Does the Garden of Eden Still Exist? If So, Where Is It Located?
Question:
Good afternoon! Ok, bible question…maybe more than one. Does the Garden of Eden still exist? If so, where is it located? I am asking because we have someone who is very adamant about how it does not exist on earth anymore and it is/was not located in Iraq
So this a big question and requires some inference since the Bible doesn’t provide direct answers to us:
Here’s my best attempt.
The physical garden doesn’t exist as it did in the beginning when God created it and put Adam and Eve there. After the fall, what remained of the Garden would have been wiped away in the flood. Perhaps there are physical remnants of it buried deep under a mountain, at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea , or something like that, but the earth was radically altered after the flood and we shouldn’t expect to be able to find it existing today.
In another sense, the garden is still with us because Jesus is the tree of life and so we re-create the garden when we commune together in community, and when we bring the life giving message of Jesus to parts of the world. This also means that there is a spiritual realm where the Garden still exists because the tree of life is part of the heavenly Jerusalem - which is part of the new heavens and earth.
And that leads us to the final sense in which the Garden exits still…. The Garden of Eden will be restored in the new heavens and earth because we will have lasting access to the tree of life, and God will dwell with his people as he did in the beginning when the Garden was the intersection of heaven and earth. This is the promise that we have: Paradise restored. The Bible gives us a picture of resurrection and restoration, where God puts back together everything he intended when he created.
As far as where it was at, the fact that two of the rivers which flowed through the Garden are in the area of Iraq and have their source in modern day Turkey means that that area is the most likely area that the garden was at physically… but we really don’t know for sure because the Bible doesn’t mention its location with the precise detail of today’s geography. I’m inclined to think it makes sense to be in or right across the borders of modern Iraq, because “the East” is where exile occurs (including the banishment of Adam and Eve) and Biblical East is actually north-east of Israel which includes parts of Iraq and Iran but mostly those places beyond the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
⳩ Got a question? Ask anything about theology, the Bible, the Way of Life, or Jesus Christ and I'll respond with a post here. Send your question to: myquestion@askpastorjamie.com ⳩