Adam, Eva en de Duivel

By Johannes C. de Moor

Book Description

This scholarly exploration unveils the ancient roots of one of humanity's most enduring stories by tracing the biblical paradise narrative back to its Canaanite origins. Drawing from ancient clay tablets discovered in Ugarit, a lost city in former Canaan, the authors reveal how an earlier version of the Adam and Eve story contributed to the formation of biblical accounts of creation, paradise, and the great flood.

The research illuminates striking parallels between Canaanite and biblical storytelling traditions, from shared linguistic elements to the common name for the creator god (El). Both traditions place paradise in a mountain garden of Eden and describe the primordial fall of a malevolent angel, later known as Satan. These ancient Middle Eastern myths provided foundational material that biblical writers would later transform.

Yet the authors demonstrate how biblical scribes made deliberate, profound choices that distinguished their narrative. Most significantly, they shifted responsibility for choosing between good and evil directly to humanity itself. No longer portrayed as pawns of the gods, humans became accountable moral agents in their own spiritual journey.

This comparative analysis offers readers a deeper understanding of how ancient wisdom traditions evolved and influenced one another. For those seeking to comprehend the historical development of spiritual narratives, this work provides valuable insights into how timeless questions about human nature, divine purpose, and moral responsibility have been explored across cultures and millennia.