Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EDEN

(Heb. ʿēḏen; Gk. Edem)

(PLACE)

A geographic region where God planted a garden, in which the first man and woman were placed and from which they were expelled. At times the name may better connote “edenic” beauty rather than the place per se. The garden is “in” Eden only in Gen. 2:8 (with the preposition elsewhere only in Ezek. 28:13, where it is also called “the garden of God” cf. 31:9, par. “trees of Eden”). In Isa. 51:3 Eden is in parallel with “garden of Yahweh,” found elsewhere only in Gen. 13:10 (where Eden is not mentioned). Eden can be equated with the garden in Ezek. 28:13; 31:9 only if its use is appositional rather than attributive.

Theories of location choose between Armenia (north) or Babylonia (south) in eastern Mesopotamia and more western regions. An important factor here is Eden as the source of four great rivers (Gen. 2:10-14). Options for the two debated “rivers” (Pishon and Gihon) have included the Indus, Ganges, canals that connect the two known rivers, lesser streams in Elam, the Nile (Blue and White), Gihon Spring in Jerusalem, and the Persian Gulf. Pivotal and persistent questions are: (1) whether to connect the etymology of Eden to a rare Akkadian (edinu, “plain steppe”) or the closer and more common West Semitic cognate (“delight; abundance”; Ugar., Syr., and Aram. ʿdn; Arab. ǵdn), which is the traditional view (cf. LXX Gen. 2:8; 3:23-24; Isa. 51:3; Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7); (2) whether the river of Gen. 2:10 “follows from” or “rises in” Eden, and if the four rivers are independent or interrelated; (3) whether Cush is Ethiopia or Elam (the Kassite region east of the Tigris); and (4) whether miqqeḏem in Gen. 2:8 means the garden was in eastern Eden, Eden was in the east, or that Eden was “of old.” The Babylonian site conflicts with the eastward movement of humanity from the garden to north and south Mesopotamia in Gen. 2–11. This view also must explain how Eden as an oasis was derived from a term meaning “plain.”

The significance of connecting the first couple’s paradise of God’s presence with the future site of the temple (cf. Gihon Spring) symbolizing God’s presence and the promised Palestinian paradise (cf. Isa. 51:3; Zech. 14:8; Rev. 22:1-2) should not be missed. In ancient Near Eastern mythology a garden paradise of two rivers is where the divine council meets; and in pseudepigraphal literature Eden is associated with a “heaven” of salvation for the faithful.

In the final analysis, establishing the exact location may be impossible owing to authorial intention or to catastrophic topographical changes resulting from the Flood.

Bibliography. W. F. Albright, “The Location of the Garden of Eden,” AJSL 39 (1922): 15-31; W. H. Gispen, “Genesis 2:10-14,” in Studia Biblica et Semitica (Wageningen, 1966), 115-24; A. R. Millard, “The Etymology of Eden,” VT 34 (1984): 103-6; E. A. Speiser, “The Rivers of Paradise,” in Oriental and Biblical Studies, ed. J. J. Finkelstein and M. Greenberg (Philadelphia, 1967), 23-34; H. N. Wallace, The Eden Narrative. HSM 32 (Atlanta, 1985).

W. Creighton Marlowe

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EDEN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)