10 GENESIS
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
(CONTINUED)
Genesis 2:8
article “The End of History,” p. 1660). Here men and women will again experience abun-
dance, safety, and intimacy with their Creator.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place
of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004); William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger,
The Context of Scripture (Leiden: Brill, 1997); K. A. Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26, vol. 1a, New
American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1996); Victor P. Hamilton, The Book
of Genesis: Chapters 1–17 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990); Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis
1–15, vol. 1, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word, 1987); Tremper Longman III, How
to Read Genesis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2005).
1. Four rivers, the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates, flowed from Eden. The latter two are the source of the
name “Mesopotamia,” which means “between the rivers” in Greek.
2. Outside the early chapters of Genesis, explicit reference to Eden occurs most often in Ezekiel (28:13; 31:9, 16,
18; 36:35). In the case of Isaiah 51:3, Ezekiel 36:35, and Joel 2:3, Eden appears as a symbol of life and fertility.
The first two references are set within oracles directed to Israelites in exile. In each, the Lord’s promise to
restore His people involves the restoration of the land of Israel from a desolate waste to a fertile place. It will be
like the Garden of Eden. In Joel 2:3 the opposite is the case with the threat of judgment in which the land, now
like the Garden of Eden, will be stripped bare by locusts.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Black Sea
Carchemish
ASSY
tes R
.
s R
.
rranean Sea
A
dite
Nineveh
RI
Me
ra
Babylon
Jerusalem
BABYL
ON
A r a b i a n
n
D e s e r t
0
Gu
lf
300 km.
Possible sites for the
Garden of Eden
Mt. Ararat
0
300 miles