Eden

Eden (meaning delight or pleasure) is the garden in which God placed the first human beings, Adam and Eve, described in Genesis 2–3. The garden was located in the east and was watered by a river that divided into four streams: Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Euphrates. The mention of the Tigris and Euphrates suggests a location in the broader Mesopotamian region, though the exact site cannot be determined. Eden contained every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, including the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

After the fall, God drove Adam and Eve from Eden and placed cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). In prophetic literature, Eden becomes a symbol of primordial abundance: Ezekiel uses it as a standard of comparison for the glory of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:13; 31:9) and of restored Israel (Ezekiel 36:35). Isaiah 51:3 promises that the LORD will make Zion's wilderness like Eden. Revelation's vision of the new creation (Revelation 22:1–2) alludes to Eden's restoration in the river of life and the tree of life, bringing the biblical narrative to its eschatological resolution.