald S. Hendel describes in a similar vein the routes that the Hebrew Bible proposes as ways to get back
to Eden and to the tree of life in order to overcome death - or at least to suspend it into time. The first and
foremost of these ways is through worship in the Jerusalem Temple, described as "a kind of eternal life in
paradise,"[8] where the Temple is God's house, the location of the "fountain of life" and "river of your
delights" (or more literally, "river of your Edens"), as seen above (Ps 36:8-10). As Hendel puts it,

here life, meaning eternal life, is once again available to the worshiper, who drinks it deeply in the
courtyards of God's House. It may be that this is not a permanent attainment of eternal life-since one has to
leave the Temple sometime-but as long as one is there, perfect life and eternity are present.[9]

The Temple worship was thus a foretaste of eternity and a reminder of Eden's original state of blessedness
where the worshipper could happily drink from God's fountain of life. Yet at the same time it was also an
anticipation of the full eschatological restoration that would occur at the end of times, as portrayed by
Ezekiel's vision. This same message was taken up with remarkable similarity by two other prophets, Joel
and Zechariah, who also depict waters flowing from the eschatological Temple in Zion that will bring forth
the healing of Israel:

So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through her again." And it shall come to pass in
that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the
brooks of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall
water the valley of Shittim. (Joel 4:17-18)

And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,
Half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea;
In both summer and winter it shall occur. And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. (Zech 14:8-9)

Several comments can be made as we compare the three visions of Ezekiel, Joel and Zechariah. All three
depict a stream flowing from Jerusalem or Zion, God's holy mountain, yet only Ezekiel has it come out of
the Temple, which is not mentioned by the two other prophets. All three describe some supernatural
transformation of nature and the establishment of a reign of peace for Israel at the end of time, following the
annihilation of enemy nations through divine intervention (Ezek 38-39, Joel 3:2,12,17, Zech 14:1-15).
Another difference is that the stream flows only eastward according to Ezekiel and Joel (the valley of
Shittim being the Jordan valley), but both east and west according to Zechariah.

One significant question concerning these visions is whether the miraculous stream will bring about a
cosmic, universal healing or whether the prophets are merely interested in a national agenda. Some
commentators have argued that the return of paradise, "apparently at present limited to Palestine, is of its
very nature a universal event embracing the whole world."[10] Concerning Ezekiel's vision, Eichrodt
writes:

For the river of paradise and the marvelous effects brought by it signify the transformation of this world into
the garden of paradise, whence not only the hosts of earthly diseases, but also sin and guilt have been
banished, and God's good pleasure in his creation comes to full effect and works a complete inward and
outward transformation of the whole shape of human life.[11]

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Others, however, have argued that the transformation of Israel's barren land is not a return to universal
Edenic conditions, but rather "a manifestation of blessing poured out on Israel and its land which does not
extend beyond Israel's borders."[12] A close analysis of all three prophecies seems to confirm this latter
position: the healing river flowing out of Zion seems intended for the quasi-exclusive blessing of Israel. For
Joel, Jerusalem will be holy when God dwells in Zion His holy mountain, "and no aliens shall ever pass
through her again" (Joel 3:17). Ezekiel is silent about the gentiles following the war of Gog and Magog, and
he focuses exclusively upon Israel throughout his description of the temple. Only Zechariah, though he also
emphasizes the deliverance of Jerusalem and Judah from their gentile enemies, sees a remnant of the nations
who will share in Israel's blessings - on the condition that they come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of
Tabernacles (Zech 14:16-19).

The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in the Temple

The mention of an eschatological Feast of Tabernacles celebrated by the remnant of the nations at the end of
time is significant because of this feast's intrinsic connection with water. In the days of the Temple, an
integral part of the Sukkot holiday was the daily water libation ceremony, during which water was drawn
from the pool of Shiloah and poured on the altar, along with wine, while the temple choir sang the Hallel
psalms. The main purpose of this ceremony was to invoke God's blessing for rain, for "at the feast of
tabernacles judgment is made concerning the waters."[13] As the Talmud explains: "wherefore does the law
say pour out water on the feast of tabernacles? Says the holy blessed God, pour out water before me, that the
rains of the year may be blessed unto you."[14]

The water libation also served as a reminder of the water that came from the rock smitten by Moses during
the desert wanderings (Ex 17:1-6, Num 20).[15] The ceremony was also considered to mysteriously refer to
the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit as hinted by Isaiah (12:3):

Says R. Joshua ben Levi, why is its name called the place of drawing water? because, from thence, "they
draw the Holy Spirit", as it is said, "and ye shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation''[16]

Finally, the rite was also linked with the anticipation of the gift of water that was expected to flow from
Jerusalem upon the establishment of the kingdom of God, as fulfillment of the prophecies of Ezekiel, Joel,
and Zechariah. With such rich associations with God's past, present and future salvation, it is not surprising
that the water libation was performed with intense joy, accompanied with dancing and singing as the waters
were drawn from the pool, to the point that, as the Mishnah tells us: "He who has not seen the rejoicing at
the Simchat Beit Hashoevah, has never seen rejoicing in his life."[17]

Jesus: the Bearer of the Water of Life

It is recorded in the gospel of John that in the days of his public ministry Jesus of Nazareth went up to
Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Noteworthy are his words on the last day of the feast:

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him
come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water." (Jn 7:37-38)

The "last day" of the feast referred to by John is ambiguous, for the festival proper counts seven days (Deut
16:13), but an eight day, a Sabbath, is counted in Lev 23:34-36. The "great day of the feast," however, is
generally considered to denote the seventh day, the Hoshannah Rabbah (the Great Supplication). Hoshanna
Rabbah was already known in the days of the temple as the day of the final sealing of judgment which had
begun a few weeks earlier at Rosh HaShanah. On the last day of the feast in which God judges the world
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for rainfall, after the hot and dry months of the summer, the people's prayers for rain reached their climax.
On that day the priests processed around the altar not once but seven times. In addition, as the name of the
day indicates - the "great supplication for salvation," it was also the height of the feast's eschatological
expectation which included prayers expressing hope for the speedy coming of the Messiah.

It is within this context that Jesus cried out to the crowd on that day and announced that he himself is the
source of living waters, and whoever "drinks from him" will in turn see living waters flow from his heart.
To elucidate this mysterious saying, John adds an explanatory comment immediately after Jesus' words:

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was
not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:39)

The identification of the water with the Holy Spirit, already clear in Isa 44:3-4[18] and in the Talmud
passage above referring to the water libation of Sukkoth, is made explicit here by John. Jesus had already
used the image of living water referring to the Holy Spirit a few chapters earlier in the same gospel, when
speaking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well:

Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the
water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain
of water springing up into everlasting life." (Jn 4:13-14)

Jesus is therefore promising the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to those who "drink from his water." Yet what
passage of scripture is Jesus referring to when he says "as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow
rivers of living water'" (John 7:38)? These words do not reflect exactly any one passage of the MT or LXX,
but they do hint at several other passages that we have already examined. Given the context of the Feast of
Tabernacles, one thinks first and foremost of the water which came out of the rock struck by Moses, or the
passages in Isaiah which promise the soul of the just to become a fount of living waters. Yet the passage
alludes most clearly to our passage in Ezekiel of the living waters flowing out of God's temple (and to the
parallel passages in Joel and Zechariah). It seems fair to assume that, by uttering these words, Jesus
identified himself with Ezekiel's temple. This is consistent with other sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John
where he declares himself to be the "true temple": "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
(John 2:19). As John makes clear, "he spoke of the temple of his body" (John 2:21). Jesus, therefore, is
applying to himself the living stream of Ezekiel's temple, claiming that the river of life will not come out of
a physical structure but rather out of himself. He could well have said to his hearers, concerning Ezekiel's
prophecy, the same words which he had said elsewhere: ""Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing"
(Luke 4:21). The waters of the Feast of Tabernacles, the water flowing from Ezekiel's temple, and the water
from the rock of Moses, are to flow from his heart. It is no wonder that Paul elsewhere interprets Moses'
rock to be Christ himself: "For they [the Israelites wandering in the desert] drank of that spiritual Rock that
followed them, and that Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:3).

In other words, the Incarnation of Christ, where "the Word became flesh and dwelt [Gr. eskenosen =
tabernacled] among us" (Jn 1:14) is being likened to God coming to dwell in His Temple - the body of Jesus
- in majesty. The healing waters flowing from God's house on his holy mountain not only were to bring to
life the arid desert and salty waters; they were also to quench the thirst of weary souls and effect onto them
the outpouring of God's Spirit (See Isa 44:3-4, 58:11 above; also Ezek 36:25-26). Thus in the light of
Ezekiel's temple and of Isaiah's prophecies, Jesus' miraculous works of physical healings, forgiveness of
sins, and his calling people to reconcile themselves with God and with each other takes on a whole new
meaning as the spiritual and allegorical application of the healing waters giving new life to the soul. By

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extension, Jesus, as new spiritual temple, becomes the new source of the waters of Eden and the way back to
paradise.

Ezekiel's Temple and Christian Eschatology in the book of Revelation

If Jesus attributes to himself the healing and resurrection power of Ezekiel's healing streams, how is this to
affect Christian eschatology? Is there still room for a physical temple out of which will flow a healing river
such as the one described by Ezekiel? The heavily veiled language of the book of Revelation, traditionally
attributed to the same John who wrote the fourth gospel, abounds in Temple symbolism and imagery. The
word "temple" itself appears 16 times in the book. However, all of these occurrences use the Greek word
"naos," denoting the Temple's holy sanctuary and often used in the New Testament to refer to the spiritual
temple of the body (cf. 1 Cor 6:19, Eph 2:21), and not the more common "hieron" which denotes the
physical structure of the Jerusalem Temple.

The entire setting of John's vision in revelation is described as a heavenly, cosmic temple which includes an
altar (8:3-4), priests (4:4), lampstands (1:12, 2:5), incense (5:8, 8:3-5), and a sacrificed lamb (5:6). In
addition, God's temple is described as if it were an actual place: one can enter into it (3:12); the saints serve
God day and night within it (7:15); it can be measured (11:1); it has a court for the gentiles (11:2); it
contains the ark of the covenant (11:19); angels come out of it (14:15, 17); it is filled with smoke (15:8), and
a great voice resounds out of it (16:1, 17).

The book of Revelation also borrows a number of ideas characteristic of Ezekiel, such as the cherubim
(Ezekiel 1, Revelation 4), the eating of a scroll (Ezekiel 3, Revelation 10), the war of Gog and Magog
(Ezekiel 38, Revelation 20), the New Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-48, Revelation 21), and the river of living water
(Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22). The last two themes, of course, are the ones that particularly interest us. The
creation of "a new heaven and a new earth," along with the appearance of the glorious New Jerusalem
descending out of heaven from God (21:1-2) is the culmination of God's salvation in human history. There,
redeemed humanity will finally find rest from their toilsome journey, dwelling in God's presence where
there will be no more suffering or death, and where they will freely drink from the "fountain of the water of
life":

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God
Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall
be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed
away... I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of
life freely to him who thirsts. (Rev 21:3-6)

Like Ezekiel, John sees this vision from the top of "a great and high mountain" (Rev 21:10), having already
mentioned Mount Zion as the place where the Lamb of God stood (14:1). Thematic material from the
gospel of John is also present, with a strong allusion to Jesus' words uttered at the Feast of Tabernacles.
Jesus, now portrayed as the Alpha and the Omega, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne, will lead the
saints to "living fountains of waters," thus fulfilling Isaiah's prophecies of quenching the thirsty. This role of
divine comforter and protector has already been described in an earlier chapter of the Apocalypse:

[The saints] shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat;
for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of
waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (7:16-17)

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The glorious, heavenly New Jerusalem which appears in chapter 21 of Revelation, however, is dramatically
different in one important respect from the former earthly Jerusalem - and from Ezekiel's vision: it does not
have a temple.

But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of
the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. (Rev 21:22-23)

This is also a striking contrast with the book of Revelation itself up to this point, which, as we have seen,
made clear allusions to God's temple. Here, however, there is no longer a need for a temple, for God and the
Lamb are the eternal temple of the New Jerusalem, which will be illuminated forever by their eternal glory.
How then do we reconcile the presence of a heavenly temple in the earlier chapters of Revelation with its
absence here? It could be that John is portraying a real transformation - the disappearance of the visible
temple - with the coming of the eschaton and of the heavenly Jerusalem. Or, it could be that the previous
references to the temple (which, as we have said, use the word naos - spiritual sanctuary rather than
hieron[19] In any case, quite in contrast to the various levels of sanctity in the earthly temple (and in
Ezekiel's temple), there will be no more separation between secular and sacred areas, between God's people
and God himself in the New Jerusalem. The shekhinah which had abandoned the Temple and the Holy City
during the time of Ezekiel's ministry will permanently return to become the eternal dwelling place of God's
people. It is the ultimate fulfillment of God's promise to establish his sanctuary and dwelling place in their
midst forever (Ezek 37:26-28) - physical temple building) were already figurative ways of describing God's
dwelling (God himself!) - rather than a separate structure distinct from God.

Finally, John's last vision is most reminiscent of Ezekiel's temple and the Garden of Eden:

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of
the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve
fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And
there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall
serve Him. (Rev 22:1-3)

As we contemplate this idyllic crystal river of water of life, we note the similarities and differences between
Ezekiel's and John's visions, and how John has skillfully woven Ezekiel's vision with the Garden of Eden
tradition, with ideas from other prophets and with New Testament Christological ideas. Both visions portray
the gushing forth of miraculous waters endowed with healing powers from the throne of God. In Ezekiel
these waters flow from a physical temple; in Revelation they flow out of God himself, who along with the
Lamb is the New Jerusalem's eternal Temple. Aware of the gospel's interpretation of Jesus' promise of the
waters of life as the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:37-39), the author of Revelation makes strong Trinitarian allusions
here: the crystal river of life, the Holy Spirit, will flow from God the Father, and from the Lamb, God the
Son, to effect the healing of the nations. As in Ezekiel's vision, abundant trees which bear fruit each month
grow on both banks of the river. Yet here the identification with the Garden of Eden is not implicit as in
Ezekiel but clearly explicit with the reference to the tree of life and the end of the curse of suffering and
death (21:4, 22:3). Moreover, whereas the healing power of Ezekiel's stream is mostly confined to nature, to
the desert and to the waters of the Dead Sea, John, on the other hand, discards the physical imagery and
emphasizes the spiritual healing and reviving of souls as prophesied by Isaiah and applied by Jesus. Finally,
whereas Ezekiel's healing stream was strictly confined to Israel's borders, John's vision is entirely
universalistic: the pure river of water of life will bring healing to the redeemed of all nations who desire to
drink from the fountain of life.

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And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts
come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (Rev 22:17)

Conclusion

In summary, the healing power of the stream flowing out of Ezekiel's temple, originally expressed in
physical and natural terms to describe the national, eschatological healing and blossoming of the land of
Israel, was strongly influenced by the themes of the Garden of Eden and Jerusalem / Mount Zion as the
dwelling place of God. As we have seen, these two themes, along with the third, connecting theme of
waters as source of healing and salvation, are so interwoven in the psalms and prophets that they virtually
become indistinguishable one from another: Jerusalem and the Temple were commonly considered to be
identical with Eden in ancient Israel, and the way to return to the lost paradise. Anticipating the New
Testament, Isaiah even associated the waters flowing from Zion with physical healing and the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, themes that became dominant in the Feast of Tabernacles' water libation ceremony. Against
this background, Jesus appropriated to himself the entire symbolism of Sukkot and of Ezekiel's temple by
making himself the "fountain of living waters" who would heal and revive through the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit those who would "drink from him." Finally, the book of Revelation synthesizes all of these
themes and remolds Ezekiel's temple in light of Jesus and the New Testament revelation, presenting to us
the New Jerusalem in which God himself, with the Lamb, is the eternal temple out of whom flows the
crystal river of the Holy Spirit, irrigating the tree of life whose leaves are for the universal healing of the
nations in the new and eternal paradise.

© Copyright 2007 Catholics for Israel

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