Editing Garden of Eden (section)

====Hebrew Bible and Jewish literature====
The word entered the Hebrew language with the meaning of [[pardes (Jewish exegesis)#Association with paradise|pardes]] ({{lang|he|פַּרְדֵּס}}), 'orchard', appearing thrice in the [[Tanakh]]: in the [[Song of Solomon]] ({{bibleref2-nb |Song |4:13}}), [[Ecclesiastes]] ({{bibleref2-nb |Eccl|2:5}}), and [[Book of Nehemiah|Nehemiah]] ({{bibleref2-nb |Neh|2:8}}).{{sfn|Day|2014|pp=26–27}}

The word {{transliteration|he|pardes}} occurs three times in the Hebrew Bible, but always in contexts other than a connection with Eden: in the [[Song of Solomon]] {{bibleref2-nb |Song|4:13}}: "Thy plants are an orchard ({{transliteration|he|pardes}}) of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard"; [[Ecclesiastes]] {{bibleref2-nb |Eccl|2:5}}: "I made me gardens and orchards ({{transliteration|he|pardes}}), and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits"; and in [[Nehemiah]] {{bibleref2-nb |Neh|2:8}}: "And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's orchard ({{transliteration|he|pardes}}), that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city". In these examples, {{transliteration|he|pardes}} clearly means 'orchard' or 'park', but in the Jewish [[apocalyptic literature]] and in the [[Talmud]] ''paradise'' gains its associations with the Garden of Eden and its heavenly prototype, a meaning also present in the [[New Testament]].{{cn|date= February 2024}}

Italian historian [[Mario Liverani]] argues that the Garden of Eden was modeled on Persian royal gardens,<ref>Liverani, Mario (2007). ''Israel's History and the History of Israel'', Routledge, p. 238. "[R]oyal gardens are the model for the 'garden of Eden' where the biblical story of Adam and Eve is set (Gen. 2.4–3.24). The word paradise (Heb. pardēs, Bab. pardēsu 'park') is of Persian origin (pairidaēza 'enclosure'), and the Persians were responsible for the spread of this kind of enclosed garden Thus, the Eden narrative should be assigned to the Babylonia of the Persian age."</ref> while John Day argues that linguistic and other evidence indicates that the [[Jahwist|yahwistic]] Eden story was composed before the Persian period.{{sfn|Day|2014|p=49}} US archaeologist [[Lawrence Stager]] posits that the biblical Eden narrative drew from aspects of [[Solomon's Temple |Solomon's palace and temple compound]] and [[Jerusalem]].<ref name="Stager">{{cite journal |author=[[Lawrence E. Stager |Stager, Lawrence E.]] |title= Jerusalem and the Garden of Eden |journal=[[Israel Exploration Society#Periodicals and Series|Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies]] |publisher= [[Israel Exploration Society]] |year= 1999 |volume= 26|pages= 183*–194*|jstor= 23629939}}</ref>