EDEN

This article appears in Volume V08, Page 923 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ECG-EMS

EDEN , the name of the region in which, according to the Hebrew paradise-tradition in its present form, God planted a garden (or park), wherein he put the man whom he had formed (Gen. ii. 8). Research into primitive beliefs, guided by the comparative method, leads to the view that the " garden " was originally a

celestial

CELESTIAL, OR STELLAR

locality (see PARADISE), and we cannot therefore be surprised if, now that paradise has been brought down to earth, the geographical details given in the Bible are rather difficult to

work

WORK

into a consistent picture. The fantastic geography of the (Indian) Vishnu Purana and the (Iranian) Bundahish will, in this case, be a striking parallel.
Let us now take the details of Eden as they occur. In Gen. ii. 8 we read that the garden lay " in Eden eastward, where " eastward " is generally taken to mean "in the

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

of the earth." This, however, seems inconsistent with Isa. xiv. 13, where the " mountain of God," which corresponds (see Ezek. xxviii. 13,14 and the article

ADAM

) to the " garden in Eden," is said to have been " in the uttermost parts of the north " (so R.V.). The former statement (" eastward ") suits Babylonia, where

Friedrich

FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )

Delitzsch' places Eden; the latter does not. We are further told (v. ro) that " a river went out from Eden to water the garden," and that " from thence it parted itself (?), and became four heads (?)," which is commonly understood to mean that the river was so large that, soon after leaving the garden (" from thence " is all that the text says), it could still

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

four considerable streams (the text says, not "streams," but " heads," i.e. perhaps " beginnings " or " starting-points "). In vv. 11-14 the names of four rivers are given, but in spite of the descriptive supplements attached to three of them, only that one which has no supplement can be identified with much probability. In fact, Perath may without any obvious difficulty be " Euphrates," except in Jer. xiii., where a more southerly stream seems indicated, but to the identification of "Hiddekel " with "

Tigris

TIGRIS (Old Persian Tigrd, Diklat of the cuneiform inscriptions, Hiddekel of the Old Testament, Diglath of the Targum, Digla of the Arabs)

" (Babylonian Diglat) the presence of the initial Hi in the Hebrew is an objection. Now as to "Pishon " and " Gihon." If a moderately early tradition may he trusted, the " Gihon " is another name for the " Shihor," which was either in or beside " Mizraim " (=

Egypt

EGYPT

) or Mizrim. (= the North Arabian Musri), and indeed according to most scholars means the Nile in Jer. ii. 18, where the Septuagint substitutes for itGeon, i.e. Gihon. For " Pishon " few plausible suggestions have been made; it is not, however, a hopeless problem from the point of view which recognizes Eden in Arabia.
For details of the interesting descriptive supplements of the names Pishon, Gihon, and Hiddekel, on which there is' much difference of

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

, it must suffice to refer to the Encyclopaedia Biblica and Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible. We must, however, mention a widely held explanation of the name Eden. Plausible as it is to interpret this name as "delight"indeed, the Septuagint translates in Gen. iii. 23 f. o aapaSearos ris rpvcbilsthis cannot have been the

original

ORIGINAL

meaning. Hence Delitzsch (Wo lag das Parodies? p. 79) suggested that " Eden " might be a Hebraized form of the Babylonian edinu, " field, plain, desert." But whereas Delitzsch takes " Eden" to be the entire plain of

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