Scientists Reveal Where the Garden of Eden Is

It was a perfect paradise, but because of the  disobedience of man, humanity lost access to   the Garden of Eden forever. But was it a  real place, and if so where is it today? Even those individuals who might not know anything  about Christianity or the Bible are typically  

Aware of the Garden of Eden. A perfect place  without evil, death, or pain, who’s vast gardens   were full of rich, always ripe fruits and the most  beautiful flowers on all the earth. In essence,   the garden of Eden is paradise, and often  used symbolically to represent perfect bliss.

But humanity messed things up by… well, being  human. You’re probably familiar with the story   of the apple, and how Eve- the first woman-  was tempted to pluck an apple from the tree   of knowledge at the heart of the garden of Eden  and thus disobeyed God. After pressuring Adam  

To also eat the apple, both Adam and Eve  were cursed to leave the perfect garden of   Eden and wander the earth for the rest of their  lives, where they would have to toil with blood,   sweat, and tears to make a living  for themselves out of the hard,  

Unforgiving ground. And that’s pretty much  been humanity’s state for thousands of years. But could there be more to  the story than just myth? Interestingly, the Bible actually records  the garden of Eden as not a spiritual place,   but a very real, physical space that’s definitely  located somewhere on our planet. In Genesis 2:  

8-14, the Bible states: The Lord God planted  a garden eastward in Eden. . . . Now a river   went out of Eden to water the garden, and from  there it parted and became four riverheads. The  

Name of the first is Pishon . . . . The name  of the second river is Gihon. . . . The name   of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris].  ;. . . The fourth river is the Euphrates. The Genesis narrative clearly states that a  single river went through the holy garden,  

And when it exited it turned into four rivers.  Two of those rivers are Pishon and Gihon,   rivers that we don’t recognize today. But two  of them are well known to us- Hiddekel, better   known as the Tigris, and the Euphrates. Both of  these rivers run through ancient Mesopotamia,  

And straight through the modern day nation  of Iraq. The two rivers even share the same   headwaters in the area around Mt. Ararat- which  means that finding the Garden of Eden should   be as simple as finding the other two rivers and  seeing where they intersect the two known rivers.

But there’s a problem, because the Pishon  and Gihon rivers are unknown to us,   and no other rivers flow out of the same  headwaters as the Tigris and Euphrates   rivers. Famous French reformer John  Calvin made note of the difficulties   in using known geography to locate the  garden of Eden, writing the following:

Many think that Pison and Gihon are the  Ganges and the Nile; the error, however,   of these men is abundantly refuted by the  distance of the positions of these rivers.   Persons are not wanting who fly across even to  the Danube; as if indeed the habitation of one  

Man stretched itself from the most remote  part of Asia to the extremity of Europe.   But since many other celebrated rivers flow by  the region of which we are speaking, there is   greater probability in the opinion of those who  believe that two of these rivers are pointed out,  

Although their names are now obsolete. Be this  as it may, the difficulty is not yet solved.   For Moses divides the one river which flowed  by the garden into four heads. Yet it appears,   that the fountains of the Euphrates and the  Tigris were far distant from each other.

A popular belief at the time of John  Calvin was that the other two rivers   which poured out of the garden of Eden  were the mighty Ganges and Nile rivers,   two of the largest and most important rivers  in the world then and today. But Calvin notes  

The difficulty in this being true, as obviously  the rivers are very far apart from each other,   and he notes that one man in the  ancient world surely couldn’t have   habituated on both the Nile and Ganges-  the distance again is simply far too great.

Calvin then supposes what others have- that  the names of the rivers have been lost to   us and that the Pishon and Gihon are names  for rivers that we know today by different   names. This isn’t entirely implausible, as the  fertile crescent was known for being a location  

Of much strife in ancient times- the names of  even two important rivers being wiped out from   the cultural record is not impossible.  But Calvin makes a final observation,   that even if this were true, and though the  Tigris and Euphrates share the same headwaters,  

They simply don’t flow from the exact same source-  a singular, unified river which splits into four. What we have now is three missing  rivers, because don’t forget- the   river that flowed through Eden is what split  into four to create the other four rivers.

And yet the author of Genesis is  insistent that Eden was a real,   geographical place, and not a  symbol or mythological location. Creationists and biblical literalists  have an answer for the missing rivers:   they were destroyed by flooding. Rather, by  one specific flood: Noah’s flood. In the Bible,  

The world grows so wicked that God decides to  wipe the slate clean. He finds Noah and his   family to be the only faithful people left on the  face of the earth- which to be fair at the time   would only have been a few tens of thousand  of people. Thus to ensure humanity survives,  

He orders Noah to build a massive ark that can  hold him and his family along with two of every   land species, male and female of course. The  rain starts to pour- which confuses people   because until that point there had been  no rain- and eventually everything floods  

Leaving only Noah and his boat full of animals  to survive and repopulate the earth. The bible   is clear that the flood was so bad that it  covered even the tops of the mountains up. There are obviously a whole host of problems with  this account- namely that it would be impossible  

To house and feed 2 of every land species  for over a year in one boat. Also, it would   be impossible to even build that boat without the  assistance of modern technology- though Noah did   build for years. The material cost alone though  would have made it necessary for Noah to be the  

Jeff Bezos of his day, though to be fair the flood  account doesn’t mention if Noah was rich or not. Then there’s the more scientific problems.  Flooding the entire earth so that even the   tops of the mountains would be below sea  level is simply impossible. All that water  

Would have had to go somewhere after the  flood, and we’re talking about incredible,   mind-boggling amounts of water. At the very least  we should see that water locked up in massive   glaciers dozens of miles tall in the poles, but  we don’t. If Noah’s ark had also been coasting  

On water above mountain top high he would have  had to deal with a thinner atmosphere- though we   suppose its possible the atmosphere would have  been compressed by the rising floodwaters to   perhaps mitigate some of the altitude sickness  which would be plaguing Noah and his animals.

Perhaps most importantly of all though is the fact   that there’s simply zero evidence for  a global flood- no matter what Ken Ham   (https://content.swncdn.com/zcast/oneplace/host-images/answers-in-genesis/640×480.jpg)  and his   cherry-picked science like to say.  But it might surprise you to learn   that evidence for a regional flood is very  much present, and one of staggering scale.

The flood of Genesis is repeated across other  ancient literature, including famously in the   epic of Gilgamesh, leading to cries of plagiarism  from critics. This would be a stretch for sure,   as the two works bear nothing more than  superficial similarities- but both could  

Very well be reporting on a very real event, just  not in quite the scale described in either work. Sediment deposits found across Iraq indicate that  the region was prone to some massive flooding in   the past. One sediment deposit in southeastern  Iraq is a whopping 3 meters thick, with 2.4  

Meter deposits to the southeast of Baghdad.  Those deposits were dated to about 2900 BC,   nearly 1500 years before Genesis was officially  put down on paper. The area however was already   home to the descendants of those early scribes,  and they would definitely have witnessed floods  

Devastating enough to wash away entire villages,  and wide enough to cover hundreds of square miles. Massive floods can indeed rewrite  the geography of the earth; we have   ample evidence of large-scale catastrophic  flooding erasing river systems from existence   or diverting the flow of ancient rivers. But  the problem once more becomes with where the  

Floods took place. Massive regional flooding  in the Mesopotamian valley wouldn’t have been   able to reach to the mountains where the  headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates lay-   that would have required truly mythical levels of  flooding. Without being able to extend that far,  

No amount of flooding could have erased  our two missing rivers from existence. Climate change could have possibly dried up  these two ancient rivers, but again modern   geography doesn’t show any evidence of major  rivers linking up with a shared source in the  

Area. The Tigris and Euphrates could possibly  have shared a source in the past, but even this   is highly unlikely given the terrain and course  of the two rivers today. Even then, the original   river which fed the four rivers who broke off  “like the spokes of a wheel” is also missing from  

Both geology and history – no people from the area  have ever reported any such river in the terrain. It could be argued then that the  garden of Eden exists ‘spiritually’,   perhaps just out of phase with the real world  and that’s why no physical evidence of its  

Location can actually be found. However, the  ancient writers were adamant that this was a   real location- though it might be best  not to find it today even if we could,   given that God very famously set a flaming sword  and a troupe of angels to guard its entrance.

The most likely answer though is the simplest:  it was myth. The Genesis account is not   meant to be taken literally and was simply a  mythologized account of the creation of man,   not just an origin story but a way for early  man to explore some truths about God himself  

And his relationship with us. We see the  same in the poetic work of the Book of Job,   itself not a historical account but  rather a poetic exploration into   some of the most difficult aspects of life,  spirituality, and the nature of good and evil.

What might surprise you is that this is not a  new revelation- Christians throughout history   have always believed that Genesis was not  history, but enlightened mythology that was   supposed to be studied for its spiritual  truths, not its historical accuracy. Famed   Christian philosopher William Lane Craig argues  that Genesis should be considered ‘mytho-history’,  

As it contains accurate historical details  alongside what are obvious mythological   passages. This view fits perfectly into the way  that ancient man understood, and spoke about his   world, combining real history with mythological  flourishes woven together into a single narrative. What’s curious- or sad- about Genesis is that  its ancient audience understood better what  

Parts were myth and what parts weren’t compared  to a modern audience. As Dr. Craig points out,   the ancient Jews lived and died by agriculture,  which meant they understood things like the   water cycle extremely well as their lives  literally depended on it. Genesis claims  

That before the flood the earth was watered  by springs from beneath it, as no rain had   ever fallen until the fateful day that God  flooded the earth. But an ancient, farming   audience would have understood this to be pure  myth due to their knowledge of the water cycle.

Meanwhile, modern creationists like  Ken Ham try to twist science into   making something work that even the  ancients knew was never meant to be   taken as physical fact. This likely is also  true about the Garden of Eden, as man did   not descend from two single individuals  but rather evolved from the great apes.

So if you’re looking for the Garden of Eden today,   it exists only as a symbol of what man loses  every time he disobeys God’s commands- your   garden of Eden is the peace you could enjoy  if you followed God’s will such as being  

Kind to those who hate you, or practicing  restraint against your passionate impulses. Now go check out What The Bible  Actually Says About the Devil,   or click this other video instead!