The Garden of Eden

About this episode

Helen and Lloyd explore the significance and origins of the Garden of Eden with Dr Dylan Johnson.

We have all heard the story of Adam and Eve. But what was the Garden of Eden which they inhabited? In this week's episode, Helen and Lloyd travel back to the dawn of time with Dr Dylan Johnson as their guide to this mythical landscape. Together, they get to the bottom of questions like: Was the Garden of Eden meant to be a real place, or a symbolic vision of paradise?Is Genesis borrowing from older Mesopotamian stories about divine gardens? Was Adam imagined as a king placed in God’s gar...

People in this episode

Hosts: Helen Bond, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Guest: Dr Dylan Johnson

Topics covered

• Garden of Eden
• Adam and Eve
• mythical landscape
• symbolic vision
• Mesopotamian stories
• divine gardens

Keywords

• Garden of Eden
• Adam and Eve
• Genesis
• Mesopotamian stories
• symbolic vision
• paradise
• divine gardens

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Genesis

Places: Garden of Eden, Mesopotamia

More episodes of Biblical Time Machine

• The Bible in Aramaic · June 8, 2026 · 35 min
• The Judges of Ancient Israel · June 1, 2026 · 43 min
• King David – Hero or Villain? · May 25, 2026 · 33 min
• Reading Luke as a Cultural Elite · May 17, 2026 · 47 min
• The Bible in (Ancient) Pop Culture · May 12, 2026 · 40 min
• Erotica... In the Bible? · May 4, 2026 · 39 min