The garden of Eden is one of the best-known places in the Bible, yet its location remains a mystery. It is introduced in Genesis 2:8 as “a garden in Eden.” This phrase may suggest that the garden is a specific part of a larger region called “Eden” and that the two are not identical or equal in size. Genesis 2:8 also states that Eden is “in the east.” However, the Hebrew term translated “in the east” could alternatively mean “eastward”—that is, facing east. This would align with Genesis 3:24, which places the entrance to the garden on its eastern side.
A variety of geographical features or locations are mentioned in conjunction with Eden. In a brief descriptive passage, Genesis 2:10–14 associates Eden with four rivers: the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. While the Tigris and Euphrates are well-known rivers that join before entering the Persian Gulf, the name “Pishon” appears only here in the Old Testament. Genesis 2:11 states that the Pishon is in the land of “the Havilah,” but this is not especially helpful. This Havilah may not be the same location as one mentioned in Genesis 10:7, 29; 25:18; and 1 Samuel 15:7. Similarly, the name “Gihon” is used of a spring to the east of Jerusalem in 2 Chronicles 32:30; 33:14 (compare 1 Kings 1:33, 38, 45, where the Hebrew spelling of Gihon differs), but this may not be connected to the Gihon of Genesis 2. The same name may denote different locations. To complicate matters further, the Gihon in Genesis 2:13 is linked to the land of Cush, a name that is sometimes used to denote Upper Nubia in East Africa but may refer here to the land of the Kassites in Western Iran.
A further difficulty concerns the garden’s location relative to the four rivers. Genesis 2:10 states that a river goes forth from Eden to water the garden. According to John Walton:
Genesis 2:10 indicates that the garden should be understood as adjoining Eden because the water flows from Eden and waters the garden. The picture is of a mighty spring that gushes out from Eden and is channeled through the garden for irrigation purposes. All of these channels then serve as headwaters for the four rivers flowing out in various directions as the waters exit the garden.1
On this basis, the garden of Eden must have been situated in an elevated location from which the four rivers originated. Offering an alternative interpretation of verse 10, Kenneth Kitchen argues that verses 10–14 describe what occurs upstream of the river that waters the garden. He thinks that the “four ‘head’ rivers came together to form the single stream that entered the garden.”2 On this basis, Kitchen locates the garden near the present head of the Persian Gulf. While Kitchen offers an interesting alternative interpretation of Genesis 2:10–14, it is noteworthy that Ezekiel 28:13–14 associates “Eden, the garden of God” with “the holy mountain of God.” Since God’s presence on earth is often associated with mountains, it is unlikely that the garden of Eden was in a low-lying region near the head of the Persian Gulf. It is more likely that Genesis 2 portrays Eden as the source of four rivers, emphasizing an abundance of water to nourish the plants in the garden.
While the geographical details in Genesis 2 suggest that the garden of Eden was a real place in the Middle East, the account provides insufficient information to pinpoint its exact location. Importantly, it is unlikely that the garden continued to exist long after Adam and Eve’s expulsion. By its very nature as a garden, it was an enclosed area, distinct from the “field” mentioned in Genesis 2:5 and later associated with the “animals of the field” (Gen. 2:20; 3:1, 14). Without human residents, there is no reason to believe that God made alternative arrangements to maintain the garden. With no one “to work it and keep [or ‘take care of’] it” (Gen. 2:15), the garden is unlikely to have persisted (compare the story of the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1–6).
Although the garden likely fell into disrepair and disappeared, knowledge of it remained important because it recalled the original harmonious relationship between God and humanity. As a sacred space, the garden image shaped the design of future Israelite sanctuaries. Although God could no longer be encountered in the long-abandoned garden of Eden, Israelites could meet with Him at the Jerusalem temple, which featured garden-like elements. Moreover, elements of Eden reappear in the Apostle John’s vision of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21–22. While it is pointless for readers of Genesis 2 to search for a long-lost garden of Eden, God has provided through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, a way to draw close to Him in a more glorious new Eden setting.
J.H. Walton, “Eden, Garden of,” *Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch *(InterVarsity Press, 2003), 204.↩
K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 429.↩
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