EDEN, GARDEN OF

Term used for paradise in the story of man's creation and fall as told in Gn 2.8–3.24 (see primeval age in the bible). The exact term is really "a garden in Eden" (Heb gan-b^e ’ēden: 2.8). The author of the account, therefore, evidently thought of Eden as a certain region "in the East" (miqeddem ), i.e., in mesopotamia, where "the Lord God planted a garden … and put the

man whom he had formed" (2.8); see also 2.10 ("a river rose in Eden"). The Hebrew word ’ēden is probably connected with the Akkadian word edinu, itself a loanword from the Sumerian edin meaning "steppe." The same local significance is attached to the Hebrew term gan-’ēden (garden of Eden) in Gn 2.15; 2.23–24; see also Gn 4.16, where Cain is said to have "dwelt in the land of Nod to the east of Eden (’ēden )." The Israelites, however, would naturally connect the term with the native Hebrew word ’ēden, meaning "luxury," "delight." Hence, the Septuagint translated gan-’ēden in Gn3.23–24 as ὁ παράδεισος τ[symbol omitted]ς τρυφ[symbol omitted]ς (park of luxury; hence the word paradise). Similarly, in Is 51.3; Ez 28.13;31.8–9, 16, 18, Eden (’ēden ) becomes synonymous with "Yahweh's garden" or "God's garden," and in Ez 36.35; Jl 2.3 gan-’ēden (garden of Eden) means simply a luxuriant field.

Of quite a different meaning is the Hebrew word ’ēden in the term b^enê-’eden (sons of Eden) in 2 Kgs 19.12; Is 37.12. This term designates the Edenites, the inhabitants of the region that is called Eden (’eden ) in Ez 27.23 and more fully as Beth-Eden (bêt-’eden ) in Am 1.5, which is the region known in Akkadian as Bit-Adini, on the Euphrates south of Haran.

Bibliography: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963) 620. o. schilling, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 3:657. e. a. speiser, Genesis (Anchor Bible I; Garden City, N.Y. 1964) 16–20. h. renckens, Israel's Concept of the Beginning, tr. c. napier (New York 1964) 193–213.

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