What is it with "east"?

Inkfingers said:

I'm not suggesting literal geography (as I do not take Genesis literally).

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In that case my involvement in this topic is pointless. I take statements as literal, rather than suggestions, and I firmly believe Genesis is a literal hystory.

Inkfingers said:

To begin with, God plants a garden to the east of his location (Genesis 2:8), then when man is expelled he is sent further eastwards (Genesis 3:24), and finally when Cain is expelled even further, he goes into Nod which to is yet further eastwards (Genesis 4:16).

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To begin with, it doesn't say that the garden was planted to the east of God's location. It just says it was planted in the east, which could have easily meant that it was east of the writer's location.

Secondly, the expulsion of Cain is not said to be even further east than the expulsion of Adam and Eve. Both are said to be east of Eden, and it doesn't really say which is further east.

Looking at statistical probability, the first reference was arbitrary. It was not coincidental to anything else, initially. The second two events are of equal probability, as pretty much all of humanity started out on the east of Eden, and both are relative to the same reference point (Eden). It would have been more remarkable had Cain been expelled to the opposite side of Eden, but he was not. What we have, then, is a fifty percent chance of all references here being east if the author was only considering the matter longitudinally. At best, it was a 25% possibility by chance if the author was considering the matter planarly. Frankly, I think it was more likely that those events happened easterly simply because that's the way circumstances and geography necessitated it.

I imagine the symbolism is intentional, but it is beyond my ability right now to glean any meaningful life lessons from it.
Following what Jordan Peterson says about symbolism and myth, if East is what has been established then Westward Ho! is to embark on a lie defining adventure into the unknown.
For people today, adventure may as likely lay in New York as it does in L.A.

The thing that you need to remember ...

We dont know who wrote Genesis.

YES, we can say it is the Word Of God revealed to man. But who passed on the stories ... and how .. and how were they finally recorded?

We simply do not know. There was no paper, no papyrus. It is highly unlikely that Abraham walked around carrying 100 clay tablets with the story of his life. So Genesis must have been passed down verbally. Many things are missing ... we would dearly love to know more about those ancient cultures But the info is gone.

Therefore the true meaning of 'East' is also lost. To understand it, we would need to know many details of the earliest culture in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Fortunately, what does remain is a spiritual treasure.

Strathos said:

Well if you go east or west far enough you eventually end up coming from the opposite direction. So perhaps it's symbolic of separation from God like you said, but even as we continue to go further 'east', we will eventually wrap around the sphere and come from the west, and find God again (Revelation 7:9-17).

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No getting away from Him eh? Thank you Lord