_Garden of_, the residence of our first parents in their state of
purity and blessedness. The word _Eden_ in the Hebrew denotes “pleasure”
or “delight:” whence the name has been given to several places which,
from their situation, were pleasant or delightful. Thus the Prophet
Amos, i, 5, speaks of an Eden in Syria, which is generally considered to
have been in the valley of Damascus, where a town called Eden is
mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy, and where the tomb of Abel is pretended
to be shown. This has in consequence been selected by some as the site
of the garden of Eden. By others, the garden has been placed on the
eastern side of mount Libanus; and by others again, in Arabia Felix,
where traces of the word _Eden_ are found. But the opinion which has
been most generally received on this subject is that which places the
garden on the Lower Euphrates; between the junction of that river with
the Tigris and the gulf of Persia. This is Dr. Well’s opinion; in which
he is supported by Huetius, Grotius, Marinus, and Bochart. To this it is
replied, that, according to this scheme, the garden was intersected by a
great branch of the Euphrates, in the lower and broadest part of its
course; which will give it an extent absolutely irreconcilable with the
idea of Adam’s “dressing” it by his own manual labour, or even of
overlooking it: beside that all communication would be cut off between
its different parts by a stream half a mile in width. Its local
features, too, if in this situation, must have been of the most
uninteresting kind; the whole of that region, as far as the sight can
reach, being a dead, monotonous, sandy, or marshy flat, without a single
undulation to relieve the eye, or give any of the beauties which the
imagination involuntarily paints to itself as attendant on a spot
finished by the hand of God as the residence of his creatures in a state
of innocence; whose minds may be supposed to be tuned to the full
enjoyment of the grand and beautiful in nature. How different will be
the aspect and arrangement of this favoured spot, if it be placed where
only, according to the words of Moses, it can be placed; namely, at the
heads or fountains of the rivers described, instead of their mouths.
The country of Eden, therefore, according to others, was some where in
Media, Armenia, or the north of Mesopotamia; all mountainous tracts, and
affording, instead of the sickening plains of Babylonia, some of the
grandest, as well as the richest scenery in the world. A river or stream
rising in some part of this country, entered the garden; where it was
parted into four others, in all probability, by first falling into a
basin or lake, from which the other streams issued at different points,
taking different directions, and growing into mighty rivers; although at
their sources in the garden, they would be like all other rivers, mere
brooks, and forming no barrier to a free communication between the parts
of the garden. Dr. Wells, in order to support his hypothesis of the
situation of Eden on the lower parts of the Euphrates and Tigris, after
giving these rivers a distribution which has now no existence, makes the
Pison and Gihon to be parts of the Tigris and Euphrates themselves: an
arrangement at perfect disagreement with the particular description of
Moses; beside, that the Gihon thus called, instead of compassing the
whole land of Cush, can only be said to skirt an extreme corner of it.
It appears, indeed, that in the time of Alexander, the Euphrates pursued
a separate course to the sea; or, at least, that a navigable branch of
it was carried in that direction: in the mouth of which, at Diridotis,
Nearchus anchored with his fleet. But what reliance can be placed on the
ever shifting channels of a river flowing through an alluvial soil, and
over a perfect level divertible at the pleasure of the people inhabiting
its banks? Or, what theory can be founded on their distribution, which
will not be as unstable as the streams themselves? This very channel, so
essential to the hypothesis which places Eden in this situation, was
annihilated by the Orcheni, a neighbouring people; who directed the
stream to water their own land, and thus gave it a shorter course into
the Tigris, which it has ever since preserved. But it is only the lower
parts of the Euphrates and Tigris, as they creep through the plains of
Babylonia, which are thus inconstant: higher up in their courses, they
flow over more solid strata, and in deeper valleys, unchanged by time.
It is here that their conformity with the Mosaic account is to be
sought; and it is here that they may be found, in the exact condition in
which they were left by the deluge, and, indeed, according to Moses, in
which they existed before that event. It is true, that the heads of the
four rivers, above described, cannot now be found sufficiently near, to
recognise thence the exact situation of paradise; but they all arise
from the same mountainous region; and the springs of the Euphrates and
Tigris, as already mentioned, are even now nearly interwoven. Mr. Faber
supposes the lake Arsissa to cover the site of Eden; and that the change
which carried the heads of the rivers to a greater distance from it, was
occasioned by the deluge. But it is far more probable that this change,
if we may infer from the account given by Moses that the courses of all
the streams remained unaltered by the flood, may have taken place at
man’s expulsion from the garden: when God might choose to obliterate
this fair portion of his works, unfitted for any thing but the residence
of innocence; and to blot at once from the face of the earth, like the
guilty cities of the plain, both the site and the memorial of man’s
transgression,--an awful event, which would add tenfold horrors to the
punishment.
purity and blessedness. The word _Eden_ in the Hebrew denotes “pleasure”
or “delight:” whence the name has been given to several places which,
from their situation, were pleasant or delightful. Thus the Prophet
Amos, i, 5, speaks of an Eden in Syria, which is generally considered to
have been in the valley of Damascus, where a town called Eden is
mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy, and where the tomb of Abel is pretended
to be shown. This has in consequence been selected by some as the site
of the garden of Eden. By others, the garden has been placed on the
eastern side of mount Libanus; and by others again, in Arabia Felix,
where traces of the word _Eden_ are found. But the opinion which has
been most generally received on this subject is that which places the
garden on the Lower Euphrates; between the junction of that river with
the Tigris and the gulf of Persia. This is Dr. Well’s opinion; in which
he is supported by Huetius, Grotius, Marinus, and Bochart. To this it is
replied, that, according to this scheme, the garden was intersected by a
great branch of the Euphrates, in the lower and broadest part of its
course; which will give it an extent absolutely irreconcilable with the
idea of Adam’s “dressing” it by his own manual labour, or even of
overlooking it: beside that all communication would be cut off between
its different parts by a stream half a mile in width. Its local
features, too, if in this situation, must have been of the most
uninteresting kind; the whole of that region, as far as the sight can
reach, being a dead, monotonous, sandy, or marshy flat, without a single
undulation to relieve the eye, or give any of the beauties which the
imagination involuntarily paints to itself as attendant on a spot
finished by the hand of God as the residence of his creatures in a state
of innocence; whose minds may be supposed to be tuned to the full
enjoyment of the grand and beautiful in nature. How different will be
the aspect and arrangement of this favoured spot, if it be placed where
only, according to the words of Moses, it can be placed; namely, at the
heads or fountains of the rivers described, instead of their mouths.
The country of Eden, therefore, according to others, was some where in
Media, Armenia, or the north of Mesopotamia; all mountainous tracts, and
affording, instead of the sickening plains of Babylonia, some of the
grandest, as well as the richest scenery in the world. A river or stream
rising in some part of this country, entered the garden; where it was
parted into four others, in all probability, by first falling into a
basin or lake, from which the other streams issued at different points,
taking different directions, and growing into mighty rivers; although at
their sources in the garden, they would be like all other rivers, mere
brooks, and forming no barrier to a free communication between the parts
of the garden. Dr. Wells, in order to support his hypothesis of the
situation of Eden on the lower parts of the Euphrates and Tigris, after
giving these rivers a distribution which has now no existence, makes the
Pison and Gihon to be parts of the Tigris and Euphrates themselves: an
arrangement at perfect disagreement with the particular description of
Moses; beside, that the Gihon thus called, instead of compassing the
whole land of Cush, can only be said to skirt an extreme corner of it.
It appears, indeed, that in the time of Alexander, the Euphrates pursued
a separate course to the sea; or, at least, that a navigable branch of
it was carried in that direction: in the mouth of which, at Diridotis,
Nearchus anchored with his fleet. But what reliance can be placed on the
ever shifting channels of a river flowing through an alluvial soil, and
over a perfect level divertible at the pleasure of the people inhabiting
its banks? Or, what theory can be founded on their distribution, which
will not be as unstable as the streams themselves? This very channel, so
essential to the hypothesis which places Eden in this situation, was
annihilated by the Orcheni, a neighbouring people; who directed the
stream to water their own land, and thus gave it a shorter course into
the Tigris, which it has ever since preserved. But it is only the lower
parts of the Euphrates and Tigris, as they creep through the plains of
Babylonia, which are thus inconstant: higher up in their courses, they
flow over more solid strata, and in deeper valleys, unchanged by time.
It is here that their conformity with the Mosaic account is to be
sought; and it is here that they may be found, in the exact condition in
which they were left by the deluge, and, indeed, according to Moses, in
which they existed before that event. It is true, that the heads of the
four rivers, above described, cannot now be found sufficiently near, to
recognise thence the exact situation of paradise; but they all arise
from the same mountainous region; and the springs of the Euphrates and
Tigris, as already mentioned, are even now nearly interwoven. Mr. Faber
supposes the lake Arsissa to cover the site of Eden; and that the change
which carried the heads of the rivers to a greater distance from it, was
occasioned by the deluge. But it is far more probable that this change,
if we may infer from the account given by Moses that the courses of all
the streams remained unaltered by the flood, may have taken place at
man’s expulsion from the garden: when God might choose to obliterate
this fair portion of his works, unfitted for any thing but the residence
of innocence; and to blot at once from the face of the earth, like the
guilty cities of the plain, both the site and the memorial of man’s
transgression,--an awful event, which would add tenfold horrors to the
punishment.