When God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the Bible says that he placed a cherubim and flaming sword at the entrance that scholars believe is used to guard against their return to this paradise on Earth. But this clear expulsion of human beings hasn’t stopped archaeologists, theologians, and tourists alike from trying to find their way back.
The Bible’s vivid geographical description of Eden gave seekers a head start. Readers are initially told that the Eden is “in the east” and that “in the midst of the garden” were the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—the latter with its tempting fruit that Eve accepted despite God’s warnings, resulting in their expulsion (Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:3).
But Genesis 2:10-14 narrows down the location saying, “a river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four tributaries,” that include the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, located in southwestern Asia, and the Pishon and Gihon, which researchers are still searching for.
This level of detail is unusual for the Bible and lent an air of authenticity to the story, giving early readers confidence that Eden was a real place.
“Scholars have long exercised their imaginations trying to pin down whether Genesis has some actual [if general] location in mind for where Eden may have been, or where might have inspired the story,” says Joel Baden, professor of divinity and of religious studies at Yale University.
