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Where Was The Garden Of Eden Located?
Author : Dr. Lee Miller
The Garden of Eden was the place where Adam and Eve lived before their sin, which seems to have been the early name for a large land area, including Mesopotamia and also possibly the entire Fertile Crescent. The garden God planted was in the eastern part of this area (Gen. 2:8). The two most likely locations lie in the mountains of Armenia and at the head of the Persian Gulf. However, it needs to be understood, that no theory or belief of where the garden is actually located is without problems.
What are some of these theories or beliefs of a possible location of the Garden of Eden? One opinion is that the Garden of Eden in which the Bible locates the spot where the temptation and the fall took place was somewhere in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, apparently in the eastern most third of the Fertile Crescent. Other scholars have placed the location of Eden just north of Babylon where the Euphrates and Tigris closely approach each other. Furthermore, there are those with the belief that Eden was near ancient Eridu, on the Persian Gulf. However, such locations are at this time impossible to prove or identify.
Other suggestions as to the possible place of where the Garden of Eden actually was include not only Babylonia (in Mesopotamia), Armenia (north of Mesopotamia), but also, an island in the Indian Ocean. The Bible in Genesis 2:10 states that four "riverheads" divided from the river that flowed out of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:10-14), which supports a place somewhere in Mesopotamia. There are those who believe that Pishon and Gihon two of the four rivers said to "flow out of Eden to water the garden" (Gen.2:10-14), are presently the rivers Indus and the Nile. So, what is being suggested is that Eden included the whole of the Fertile Crescent from India to Egypt.
Now, the location of the Garden of Eden is in part to be determined from the description already given in the Bible. As for an example, the Garden of Eden is said to be "eastward, in Eden" found in Genesis 2:8; where the vegetation was very luxurious (2:9) and the fig tree indigenous (3:7), and it was watered by irrigation. The garden was a place of all kinds of animals that were created by God, including cattle, beasts of the field and birds. (Gen. 2:19-20). Also, the climate was such that clothing was not needed to keep warm. It is of no surprise, that the plural of the word means "delights," and that Eden has been thought to mean the land of delights, and that the word became a synonym for Paradise. Therefore, the location of the Garden of Eden can be determined from the actual description already given in the Bible.
Eden must be where there is a climate adapted to the production of fruit trees and of animals capable of domestication, and in general to the existence of man in his primitive condition. In particular, its location is supposed to be determined by the statements about the rivers running through it and surrounding it. Columbus as he passed the mouth of the Orinoco believed that its waters came down from the Garden of Eden. It is fair to believe, that Columbus thought that he was at the east coast of Asia. The traditions of the Garden of Eden ' s location to be somewhere in Central Asia have been believed by many. Naturalists have, along with Quatrefages, believe that the portion of Central Asia stretching east from Pamir, often thought of as the top of the world, and from which flow four great rivers, the Indus, the Tarim, the Sur Daria (Jaxartes), and the Amu Daria (Oxus), is actually the original cradle of mankind. This conclusion has been arrived at from the fact that at the present time the three fundamental types of the races of the world are located around this particular area.
A man named Dr. William F. Warren has with prodigious studying tried to prove that the original Eden was actually at the North Pole. This theory is supported by the fact that in preglacial times a warm climate surrounded the North Pole in all the lands which have been explored. But as the latest discoveries have shown that there is no land or area within several hundred miles of the North Pole, this theory of Dr. Warren, if it is to even be considered as possibly true, will have to be modified so as to place Eden at a considerable distance from the actual pole.
The question has been asked amongst Bible scholars, has the Garden of Eden been located at last? Different individuals and late classical writers believed that the Garden of Eden could possibly be located in Mongolia, India, or Ethiopia. They based their theories upon the known antiquity of those areas, and on the idea that the mysterious Pison and Gihon were to be connected with those other two great rivers of the ancient world, which is the Nile and the Ganges rivers. Another popular area for the Garden of Eden had been in Turkey, because both the Tigris and the Euphrates rise in the mountains there, and because Mount Ararat is the place of where Noah ' s Ark came to rest at this location. In the past hundred years, since the discovery of ancient civilization in modern Iraq, scholars have leaned toward the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, and to the sites of southern Sumer, which is about 150 miles north of the present head of the Persian Gulf, in particular.
So, in conclusion, this has been a very interesting topic to research, in which I found various opinions on this subject, as to where was the Garden of Eden really located. However, the exact location of where the garden was placed by God, in my opinion has not been found, and never will be. However, looking to the Word of God, based on the description in Genesis 2:10-14, we can have a good idea of the possible location of the Garden of Eden. "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." And the fourth head or river is the great Euphrates which flows from East Central Turkey through Syria and Iraq, joining the Tigris to form the Shatt al Arab. Therefore, I conclude that the Garden of Eden must of been somewhere in the Middle East, perhaps surrounded by such countries as Turkey, Iraq, and Iran or somewhere in the Persian Gulf region.
Author's Resource Box
Hello, my name is Dr. Lee Miller. I am married to a beautiful woman named Elizabeth. We have four wonderful children and three fantastic grandchildren. I have a Doctorate in Theology and a Ph.D in Religion. I have been in the ministry for 31 years and a pastor for ten years. I enjoy writing christian articles centered around Biblical research.
Author Link: http://www.docmiller06.wordpress.com
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