An Expedition to the Garden of Eden
The Location of the Garden of Eden
Chapter one of the Book of Genesis is a summary of the Natural history of our Universe. The current scientific understanding of the natural history of the Universe parallels the Biblical account, so that there is no need to try to reconcile the differences. One may choose the scientific one, or the biblical spiritual one, or preferably both accounts in order to understand the background for chapter 2. Chapter two includes the description of the Garden of Eden and allows us to find Eden both geographically and theologically.
Chapter two of the Book of Genesis relates how God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and placed him in the Garden of Eden, which God himself planted in the East. God planted a tree as the centerpiece of the Garden and called it “the Tree of Life”, which bestowed eternal life on those who lived on its fruit. This Tree reflected the very purpose of the Garden, which was to provide an idyllic location for God to enjoy and love his creation and for Adam and Eve to know and love their Creator forever. To be meaningful, love for God had to be a personal choice and God placed the self centered option of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden as well as the Tree of life. Clearly these two trees were not biological but rather allegorical for Man’s choice to walk by faith with God as Adam and Eve and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Moses and others did, or to go their own way.
Chapter three relates the history of how Adam and Eve, although they had been walking with God, ate from the tree that represented the self centered option, in an attempt to be like God, which God had cautioned them against, instead of the Tree of Life. For this reason they were driven from the Garden and cherubim and a flaming sword were placed at the east entrance to guard the way to the tree of Life.
Moses the author of Genesis wanted us to understand that the account in these chapters was history and not legend and he described its location precisely. Genesis 2:8 He said that God planted the Garden of Eden in the East, מקדם means in the East. The East however is not simply a direction, but also means Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means “between the rivers” referring to the Tigris and Euphrates. In the septuagint the Greek word Anatolia means the east and includes the mountain range at the Northern Border of Mesopotamia, which is still called Anatolia to this day. Looking at the map of Mesopotamia two additional rivers are seen between the Tigris and Euphrates, which are now called the Khabur and the Balikh. These four rivers all received water from a small stream on mount Masius so in order to reach Mesopotamia one must cross at least one of these rivers. Accordingly in Arabic, Mesopotamia is called Al Jazeera which means the Islands.
Genesis 2:10 states a river went out of Eden to water the Garden and became four Rivers. It is important to note the word יצא means to exit not to enter, so Eden would be at an elevated location since rivers flow downhill. Ezekiel also describes Eden as on a mountain. Ezekiel 28:13,14. The four rivers were the Pishon, the Gihon, the Hiddekel (the Dicle or Tigris) and the Perat (Euphrates). The Hiddekel and Euphrates are well known to this day and define Mesopotamia. The Pishon and the Gihon carry different names today, but the biblical account indicates that the Pishon river ran through the land of Havilah and the Gihon river ran along the border of the land of Cush. It reveals Havilah’s location because coming from Egypt it is before you reach Assyria and the Tigris. If we follow the ancient trade route from Egypt, we must cross the Euphrates river at Carchemish, then continue east to Viransehir, on the Silk Road, before reaching Assyria, which places Havilah in the Khabur basin.
It also shows that Havilah and his brother Ophir, both known for gold , lived from Mount Mesha (Masius) a mountain of Mesopotamia in the direction of Sephar (Sepharvaim) Genesis 10:29-30. The city of Sepharvaim lies to the southeast along the Euphrates river down stream from the Khabur River. This also places Havilah in the Khabur Basin. The River which flows through the Khabur basin is the Khabur River, which originates on Mount Mesha identifying the Khabur River as the ancient Pishon River and locating the Garden of Eden on Mount Mesha. Mount Mesha which was called Masius by Strabo the Greek Geographer from the time of Christ, can written variably as Massa or Masius in translation to English but pronounced like the Hebrew Mesha. משא It is located in Northern Mesopotamia.
Cush is known, because shortly after the time Moses wrote Genesis, using only post diluvian geographic references, the Cushite King Cushan-Rishathaim ruled Aram Naharaim and was defeated by Caleb’s nephew Othniel. It is the same place where Jacob met Rachael and Leah and encountered the “sons the East” in Harran. Genesis 29:1,4. Genesis 24:10.
The Septuagint translators translated the word Cush, as Ethiopia. That was because the Septuagint was translated from Hebrew to Greek in Alexandria Egypt, where they were familiar with the Cushites who lived in Ethiopia but not those who lived in Northern Mesopotamia. That orientation would put the Nile as the Gihon, on an entirely different continent and place the Garden of Eden in Abyssinia. Josephus was misled by this orientation and felt that the Ganges was the second river of Eden. Antiquities of the Jews 1.1.3. The King James translators followed suit but the reference has been corrected in the New King James edition. If however, we take the older location of Cush in the Hebrew mentioned in the Bible, we see that Cush’s son was Nimrod who inhabited the plain of Sinar in northern Mesopotamia, which is consequently also Cush. Genesis 10:8-10
Psalms 87:4 shows Cush was related to Tyre.
There is, what is now an intermittent stream, which flows along the crest of Mount Masius for about 10 kilometers to the southern end of Masius from the origin of the other three rivers of Eden. It is the Eden River, but from millennia of erosion it currently flows only to the Tigris, just as the Gihon now flows to the Khabur secondary to volcanic and water table depletion land subsidence. In 1888 Paul Sintenis discovered the Masia Iris on the western slopes of Mount Masius which is now called the Karaca Dag. Genesis 2:14 Mount Mesha provides water to both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers completing the third and forth rivers of Eden all located in Mesopotamia with tributaries from Mount Mesha.
At that same location, on the northwest flank of Mount Mesha, researchers from the Max Planck institute in Germany located the primitive origin of many varieties of modern wheat, the beginning of agriculture, which is called Einkorn. This is the location, to which Adam and Eve would have fled from the fiery sword at the east entrance of Eden and being the first biblically recorded farmers, it assures us that the biblical account of their lives is historically and geographically accurate.
Fifteen kilometers east of Masia at the entrance to the mountain on the Diyarbakir/Viransehir highway is a volcanic cone. It was described by the Prophet Ezekiel as he looked to the north from the Silk Road crossing of the Kevar (Khabur) river. His description, included a large cloud, with fire in the center, like a spring of molten metal כעין החשמל , with lightning flashes and the sound of an army camp. it was accompanied by his vision of cherubim which he named later in chapter 10. Julian Pearce, the famous volcanologist, noted this volcano was only a few millennia old which is the approximate time and precise location of Ezekiel’s observations. This volcano is at the same location as the fiery sword and cherubim, that Adam and Eve observed, which guarded the way to the Tree of Life east of the Garden of Eden.
Ezekiel further records the visit to Eden by the King of Tyre, who was anointed Cherub/Guardian of Eden and walked among the stones of fire. Ezekiel 28:13,14. All three of these events place the Garden of Eden on Mount Masia (Mesha) a mountain of Mesopotamia.
Job also noted this volcanic activity and the occurrence of gold of Ophir in Northern Mesopotamia. Job 1:3, 22:24, 28:5 Job 37:22
Sennacherib King of Assyria declared to King Hezekiah that his ancestors, the Assyrians, had conquered the Children of Eden at Telassar. Telassar (later named Constantia) is the modern city of Viransehir lying in the southern foothills of Mount Masius near the Khabur River according to both Maunsell’s Ethnographic map and the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, both of which further confirm the location of the Garden of Eden.
Amos 1:5 shows Eden is related to Aram and Abraham was an Aramean, who lived in Aram Nahariam Deuteronomy 26:5 Genesis 11:31,32 placing Eden in Northern Mesopotamia.
King Solomon later sent his Red Sea fleet around the Arabian Peninsula and up the Euphrates River to Parvaim (Sepharvaim) to trade for gold of Ophir brought downriver from the Khabur basin to this trading center. 2 Chronicles 3:6, 1 Kings 9:26-28
Abram and his brother Nahor came from Ur of the Chaldeans. Genesis 11:31 The Khabur basin is in the land of the Chaldeans Ezekiel 1:3 so Moses’ source of information regarding Eden, which he wrote in Genesis was from his family and only a few generations from Abram and his great grandson Levi, who lived in that region and would have known its history and geography.
For Moses who recorded Genesis, physical reality and spiritual reality were not separate. The Tree of Life was how he expressed the close spiritual relationship, which Adam and Eve had, knowing God and walking with Him in the midst of the Garden of Eden. John the apostle wrote: “This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This defines eternal life as a spiritual relationship, rather than a botanical tree. For Christians, Jesus went on to atone for man’s sin, reestablishing their loving relationship with God and restoring eternal life to those who believe.
Luke 23:43 also indicates the tree of life was metaphorical for the restored relationship because Jesus promised the thief on the cross, who believed and confessed his sin, that he would be with Him in the Paradise of God that very day. Revelation 2:7 indicates which tree of life, the one in the paradise of God. Paradise is a Persian word meaning a park or garden. Since the Tree of Life is the relationship between God and the Believer, a pilgrimage to Mount Masia is not necessary to obtain eternal life since one may know and love God through Jesus, there in the Garden or anywhere even though, like Adam and Eve, at times we miss the mark of loving God with all our heart, all our soul and all our strength and our neighbor as ourselves.
1. Havilah is before you get to Syria on the Silk Road. Genesis 25:18
2. Havilah is from Mesha toward Sephar. Genesis 10:29,30
3. The river which flows through Havilah, the Pishon starts in Eden. Genesis 2:11
4 Ezekiel was looking north to a volcano from the Khabur River. Ezekiel chapter one.
5. Adam and Eve were looking east to the same volcano. Genesis 3:24
6. The king of Tyre walked among the fiery stones of a volcano in Eden. Ezekiel 28:13,14
7 All three of the previous witnesses Adam,Ezekiel, and the King of Tyre associated the volcano with “Cherubim”. Ezekiel 28:14 Genesis 3:24 Genesis 10:15
8.Eden is on a mountain in Mesopotamia. Genesis 2:8 Ezekiel 28:13,14.
9.The four rivers of Eden are identifiable as Tigris, Euphrates, Khabur, and Balikh. Genesis 2:13 Genesis 2:11
10.Cush is in Aram Nahariam. Judges 3:8 Psalms 87:4
11.Einkorn identifies Adam as the first biblical farmer. Genesis 3:23
12.Viransehir is Telassar at the foot of Masius where the Children of Eden lived. Isaiah 37:12
13.Moses gave only post flood landmarks for the Garden of Eden so it couldn’t have been destroyed in the Flood of Noah. The king of Tyre went to Eden after the flood. Ezekiel 28:13,14
14. The Masia Iris identifies Karaca Dag as Masius so does Strabo geography Book XI Chapter XIV.
15. Harran is in Mesopotamia and identifies “the East”. Genesis 29:1,4.
Genesis 2:8 God planted Eden in Mesopotamia in the East.
16. Abram lived in the Khabur basin. Genesis 11:31 Ezekiel 1:3
17. Mount Mesha is Mount Masius. Translation to English from Hebrew and Greek
18. Job confirms volcanic activity and gold in Northern Mesopotamia. Job 1:3, 22:24, 28:5 Job 37:22
Additional resources:
Maunsell’s ethnographic map of Turkey
J. A. Pearce Genesis of Collision Volcanism in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey 1990 page 155
Oxford dictionary of Byzantium “Constantia” page 497
“Site of Einkorn Wheat Domestication Identified by DNA Fingerprinting” Manfred Hern et al.
Spruner-Menke Historical Atlas 1880 the correct location of Carchemish was discovered by George Smith after this map.