The Garden of Eden (a
biblical earthly paradise) has fascinated
people forever. It is mentioned the first time in the first Old Testament book
of the Bible, Genesis. The Garden of
Eden was the home of the very first couple, Adam and Eve. The term Eden is derived from the Akkadian
word edinu (meaning "steppe"), which is borrowed from
the Sumerian word eden, which means “plain. ”Here are seven interesting things about this well-known
garden that you may have never considered before:
Adam started off as a bachelor
in the Garden OF EDEN-We
don’t care how popular “The Bachelor” TV franchise is, nothing comes close to
the story of the very first bachelor (Adam) who found love in an exotic setting
(the Garden of Eden). God planted a special garden, and brought Adam there.
After Adam had lived alone in the garden for a spell, God created Eve from one
of Adam’s ribs and brought her to him. How long was Adam a bachelor in the
Garden of Eden? The Bible doesn’t
say, but we know he was alone long enough to name all the animals on earth and
search in vain for a human soulmate.
Apples may have been on the
list of “approved foods” Adam and Eve were given to eat IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN-The Bible doesn’t say Eve ate an
apple. In fact, the Bible doesn’t
give a physical description of the forbidden fruit at all except to say that it
was edible and attractive (Genesis 2:9, 3:6). In fact, there’s a good chance
that apples may have been on the list of “approved foods” God gave Adam and Eve
to eat.
That’s because in Genesis 1:29 (NLT), God tells the new
couple, “Look, I have given
you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for
your food.” Apples as we know them today have seeds. Obviously, the
fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was not on the approved list.
Is it possible that it did not have fruit with seeds? We’re speculating here,
but it’s possible that the forbidden delicacy was a type of fruit (perhaps
seedless) unlike fruit as we understand it today.
Talking animals might have
been a PART OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN-The snake was the most clever of all the
wild animals that the Lord God had made. The snake spoke to the woman
and said, “Woman, did God really tell you that you must not eat from any tree
in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1, ERV) The
Bible tells us that Eve answered the question and went on to have a brief
conversation with the serpent eventually succumbing to the serpent’s wily ways
and eating of the forbidden fruit.
Perhaps the author of Genesis skipped over the part where
Eve threw up her hands in surprise and exclaimed, “How are you talking to me?
None of the other animals can talk. What’s going on here?” Maybe Eve was so new
to the Garden of Eden that she had yet to realize none of the other animals
could talk, or perhaps talking animals were not all that unusual. It’s
certainly something to think about.
The Garden OF EDEN may never
have been meant to be Adam and Eve’s forever home-The Bible doesn’t
directly address this idea, but we do know that Adam and Eve were given an
assignment that went far beyond the borders of the Garden of Eden: God blessed them and said to them, “Have
many children. Fill the earth and take control of it. Rule over the fish in the
sea and the birds in the air. Rule over every living thing that moves on the
earth.” (Genesis 1:28, ERV) Of
course, everything changed after the fall when Adam and Eve were sent from the
Garden of Eden never to return.
In fact, to make sure they were kept from eating from the
Tree of Life, “he put Cherub angels and a sword of fire at the entrance
to the garden to protect it. The sword flashed around and around, guarding the
way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24) The
first and tenth chapters of Ezekiel include descriptions of cherubim, and they
are fierce creatures indeed, each with four faces (a man, lion, ox, and eagle),
four wings, and human hands and form. The soles of their feet are like the sole
of a calf’s foot, and they sparkle like burnished bronze (Ezekiel 1:4-14 and
10:1-20). Between these fierce creatures (and that flashing sword), the Garden
of Eden was lost to Adam and Eve (and perhaps mankind) forever.
The Garden of Eden was God’s
Garden planted by God Himself-You might think, “That’s obvious. God created everything and
everything belongs to Him.” But that doesn’t make it any less amazing. In fact,
the way the Bible describes the
origins of the Garden of Eden makes it even more fascinating. Pay attention to two verbs used repeatedly
throughout the first chapter of Genesis: God creates the heavens and the earth, makes the sky, creates
fish, makes wild animals, and creates mankind. But He doesn’t use
either one of the verbs when it comes to the Garden of Eden. When it comes to
the Garden of Eden, He plants.
In Genesis 2:8 (CEB) it says: “ The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east
and put there the human He had formed.”
He not only planted this garden, He refers to it in a very
personal way. In multiple places, God’s Word refers to the Garden of Eden as
“the garden of God” or “the garden of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:3). This brings
entirely different imagery to mind. We’re not saying God wore a floppy straw
hat nor had dirt under his nails (and we’re not saying He didn’t). We’re just
saying that the picture the Bible paints is of God’s very hands-on involvement
in planting a garden He calls His very own. This Garden of Eden was a special
place.
We may never know WHERE THE
GARDEN OF EDEN WAS LOCATED-Many people have tried to identify the location of the
Garden of Eden. Missionary David Livingstone believed it was located at the
mouth of the Nile. Others look to Armenia or the Middle East. The Bible
actually gives good descriptions of landmarks around the Garden of Eden: “ A river flowed out of Eden to water the
garden, and from there it parted and became four rivers. The
name of the first is Pishon; it encompasses the whole land of Havilah, where
there is gold. The gold of that land is good; bdellium and the
onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it
encompasses the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it
goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.” (Genesis 2:10-14, MEV)
Some people say the landmarks named in Genesis mean nothing
to us today since the catastrophic flood in Noah’s day destroyed and rearranged
the face of the earth. Other theories say that we can indeed determine
something of the location based on the landmarks named in Genesis. Genesis was
written after the flood, and the writer would have used landmarks familiar to
his post-flood contemporaries. No one can say for sure where the Garden of Eden
was located, or if it remains today. It’s probably safe to say that, at least
for now, God wants it to remain hidden.
Whatever tempted Eve IN THE
GARDEN OF EDEN did NOT look like a snake (as we think of them today)-You’ve undoubtedly seen plenty of
illustrations showing Eve being tempted by a slithering snake. Is that an
accurate image? In Genesis 3:14 (NLT) says: Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all
animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.
But if the serpent began life on his belly after Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it
makes sense that it didn’t crawl on its belly before the fall. Before the curse, did the serpent walk upright?
Did it have legs or even wings? We’ll never know until we get to Heaven but it
seems safe to say that the common perception of a legless serpent tempting Eve
is wrong.
“The Bible is the story of two gardens:
Eden and Gethsemane. In the first, Adam took a fall. In the second, Jesus took
a stand. In the first, God sought Adam. In the second, Jesus sought God. In
Eden, Adam hid from God. In Gethsemane, Jesus emerged from the tomb. In Eden,
Satan led Adam to a tree that led to his death. From Gethsemane, Jesus went to
a tree that led to our life.” (Max Lucado) [i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“7 Interesting Things You May Not Have Considered
About the Garden of Eden” by Karen Scalf
Bouchard
·
“EDEN,
GARDEN OF” by Encyclopedia.com
·
“Garden of Eden”by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
 |
| Could the Garden of Eden looked like this? |
No comments:
Post a Comment