Exploring the Garden of Uzza 21 might be found in the New Testament. In the gospel of John, it is claimed that Jesus’ body was laid in a garden tomb (19,41), and that Mary mistook the resurrected Jesus for a gardener (20,15). It seems likely that the motif of a royal mortuary garden has re-emerged within this tradition (76). As it is now found, the motif of a mortuary garden is presented negatively in the Hebrew Bible. Just as many other formerly acceptable cult practices are rejected and censured by the biblical writers, so the mortuary garden cult of ancient Judahite kingship has been cast into the shadows. Thus in Isa 65,3-5; 66,17 and perhaps 1,29-30, the mortuary garden is characterised as an illegitimate and abhorrent cult place despised by YHWH, whilst in 2 Kgs 21,18.26, the garden burials of the Judahite kings Manasseh and Amon illustrate the theological condemnation wrought by their supposed religious depravity. Yet ironically, it would appear that each of these kings has been accorded an historically honourable burial, wholly befitting an ancient Near Eastern monarch. Department of Theology, Francesca STAVRAKOPOULOU University of Exeter Queen’s Building – The Queen’s Drive Exeter, Devon EX4 4QH – UK SUMMARY The Garden of Uzza (2 Kgs 21,18.26) is commonly regarded as a pleasure garden in or near Jerusalem which came to be used as a royal burial ground once the tombs in the City of David had become full. However, in this article it is argued that the religious and cultic significance of royal garden burials has been widely overlooked. In drawing upon comparative evidence from the ancient Near East, it is proposed that mortuary gardens played an ideological role within perceptions of Judahite kingship. Biblical texts such as Isa 65,3-4; 66,17 and perhaps 1,29-30 refer not to goddess worship, but to practices and sacred sites devoted to the royal dead. —————— its more usual identification with En-gannim (Josh 19,21; 21,29). Certainly, the preceding description of Joram’s corpse being dumped on Naboth’s plot of ground (2 Kgs 9,25-26; cf. 1 Kgs 21) is suggestive of a complex of traditions concerning royal gardens, death and ancestral land. (76) See also WYATT, “‘Supposing Him to be the Gardener’ (John 20,15)”, 21-38.