Category Archives: Eden

The Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden was not a garden named Eden, but a garden in a place called Eden. Where Eden was no one can say. It is very likely that the original garden was destroyed in the flood. Ezekiel tells us that the trees of Eden were brought down to the nether part of the earth (Ezek. 31:18). In any event, God’s judgement on man’s sin was to bar his presence in the garden by driving him out and placing cheribim with flaming swords to keep or block the entrance into the garden (Gen. 3:24). The implication seems to be that man can no longer experience this place. Our knowledge of it now must be limited to what the scriptures teach us of it.

Most translations tell us Eden was “eastward.” The King James Version translates this as saying God planted His garden “eastward in Eden” (Gen. 2:8). If this is the correct translation, then we must ask, was it that Eden was in the east and the garden was placed there or was it that the garden was placed in the east of Eden? The language is not definitive enough to discern.

There is another possibility. The word translated “eastward” is used in two ways in the scriptures. One way it is used is in reference to location. Fifty times in the Old Testament the word “mikkedem” is translated as some form of the word “east.” However, at least another thirty times it is used with reference to time (old 17, ancient 6, before 3, ancient time 2, aforetime 1, eternal 1, everlasting 1). God is from “mikkedem” or “everlasting” (Hab. 1:12). “The days of old (mikkedem)” (Micah 7:20). The wise man said “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old (mikkedem)” (Proverbs 8:22). So it is legitimate to translate this word as relating to time not to place.

Could it be that Moses was saying that God had already planted a garden “before,” i.e., when He had made the trees (the third day-Gen. 1:9-13)? Some early translations support this. Wycliffe (1394, Purvey Revision) translates mikkedem as “at the beginning.” Tyndale (1533) translated it “from the beginning.” Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translated mikkedem as “a principio” (“from the beginning”). The 1899 Douay-Rheims versions reads “And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning.”

So whether the garden was planted in the east or it was already planted and prepared before, the word Eden means delight. It was a garden of delights. A Paradise. The physical description of the garden is one of a lush and beautiful and luxurious place. It is referred to as the garden of God (Ezek. 31:9). Every precious stone seemed to be strewn on the ground, stones like gold, bdellium and the onyx stone (Gen. 2:12). Ezekiel says there was also sardius, topaz, diamond, jasper, sapphire and emerald and Ezekiel calls these the stones of fire (Ezek. 28:13). It must have been like seeing flashes of multi-colored fire as the sun glanced off each gem.

A lively river of the purest water this world has ever known ran out from Eden into the garden to water it. Rivers generally start from higher sources like mountain glacial formations. Whether or not they would have existed in a pre-flood environment is not known. But there were also sub-terrainian water chambers, the fountains of the great deep (Gen. 7:11), which could have supplied the source. But Ezekiel mentions that connected with the garden of God was the holy mountain of God. The garden of God was not in some low lying plain, but in a mountain, supplied by an even higher source of living water.

The rivers that are mentioned in Genesis as connected with the garden cannot be used to locate either Eden or the garden. The topography of the earth would have been completely altered by the hydrolic forces of the flood. In any event, there is no place where the rivers mentioned in Genesis all come together to fit the Biblical description. As one commentator noted, “It is impossible, however, to imagine how any of the great rivers that are mentioned in the tabular view can ever have been united in one stream” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown). Scholars have in vain tried to fit the pieces together only to be met with abject failure, not because the Biblical descripion is faulty, but because it is just a description of something that no longer exists. The names of these old, pre-flood rivers being applied to new, post flood rivers by Noah and his descendents after they reinhabited the new world.

Every kind of tree was present in the garden. Every tree that was pleasant in sight and good for food. The beauty and grandeur of these stately and satisfying flora was emphasized again by the prophet Ezekiel when he represented the leaders of the nations as trees. When the Assyrian was held up as an example, when seen as a tree, even all the trees of Eden envied him, showing that the trees of Eden were the standard by which to judge such vegetation (Ezek. 31:9). Perhaps the Redwoods of the California Redwood Forest give us a glimpse of their grandeur. Imagine cedars, fir and chesnut trees of this magnitude making their home in the garden of Eden (Ezek. 31:8).

Of course, there were two other trees of great significance. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of every single tree and plant man was allowed by the Lord to partake, save one, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. One tree brought life, the other death. The many lessons of these trees are for another lesson save only this, that to do what God forbids leads only to death and corruption.

It has been said there was no law in the Garden, but this is manifestly false. God put man in the Garden with a purpose. Without man there was no one to till the ground (Gen. 2:5). So God placed man in the Garden to dress it and to keep it (Gen. 2:15). God’s directive to man was to work and keep up this Garden. Furthermore, God also commanded man from taking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2:16). Even in man’s primitive, pristine, pure state, there was law to be obeyed. How much more today in the sin-cursed world.

This wondrous garden of God was man’s orginal home. Man’s every need–physical, social, moral, intellectual, spiritual–was fully met. He was in perfect fellowship with Jehovah and walked with Him in the garden among the stones of fire (Gen. 3:8). There was no shame, nothing to cause man to hide from the Lord and there was nothing to hide. Until… Until man broke faith with the Lord and violated His will. Then the world very literally began to fall apart as the force of God’s condemnation weakens the forces He put in place to sustain the world and one day, when He is ready, it shall melt with fervent heat and dissolve away with a great noise (II Pet. 3:10-12).

The old serpent subtilly entrapped man with his mortal lies. Because of sin, man was driven from his home, placed under a curse, lost his ability to grasp life, lost his innocence, lost his fellowship with God and lost his salvation. The way to Eden was blocked and no sinful mortal could ever find his way back to walking with the Lord among the stones of fire.

But all hope was not lost. We’ll speak of Paradise again.

Eric L. Padgett

The Lord God Planted A Garden

What would it have been like to live in the Garden of Eden? The Bible gives us only a brief description of Eden in Genesis and in several other passages throughout God’s word and there is certainly much more we would like to know than what we have. Knowing and experiencing the wondrous beauty of this present world, even with it’s cursed condition (Gen. 3:7), suggests to us that it’s beauty must have surpassed our wildest imaginations. How wonderful it would have been to walk in the Garden in the cool of the day and to hear the voice of God (Gen. 3:8).

The very name “Eden” means “pleasure.” It was, indeed, a garden of pleasure, a paradise, if you will. Ezekiel refers to it as the Garden of God (Ezek. 28:13)! It was a garden that Lord, Himself, planted (Gen. 2:8). Like everything else that the Lord made it must have been “very good” (Gen. 1:31). It was designed especially for man, for there the Lord God placed the man whom He had formed (Gen.2 :8).

Some have tried to locate the Garden of Eden geographically on the earth. According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Central Asia, Armenia and even the North Pole have been proposed as locations for the Garden. Most, however, will place it in the region around the Euphrates river because in the description given in Genesis, a river “Euphrates” is mentioned (Gen. 2:14). But it must be remembered that one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years after creation, the world was destroyed by a universal cataclysmic deluge. Before this time and since creation, the land mass was all together in one place (Genesis 1:9). After the flood, however, the geography and terrain of the world was altered significantly, so that the location of Eden was likely forever destroyed. Furthermore, the Lord God placed cherubim on the east of Eden to keep the way of the tree of life and would probably guard the secret to the Eden, as well (Genesis 3:24).

Moses described the Garden as containing every tree that was good for food and pleasant to the sight. It contained the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as well. A river went out of Eden to water the Garden and there it parted into four other rivers, one of which was the Euphrates. (This Euphrates may well have given rise to the present river of the same name, as Noah and his descendants would rename the new world after the old places). There were also beautiful and valuable stones and gems like bdellium, the onyx stone and gold (Gen. 2:8-14).

In Ezekiel’s description of the garden as he prophesies against the king of Tyre, who apparently likened himself to the perfection of Adam, He describes the garden as bedecked with every precious stone, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold (Ezek. 28:13). This coincides with Moses’ description. As many commentators point out, Ezekiel is likely also describing the temple, as well. The High Priest’s breastplate contained these precious gems (plus others) and the mention of the “cherub that covereth” may also refer to the cherubim on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. It may also refer to the cherubim that kept the way of the tree of life (Gen. 3:24).

Interestingly, Ezekiel describes the Garden of God as upon the Mountain of God (Ezek. 28:14). We normally think of the Garden of Eden as being in a valley or plain, but Ezekiel associates it with the mountains. Some commentators remark that this probably refers to the Mt. Zion and the temple. And well it may, but for the analogy to be vivid, there must be some correspondence, just as there was between the jewels on the High Priests breastplate and the gems which littered the ground of Eden, the stones of fire (Ezek. 28:14). To reach God and be in His presence we must go “up.”

The Lord God placed man in the garden and supplied man with everything that he needed. Most importantly, man was in fellowship with God. He could eat of every tree in the garden (except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), even the tree of life and live for ever. The garden was well watered by rivers and there were precious gems decorating the garden. But all this was forfeited by man because he chose to disobey a command of God and eat of forbidden fruit, thereby losing his access to the tree of life and his fellowship with Jehovah. It was only through sacrifices of animals that God allowed the further existence of mankind.

However, it is only through Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice, that we can regain that fellowship with God. In the Book of Revelation, when John describes the ultimate salvation of God’s people, he describes a scene which could very well be the heavenly Eden. There is a river that runs through it. Only now, it is the river of life and flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1). There is also found the tree of life which bears twelve manner of fruit for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2). This heavenly home is found on Mount Zion, the mountain of God (Cf. Rev. 14:1), which is the church of God (Heb. 12:22-24). And there fellowship with God is restored as we shall see His face and there shall be no more curse (Rev. 22:3,4).

We will never walk in Eden again, but we may, if we are faithful, abide forever in the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7).

Eric L. Padgett