The Flaming Sword of Genesis 3:24

One of the many mysteries of Early Genesis is the "flaming sword" which the LORD God posted at the east of the garden to keep The Man from going back to eat of the Tree of Life in his newly fallen state. Cherubim were also posted to guard the way. We know what cherubim are because they are referenced other places in scripture and elsewhere. The "flaming sword" however, is its own category, and thus more open to interpretation. Here is the verse (Genesis 3:24 (interlinear)) in several versions:

New International Version
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.

English Standard Version
He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Berean Study Bible
So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

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The first point I want to make clear is that the Hebrew doesn't really say "a flaming sword". Rather it says "a sword of flame" or "the sword of flame". It wasn't describing a metal sword with flames coming off of it. Rather it was composed of flame. My second point, in contradiction to most of the artwork I have seen depicting an angel wielding a sword, the text seems to separate the two, as if the sword was acting independently of the cherubim guarding the way, even if both precautions served the same purpose.

My third point refers to the definition of the Hebrew word translated "sword" in Genesis 3:24:

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
axe, dagger, knife, mattock, sword, tool
From charab; drought; also a cutting instrument (from its destructive effect), as a knife, sword, or other sharp implement -- axe, dagger, knife, mattock, sword, tool.

The word is most often used of an actual sword in the scriptures, but early on the word applied to almost any bladed or sharp instrument. The account of Adam in Genesis chapter three is an early account. As some of you may know, I support a modified version of the Tablet Theory for early Genesis, which answers the charge that Genesis was borrowed from other Ancient Near East accounts which pre-date the Mosaic period. They were instead family history from the ancestors of Moses, the patriarchs of scripture. Thus the use of the term here should be considered in its broader context, not the narrow meaning which later became dominant.

Swords more than two feet in length were uncommon until the Iron Age. Sickles on the other hand, have been around since the Neolithic and were used both for harvesting grain and as a weapon. Ussher's method of calculating dates almost certainly provides figures which are too young, and I place Adam back around 11,000 years ago in eastern Anatolia.

Ezekiel also speaks of a "Mountain of God", perhaps in Eden, which had stones as hot as fire.

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation. 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for I had ordained you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones.

The word translated "garden" really means an enclosed garden, The entrance to the garden of Eden, on the eastern side, may well have been dominated by the "Mountain of God" which had fiery stones. It so happens that one of my top three prospects for the location of the Garden of Eden is a valley just to the west of Lake Van in Turkey. On the eastern end of this valley is a volcano called Nemrut. There are various kinds of volcanoes, and some just have flowing lava. Others are more explosive in their eruptions. Nemrut is of the explosive variety, and geologists tell us that it had an eruption in the same time frame I am suggesting for Adam.

 Therefore I suggest that what Adam testified to in the "Book of Adam" recorded by his near-descendants regarding the Sword (or sickle, cutting instrument) of Flame which turned every which way was something like this....

An Explosive eruption: phtoto by Marc Szeglat/science source

 The cherubim sent to guard the way back lest Adam return were divine beings, as attested to later in scripture. The turning or flashing implement of flame was Adam's way of describing an eruption like the one pictured above, which also served to warn him not to re-enter the garden. When the LORD God drove them out, perhaps He brought about this event as part of His warning not to return, which Adam interpreted as a sickle or an instrument of flame, turning every which way.

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