Eden

When someone speaks of the Garden of Eden, he wants to express that a thing or place seems to him like the "paradise on earth". This means a warm world without stress and sorrow, an oasis in a hectic environment where you can finally rest. In general, this proverbial Garden of Eden expresses something positive, perfect and very pleasant. ¹

According to the Bible, the Garden of Eden is the place where man and animal were created. Adam and Eve were the first people to live in Paradise given to them by God. There everything seemed perfect until one day the two were persuaded by a serpent to eat fruit, contrary to God's prohibition of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But this contempt, also known as The Fall of Man resulted in the expulsion from the Garden of Eden because they had eaten from the forbidden fruit and had turned away from God.” ²

Interpretation of Eden regarding the short story “A Cup of Cold Water”

“The knowledge that he was perhaps looking at it [St. Luke's Cathedral] all for the last time caused every detail to start out like a challenge memory, and lit the brownstone house fronts with the glamour of sword-barred Edens.” ³

Woburn is aware of what he has done. He had committed a crime and therefore a sin and sinners get banned or disowned. Just like Adam and Eve got expelled from Paradise, Woburn had no right anymore to be protected by a divine institution, like a Cathedral.