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Katididaustralia 66F
49 posts
5/19/2015 1:33 am
So, What Is Eden


EDEN
1. A region in which the Creator planted a garden-like park as the original home of the first human pair. The statement that the garden was “in Eden, toward the east,” apparently indicates that the garden occupied only a portion of the region called Eden. (Ge 2:8 ) However, the garden is thereafter called “the garden of Eden” (Ge 2:15) and, in later texts, is spoken of as “Eden, the garden of God” (Eze 28:13), and as “the garden of Jehovah.”(Isa 51:3).
The Septuagint rendered the Hebrew word for “garden” (gan) by the Greek word pa·ra′dei·sos. To this fact we owe our association of the English word “paradise” with the garden of Eden.

The cultivation and care of the garden was man’s work assignment. Eden’s trees and plants included all those providing scenic beauty as well as those providing food in wide variety. (Ge 2:9, 15) This fact alone would indicate that the garden covered an area of considerable size.

There was also a great variety of animal life in the garden.(Ge 2:19+20) Eden’s soil was watered by the waters of the river “issuing out of Eden.” (Ge 2:10) In view of man’s nakedness it may be assumed that the climate was very mild and agreeable.(Ge 2:25).

The life of the newly created man and woman was simple, not complicated and encumbered with all the complex problems, predicaments, and perplexity that disobedience to God has since brought to the human race.

Adam and Eve’s exercise of their will, as free moral agents, in rebellion against God’s rightful sovereignty led to their loss of Paradise and the blessedness of its confines. Of even graver consequence, they lost the opportunity to partake of another of Eden’s trees, this one representing the right to life everlasting. Thus the account says that Jehovah “drove the man out and posted at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubs and the flaming blade of a sword that was turning itself continually to guard the way to the tree of life.”(Ge 3:22-24)

After Adam’s banishment from the paradisaic garden, with no one to “cultivate it and to take care of it,” it may be assumed that it merely grew up in natural profusion with only the animals to inhabit its confines until it was obliterated by the surging waters of the Flood, its location lost to man except for the divine record of its existence.(Ge 2:15)

What is the Paradise that Jesus promised to the evildoer who died alongside him?
Luke’s account shows that an evildoer, being executed alongside Jesus Christ, spoke words in Jesus’ defense and requested that Jesus remember him when he ‘got into his kingdom.’ Jesus’ reply was: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.” (Lu 23:39-43) The punctuation shown in the rendering of these words must, of course, depend on the translator’s understanding of the sense of Jesus’ words, since no punctuation was used in the original Greek text. Punctuation in the modern style did not become common until about the ninth century C.E. Whereas many translations place a comma before the word “today” and thereby give the impression that the evildoer entered Paradise that same day, there is nothing in the rest of the Scriptures to support this. Jesus himself was dead and in the tomb until the third day and was then resurrected as “the firstfruits” of the resurrection. (Ac 10:40; 1Co 15:20; Col 1:18) He ascended to heaven 40 days later.(Joh 20:17; Ac 1:1-3, 9)

As to the identification of the Paradise of which Jesus spoke, it is clearly not synonymous with the heavenly Kingdom of Christ. Earlier that day entry into that heavenly Kingdom had been held out as a prospect for Jesus’ faithful disciples but on the basis of their having ‘stuck with him in his trials,’ something the evildoer had never done, his dying on a stake alongside Jesus being purely for his own criminal acts. (Lu 22:28-30; 23:40, 41) The evildoer obviously had not been “born again,” of water and spirit, which Jesus showed was a prerequisite to entry into the Kingdom of the heavens. (Joh 3:3-6) Nor was the evildoer one of the ‘conquerors’ that the glorified Christ Jesus stated would be with him on his heavenly throne and that have a share in “the first resurrection.”(Re 3:11, 12, 21; 12:10, 11; 14:1-4; 20:4-6)
Prophecies shows that paradise conditions related to the people themselves, not just to the land, who, by faithfulness to God, could now “sprout” and flourish as “trees of righteousness,” enjoying beautiful spiritual prosperity like a “well-watered garden,” showered by bounteous blessings from God because of having his favor. (Isa 58:11; 61:3, 11; Jer 31:12; 32:41; compare Ps 1:3; 72:3, 6-8, 16; 85:10-13; Isa 44:3, 4.)

Revelation 2: 7 mentions a “tree of life” in “the paradise of God” and that eating from it would be the privilege of the one “that conquers.” Since other promises given in this section of Revelation to such conquering ones clearly relate to their gaining a heavenly inheritance (Re 2:26-28; 3:12, 21) it seems evident that “the paradise of God” in this case is a heavenly one.

It is further evident, however, that the restoration prophecies recorded by the Hebrew prophets include elements that will also find a physical fulfillment in the restored earthly Paradise. There are features, for example, in Isaiah 35:1-7, such as the healing of the blind and the lame, that did not have a literal fulfillment following the restoration from ancient Babylon, nor are they fulfilled in such a manner in the Christian spiritual paradise. It would be inconsistent for God to inspire such prophecies as those of Isaiah 11:6-9, Ezekiel 34:25, and Hosea 2:18, with the intention that they have only a figurative or spiritual meaning, without having a literal fulfillment of these things in the physical experiences of God’s servants.

The original Paradise for mankind was on earth. God has clearly designated the earth as the permanent home for humans. The Bible says that God made our planet to last forever. (Psalm 104:5) It also states: “To Jehovah the heavens belong, but the earth he has given to the sons of men.”(Psalm 115:16)
It is not surprising, then, that the Bible holds out the promise of Paradise on earth. In it, God will bless mankind with everlasting life. Harmony and peace will prevail. Pain and suffering will be gone. And people will be able to enjoy to the full the natural wonders of planet earth.(Isaiah 65:21-23).

This is a wonderful subject to study and meditate.
This is but a summary of the whole article and I hope you enjoy looking up the Scriptures and thinking on things.

I posted this to Teddy's question in the blogs but thought I would post it as a separate blog since it is such a lovely subject and so very inspiring.
Yours,
Katidid.

Further references for Eden are:
2. A place mentioned along with Haran and Canneh as a principal trading center with Tyre, specializing in fine garments, carpets, and rope. (Eze 27:23, 24) It is suggested to be an abbreviated form of the name Beth-eden referred to at Amos 1:5. “The sons of Eden” are included among other inhabitants of places that were vanquished by the Assyrian forces (2Ki 19:12; Isa 37:12), and some consider this Eden (Betheden) to be the small district of Bitadini along the middle course of the Euphrates River.
3. One of the Levites who responded to King Hezekiah’s call for reform; thereafter assigned to work under Kore, “the gatekeeper to the east,” in the distribution of the holy contributions among the priestly divisions.(2Ch 29:12; 31:14, 15)