Garden of Eden

The garden God plants "in Eden, in the east" (Genesis 2:8) and gives to the first humans to tend and keep. A river rises in Eden to water it, then divides into four headwaters — the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates — placing the garden somewhere at the headwaters of the great rivers of the ancient Near East, though no archaeological site has been confidently identified.

Eden holds the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After the first disobedience, the humans are sent out and cherubim with a flaming sword are stationed at the east of the garden to guard the way back to the tree of life. Eden is the Bible's first sanctuary, and the imagery of its rivers, trees, and presence of God echoes through Israel's temple and through the renewed creation of the closing chapters of Revelation.