Genesis 2:8-9

The Garden in Eden

8. a garden More strictly "an enclosure." LXX παράδεισον, Lat. paradisum, a word borrowed from the Persian, and meaning "a park-like enclosure." Its use here has given rise to the Christian metaphorical use of the word "Paradise." "The word is of Iranian origin. In Avesta it is pairi-daêzaencircling wall" (Vend. iii. 18). It passed into Neo-Babylonian, Aramaic, post-Exilic Hebrew, Neo-Hebrew, Armenian, Persian, Kurdish, Greek, and Arabic as a word for a park or splendid garden. In the O.T. it is found in Nehemiah 2:8; Song of Solomon 4:13; Ecclesiastes 2:5 " (Encycl. Rel. and Eth. vol. ii. p. 705).

eastward The point of view is not that of the Babylonian, but of the Israelite, who regarded the East, and, in particular, Babylonia, as the cradle of man's earliest civilization. Notice here the quite general description of the site of the "garden." For its more minute definition, see Genesis 2:10. LXX κατὰ ἀνατολάς : Vulg. a principio. The Hebrew, when speaking or writing, is mentally facing East. "Eastward" is the same as "on the side fronting you."

in Eden Eden is not the name of the "garden," but of the country or district in which Jehovah planted his "garden." Edenin Hebrew means "delight," or "happiness"; and the Israelite naturally associated this meaning of the word "Eden" with the dwelling place of the first man and woman, because this auspicious name seemed appropriate to the Garden of Jehovah. Hence we find the Garden of God spoken of as the place of fertility, beauty, and delight, Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 28:13; Ezekiel 31:8-9; Ezekiel 36:35; Joel 2:3.

"In Eden"; so, rightly, LXX ἐν Ἐδέμ. The Lat. "voluptatis," = "of pleasure," represents a popular misapprehension, not recognizing it as a proper name.

Assyriologists point out that the Assyrian word edinnu, meaning "a plain" or "steppe," was applied to the Euphrates Valley. They suggest that the "garden" lay in this region. The Hebrew narrative, however, evidently contemplates a fruitful enclosure, not a plain: the name "Eden" is chosen because of its auspicious meaning in Hebrew, while the fact that in sound it reproduced the Babylonian designation of a remote Eastern, or Mesopotamian, region, made it appear all the more appropriate.