Genesis 2:8

‘And the Lord God planted a tree-covered area (gan - possibly a “place shaded over” i.e. by trees) in Eden, eastward, and there he put the man whom he had formed.'

The word ‘planted' is a vivid anthropomorphism. God caused it to grow.

The word ‘gan' signifies a protected place of fruitfulness. The use of ‘garden' is fine as long as we do not over-press the word, and rather recognise that it was not a cultivated, enwalled garden, but a fruitful, tree-covered area of land set apart by God for man's use. Ezekiel 31:8 brings out something of the nature of the trees in the ‘gan' in its exaggerated praise of Pharaoh.

Note that it is a tree-covered plain ‘in Eden'. Eden is the country in which it is found, not the name of the ‘gan'. The name may be taken from the Sumerian ‘edin' meaning plain. Later, because it is in Eden or in ‘the plain', it will be called ‘the gan of Eden' Genesis 2:15. ‘Eastward' may signify that it was in the east of Eden, or that it was eastward from where the writer was.

Again we remember that Hebrew verbs are not exact as to tense. They indicate rather completed or incompleted action without indicating when the activity took place. Thus it is not necessary for us to assume that man was made before the ‘garden'. The writer is not describing the order in which things were made, but is bringing them in as they apply, and stressing that God had made them too. He is saying ‘God did this' and ‘God did that' without meaning they happened in sequence. We who are more chronologically oriented could translate, ‘now God had planted a tree-covered plain in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed'.

So God has made good provision for man. Unlike later, man does not have to search out his food or work for it. The place where he first becomes man is fruitful and plenteous, self-producing, and provides plenty of shade. (LXX will describe it as ‘Paradise').