[OT] Cherubim / Man - Serving and Guarding in the Garden of Eden

Serving and Guarding

• Gen 2:15 "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to serve and to guard." 
  
• The Babylonian creation epic mentions "serving and guarding" also.  Man was created with the blood of Kingu to serve the Gods, and subsequently the Anunnaki (deities of the 2nd rank) who had been the servants of the supreme gods were released from this duty and given the task of guarding, half guarding heaven and half guarding Sheol.
• Israel's epic poems show the cherubim as those entrusted with guarding.  Ezekiel calls the Edenic cherurb "guardian cherub" or "measuring (anointed) guardian cherub" (Ezk 28:14, 16).
• Cassuto believes the Torah amended this tradition and substituted man for the cherubs -- to both serve and guard.  The Cherubim's reduced status was reinstated  to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen 3:24)

Gen 2:15   The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Gen 3:24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
--
Ezk 28:14,16   You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God  ....  I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub...

[OT] Rivers and Stones

Genesis 2:10-14
  10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

  11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

  12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

  13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

  14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Rivers of Eden (note, the Sumerians also spoke of 4 rivers in their mythology):

• Hiddekel & Euphrates are will known rivers
  
• Pishon comes from Hebrew "pus" - meaning to jump and run to and fro.
• Gishon comes from Hebrew "giah" - to flow.
• The rivers called Phshon and Gihon are not known in any source.  The best explanation for them seems to the the two streams making up the Nile which irrigates the land of Egypt.  Note that Egypt is mentioned with the Garden (see Gen 13:10) and that these rivers irrigate the whole land.
• More info here
  

Metals:

• Manna had the appearance of Bdellium (Num 11:7), which was a food that required no work, like Adam's food in the Garden
• Shoham stones (usually translated Onyx) were part of the ephod of the priest (Ex 28:9,12, Ex 35:9,27).
• In Ezekiel 28:13, the cherub of the Garden of Eden is covered in precious stones including gold and shoham.
  
• Bdellium may be a precious stone (the Septuagint calls it 'carbuncle, ruby'), Num 11:77 calls it crystal.  It is also similar to a word that is an aromatic resin from a tree.

[OT] Eden and the Tree of Life

Eden

'Some feel "Eden" comes from the Sumero-Akkadian "edinu" ('steppe-land, wilderness') or from a Hebrew expression "those who feasted on dainties" (Lam 4:5).  More likely the word means "a place that is well watered."'

'Sumerian legends tell of a pure land in the beginning, called Dilmun, that has many parallels with the Biblical Garden of Eden. Although pure, Dilmun had no water. Thus the god of water (Enki) commanded the god of the Sun (Utu) to bring fresh water from the Earth to Dilmun. This parallels Genesis 2:5-6, "...for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth...But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." '

'With water flowing in the land of Dilmun, the Mother Goddess, Ninhursag, causes grass to grow, and trees to bear fruit, this garden creating Paradise on Earth. Ninhursag creates eight types of sprouting plant in this garden. Enki's messenger, Isimud, brings these plants to Enki to eat. Enki eats these plants, which infuriates Ninhursag, who curses Enki with death and then disappears.'

'Soon eight parts of Enki's body begin to fail, and his health worsens quickly. While the other gods ponder what to do, a fox offers to find and bring back Ninhursag if they reward him for his efforts. The gods agree, and the fox brings back Ninhursag. Ninhursag asks Enki which of his eight parts of his body are ailing. These organs were his jaw, tooth, mouth, arm, rib, and three other parts that were destroyed on the tablets that are known today. Ninhursag then creates eight healing deities, one for each of these organs, and Enki regains his strength.'
[http://www.ephemeris.com/history/mesopotamia.html]

• In 2nd paragraph of Genesis 2:8-13, words occurring in triple (adding emphasis) are garden, tree, name, river & "hu."

Tree of Life

• The Tree of Life - occurs with the definite article ("The"), which presumes common knowledge of it at the time of authorship.  References to the Tree of Life occur elsewhere in the Old Testament (Prov: 3:18, 11:30, 13:12, 15:4). 
  
• The Akkadians had a "plant of life" in their lore, and there was a plant in the Gilgamesh epic that would cause an old man to become young again.  However, according to Cassuto, these parallels are weak, and he suggests there are no solid non-Hebrew middle eastern parallels currently known to The Tree of Life.

[OT] Man / Ground / Deep

• Man/Ground/Deep relationship (Genesis 2:5-7).  Each of the three have a relationship with the other, being created from, being protected from, caring for, etc...
  
• v.5 man (Hebrew "Adam") to till the ground (Hebrew "Adamah")
  
• v.6 waters of the deep water the ground ("Adamah")
  
• v.7 man ("Adam") formed from dust of ground ("Adamah")

• Waters of the deep ("edh" [ 'd"]) similar to Mesopotamian Id - a god who is a guardian of the Deep

• Dust (apher) & Clay (homer), often used together.  Ashes (epher) is also used with clay.
  
• Assyrian goddess Aruru "washed her hands, nipped off clay , cast it up the ground, the hero Enkidu she built."
• Job 4:19 "those who dwell in houses of clay (human beings)"
• "Thou has made me of [literally, 'as'] clay" (Job 10:8 & 9)
• "shall the potter be regarded as the clay" (Isa. 29:16)
• "Woe to him who strives his maker!  a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! shall the clay say to him who fashions it, what are you making" (Isa 45:9)
• "We are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand" (Isa 64:8)
• See also Jer 18:1-14