Understanding the Geography of Eden

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Genesis 2.10-15
March 27th 2022

So, we left off in chapter 2 where we read, covered and ended with:

Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there . . . He put . . . the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Here, we see God making provisions for man, planting a garden of trees, and placing the man there. This garden would be man's first home. It is of note that paradise, the word Jesus used with the thief on the cross comes from a word that means garden too – man's last home.

The Four Rivers

So leaving the scene lets continue to read at verse 10:

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Okay – verse ten:

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became into four heads.

Perhaps a better way for us to understand this verse is to read it like this:

(BBE) And a river went out of Eden giving water to the garden; and from there it was parted and became four streams.

Historically, these opinions are vast and wild as some put it in heaven, some have it orbiting the moon, some on earth, some below the earth, some at one of the Earth's poles, some in China; some on the borders of the Ganges, some in the island of Sri Lanka; some in Armenia, others in Africa, under the equator; some in Mesopotamia, others in Syria, Persia, Arabia, Babylon, Assyria, and in Palestine; some have condescended to place it in Europe, some in America and some suggest that it’s all spiritual.

Literal vs. Allegorical Interpretations

To me, the description given by Moses is too particular to him and his day to be allegorical. And this gets difficult because once we admit to allegory in scripture we have to begin to wonder if the whole thing isn’t allegory – including Adam and Eve themselves. I look to Moses – who I do not see as allegory. And try to view things from his mind and hand. And because I take him as real, and his surrounding, I also take his descriptions as authentic and not allegorical.

John’s revelation? Very different subject – and so between the two book ends we have the content of the Bible. Some must be taken literally and others more allegorical. Which becomes the task of the reader by the Spirit.

So, let’s read the description Moses provides:

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Scanning through the varied opinions of the location of the Garden of Eden the view of one Hadrian Reland seems appropriate as he believes it to have been in Armenia, near the sources of the great rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Phasis, and Araxes. To him, the Pison was the Phasis, a river of Colchis, emptying…

Location of the Garden of Eden

Itself into the Euxine Sea, where there is a city called Chabala, the pronunciation of which is nearly the same with that of Havilah, or hlywx Chavilah, according to the Hebrew, the vau w being changed in Greek to beta b. This country was famous for gold, from where we get the fable of the Golden Fleece which was attempted to be carried away from that country by the heroes of Greece. He thinks the Gihon is called the Araxes, which runs into the Caspian Sea, both the words having the same signification, which is “a rapid motion.” The land of Cush, washed by the river, he believes to be the country of the Cussaei of the ancients. And then the Hiddekel is the Tigris, and the other river the Euphrates to be the Phrat. All these rivers rise in the same tract of mountainous country, though they do not arise from one head. Some will flat out reject this interpretation and make the location of the Garden in Iraq or Iran. Again, who can really say.

Verse 14
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Man's First Job in the Garden of Eden

And here we are given the very first job man was given by God himself – to be a gardener. As mentioned last week, this sort of blows my mind as in my immaturity I always envisioned the Garden as a type of heaven where Adam and even Eve did nothing by walk around naked, eating, resting and having nothing to do. I think this was a mistake as God himself put man in the garden to DRESS AND KEEP IT. Two works the straight up invoke elements of labor – to dress – to arrange, to set up, care for, prepare and to Keep – protect it, organize it, fence about the place.

Realizing this, I had to see then that our view of heaven (paradise) is messed up – and that we are not dying and going to a cloud to play a harp, but I would surmise that we are going to dress and keep whatever God assigns us to do on His behalf; that the Kingdom of GodGod’s spiritual reign—fulfilled and present, not political or future., in full operation, will be a place of really rewarding labors – without all the physical exhaustion. Can’t wait. So even in a state of innocence we cannot conceive it possible that man could have been happy if he was made to be inactive. From the start God gave him work to do, and his employment contributed to his happiness. I mean, just look at the capacities God gave Man and the expectations He gave him from the start – subdue, multiply, dress and keep, replenish, name the animals, have dominion.

I suggest we have long misinterpreted what was given and expected of Man in the Garden and this has even lead to how we see our heavenly destination and description. But taking our flesh and hypothecating what will be we want to believe heaven will be like we are laying on the deck of a cruise for eternity. No way. The major difference, however, that I suggest will exist in the heavens verses the earth in terms of labor is in heaven everything will be spiritually based, and probably all activities that have to do with hedging, dressing and keeping light and dark in their proper places. Just a thought.

The Role of Freewill and Determinism

And now, back to the trees and the important role they play in our understanding life, Christianity and God Himself. So let’s read:

Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Why are these passages so important? Because they illustrate a concept that is hotly debated in the faith – the idea of freewill. Now let’s step outside of the Bible and the faith for a moment and just consider the opposite of freewill in the world and that this is captured by the word, “determinism.” Either human beings have freewill or human beings are determined and freewill is a lie – that is the argument. From a pure deterministic point of view (which many atheists maintain) is that every single action, thought or belief anyone takes is determined by events and circumstances occurring prior.

The Debate on Free Will and Determinism

These antecedent events happened and are happening in every circumstance of our lives and cumulatively and independently serve to move and direct us (or determine) our acts, thoughts, and beliefs. So, at the very essence of our construction, we are all determined biologically through genetics, hormones, in-utero development, actions of our mothers during gestation, and the like. Then we are born into a world of circumstances, all of which are imposed upon us and with and through our predetermined biology we face these forces, interpreting them and the influences they have on us according to our biological makeups.

We are born in poverty, in wealth, to a family broken or united, doting parents or parents who were horrible. All these things, coupled with our biological make-up, add strings to our minds and cause us to react to life in predetermined ways. These things were called “conditioning factors” by guys like BF Skinner. All of this stuff also lends to psychological determinism, meaning the construction of the way we think and see the world around us and how we respond and relate to all of it.

Then we take all of these influencers or determining factors and add to it any and every action we are driven to take from birth in response to them, and how people around us respond to these actions we have taken, and adding them into the mix, we have a perfect recipe for determinism – that nobody on earth has any sort of genuine free will choice in their life because everything has been determined for them – and the outcomes can almost be predicted.

Perspectives on Determinism

I suggest that in the flesh or human experience, much of what determinists say is true, and I absolutely agree with many of their conclusions. We are certainly programmed genetically, circumstantially, and psychologically to react and respond in what look like some pretty predictable ways. So, I really have no issue with statements like, “I was born that way.” Aren’t we all. But I look to what Jesus said to everyone, and respond with, “No doubt. That’s why you must be born-again,” to bring us all back to the Garden of Eden and to the way God originally intended – a place of free will choice. Then we come to a very similar deterministic worldview, but this time, instead of it being in the hands of atheists, it comes from their religious cousins, Calvinists.

They say that everything that happens, from “womb to tomb,” has been decreed by God himself – genetics, environmental forces, nature and nurture, and even the rebirth from above, and therefore there is no free will (either) and God is the sovereign determining everything about every person’s life. In the end, this amounts to God choosing who to save and whom He chooses to let burn in literal flames of hell forever and ever. Again, both approaches deny free will – one atheistic and one theistic. Now, unquestionably, the scripture does describe God orchestrating some things deterministically – even some peoples – like the Nation of Israel whom he predestined to do and be what they did and were.

Scriptural Insights on Free Will

How this works or how He works this out is all up to conjecture, but there is a biblical precedent for determination – to suggest otherwise would deny the scriptural evidence. So, I am not so sure we can say when God is causing and when He is allowing in the course of human history – though I have my personal opinions. But all of these ideas presented by atheistic and theistic determinism must be observed, by believing Christians, through these two passages we are reading right here and now.

Why? Because these two passages – and the setting from which they are established, reveal to us the heart of God relative to Man and His relationship and interactions with us. Sure, there are factors to our biological and psychological lives that determine all sorts of this in us post fall – no doubt. But what we read in verse 16-17 of Genesis 2 lets us in on the will of God from the start – and here we clearly see that from the start, God gave the first man the ability and right to freely choose.

RC Sproul, the modern Presbyterian theologian and free-will denier (recently passed) wrote,

“If “intent” is sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. as when Jesus said, ‘he who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart’ then Adam “fell before the fall,”

The Question of Free Will and Evil

This is a monumental admission from this proponent of Calvinism because if we deny free will we have an enormous problem relative to evil because God supposedly created everything good and yet everything turned out bad.

If determinism is legitimate, then God is the author of evil and this stands in direct contradiction with James who says:

James 1:13-16 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God.. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren. and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Looking at our two verses here, we have to either see God as the one who caused Adam to do evil (while pretending to give Him choice) OR in this nascent state of having created everything good including the environment, the genetics and all other influential factors, Man was given the capacity to choose. And if Man had the freewill to choose in at the Creation, then we know this is the ultimate will of God for all people everywhere who seek relationship with Him. Then from here we can work forward to figuring out how this can be in the face of a Fall, flesh, and influential factors that contribute to our respective captivities.

The Perspective of Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas, the 13th Century Catholic Theologian said something so on point relative to free-will. He said “Man has free choice, or otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain.” In other words, where is the justice in a God who punishes people for doing what He has determined them to do?

So, to verse 16. First notice what Moses writes “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat . . .

We know that there were multiple trees in the garden and they were graciously granted to Adam to freely peruse and to use as food. This implies choice. Many trees. Freely eat. Choice. Determinists conclude that Adam had no choice but here is the beauty of this accounting in Genesis – we can see that in the face of all of Man's logic, choice was there at the start. PURE FREEWILL CHOICE. And it is this account that we look to as the will of God for Man made in His image – freedom of choice.

The Freedom to Choose

So right out of the gate Man was given the freedom to “freely eat.” Did you know that these are the very first words ever recorded spoken by God directly to man “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat . . .”

In the first account of chapter 1 God creates man and tells him to multiply, replenish the earth, to have dominion over it and to subdue it. In this account he instructs Man to care for and keep the Garden. All instructions but all containing the freewill choice in Man to carry these things out as he sees fit. The fact that the first thing God ever says to man is, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat . . .” certainly indicates him possessing an unencumbered ability to freely act.

The line, “you may eat,” has “may” which indicates choice… and it’s neutral – in other words, “you may or you may not – it’s up to you.” When something is up to someone, that is freewill. Throughout the rest of scripture we have “mays” given to Man – you may or you may not. We also have “may nots” given didactically to man. But in EVERY case, MAN gets to choose AND Man is held responsible for the choices he or she makes.

Like Merton suggested, “if there was no freewill then punishment would be contradictory to the nature of a Good God.” This holds true in the case of Adam and interestingly enough, even in the face of all the deterministic factors mentioned at the start, it appears to continue to be the case in everyone’s.

The Concept of Free Will

Certainly, all of us have hardwiring that God will take into account relative to His assessment of our choices, but in the end, and despite the way we go, we are all responsible for the things we FREELY choose to say, do and believe. To lay our entire existence and all that we do at the feet of determinism is like trying to suggest that nobody on earth should ever be punished or rewarded for behaviors. Ever.

We also note that AFTER giving Man this freedom to choose God informs Adam the tree from which He should not eat. And that brings us to a second issue. When God says, “You shall not eat” “Shall not” indicates choice as well because God put the tree there. If “shall not” was not a choice, God would have put no tree there at all or He would have made it inaccessible somehow (like putting a force-field wall around it or guarding it with cherubim like He would later guard the Tree of Life itself). In that case, God would have said, “You cannot,” and we would see that He imposed this will on Man. We see nothing of the sort.

So “shall not” also, though it came with a warning, also implies freewill. Yes, Adam was warned with consequences He certainly did not understand, but the warning from God to Him was not enough to overcome the freewill given him to disobey – making his freewill choice all the more egregious. See, Adam could have looked around, seen everything as a blessing, and decided to not eat of the forbidden tree from the simple fact God told Him not to. Therein lies the choice. God said don’t do it Adam – no force extended – and Adam freely chose to disregard this directive.

Free Will and Its Consequences

Everything this far implies free will in man. God didn’t keep the tree from him, he provided other sources of food for him that he could freely eat from, and God directly warned him not to eat of it. His ignorance of death does not play into his freewill disobedience. A parent can tell a child, never touch the stove or they will get burned. A child may have never experienced a burn before so is ignorant of the pain they cause, nevertheless, the child was warned repeatedly by the parent who loves them NOT to touch the stove. To do so is an act of freewill – and in this case freewill disobedience. For a child to refrain from touching the stove, even though they don’t understand what burn means, is an act of freewill obedience – because they trust the advice and insights of the parent.

One act shows faith and love toward the parent, the other shows a lack of faith and love toward the same. But all acts are from the freewill choice of the child in the face of the command. Adding to the idea of what freewill looks like Paul says in 1 Corinthians –

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

God certainly gave Adam a choice in the matter and He also provided a way of escape – direct relationship, a command to not eat, and a number of other trees whereby Adam could feast. There was no burden beyond his ability to bear.

The Origin of Evil

So, “From whence comes evil?” What we need to do is to simply think through the Words of God to Adam. “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” Because this free will ability to choose was given and exercised in a state of innocence we have to admit that the capacity to do wrong, to freely choose to go against the will of God was bestowed upon Man from the start. In fact, this capacity is yet another factor in how we were made in God’s image – we have the innate ability to choose rather than to just react from a pleasure center.

This idea is a central support for the argument of human freewill. No matter what our circumstances, almost all of us have the godlike capacity to choose – in fact, we cannot escape it, which makes life unbearable for some.

The Choice of Adam and Eve

3 we will read that a couple of things happened when Adam ate of the fruit.

First, he became more, not less like God! Verse 22 of chapter 3 we will read: Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.

God does not live by faith. He knows. And for Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of KNOWLEDGE of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve removed themselves from what pleases God – faith – and entered the realm of being God. Remember, it was the fact that the fruit would make one wise that attracted Eve to eat of it in the first place. And here we have a principle all humankind must make in and with the life God has given us – Do we derive our wisdom and knowledge from a tree of knowledge of Good and Evil (which to me represents knowledge of and from this world) OR do we derive our wisdom from The Tree of Life – with life being defined as life and information and wisdom coming from God, through spiritual wisdom, and the Tree of Life now being the cross.

Free Will and Its Implications

The great philosopher and author of last century, CS Lewis said this about free will: “God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong, but I can’t. If a thing is free to be good it’s also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.

So, “the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam was placed in the garden and given instructions. When God placed the tree there that He wasn’t supposed to eat from, it wasn’t God’s fault if Adam disobeyed. It was Adams – and therefore He, and Eve and Satan were all rightfully, justly punished for CHOOSING to do what they did.

Scripture and Free Will

Bottom line: Some people see the Bible as a book of do’s and don’ts. It’s not. Never has been. Even the Ten Commandments God will give the Children of Israel represent a set of CHOICES and we know this to be true because the Nation of Israel sometimes chose to obey them and other times chose to reject them.

None of that is on God. All of it was on them and all of it is on us. They “do’s” of scripture are there to protect His creations. The don’ts are there to protect His creations. That is what all good parents provide. But the choice is always in the hands of the created. To remove free will choice from the narrative is to make God either non-existent or a capricious unloving unjust monster.

This tree of knowledge of good and evil represents all things that do not come from God to man both in content but more importantly in delivery. God placed Adam in the garden and in and through the two trees essentially allowed Adam to freely make a choice about how he was going to live out his existence – By faith, trusting in His creator and showing his love and allegiance to Him through free will obedience OR through doing His own will, of choosing knowledge from a source outside direct relationship with His maker.

The former choice led to true life. The latter choice to death. Adam chose death by first choosing to do what His father told Him not to do. The very presence of these two trees in this primary garden home of the first humans was the way God would let those made in His image express their true heart toward him – would they, created in His image, created good, surrounded by good things – choose to obey His directives and thereby freely confirm their love for Him and LIVE or would they choose to disobey His directives thereby choosing another way that is not Him, a way He warned them about, a way that led to death.

Faith and Freewill

See, faith and love and true repentance can ONLY exist when freewill choice is present. In the face of all the deterministic issues surrounding humans today—genetic defects, raging hormones, savage parents, poverty or wealth, health and advantages—everyone of us (with God as our judge) is still condemned to be free. And with that freedom to choose, all of us are still equipped with the capacity to faithlessly eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil or to faithfully eat from the Tree of Life.

The Power of Choice

These choices are the summation of being worldly, natural, carnal and living lives of spiritual death (which was the result of eating the forbidden fruit) or feasting on the Tree of Life being otherworldly, spiritual, and possessing life eternal as a result. I honestly don’t believe that God is all about forcing anything but instead providing all of His creation the opportunity to choose.

God's Remedy

Yes, He is there always to pick us up and dust us off when we choose poorly—just like He did with the human race through His Son. But even His remedies are never imposed, but offered as readily as these two trees in the garden.

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