From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Adam in the Garden of Eden
Eden (Hebrew: עדן, ‘Eden: "pleasure") was the geographical region in the antediluvian world in which God created the Garden of Eden (Hebrew: גן עדן, Gan ‘Eden; Arabic: جنة عدن, Jannat ‘Adn). The Book of Genesis describes the Garden of Eden as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God and cared for it until the Fall. The Garden of Eden, is described in Genesis 2-3 .
"The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria And the fourth river is the Euphrates." - Genesis 2:8-14 (NASB)
The Four Rivers
It is not normal — in fact it is probably totally unknown in the modern world — for one river to divide into four. In what manner this occurred is not described in the Bible.
The names of two of the rivers survive today—the Tigris and the Euphrates. However, the description of these rivers flowing from one does not match the present rivers, and the other two named rivers are missing. This is actually to be expected, as the Global Flood would have destroyed all trace of the pre-flood world, including the land of Eden and its rivers and garden. The survival of two of the names is easily explained by post-flood settlers' naming new rivers after the pre-flood rivers, just as in modern times rivers in Australia and North America have been named by immigrants after rivers back in their "mother country".
Location of the Garden
As noted, the garden was in the land of Eden. But as the Global Flood destroyed the pre-flood world, and the apparent original single continent was broken up into the separate land masses that we have today, it is impossible to say where in today's world Eden was. Assuming that Noah lived not too far from Eden, and that the ark didn't float too far around the world, the best that could be said is that Eden was possibly near that part of our globe that is now the Middle East.
See Also
Related References
