Zilam
02-07-2006, 22:37
Now I know many will flock here to say something bad about believing in such a place. I don't care. I am going to go with the assumption that at one time such a place was around. It was a beautiful garden in the land known as eden. The problem is there is no way to really give a contemporary location to the ancient place. That is what the purpose of this thread is.
The only geographical information given about the Garden is this from Genesis(there might be somehting in the Qur'an, not sure)
8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
Now lets dissect that. We learn in verse 8 that the garden is not called Eden, but rather is place eastward in the land of Eden. One can assume that Eden refers to the land that is now known as Iraq. The next clue we have is that there was a mighty river that flowed through the garden, and as it exited the Garden it split into four other rivers, Pison(Pishon), Gihon, Hiddekel(Tigris), and the Euphrates.
Lets look at the four rivers and see what we can learn from them.
11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
The first river is known as the River Pison or Pishon. It means "free flowing". We get a clue to where it once flowed when the text says it flows through the whole land of Havilah, or the strechy sand area. That area is what we would call Arabia today. Recent sattellite photography suggest that indeed at one time, around 6000 years ago or so, a river once flowed through arabia, as this text suggests. Very interesting.
The Second clue is about the River Gihon. Gihon means gushin fountain. In the OT it was often known to be the primary source of water for Jerusalem, possibly comming from a spring in the Kidron Valley. However this text says "the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." Now don't be confused by ethiopia in the verse. It actually is referring to the land known as Cush, as Cush and Ethiopia were used to mean the same thing early in the OT. However, I don't know how to take this text. Does it mean that the river is the Nile, or perhaps its saying its like the Nile, in that it flows the same way, and is very large. I have no clue about this one.
The third and fourth clues we find is that the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are mentioned. Unless in ancient time they deviated radically from their current course, then we are talking about a similiar flow today for the two.
Now with the first clue, and the third and fourth clues, we can reasonably assume that the Garden would have been located around southern Iraq, perhaps even at one time the Persian Gulf was dried, and the garden was there. However the one thing that bugs me is the whole thing about the Gihon River, and the land of Ethiopia(Cush) thing...Any suggestions on this?
Oh by the way I have found some maps claiming to know where the Garden was located.
http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/fig2.gif
A landsat (http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/fig3.gif)(that map shows the rive Gihon as the River Karun of Iran.)
The only geographical information given about the Garden is this from Genesis(there might be somehting in the Qur'an, not sure)
8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
Now lets dissect that. We learn in verse 8 that the garden is not called Eden, but rather is place eastward in the land of Eden. One can assume that Eden refers to the land that is now known as Iraq. The next clue we have is that there was a mighty river that flowed through the garden, and as it exited the Garden it split into four other rivers, Pison(Pishon), Gihon, Hiddekel(Tigris), and the Euphrates.
Lets look at the four rivers and see what we can learn from them.
11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
The first river is known as the River Pison or Pishon. It means "free flowing". We get a clue to where it once flowed when the text says it flows through the whole land of Havilah, or the strechy sand area. That area is what we would call Arabia today. Recent sattellite photography suggest that indeed at one time, around 6000 years ago or so, a river once flowed through arabia, as this text suggests. Very interesting.
The Second clue is about the River Gihon. Gihon means gushin fountain. In the OT it was often known to be the primary source of water for Jerusalem, possibly comming from a spring in the Kidron Valley. However this text says "the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." Now don't be confused by ethiopia in the verse. It actually is referring to the land known as Cush, as Cush and Ethiopia were used to mean the same thing early in the OT. However, I don't know how to take this text. Does it mean that the river is the Nile, or perhaps its saying its like the Nile, in that it flows the same way, and is very large. I have no clue about this one.
The third and fourth clues we find is that the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are mentioned. Unless in ancient time they deviated radically from their current course, then we are talking about a similiar flow today for the two.
Now with the first clue, and the third and fourth clues, we can reasonably assume that the Garden would have been located around southern Iraq, perhaps even at one time the Persian Gulf was dried, and the garden was there. However the one thing that bugs me is the whole thing about the Gihon River, and the land of Ethiopia(Cush) thing...Any suggestions on this?
Oh by the way I have found some maps claiming to know where the Garden was located.
http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/fig2.gif
A landsat (http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/fig3.gif)(that map shows the rive Gihon as the River Karun of Iran.)