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Book of Moses Essays
Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3)

Essay #58: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Symbolism of the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life (Moses 3:9)

The Tree of Life is certainly the most significant object in the Garden of Eden. However, its presence has always been somewhat of a puzzle to students of the Bible because it is only briefly mentioned in Genesis: once at the beginning of the story in connection with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil...

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Essay #56: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Naming of Animals, Angels, Adam, and Eve (Moses 3:8–15)

In the depiction of the Garden of Eden above, Jan Brueghel the Elder masterfully fills the foreground of the scene with the abundance, happiness, and beauty of newly created life. From there, however, he skillfully draws our eyes toward the two tiny figures in the background ominously reaching for the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge....

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Essay #55: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): The Garden of Eden as a Model for the Temple in Israel and Old Babylon (Moses 3:8–15)

In Essay #32, we discussed the view of Latter-day Saint scholar Donald W. Parry that the outbound journey of the Creation and the Fall is mirrored in the inbound journey of the Tabernacle, the prototype for later Israelite temples. The Garden of Eden can be seen as a natural “temple,” where Adam and Eve lived in God’s presence for a time....

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Essay #53: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): Is the transition between Moses 2 and 3 a clumsy stitch or a skillful shift? (Moses 3:4–5)

In this Essay, we explore what is often considered to be the opening of a “second” Creation account in Genesis and the Book of Moses (Moses 3:4–5). Modern scholars have written at length about differences between the accounts that seem to point to the joining of multiple ancient sources....

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