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The “Tree” Whose Fall Shocks the WorldThe Watchtower—1977 | May 15
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Other cedars were no match for it in the garden of God. As for juniper trees, they bore no resemblance as respects its boughs. And plane trees themselves did not prove to be like it in branches. No other tree in the garden of God resembled it in its prettiness.
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The “Tree” Whose Fall Shocks the WorldThe Watchtower—1977 | May 15
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7. How did God talk about the location of the cedar tree, and did this mean that Paradise had been restored to earth?
7 The fact that these cedars, together with the juniper and plane trees, were said to be in Eden and in “the garden of God” does not mean that the garden of Eden was restored after the deluge of Noah’s day, 2370 B.C.E. Rather, the location of this particular cedar was so pleasant, so Edenic, so like man’s original home, that it was like “the garden of God.” The Hebrew word for “garden” (gan) means, basically, a “fenced-in or enclosed place”; and we remember that the original “garden of Eden” had a passageway “at the east of the garden” through which the disobedient Adam and Eve were driven out and where God stationed the cherubs “to guard the way to the tree of life.”—Gen. 3:24.
8. Where did Ezekiel 28:11-14 say that the king of the Lebanon seaport of Tyre was located, and why?
8 In the days of the prophecy of Ezekiel the cedar-famed land of Lebanon was so beautiful that Ezekiel was inspired to say to the king of Tyre (a seaport of Lebanon): “In Eden, the garden of God, you proved to be. . . . You are the anointed cherub that is covering, and I have set you. On the holy mountain of God you proved to be.” (Ezek. 28:11-14) Quite appropriately, then, in the seventh century B.C.E. this specially “pretty” cedar of Lebanon was spoken of as being in Eden, in “the garden of God.” It was therefore in a highly favored location, with fine possibilities.
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