E'den (Heb. id.), the name of three places and of one or two men.
1. "The garden of Eden" ('"l", delight, and so Sept. Tpv(pi),\u\g. volupta.i) is the most ancient and venera- ble name in geography, the name of the first district of tlie earth's surface of which human beings could have any knowledge.
I. The Name. — The word is found in the Arabic as well as in tlie Hebrew language. It is explained by Firuzabadi, in his celebrated Arabic lexicon {Kamus'), as signifying delight^ tendernesn, /orelincss (see Morren, in Edlnb. Biblical Cabinet, xi, 2, 4S, 49). Jlajor Wil- ford and professor Wilson find its elements in the Sanscrit. The (ircek //('oi'/; is next to identical with it in iioth sound and sense. It occurs in tiiroe places (Isa. xxxvii, 12; Ezek. xxvii, 23; Amos i, 5) as the name of some eminently pleasant districts, but not the Eden of this article. Of them we have no certain knowledge, except that the latter instance points to tlie neighborhood of Damascus. In these cases it is pointed, in the Hebrew text, with 1)oth sjdlables short C(1") ; ''"'■ when it is applied to the primitive seat of man, the first syllalilc is loiig. The passages in which it occurs in the latter sense are, in addition to Gen. ii, ill, iv, 16, the few following, of which we transcribe the
chief, liecause they cast light upon the primeval term? " He will nialie her wilderness like Kden, and her des- ert like tlic garden of Jehovah." "Thou bast been in Eden, the garden of God." "All the trees of Eden, tliat were in the garden of God, envied him." " Tliis land which was desolate is become Uke the garden of Eden" (Isa. Ii, 3; Ezek. xxviii, 13; xxxi, 9, 1(1, IS; xxxvi, 35 ; Joel ii, 3). All this evidence goes to show that Eden was a tract of country, and that in tlie most eligible part of it was the Paradise, tlie garden of all delights, in which the Creator was pleased to place his new and pre-eminent creature, with the inferior be- ings for his sustenance and solace. See Gardex.
The old translators appear to have halted between a mystical and literal interpretation. The word "HS is rendered by the Sept. as a proper name in three pas- sages only, Gen. ii, 8, 10 ; iv, IG, where it is represent- ed by 'Eof^/. In all others, with the exception of Isa. Ii, 3, it is translated rpvipt). In the Vulgate it never occurs as a proper name, but is rendered '■'■volvptas," '■^ locus voliipiatis" or ^^delici<E." The Targum of On- kelos gives it uniformly "T", and in the Poshito S3'r- iac it is the same, with a slight variation in two pas- sages. See Paradise.
II. Bibliccd Ikscription. — The following is a simple translation of the Mosaic account of the situation of the Adamic Paradise (Gen. ii, 8-17). See Genesis.
Now Jeliovah God had planted a garden in Eden eastward, and lie placed there the man wliom he formed : for Jehovah God had caused to spring fiom the ground every tree pleas- ant for sight or good for food ; also the tree nf life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a liver issued from Eden to water the garden, and thence it was parted, and became four head-[3tream,-] : the name of the first J3 Pishon; this [is the one] tliat sin-rounds all the land of the (Jhavilah, where [isl the [metal] gold (the gold too of that land [i^'] good): there [also 1.-] the [siihstance called] bcdolacli, and a stone [called] the nholiuni) : and the name of the second river [i;"] Gichon ; this [is the one] that surrounds all the land of (Jasli: and the name of the third river [is] Chidilekfl; this [is the one] that flows ea^t of Ashsliur: and the name of the fourth river, that [is] Peiath.
Thus Jehovah God took the man, and settled him in the garden of lOden, to till it, and to keep it. Then Jehovah (Jod enjoined upon the man, saying, " ( If every tree of the garden tliou mayest freely eat exc. pt of the tree of the knowledge of gnod and evil — thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day of thy eating of it, thou shalt surely die."
The garden of Paradise is here said to be to the east, i. e. in the eastern part of the tract of Eden (see Gese- nius, Ileb. Lev. s. y.). The river which flowed tlirough Eden watered the garden, and thence branched off into four distinct streams. The lirst problem to lie solved, then, is this: To find a river which, at some stage of its course, is divided into four streams, two of wliich are tlie Tigris and Euphrates. The identity of these rivers witli tlie Hiddekel and Perath has never been disputed, and no hypothesis which omits them is worthy of consideration. Setting aside minor diflier- ences of detail, the theories which have been framed witli regard to the explanation of tlie above dcscrijition of the terrestrial paradise naturally divide themselves into two classes. The first class includes all those which jdace the main river of the garden of Eden be- low the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris, and in- terpret the names Pison and Gibon of certain portions of these rivers; tlie second, those whicli seek for it in the higli talile-land of Armenia, the fruitful parent of many noble streams. These theories have been sup- ported by most learned men of all nations, of all ages, and rejiresenting every sliade of theological belief; but there is scarcely one which is not based in some degree upon a forced interpretation of the words of tlic narra- tive. Those who contend that the united stream of the Euphrates and Tigris is tlie "river" whidi ''goeth forth from Edrn to water the garden," have commit- ted a fatal eiTor in neglecting the true meaning of X2'', which is only used of the course of a river from its source downicards (comp. Ezek. xlvii, 1). Follow- ing the guidance which this word supplies, the de-