Chapter 3.19
Garden of Eden
Garden of the Lord, the Garden of God, the Garden
of Eden.
The
Four Rivers; Pishon, Gihon, Tigres and Euphrates
First
Word – Satan kicked out
Scripture speaks about
the Garden
of the Lord, the Garden of God and the Garden of Eden which are all probably the same
place, but just not the same time period.[1] I strongly suspect that the Garden of God[2] was where Satan’s throne was; where he dispensed
his authority and his rule of the earth way before Adam was placed there in his
authority.[3]
Satan was the protector of earth till he rebelled, then God displaced
Satan with Adam and drove him out of the garden. Satan gets really ticked off because Adam was
made lower than him,[4]
yet Adam has been given authority over everything. He was given 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.[5]
God brought all the living creations to Adam to name and that’s what
they were called. But God warned Adam
saying; "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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."
[6]
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.[7] Satan fights back by corrupting God’s greatest
creation; he tricked 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.[8] Man was now fallen; so God stopped any sinful
man from entering the Garden of God lest
they eat from the “Tree of Life” and live forever a life of disobedience,
sin and rebellion.[9] All traces of the garden are now gone.
Editorial
God places a curse on everything; Satan, Man, Woman, all living
creatures and the earth itself.[10] This is what God said to Satan; I will cause hostility between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He (Jesus) will strike your head and you (Satan),
will strike his heel.” Satan
knows that there is a Champion
coming that will defeat him; so his pursuit in life is to corrupt all of
mankind so that a
Godly line will never emerge;
therefore he will never be defeated. All through scripture he tries to kill the
one who he thinks might be mankind’s savior; their Messiah.
Garden of Eden
Almost all nations
have traditions of an age of innocence when evil did not exist; life was without
care or labor, food came forth spontaneously in abundance and no one aged or
lost their vigor.
The word Garden
(paradeisos) translates “enclosure”
similar to a
park. Eden in Sumerian means “a Plain” or flat region; in Hebrew it is a word meaning Paradise,
luxury, pleasure, delight.
It was created
on the Holy mountain of God on the east side of Eden. The land was loaded with
precious gems, rubies, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire,
turquoise, beryl and Gold.[11]
You can bet we would like to find this place
The temperature was temperate, so no
clothes were needed.[12] It was watered by four head waters[13]
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 instructed to tend and keep the
garden[14]
it would not be farfetched 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.[15]
There were two special trees in
the middle of the garden; the Tree of Life and
the other which was forbidden to eat from was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.[16] (Right and Wrong) Some students of the Word believe that the
tree of knowledge of good and evil was just an ordinary tree planted for the
purpose of testing Adam. NOTE: 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”.
Where was the Garden
The garden was located
on the east side of Eden and was west of the city of Nod which is near
Jerusalem.[17]
Probably in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley which included the whole of the “Fertile
Crescent”, from India to Egypt.
Note: East of
Eden is a matter of prospective, depending on where the writer was
standing. Based on the four rivers, we think we know about where the Garden of Eden
was. Only in Mesopotamia do we find a
single river dividing into four arms. This is a region with land that is very rich
and fertile where streams abound, divide and reunite.
Many scholars deem it to be from latitude 31 degrees to 33 degrees-30
minutes. Most of the smart people tell
us that it was located at the head of the Persian Gulf at the junction of the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, but silt brought down since 3000bc has added over
100 miles to the head of the gulf making it impossible to know where to start
looking.
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.
Four Rivers of Eden
Water flowed from Eden
and separated into four rivers; Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates.[18] Note: It’s known in recorded history that these
rivers changed channels more than once making the identification of Eden more
the impossible. The once grass lands and
marshes have now become deserts.
Pison or Pishon; (meaning the current or broad flowing) which went around the land of Havilah.[19] -
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 students of the Word
identify this river as the “Indus”.
Gihon; (meaning to gush forth or bursting forth) flowed around
the whole land of Cush.[20] (Ethiopia) This
was also the name of a spring. The city
of Jerusalem built tunnels to bring spring water into to the upper “pool of
Siloam” when under siege. Some students
think this river was the “Nile”. Others think; Oxus, Araxes or the Ganges
rivers; some think it was a major irrigation ditch and others only a
canal. Lots of thoughts on this; I asked my mentor what he thought about it;
he said he didn’t care.
Tigris (meaning arrow) one of the two great rivers of the
Mesopotamian area, about 1,150 miles long. It originates in the Taurus Mountains
of Armenia; flowed in front of Assyria; flows through the modern countries of
Syria, northern Iraq and Turkey. It is
also identified as the “Hiddekel”.
When the snows of the mountains of Armenia (Ararat) melt in March through May, the river overflows its banks
and then in October and November it overflows again. The Tigris flows with a rapid current, making
it a very muddy river because of the erosion of silt.
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 known as THE FERTILE CRESCENT and then empties
into the Persian Gulf. Along its banks
stood the cities of Nineveh, Calah, and Asshur. The Prophet Daniel had a vision of an angel
while standing on the bank of the Tigris River. [21]
Euphrates (meaning to break forth also; sweet water)
the largest and longest and most important river of Western Asia; (1,780 miles
long).[22] 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 Babylon.
It flows through the modern countries of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. It is referred to in the Bible as “The River”
or “The
Great River” as well as “The River Euphrates”. 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 Tigris allowing canals to bring water across the land for irrigation. It is the eastern limit and the northern boundary
of the kingdom of Israel. Ancient cities
along the banks included Babylon, Eridu, Kish, Larsa, Nippur, Sippar and Ur.
The silt brought down by the Euphrates and
Tigris encroaches on the Persian Gulf adding about a mile every 30 years. Also as mentioned in the book of Revelation it
is where some evil angels are bound.[23] (Good angels are not bound)
The
Take Away
The Garden of God and
the Garden
of Eden are the same place, but probably
not the same time period. 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 and had in place the Law of Sin and Death. The
garden became off limits. While the law
would mean man would die if he sinned, it also was a shadow of the Way back to
the Tree of
Life.
The
tree of knowledge of good and evil was
probably just an ordinary tree to test Adam.
The Garden
of Eden was located on the east
of Eden on the mountain of God. 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 Tigris and the Euphrates rivers can be
identified, so we can say that the garden was close to the Persian Gulf in
Mesopotamia.
Today we have the phenomena called the “Fertile Crescent” which helps
validate the existence of the garden.
The Fertile Crescent is certainly a topic that is worth studying. It is believed during the flood of Noah, the
waters of the deep destroyed the garden so that no trace of it has ever been
found.[24] 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.
[1] Isaiah 51:3 - The Garden of the Lord -- Ezekiel 28:12-13 – The Garden of God -- Genesis 2:15 – The Garden of Eden
[2] Genesis 2:8 – God had
already planted a Garden east of the land of Eden.
[3] Ezekiel 28:14-15 – Satan
was the protector of earth till treason.
[4] Hebrews 2:6-8 – Adam was
made a little lower than the angels
[5] Genesis 1:26 – God gives
Adam dominion over all the earth -- Genesis 2:19-20 – Adam was given authority
over everything living
[6] Genesis 2:15-17 – Adam
was put in the Garden of Eden and warned
[7] Genesis 2:7 – God made
Adam out of dirt.
[8] Ezekiel 1:6 – Cherubim’s
have four wings
[9] Genesis 3:21-22 – You
will live forever if you eat from the tree of life. -- Genesis 3:24 – No sinful
man can enter the Garden of Eden EAT and then live forever
[10] Genesis 3:15 - Curse on; Satan, Man, Woman, living creatures and
the ground
[11] Ezekiel 28:13 – The place
was loaded with precious stones; ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and
jasper, sapphire, turquoise, beryl and gold -- Genesis 2:12 – The land had
Gold, onyx and aromatic resin
[12] Genesis 2:25 – They
didn’t need to wear any clothes
[13] Genesis 2:10 - Four
rivers flowed from the Garden -- Genesis 2:6 – Other streams provided natural
irrigation
[14] Genesis 2:15 – Adam was
to tend the garden
[15] Genesis 2:20 – There were
many animals and birds and Adam named them
[16] Genesis 2:9-14 – All
kinds of trees were planted; two were special
[17] Genesis 2:8 – The Garden
was in the east of Eden -- Genesis 4:16 - Nod is East of Eden
[18] Genesis 2:10 – A river
flowed out of the Garden -- Genesis 2:11 – It divides into the Pishon, Gihon,
Tigris and Euphrates
[19] Genesis 2:11 – The first
of the four rivers is the Pishon
[20] 2 Chronicles 32:30 – Gihon springs flowed by aqueduct to Jerusalem.
[21] Daniel 10:4 – Daniel had
a vision on the Tigris River
[22] Genesis 15:18 – The Euphrates: The eastern limit of the kingdom of Israel.
Revelation
[23] Revelation 9:14 – Four Evil Angels bound at the Euphrates -- Revelation
16:12-13 – The great river Euphrates will dry up
[24] Genesis 8:2-3 Underground flood waters flowed
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