Meaning of EDEN

(a) The Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve dwelt during the period of time before they sinned. There God made to grow every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. There were also the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:8-15).

A fruitful place is compared to the garden of Eden (Is. 51:3; Ezek. 36:35; Joel 2:3).

The fall of Pharaoh, under the figure of an exalted tree, is mentioned as a consolation for the trees of Eden, which is called the "garden of Jehovah", etc. (Is. 51:3; Ez. 28:13; 31:9, 16, 18).

Having been planted by God, the trees of Eden are used in this last passage as a symbol of the various nations planted by God on the earth, with Israel being the center (Deut. 32:8).

Adam was placed in the garden of Eden to care for it; but at his fall he was cast out, and cherubim were set up to close the access to the tree of life (Gen. 3:23, 24).

A river left Eden, which then divided into four. Many attempts have been made to identify them, but they have failed, as have attempts to locate Paradise.

As Leupold rightly states, "the solution to the problem evidently lies in the fact that what the story describes was reality in the past, although we can never identify the first two rivers.

But the extensive changes brought about in the earth's geography by that immense cataclysm, the Flood, have totally disturbed the old order" (Leupold, H. C.: "Exposition of Genesis", Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1942/1981, vol. 1, p. 124). (See FLOOD, PARADISE).

(b) A nation called "the children of Eden" who lived in Telassar, a territory conquered by Assyria. They supplied cloth of great price to Tire (2 Kings 19:12; Is. 37:12; Ezek. 27:23). His situation is unknown.

(c) House of Eden or Beth-Eden (Am. 1:5). It appears to have been a residence of the kings of Damascus, probably situated in some pleasant place.

(d) Son of Joah, a Gershonite; possibly the same one who helped in the distribution of the portions (2 Chron. 29:12; 31:15).