Is there really such a
place as the Garden of Eden? – Has it never been found?
Opening Statement
I strongly suspect that
the Garden of God Garden of God
the same place, but just
not the same time period.
Gen 2:15 – The Garden of Eden
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden NIV
Ezek 28:12-13 – The Garden of God
12 You (Satan) were the model of
perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden garden of God
Isa 51:3 - The Garden of
the Lord
3 The LORD will surely comfort Zion Eden
Satan is hacked off.
- The garden was
already in existence when God placed Adam there.
- The garden was where
Satan’s throne was; where he dispensed his authority and rule.
- God displaced Satan
with Adam and Satan gets ticked off – Adam was made lower than him, yet
Adam has been given authority over everything.
Ezek 28:14-15 – Satan was
the protector of earth till treason.
14 Thou art the anointed
cherub that covers; and I have set thee so: you were upon the holy mountain of God
15 You were perfect in thy
ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was FOUND in
thee.
Ezek 28:16 – Satan driven out of the Garden of God
16 Through your widespread
trade you were filled with violence,
and you sinned. So I
drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you,
O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones
Gen 2:7 – God made Adam
out of dirt.
7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust
of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man
became a living being. NIV
Heb 2:6-8 – Adam was made
a little lower than the angels
6 "What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor
8 and put everything under his feet."
NIV
Gen 2:8 – The Garden was already
east of the land of Eden
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in
the east, in Eden
NIV
Gen 2:15-17 – Adam was put
in the Garden of Eden and warned
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden
of Eden to work it and take care of it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You
are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely
die."
NIV
Gen 1:26 – God gives
Adam dominion over all the earth
26 And God said, Let us
make man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
KJV
Gen 2:19-20 – Adam was
given authority over everything living
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground
all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to
the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living
creature, that was its name.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the
birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. NIV
Satan fights back
- Satan wasn’t going to
take this lying down and he certainly wasn’t going to report to someone
made lower than him, let alone someone made out of dirt.
- Satan fights back by
tricking Adam and his cute wife into disobedience to God.
- You know the rest of
the story. – A Cherubim angel with four wings and a flaming sword drove
the Adamites out of the Garden.
- Man was now fallen
and God stopped anyone else from entering the
Gen 3:21-22 – Live forever
if you ate from the tree of life.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and
his wife and clothed them.
22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now
become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to
reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live
forever.
NIV
Gen 3:24 – No man can enter the Garden of Eden and live
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the
east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword
flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. NIV
Ezek 1:6 – Cherubim’s have
four wings
6 but each of them had four faces and four
wings. NIV
Garden of Eden
·
Almost
all nations have traditions of an age of innocence – evil did not exist
– life was without care or labor – food came forth spontaneously in abundance –
no one aged or lost their vigor.
·
The
word garden (paradeisos) translates “enclosure” similar to a park.
·
Eden – A Hebrew word meaning Paradise –
luxury - pleasure –delight – It was
created on the Holy mountain of God on the east side of Eden.
·
Eden
·
The land was loaded with
precious gems and Gold – rubies, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire,
turquoise, beryl and Gold. – You can bet we would like to find this place
·
The temperature was temperate, so no
clothes were needed.
·
It
was watered by four head waters as well as springs that provided
irrigation, insuring lush vegetation, pasture and all kinds of fruit bearing
trees that were good for food.
·
As
Adam was to tend and keep the garden it would not be far fetched to believe
that the garden also contained grain and vegetables as the land was very
fertile.
·
There
were also many kinds of birds and animals that filled the land.
·
There
were two special trees in the middle
of the garden – the tree of life and the other which was forbidden to
eat from; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (right
and wrong)
·
Scholars
believe that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was just an ordinary
tree planted for the purpose of testing Adam. – By eating of the tree, Adam did
not receive universal knowledge,
but received experiential knowledge.
– He experienced the knowledge of right and wrong. - The omniscient (all knowing) God already knew Adam
would fail. – “the universal law of sin and death” had already been put
into effect. “If you sin you will die”.
Gen 2:10 - Four rivers
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden
Gen 2:6 – Other streams
provided natural irrigation.
6 but streams came up from the earth and
watered the whole surface of the ground NIV
Gen 2:15 – Adam was to tend the garden
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. NIV
Gen 2:25 – They didn’t wear any clothes
25 The man and his wife were both naked,
and they felt no shame.
Gen 2:9-14 – All kinds of
trees were planted – Two were special
9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees
grow out of the ground--trees that were … good for food. In the middle of the
garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.
Gen 2:20 – There were many animals and birds
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the
birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. NIV
Ezek 28:13 – The place was
loaded with precious stones.
13 You were in Eden garden of God
sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings
and mountings were made of gold; NIV
Gen 2:12 – Gold – aromatic resin - onyx
12 The gold of that land is good; aromatic
resin and onyx also there
Where was the Garden
- The garden was
located on the east side of
- Note: East of
- Based on the four rivers, we think we know
about where the Garden of Eden was.
- Only in
- Most of the smart
people tell us that it was located at the head of the
- Except for Satellite
mapping technology showing possible river beds, no trace of the Garden has
ever been found. - It is widely thought that it perished during the great
flood of Noah.
Gen 2:8 – The Garden was
in the east of Eden
8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in
the east, in Eden
Gen 4:16 Nod is East of Eden
16 So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and
lived in the land of Nod Eden
The Four Rivers of Eden
- Water flowed from
- Note: It’s known in recorded history that
these rivers changed channels more than once making the identification of
Gen 2:10 – A river flowed
out of the Garden
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden
Gen 2:11 –It divides into the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates
11 The name of the first is the Pishon;
it winds through the entire land of Havilah
12(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin
and onyx are also there.)
13 The name of the second river is the Gihon;
it winds through the entire land of Cush
14 The name of the third river is the Tigris ; it runs along the east
side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates . NIV
- Pison –
Pishon
– (the current – broad flowing) Which went around the land of Havilah - All
we know today is that it was one of the rivers in Eden – There is no
agreement on the size of this body of water or where it was located - With
Satellite technology, we can see what looks like, where a river bed was once
in that area.
- Some identify this
river as the “
Gen 2:11 – The first of the four rivers
11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds
through the entire land of Havilah NIV
- Gihon – (to gush forth – bursting forth) – Flowed
around the whole
- Some think this river
was the “
2 Chron 32:30 – Gihon springs
flowed by aqueduct to Jerusalem
30 It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of
the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the
City of David
- It is also identified
as the “Hiddekel”.
- When the snows of the
mountains of
- The Tigris and the
Euphrates both flow almost parallel to each other for hundreds of
miles.
- In antiquity the
Tigris and Euphrates entered the Persian Gulf by separate mouths, today
they are joined together to form the heartland of what is know as the Fertile Crescent and
then empties into the Persian Gulf.
- Along its banks stood
the cities of
- Daniel had a vision
of an angel while standing on the bank of the
Dan 10:4 – Daniel had a
vision there
4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as
I (Daniel) was standing on the bank of the great river, the
Tigris , NIV
- Euphrates – (to break forth) (sweet water) - The largest and longest
( 1,780 miles long) and most important river of Western Asia – It
originates from two sources in the Armenian mountains, whose branches join
- It is a slow moving and very steep wide river. It flowed through the middle of
- It is also identified
as the “Prath”.
- The lowest water is
in September with the highest in May – its course has shifted to the West
since ancient times.
- The bed of the river
ran somewhat higher than the
- It is the eastern
limit and the northern boundary of the
- Ancient cities along
the banks included
- The silt brought down
by the
- Also it is mentioned
in the book of Revelation is where some evil angels are bound. (Good angels are not bound)
Gen 15:18 – The eastern limit of the kingdom of Israel
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram
and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt
14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet,
"Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates ." NIV
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the
great river Euphrates , and its water was dried
up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. NIV
Garden of Eden Summary
- The
- When Satan rebelled,
God drove him out of the garden and replaced him with Adam.
- Satan got mad and
tricked Adam into sin – God already knew that he would.
- The tree of knowledge
of good and evil was probably just an ordinary tree to test Adam.
- The garden became off
limits.
- The Garden of Eden
was located on the east of
- It was an enclosed
track of flat land that was well watered with springs.
- It was fertile, had trees,
vegetables and grain, animals and birds, precious stones and gold.
- The temperature was
ideal and skinny dipping was the norm.
- It had four rivers
that flowed from the garden.
- Two of the rivers
cannot be identified; the Pishon and the Gihon.
- The
- Today we have the phenomena
called the “
- We believe during the
flood of Noah, the waters of the deep destroyed the garden so that no
trace of it has ever been found. (Gen
8:2)
- Oddly enough, almost
every culture has a legend about a place of paradise, where no one ages,
evil does not exist and the living is good.
In the multitude of counselors,
there is wisdom.
Prov 11:14
I
am grateful for those that went before me providing concepts, ideas, historical
information, and scripture verses.
Because of them I can stand on their shoulders and see further than I
otherwise ever could have.
An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words – W.E. Vine
Biblical Ethics
– Robertson McQuilkin
Bible Almanac:
The – Packer Tenny White
Bible Dictionary – Harper
Expositor’s Bible Commentary; The – Frank E. Gaebelein
Great Doctrines of the Bible: Soteriology – W.A. Criswell
Historical Atlas of the Bible; The – DR. Ian Barnes
Illustrated Bible Dictionary – Nelson
Illustrated Bible Dictionary; The – Tyndale
International Dictionary of the Bible: The- Zondervan
International Dictionary of the Bible:- Douglas - Tenny
King James Version of the Bible – KJV
Nave’s topical Bible - Zondervan
New International Version Bible - NIV
Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible; The– Zondervan Tenny
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible - Guideposts
Unraveling the Big
Questions about God –
Kenneth Boa
Victor Journey through the Bible: The – V. Gilbert Beers
Webster’s New World College Dictionary – Webster
Where to find it in the Bible – Ken Anderson
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