EDEN, though of ten used as the name of the garden in which, according to Gen. ii. and iii., lived the first man created, is strictly the name of the region in which that garden was situated. The garden contained beautiful fruit trees providing food for the man whom God had appointed to till it. In it, too, were "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and "the tree of life," magical trees conferring upon those who ate of their fruit wisdom and immortality. The man and his wife were expelled from the gar den because, having tasted, contrary to the divine command, of the fruit of the former, God feared that they might eat also of the other tree's fruit. The story blends many mythological con ceptions which belong to the primitive age of Semitic religion. Close study of the story reveals that it is compounded of at least two traditions, one concerned with the tree of knowledge, the other with the tree of life. Prof. H. T. Obbink of Utrecht has suggested that the narrative has been generally misunderstood. His view is that the tree of life was really intended to furnish divine food by which the first man maintained his immortality, and that he was evicted from the garden to cut him off from this nourishment.
Many speculations have been made as to the site of the gar den, which seems to be thought of as an oasis in a barren region. According to Gen. ii. 8 it was "eastward": verses 10-14 describe a river as flowing forth from it, and dividing into four streams. One of these is the Euphrates, and another, "Hiddekel," almost certainly the Tigris. This would suggest a site north of Babylon. It is true that the Euphrates and the Tigris near Baghdad ap proach so closely together that the former discharges water through canals into the latter. But even if it be supposed that these two rivers might be regarded as coming from a common source no satisfactory explanation of the two remaining rivers is offered. To define the site from these details is impossible ; it is obvious, moreover, that verses 10-14 are a learned note in truded into the simple story. The attempt to locate a mythological garden is bound to be attended by considerable difficulty, and all that can be safely said is that the story in its present form com bines two traditions, one of which placed the garden in the far east, the other in the far north, where, according to Babylonian tradition, the garden of the gods was to be found. Yet another tradition as to the garden, which underlies Ezek. xxviii. 12-19, connects it with the mountain of God, placed by Isa. xiv. 13 in the "sides of the north." (W. L. W.)