Place
Eden
The first sanctuary — a garden planted eastward with the tree of life and a river, lost at the Fall and reopened in the New Jerusalem.
Where it is
- Region
- Mesopotamia (traditional)
Eden in Scripture
19 verses name it — all of them- Genesis 2:8And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
- Genesis 2:10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads.
- Genesis 2:15And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
- Genesis 3:23therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
- Genesis 3:24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
- Genesis 4:16And Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
- 2 Kings 19:12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?
- 2 Chronicles 29:12Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah;
- 2 Chronicles 31:15And under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their office of trust, to give to their brethren by courses, as well to the great as to the small:
- Isaiah 37:12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?
- Isaiah 51:3For Jehovah hath comforted Zion; he hath comforted all her waste places, and hath made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
- Ezekiel 27:23Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were thy traffickers.
- Ezekiel 28:13Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared.
- Ezekiel 31:9I made it fair by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.
- Ezekiel 31:16I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with them that descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the nether parts of the earth.
- Ezekiel 31:18To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.
- Ezekiel 36:35And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.
- Joel 2:3A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and none hath escaped them.
- Amos 1:5And I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith Jehovah.
The account
Eden is the primeval garden-temple where God walks with man. From it flow four rivers; in it stand the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Barred at the Fall (3:24), its life and river return in Revelation 22.