Garden of Eden

This article is about the Biblical garden. For other uses, see Garden of Eden (disambiguation).
"Terrestrial Paradise" redirects here. For the painting, see Terrestrial Paradise (Bosch).
The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Paul Rubens, c. 1615, depicting both domestic and exotic wild animals such as tigers, parrots, and ostriches co-existing in the garden

In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (Biblical Hebrew: גַּן־עֵדֶן‎, romanized: gan-ʿĒḏen; Greek: Εδέμ; Latin: Paradisus) or Garden of God (גַּן־יְהֹוֶה‎, gan-YHWH and גַן־אֱלֹהִים‎, gan-Elohim), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31.[1][2]

The location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as the source of four tributaries. Various suggestions have been made for its location:[3] at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea;[4] and in Armenia.[5][6][7] Others theorize that Eden was the entire Fertile Crescent[8] or a region of "considerable size" in Mesopotamia, where its native inhabitants still exist in cities such as Telassar.[9][10]

Like the Genesis flood narrative, the Genesis creation narrative and the account of the Tower of Babel, the story of Eden echoes the Mesopotamian myth of a king, as a primordial man, who is placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life.[11] Scholars note that the Eden narrative shows parallels with aspects of Solomon’s Temple and Jerusalem, attesting to its nature as a sacred place.[12][13] Mentions of Eden are also made in the Bible elsewhere in Genesis,[14] in Isaiah 51:3,[15] Ezekiel 36:35,[16] and Joel 2:3;[17] Zechariah 14 and Ezekiel 47 use paradisical imagery without naming Eden.[18]

The name derives from the Akkadian edinnu, from a Sumerian word edin meaning 'plain' or 'steppe', closely related to an Aramaic root word meaning 'fruitful, well-watered'.[2] Another interpretation associates the name with a Hebrew word for 'pleasure';[19] thus the Vulgate reads paradisum voluptatis in Genesis 2:8, and the Douay–Rheims Bible, following, has the wording "And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure".[20]

  1. ^ Metzger, Bruce Manning; Coogan, Michael D (2004). The Oxford Guide To People And Places Of The Bible. Oxford University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-19-517610-0. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  2. ^ a b Cohen 2011, pp. 228–229.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference wilensky2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hamblin-1987 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zevit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Duncan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Scafi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Mark, Joshua J. (March 28, 2018). "Fertile Crescent". World History Encylcopedia.
  9. ^ "Telassar in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".
  10. ^ "Isaiah 37: Barnes Commentary". Biblehub. 2023.
  11. ^ Davidson 1973, p. 33.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stager was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Kang, Seung Il (2020). "The Garden of Eden as an Israelite Sacred Place". Theology Today. 77 (1): 89–99. doi:10.1177/0040573617731712.
  14. ^ Genesis 13:10.
  15. ^ Isaiah 51:3.
  16. ^ Ezekiel 36:35.
  17. ^ Joel 2:3.
  18. ^ Tigchelaar 1999, p. 37.
  19. ^ Day 2014, p. 26.
  20. ^ "Latin Vulgate Bible with Douay–Rheims and King James Version Side-by-Side+Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ". www.latinvulgate.com. Archived from the original on 2021-03-12. Retrieved 2021-03-10.