15
sexuality and fertility. 47 Temple prostitutes in the ancient religions were not viewed as human
persons but simply used as a means of attaining divine intoxication. 48 Eros, or sexual love, was
celebrated as communion with the gods and woman was the instrument used for this mystical
experience. Conversely, the Genesis account presents eros as an integral dimension of the
mystery of creation with its two-fold gift. As the Holy Father explains, in God’s divine plan
“[no] longer is [eros] self-seeking, a sinking into the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks
the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for
sacrifice.” 49 Rather than degrading man, eros as it was intended by God and offered in the
original gift, demands a pure and disciplined love which requires a “path of renunciation” to
attain is true dignity and fulfilment. 50
In the well-known Biblical account, the scene of the original union between man and
woman is situated within the context of a garden, out of which springs living waters bringing
forth fertility and abundance. This river of life divides itself into four branches which nourish,
enclose and protect the garden. Scholars, archaeologists, and linguists have alternately translated
the name Eden as “fruitful…plentiful…and well-watered,” 51 “dewiness,” 52 and finally
“enclosure” or “paradise.” 53 The Church assigns great significance to the primordial garden
imagery, asserting that the “sign of man’s familiarity with God is that God places him in the
garden [where there exists] the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the
47
Benedict XVI, “General Audience,” Vatican.va, February 6, 2013, para. 15, accessed May 27, 2018,
https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2013/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20130206.html.
48
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est [On Christian Love], Vatican.va, December 25, 2005, sec. 4, accessed
May 27, 2018, http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-
caritas-est.html.
49
Ibid., sec. 6.
50
Ibid., sec. 5.
51
Adele Berlin, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2011), 229.
52
Adam Mikaya, “Earliest Aramaic Inscription Uncovered in Syria,” Biblical Archaeology Review 7, no. 4
(July/August 1981): 52, accessed May 27, 2018, https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/7/4/6.
53
Jonas Benzion Lehrman, Earthly Paradise: Garden and Courtyard in Islam (Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1981), 31.