EDEN, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, the first residence of man. The descrip tion given of it in the book of Genesis is brief, obscure, and in appearance legendary. The allegorical theory will be noticed under Fall (q.v.). In general, however, scholars have preferred to understand the story literally, and to believe that the writer or writers of it meant it to be so understood; but they have not, therefore, been unanimous as to the historical reality, or even the geographical position of Eden. The difference in their modes of apprehending the contents of the Hebrew Scriptures has manifested itself in this as in other vexatoe questioner of biblical criticism. Josephus and several of the fathers conceived that Eden was a term denoting the entire region between the Ganges and Nile; Calvin, Huet, Bochart, Wells, etc., have, with slight differences of detail, concluded in favor of Kornah in Babylonia, not far from the Persian gulf; Rebind, Cal met, Hales, Faber, J. Pye Smith, in favor of Armenia, near the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates; Le Clerc, iu favor of the region near Damascus; while the modern Ger man school of biblical critics, convinced that the Hebrew account is traditional, and, in its present form, of very late composition, and impressed, besides, with the vast anti quity of the far east, have, almost without exception, turned their eyes in that direc tion, and sought the cradle of the human race in Bactria or Cashmere, or the region lying to the n. of it, a part of which is to this day called Audyana, the "garden." It may also be mentioned that the Mohammedaus believe E. to have been in one of the seven heavens—some say the moon—and that the expulsion from paradise consisted in Adam being cast down upon the earth after the fall. It is useless seeking to identify the river
system of E. with anything known at present. There is no river on the face of the globe of which the Euphrates and Tigris (Hiddekel) are separate "heads" (whether this means "sources" or "channels"), as they are said to be in the 2d chapter of Genesis, for, as maj. Rennell has shown, although the Euphrates and Tigris now unite, for a short space on their way to the Persian gulf, yet, until the time of Alexander the great, they kept entirely distinct courses; and therefore it has been assumed that the " deluge" com pletely altered the physical character of the region denoted by the term Eden. This was Luther's notion, to which, however, it has been objected, that the narrative in Gene sis is so worded as to convey the idea that the countries and rivers spoken of were still existing in the time of the historian. Besides, the science of geology has thrown so much doubt on the universality of a deluge so late as the period assigned to Noah, that it is hazardous to argue on the hypothesis of any extensive physical changes having taken place since the first appearance of man on the planet; at least, if that be dated only some 6,000 years back. It will thus be seen that the question of the locality of E., or of the exact sense in which the Mosaic narrative is to be understood, is involved in inextricable mystery; and it has become a general opinion, that the spiritual significance of this primeval story is what principally concerns Christians—an opinion which derives force from the total silence of the New Testament in reference to the subject.