Genesis 2:8

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,.... Or "had planted" (m), for this was not now done after the formation of man, but before; and so the word translated "eastward" may be rendered,

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And the Lord God planted a garden.

He had planted, viz. on the third day, when he made the plants and trees to grow out of the ground, a place of the choicest plants and fruits, most beautiful and pleasant. Eastward, from the place where Moses writ, and the Israelites afterwards dwelt. Eden here is the name of a place, not that Eden near Damascus in Syria, of which see ; but another Eden in Mesopotamia or Chaldea, of which see . There are many and tedious disputes about the place of this Paradise; of which he that listeth may see my Latin Synopsis. It may suffice to know that which is evident, that it was in or near to Mesopotamia, in the confluence of Euphrates and Tigris. There he put the man whom he had formed, to wit, in another place.

Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.Ver. 8. And the Lord God planted.] Had planted (to wit, on the third day, when he made trees) for man’ s pleasure, a garden or paradise in Eden, whence ηδονη, in the upper part of Chaldea, whereabout Babel was founded. It was destroyed by the deluge; the place indeed remained, but not so the pleasantness of the place, the rose fell and remained thorny. And yet that country is still very fruitful, returning, if Herodotus and Pliny may be believed, the seed beyond credulity. He put the man whom he had formed.] And formed him not far from the garden, say the Hebrews; to mind him that be was not here to set up his rest, but to "wait till his change should come." Dιηκοσιαμεντοπαραπαναποδιδοι, Herod., l. i. Pliny, l. vi. c. 26. Donec a spe ad speciem transiret

(8) The Lord God planted a garden.—The order followed in the text, namely, man first and the garden afterwards, is not that of chronology, but of precedence. In Genesis 2:15 we find that the garden was ready as soon as man needed a home. It was a separate plot of ground, fenced off from the rest of Eden, and planted with trees and herbs that were of choicer kinds, more fit for food, and more beautiful in foliage and blossom, than elsewhere. The word Paradise, usually applied to it, is a Persian name for an enclosed park, such as the kings of Persia used for hunting. Eastward in Eden.—This does not mean in the eastern portion of Eden, but that Eden itself was to the east of the regions known to the Israelites. The name “Eden,” that is, pleasure-ground, occurs elsewhere, but for regions not identical with that in which the paradise was situated (2 Kings 19:12; Isaiah 37:12; Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 27:23; Amos 1:5). Of its site no certain conclusions have been established, and probably the flood so altered the conformation of the ground as to make the identification of the four rivers impossible. But there can be no doubt that an eastern district of Asia is meant, and that the details at the time the narrative was written were sufficient to indicate with sufficient clearness where and what the region was. The rendering of several versions in the beginning instead of eastward is untenable.

Verse 8. A garden eastward in Eden] Though the word עדן Eden signifies pleasure or delight, it is certainly the name of a place. See Genesis 4:16; 2Kg 19:12; Isaiah 37:12; Ezekiel 27:23; Amos 1:5. And such places probably received their name from their fertility, pleasant situation, c. In this light the Septuagint have viewed it, as they render the passage thus: ΕφυτευσενὁΘεοςπαραδεισονενΕδεν, God planted a paradise in Eden. Hence the word paradise has been introduced into the New Testament, and is generally used to signify a place of exquisite pleasure and delight. From this the ancient heathens borrowed their ideas of the gardens of the Hesperides, where the trees bore golden fruit the gardens of Adonis, a word which is evidently derived from the Hebrew עדן Eden; and hence the origin of sacred gardens or enclosures dedicated to purposes of devotion, some comparatively innocent, others impure. The word paradise is not Greek; in Arabic and Persian it signifies a garden, a vineyard, and also the place of the blessed. The Mohammedans say that God created the [Arabic] Jennet al Ferdoos, the garden of paradise, from light, and the prophets and wise men ascend thither. Wilmet places it after the root [Arabic] farada, to separate, especially a person or place, for the purposes of devotion, but supposes it to be originally a Persian word, vox originis Persicae quam in sua lingua conservarunt Armeni. As it is a word of doubtful origin, its etymology is uncertain.

8–9. The Garden in Eden 8. a garden] More strictly “an enclosure.” LXX παράδεισον, Lat. paradisum, a word borrowed from the Persian, and meaning “a park-like enclosure.” Its use here has given rise to the Christian metaphorical use of the word “Paradise.” “The word is of Iranian origin. In Avesta it is pairi-daκza encircling wall’ (Vend. iii. 18). It passed into Neo-Babylonian, Aramaic, post-Exilic Hebrew, Neo-Hebrew, Armenian, Persian, Kurdish, Greek, and Arabic as a word for a park or splendid garden. In the O.T. it is found in Nehemiah 2:8, Son 4:13, Ecclesiastes 2:5” (Encycl. Rel. and Eth. vol. ii. p. 705). eastward] The point of view is not that of the Babylonian, but of the Israelite, who regarded the East, and, in particular, Babylonia, as the cradle of man’s earliest civilization. Notice here the quite general description of the site of the “garden.” For its more minute definition, see Genesis 2:10-15. LXX κατὰἀνατολάς: Vulg. a principio. The Hebrew, when speaking or writing, is mentally facing East. “Eastward” is the same as “on the side fronting you.” in Eden] Eden is not the name of the “garden,” but of the country or district in which Jehovah planted his “garden.” Eden in Hebrew means “delight,” or “happiness”; and the Israelite naturally associated this meaning of the word “Eden” with the dwelling place of the first man and woman, because this auspicious name seemed appropriate to the Garden of Jehovah. Hence we find the Garden of God spoken of as the place of fertility, beauty, and delight, Isaiah 51:3, Ezekiel 28:13; Ezekiel 31:8-9; Ezekiel 36:35, Joe 2:3. “In Eden”; so, rightly, LXX ἐνἘδέμ. The Lat. “voluptatis,” = “of pleasure,” represents a popular misapprehension, not recognizing it as a proper name. Assyriologists point out that the Assyrian word edinnu, meaning “a plain” or “steppe,” was applied to the Euphrates Valley. They suggest that the “garden” lay in this region. The Hebrew narrative, however, evidently contemplates a fruitful enclosure, not a plain: the name “Eden” is chosen because of its auspicious meaning in Hebrew, while the fact that in sound it reproduced the Babylonian designation of a remote Eastern, or Mesopotamian, region, made it appear all the more appropriate.

- XI. The Garden 8. גן gan “garden, park,” παράδεισος paradeisos, “an enclosed piece of ground.” עדן ‛ēden “Eden, delight.” קדם qedem “fore-place, east; foretime.” 11.

8. Planted a garden eastward in Eden — The word Eden is here first introduced, and without any explanation. It seems most natural to understand it as the proper name of the land (ΰψφ) of the preceding narrative.