The Garden of Eden was the first home of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman (Gen.
2: 4--3:24). Eden is a translation of a Hebrew word which means "Delight", suggesting a "Garden of Delight". The garden
contained many beautiful and fruitbearing trees, including the "tree of life" and the "tree of Knowledge of good and evil".
(Gen. 2:9).
Pinpointing the exact location of the Garden of Eden is difficult, although the best theory places
it near the source of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Armenian highlands, which the bible calls Hiddekel (Gen.
2:14). A major catastrophe, perhaps the flood of Noah's time, may have wiped out all traces of the other two rivers
mentioned, the Pishon and the Havilah (Gen. 2:11). But modern space photography has produced evidence
that two rivers, now dry beds, could have flowed through the area centuries ago.
God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil
(Gen. 2:17). They fell from their original state of innocense when Satan approached Eve through the serpent and tempted
her to eat of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:1-5). She ate the fruit and also gave it to her husband
to eat (Gen. 3:6, 7). Their disobedience plunged them and all of the human race into a state of
sin and corruption.
Because of their unbelief and rebellion, they were driven from the garden. Other consequences of their
sin were loss of their innocense (Gen. 3:7), pain in childbearing and submission of the wife to
her husband (Gen. 3:16), the cursing of the ground and the resultant hard labor for man
(Gen. 3:17-19), and separation from God (Gen. 3: 23, 24).
The apostle Paul thought of Christ as the Second Adam who would save the old sinful Adam through His
plan of redemption and salvation. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor.
15:22).
