Everything about The Garden Of Eden totally explained
The
Garden of Eden (from
Hebrew גַּן עֵדֶן ) is described in the
Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man,
Adam, and his wife,
Eve, lived after they were created by
God. This garden forms part of the
creation myth and
theodicy of the
Abrahamic religions. The creation story in Genesis relates the geographical location of both Eden and the garden to four rivers (
Pishon,
Gihon,
Tigris,
Euphrates), and three regions (
Havilah,
Assyria, and Cush [oftentranslated as
Ethiopia]).
Eden's location remains the subject of controversy and speculation. There are hypotheses that locate Eden at the
headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates, in
Mesopotamia, Africa, and the
Persian Gulf, among others.
Etymology
The origin of the term "Eden", which in Hebrew means "delight", may lie with the
Akkadian word
edinu, which itself derives from the
Sumerian term
E.DIN. The Sumerian term means steppe, plain, desert or wilderness, so the connection between the words
may be coincidental. This word is known to have been used by the Sumerians to refer to the arid lands west of the
Euphrates.
Alan Millard has put forward a case for the name deriving from the Semitic stem
dn, meaning "abundant, lush"]]
The
Book of Genesis is the primary source of Scriptural speculation with regards to geography, but still contains little information on the garden itself. It was home to both the
Tree of Life and the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as well as an abundance of other
vegetation that could feed Adam and Eve.
Suspected locations
There have been a number of claims as to the actual geographic location of the Garden of Eden, though many of these have little or no connection to the text of
Genesis. Most put the Garden somewhere in the
Middle East. Some theologians have claimed that the Garden never had a terrestrial existence, but was instead an adjunct to
heaven as it became identified with Paradise (see below).
Taurus Mountains/Anatolia
The text asserts that the Garden was planted in the eastern part of the region known as Eden, and that in Eden, the river divided into four branches: Hiddekel (also known as
Tigris),
Euphrates,
Pishon and
Gihon. While the identity of the first two is commonly accepted, the latter two rivers have been the subject of much debate. If the Garden of Eden had been near the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, then it might be located in eastern
Anatolia, specifically the
Armenian Highland in eastern Turkey.
Michael Sanders, director of expeditions for the Mysteries of the Bible Research Foundation, in Irvine, California, says that the Garden of Eden is in eastern
Turkey, because the Tigris and Euphrates take their source in the mountains there. Sanders identifies the 4 rivers of Eden as the
Murat River, the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the north fork of the Euphrates. In support of this, Sanders cites a satellite image showing that "a river rises out of Eden and divides into four". This is centred at approximately
In
Assyrian records, there's mention of a "
Beth Eden" (House of Eden), a small
Aramaean state, located on the bend of the Euphrates River just south of
Carchemish, in the vicinity of Urfa and Harran (Turkey) at approximately .
Northern Mesopotamia
Southern Mesopotamia and The Persian Gulf
Satellite photos reveal two dry riverbeds flowing toward the
Persian Gulf near where the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia also terminate. This would account for four easterly flowing rivers.
Archaeologist Juris Zarins claimed that the Garden of Eden was situated at the head of the Persian Gulf, where the
Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers run into the sea at, from his research on this area using information from many different sources, including
Landsat images from space. In this theory, the Bible’s
Gihon River would correspond with the
Al-Qurnah in Iraq, and the
Pishon River would correspond to the
Wadi Al-Batin river system (also now called the
Kuwait River) that 2,500-3000 years ago drained the now dry, but once quite fertile central part of the Arabian Peninsula from the
Hijaz mountains 600 miles to the South West. This theory is supported by C. A. Salabach .
Genesis 2:10-14 also states that
"the name of the first is Pison: that's it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there's gold; And the gold of that land is good: there's bdellium and the onyx stone." In the Biblical
Table of Nations, Havilah is associated with Arabia but without a specific location being identified. The
Cradle of Gold at
Mahd adh Dhahab in the Hijaz mountains is the primary gold area of the peninsula. The Hijaz region also produces
bdellium, a gum associated with
myrrh or
guggul plant. Varied Biblical and circumstantial evidence has been cited that to suggest that this is the case.
In Jerusalem, there's a water spring called Gihon. This is said to be a part of an underground river (though this claim has been disputed), which would link this spring to the Gihon River of Eden.
Eden is also tied with Jerusalem by the prophet Ezekiel. In
Ezekiel 28:13-14
, he recorded, "You were in Eden, the garden of God;" ... "You were on the holy mount of God." In most Jewish and Christian traditions, "the holy mount of God" is Mt. Moriah, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (see, for example). Furthermore, Ezekiel records a vision of a rebuilt
Temple in Jerusalem with a river flowing from under its threshold (
47:1-12) towards the Dead Sea, bringing life to that which is dead. Because of its supernatural nature, this river has been associated with the "river of life" in Eden (the river which watered and flowed from Eden).
Revelation 21:1-22:5 in Christian scripture records a similar vision of a "river of life" and "trees of life" that heal in a new Jerusalem, just as there was a river of life and tree of life in Eden.
Finally, Jewish and Christian tradition see symbolism within the Temple, which once stood in Jerusalem and can only be rebuilt in Jerusalem, which connects it to Eden; the
menorah as the tree of life, for example.
Iran
Another possibility was proposed by archaeologist
David Rohl, based on archaeological evidence, putting the garden in north-western
Iran. According to him, the Garden was located in a vast plain referred to in ancient Sumerian texts as Edin (lit. "Plain", or "Steppe") east of the
Sahand Mountain, near
Tabriz. He cites several geological similarities with Biblical descriptions, and multiple linguistic parallels as evidence. In the Sumerian texts, an emissary is sent north through "Seven Gates", also known as Mountain passes in ancient texts. Hebrew lore includes references to Seven layers of Heaven, the 7th being the Garden of Eden, or Paradise. Just beyond the seventh gate, or pass, was the kingdom of
Aratta. The region today is bound by a large mountain range to the North, East and South, and marshlands to the west. The eastern mountain region has a pass leading in and out of the Edin region. This fits with the Biblical geography of Eden containing marshlands to the west, and the
Land of Nod to the east, outside the Garden. Geographically speaking, it would form a "wall" around the Garden, conforming to the definition of the Persian word
pairidaeza (paradise) and the Hebrew word
gan (garden), both of which mean a "walled garden or park". Additionally, this location would be bound by the four biblical rivers to the West, Southwest, East and Southeast.
Underwater
Other literalists point out that the world of Eden's time was destroyed during
Noah's Flood and it's therefore impossible to place the Garden anywhere in post-flood geography. There is also an attempt to tie this with the mysterious sunken land of "
Atlantis" mentioned by
Plato.
Sundaland
Another location that has been mentioned is
Sundaland in the
South China Sea. In this theory, the current
Tigris and
Euphrates rivers wouldn't be the ones referred to in the story, but rather later rivers named after two earlier ones, just as colonists often name features of their new land after similar features in their homeland. This idea also resolves the apparent problem in the theory that the rivers had a common source, which the current rivers lack.
Africa
Some people believe that Garden of Eden was somewhere in Northeast Africa. Evidence given in support of this includes the facts that the oldest human remains have been found in Africa, and that the Gihon is usually thought to be a name for the
Nile.
Mòinteach Bharbhais (Scotland)
According to some strands of
Scottish Gaelic tradition the Garden was located in
Mòinteach Bharbhais (Barvas Moor) on the
Isle of Lewis in the
Outer Hebrides. Climate change has since altered the topography and prevailing weather considerably.
Latter Day Saints' geography
For members of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the
Mormons or Latter Day Saints), the Garden of Eden is believed to have been located in present-day
Jackson County, Missouri according to
Joseph Smith, Jr. Independence, Missouri was revealed to be the "center place" of
Zion and the original dwelling place of Adam and Eve in the Garden which God planted "eastward in Eden". According to Joseph Smith, Adam and Eve traveled 85 miles north to the valley of
Adam-ondi-Ahman after they'd transgressed and were driven from the Garden. (Adam-ondi-Ahman is sometimes mistakenly associated with the location of the garden itself). As for its location in the western hemisphere, some Latter-day Saints have presumed the continents were not yet separate before the Great Flood and that this approach would be consistent with the configuration of the super-continent
Pangaea. While geologists consider that the continents had separated by the
Cretaceous period, some Latter-day Saints and other Christians have pointed to the account in
Genesis which states that the earth was "divided" in the days of
Peleg.
In the
Pearl of Great Price, it's claimed that there were lands and rivers that were given names later attached to other lands and rivers as in the Book of Genesis. The geographic descriptions of Eden in the
Bible would therefore refer to entirely different lands and rivers than those carrying the same names today, whose names were transposed after the biblical flood to local lands and rivers in the Near East. By one account Joseph Smith taught that Noah built the ark near modern-day
South Carolina. Thus, it's argued, the offspring of Noah populated the eastern hemisphere.
Urantia geography
The
Urantia Book (1955) places the Garden of Eden in a long narrow peninsula projecting westward from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and having been long ago submerged in connection with volcanic activity and the submergence of a Sicilian land bridge to Africa.
Eden as paradise
"
Paradise" (
Hebrew פרדס
PaRDeS) used as a synonym for the Garden of Eden shares a number of characteristics with words for 'walled orchard garden' or 'enclosed hunting park' in an ancient Persian language. This word "paradise" occurs three times in the
Old Testament, but always in contexts other than a connection with Eden: in the
Song of Solomon iv. 13: "
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard" ;
Ecclesiastes 2. 5: "
I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits";and in
Nehemiah ii. 8: "
And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's orchard, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I'll enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me. ". In the Song of Solomon, it's clearly "garden;" in the second and third examples "park." In the post-Exilic
apocalyptic literature and in the
Talmud, "paradise" gains its associations with the Garden of Eden and its heavenly prototype. In the Pauline Christian New Testament, there's an association of "paradise" with the realm of the blessed (as opposed to the realm of the cursed) among those who have already died, with literary Hellenistic influences observed by numerous scholars. The Greek
Garden of the Hesperides was somewhat similar to the Christian concept of the Garden of Eden, and by the 16th century a larger intellectual association was made in the Cranach painting (
see illustration). In this painting, only the
action that takes place there identifies the setting as distinct from the Garden of the Hesperides, with its golden fruit.
Alan Millard has hypothesized that the Garden of Eden doesn't represent a
geographical place, but rather represents
cultural memory of "simpler times", when man lived off God's bounty (as "primitive" hunters and gatherers still do) as opposed to toiling at agriculture (being "civilized"). Of course there's much dispute between Judeo-Christian and secular scholars as to the plausibility of this idea - the refuting claim being that cultivation and agricultural work were present both before and after the "Garden Life".
The
Second Book of Enoch, of late but uncertain date, states that both Paradise and Hell are accommodated in the third sphere of heaven,
Shehaqim, with Hell being located simply " on the northern side:" see
Seventh Heaven.
Eden as a Kingdom
The structure and order defined by God in the Garden of Eden is also believed to have been the early structure for the
Kingdom of God. Immediately following the creation of Man, God commands them to "fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" . The obvious references to domination are important to the Christian view of Man's relation to nature and Man's role in the
Kingdom of God.
Later, in Chapter 3, the "Fall of Man" is followed by the pronouncement of a curse. This curse contains references to the enmity between the Kingdom and its subjects—as had been described in 1:28—that would affect the kingdom unto the present day: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers."
Eden in art
Garden of Eden motifs most frequently portrayed in
illuminated manuscripts and paintings are the "Sleep of Adam" ("Creation of Eve"), the "Temptation of Eve" by the Serpent, the "Fall of Man" where Adam takes the fruit, and the "Expulsion". The idyll of "Naming Day in Eden" was less often depicted. Much of Milton's
Paradise Lost occurs in the Garden of Eden.
Michelangelo depicted a at the Garden of Eden in the
Sistine Chapel ceiling. Also, in the film, Captain
Spock has a painting hanging in his room he calls "Expulsion from Paradise", depicting Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden. He explains to a fellow member of the crew that it's a personal reminder that all things must end.
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