In the rest of Chapter 2 the author takes a more detailed look at the sixth day of the creation process, a sign that day six is important.Verses 4-6 set the stage, quickly reviewing the creation process from chapter one, and then we get to verse seven, “…the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The original words translated as 'breathed' and 'breath of life' evoke a sense of a spiritual nature imparted upon the man. (It is noteworthy that God created only the male at this stage – known as the divine pause. We will return to this thought a bit later.)
During this ‘divine pause’, God planted a garden in the east, called Eden.God placed the man that He had created in this garden of Eden, a garden consisting of all kinds of trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.In the middle of this garden were two special trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four rivers (the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates).We are provided with a few clues about the rivers:The Pishon winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is good quality gold and onyx.The Gihon winds through the land of Cush.The Tigris runs along the east side of Asshur. Fortunately, the Euphrates is still called the Euphrates and helps us identify the general location of Eden.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to find the garden of Eden?Many have searched, many others have formed theories and opinions as to its location.Let’s briefly consider a few theories:
A commonly held theory holds that geologic change (the great flood or seismic action) completely erased (or modified) the original routes of these four rivers. By making this assumption, one can place the garden in a number of areas - perhaps modern day Israel. Since God uses the town of Jerusalem in both Jesus' death and in Revelation (the New Jerusalem) perhaps Eden was also located in Jerusalem. Without any evidence, of course, one could then consider rivers flowing to the south (Ethiopia-Cush), the east (Iran-Iraq), the north (Turkey-Asia), and west into the great sea.
A second theory considers the clues of the four rivers and attempts to match them to currently existing rivers. The Kura river has its source not far from the source of the north branch of the Euphrates. If one considers the Kura river to be the same as the Pishon river then the entire narrative makes literal sense. The Kura (Pishon), Aras (Gihon), Tigris, and Euphrates rivers all have their headwaters in the same 20 sq mile geographic area of modern Turkey. The Kura runs through Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, a region with lots of gold and minerals; The Aras runs through Iran (in an area were the people are called Cushites); and of course, the Tigris and Euphrates flow through Iraq.If true, this would put the literal garden of Eden in eastern Turkey, near the modern day town of Erzurum.
A third theory uses computer enhanced photographs taken from orbiting satellites to identify old river beds, seismic fault lines, and other clues.Researchers theorize that seismic activity actually reversed the flow direction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.They have identified two ancient river beds that flowed from the Persian gulf, heading east and west respectively.This theory places the location of the garden of Eden at the bottom of the current Persian gulf.
Ok, enought with theories, lets get back to the narrative. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
After each step (day) of creation God said, “It is good”.So what does God say after creating His masterpiece, man, whom He made in His own image?In verse 18 we have our answer:The Lord God said, “It is NOT good for the man to be alone.I will make a helper suitable for him.”Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.He brought them to the man to see what he would name them;and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.In this way the man named all the animals.
But for Adam, no suitable helper was found.So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep;and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.
Adam, whose name in Hebrew means ‘of dirt’, is introduced to his new bride and what does he say?“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”I think Adam was still in the mode of naming animals!
Good thing Adam got some help from God and settled on the name 'Eve'. And this is were the story really gets interesting - we will come back to Genesis at a later date!
In September we will begin the book of Romans.....
