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And the LORD God plant- Eden; and there
a garden n eastward in man whom he had formed.

m ch. 13. 10. Isa. 51. 3. Ez. 28. 13. Joel 2. 8. n ch. 3. 24.

o ch. 4. 16. 2 Kings 19. 12. Ez. 27. 23. p v. 15

word for 'garden,' which properly signifies an enclosure, from a root deno

the human frame. The subject is still further considered in the next note. -¶ Became a living soul. Heb. "ting protection, is rendered in the Sept. became to a living soul; an by Iapadeiros a paradise, a term howidiom of the original properly rendered ever not of Greek or Hebrew, but in our version. The phrase 'living of Arabic or Persian origin, used to desoul' is in the foregoing narrative re- note a park, pleasure-garden, or woodpeatedly applied to the inferior orders land enclosure, surrounded by a wall, of animals which are not considered to watered by running streams, and be possessed of a 'soul' in the sense in abounding with fruit and flower trees, which that term is applied to man. It and other objects fitted to regale the would seem to mean the same, there- senses. Thus Xenoph. Econom. IV. fore, when spoken of man that it does 13, 'The king of Persia takes particuwhen spoken of beasts, viz. an anima- lar care, wherever he is, to have garted being, a creature possessed of life dens or enclosures, which are called and sensation, and capable of perform- Paradises, full of every thing beautiful ing all the physical functions by which and good that the earth can produce.' animals are distinguished, as eating, The term at length by a natural process drinking, walking, &c. As to the in-came to be applied to any peculiarly fer tellectual faculties which raise man so tile or delightful region, and was intro far above the tribes of the brute crea-duced into the later Hebrew in the form tion, we find no term that expressly des-of D Pardes, in which it occurs ignates them in any part of the sacred narrative. The fact of his being possessed of them seems rather to be implied in what is said of his being made in the image of God, and in the greater degree of importance attached to the circumstances of his creation. Indeed it may be remarked that the Scriptures generally afford much less explicit evidence of the existence of a sentient immaterial principle in man, capable of living and acting separate from the body, than is usually supposed. Yet favoured as the idea is by so many analogies of nature and by such strong inductions of reason, it would be presumptuous to deny the existence of such a principle, even though the Scriptures had been entirely silent on the subject.

Neh. 2. 8, rendered 'forest,' and Eccl. 2. 5. Cant. 4. 3, rendered 'orchard.' From its denoting a place abounding with enchanting scenery, and one which in the case of our first parents was the abode of innocence and bliss, it became in process of time a metaphorical appellation of heaven, the seat of the blessed, 1 Cor. 12. 4. Luke, 23. 43. The import of the Heb. 19 Eden is pleasure, intimating the superior beauty of the region known by that name. As to the true site of this primitive abode of man, though it has been the subject of almost endless discussion among the learned, it is still involved in great obscurity, and an approximation to truth is perhaps all that is to be expected as the result of the most careful inquiry. It may, we think, be safe

8 The Lord God planted a garden. Rather had planted,' i. e. at some timely assumed that the name Eden desigprevious. The place of residence was fitted up before the intended occupant was introduced into it. The original

nates a place or region which was so denominated in the time of Moses, rather than at the time of its occupation

9 And out of the ground made | life also in the midst of the garthe LORD God to grow every den, and the tree of knowledge tree that is pleasant to the sight, of good and evil.

and good for food; the tree of

q Ezek. 31. 8. r ch. 3. 22. Prov. 3. 18. & 11. 30. Rev. 2. 7. & 22. 2, 14.

s ver. 17.

X

region sufficiently large to have embraced them all.

9. Every tree that was pleasant to the sight. The garden of Eden, which had been planted by the hand of God himself for the residence of the happy beings he had created, was, as its name imports, the centre of every terrestrial

had stored it with every plant and flower and tree, that was pleasant to the eye, grateful to the smell, or adapted to the sustenance of life. In addition to this, ample and refreshing streams of water, so necessary to the very existence of an oriental garden, diffused a perpetual verdure over its whole extent, and imparted to every plant, a beauty, vigour, and fertility, perhaps unknown in any other district of the globe. Among these goodly productions of the garden,

two of remarkable character and use

by its first happy tenants; for why should it then have been distinguished by a name at all? Geographical distinctions naturally and necessarily arise from the settlement of the globe by its inhabitants, but cannot well be conceived as existing prior to such periods, unless the name were given by God himself, for which we can see no suffi-pleasure. The bounty of the Creator cient reason. The same remark may be made of the rivers and the other places mentioned in this connection. They are doubtless to be considered as postdiluvian and not as ante-diluvian names. The site of Eden therefore is to be determined by determining, as far as possible, the respective positions of the adjacent streams and regions, an attempt at which is made in a subsequent note. - Eastward in Eden. Heb. Dp 179 in Eden from, or at, the east, or eastward. Eden, we suppose, was a region of very considerable extent, while the garden was a smaller tract embraced within its limits. The object of the sacred writer here appears to be to in-import, a living tree, just as 'oath of dicate the position of the garden, not only in reference to the country in which Moses dwelt when the history was written, but also in reference to the territory of Eden itself; it was situated in the easterly part of that highly fa-ually flourishing and fruitful, from its vored land. That this was a widely extended region is to be inferred not only from what is said of the several rivers by which it was bounded or traversed, but from the fact that several places of the name of Eden, yet remote from each other, lay a traditional claim to having been the primeval seat of the human race. Probably the correct mode of adjusting these claims is to suppose that the original Eden was a

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are distinctly specified. The first was the tree of life,' an appellation denoting, in addition to its spiritual or moral

bond,' is equivalent to 'binding oath ;' words of grace,' to 'gracious words;' vessel of choice,' to 'chosen vessel,' &c. It was probably a tree or class of trees, of the evergreen species, contin

possessing an undecaying vitality. To this tree there is evident allusion in the description of the heavenly paradise, Rev. 22. 2, in which was the 'tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month.' In both cases it may be presumed that the trees were named, in part at least, from their common inherent property of perennial fruit-bearing. But this by no means exhausts the full import of the

appellation. The tree of life in Eden, | simple intelligence, but also of a practi

undoubtedly conveyed to Adam, by the express appointment of the Creator, a symbolical meaning, serving as a visible sign or pledge of the continuance to him of a blessed natural life, as long as he should continue obedient. Regarded in this light he undoubtedly often ate of the fruit of the tree before his fall, not perhaps as a means of sustaining life, or of making him immortal, but sacramentally, as Christians now eat of the Lord's supper, to confirm their faith in the divine promises, and as a symbol of spiritual blessings imparted to the soul.¶ In the midst of the garden. Heb. 17. The phrase in the midst,' as used by the sacred writers, often signifies merely within certain limits, without implying an exactly central position. Thus Gen. 41. 48, Heb. 'In the midst of the same (city ;)' Eng. in the same. Job, 2. 8, (Heb.) 'He sat down in the midst of the ashes;' Eng. among the ashes. Luke, 8. 7, (Gr.) 'Fell in the midst of thorns;' Eng. among thorns. In like manner all that is implied here probably is, that the tree of life grew within the precincts of the garden, while it was not found without. This is confirmed by Gen. 3. 22, 23, where the reason given for the man's being driven out of the garden is, 'lest he should put forth his hand and take of the tree of life;' from which the inference is natural, that the tree did not grow without the garden.

Tree of knowledge of good and evil. Gr. 'The tree of knowing that which may be known of good and evil.' Chal. 'The tree of whose fruit they that eat shall know the difference between good and evil.' These paraphrases give the sense of the expression. The tree was so called because, being appointed as a test of obedience, Adam by eating of its fruit, would acquire the knowledge of good by losing it, and of evil by experiencing it. The term knowledge in the idiom of the Scriptures usually carries with it the idea not only of

cal feeling or experimental sense of the thing known. Thus Ps. 101. 4, 'I will not know a wicked person;' i. e. I will not have complacency in him. Mat. 7. 23, 'Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you;' i. e. I never approved of you. Rom. 7. 7, 'I had not known sin but by the law;' i. e. had not experimentally known it. In the above remarks we have given what we conceive to be, on the whole, the most correct interpretation of the phrase, 'tree of knowledge of good and evil.' At the same time it is, perhaps, but just to advert to an objection urged against this sense of the words by the learned Vitringa, who seldom advances an opinion that is not entitled to great respect. He argues, that 'to know good and evil,' in the language of Scripture, is to understand the nature of good and evil, of right and wrong, not to experience it; and that the tree therefore could not have been so named proleptically from the event. For although by the fall the original pair had indeed full experience of sin and misery, yet how could it be said that they thereby acquired the knowledge of good? If it be answered 'by contrast,' the experience of evil having taught them the value of those blessings which they had lost, this implies that they were previously unacquainted with good; and not only so, but that they experienced good by an event from which they only derived evil. This is indeed a specious objection, and has led some commentators to understand by the appellation a tree which was the test of good and evil; a tree by which our first parents would be tried whether they would be good or bad, or by which it would appear whether they would obey or disobey the commands of their Creator. From the whole tenor of the history it would appear, it is said, that the tree of knowledge was appointed to be the test of Adam's fidelity to his Creator, and consequently was so called from

10 And a river went out of from thence it was parted, and Eden to water the garden: and became into four heads.

that it might be said, that the river or
rivers flowed out of it, which in their
course ran through the Paradisaic en-
closure. With Michaelis, Jahn, and
other distinguished critics, we are in-
clined to consider the word 'river,'
here as a collective singular for the plu-
ral, one of the commonest idioms of
the Hebrew, implying that not one on-
ly, but a number of rivers, viz. the four
afterwards specified, flowed in different
directions about the garden or through
it. We are led to this conclusion from
the extreme difficulty of identifying any
place in the region of the Euphrates
which answers fully to the localities
here given.-After all, it is, we think,
not improbable that the word rendered
'went out' really implies rising or
springing out of the ground, the de-
sign of Moses being here simply to
inform the reader that these rivers ori-

God's knowing by the result whether he would cleave to good or make choice of evil. This view of the import of the terms it would not perhaps be very easy to set aside, were it not for the language of ch. 3. 22, 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.' Here the 'knowing' is clearly attributed to Adam and not to God, and as this was the result of eating of that particular tree, we know not how to avoid the conclusion that such is the meaning of the appellation, viz. that it was a tree by which Adam should know, instead of being known.—It is not perhaps necessary to suppose that there were barely two individual trees of the species abovementioned. The term tree is repeatedly used as a noun of multitude, implying many trees (see on Gen. 3. 2), and we suppose that the trees here spoken of were in fact two distinct species of trees, which the Cre-ginated in the district of Eden, and ator saw fit to appropriate to this peculiar use. They were probably interspersed here and there throughout the garden, so that Adam in traversing the delightful region would frequently meet with them, and thus be constantly reminded of the terms on which he held his happiness. While he was at full lib-1. erty to pluck and enjoy the fruit of the one, he was to consider himself forbid-77. If but a single river be den by the most awful sanctions from putting forth his hand to the other.

10. A river went out of Eden to water the garden. The language here is peculiar, and such as we should scarcely expect, if the common opinion respecting the topography of the garden be correct. For as the garden itself was within the limits of Eden, why should it be said that a river went out of Eden in order to water it? This can only be explained on the supposition that Eden, compared with the garden, was so large a tract of country,

consequently afforded an abundant source of irrigation. That the Heb. term to go forth is used in the sense of issuing or springing forth from the earth, especially as applied to plants, and streams of water is unquestionable. See 1 Kings, 5. 13. Is. 11. Job, 14. 2. Deut. 8. 7. Is. 41. 18. -T From thence it was parted. Heb.

here intended, the partition spoken of must have commenced immediately upon its leaving the garden, and at the same time not very far from its mouth; for although it is not unusual for a large river to discharge itself by several distinct outlets into the sea, like the Nile and the Ganges, yet it is very seldom that it is found thus dividing itself in the midst of its course, and far in the interior of the country through which it flows. But it utterly confounds all that is known of eastern geography to make the Euphrates and the Tigris short

11 The name of the first is Pi- | "the whole land of Havilah, where son: that is it which compasseth | there is gold;

u ch. 25. 18.

vailing sense of the word 'head' in the original, denoting the chief or principal of any thing to which it is applied. As to the sense of sources or fountainheads, it is supported by no instance whatever of such an usage. It is here clearly synomynous with 'river,' as appears from v. 13, where it is said that the name of the second river'-one of the abovementioned heads-'is Gihon.'

11. The name of the first is Pison. The name of the first river, not the first head, v. 13. It was so called from the multitude, increase, or volume of its waters.

branches of a larger river on which the known or distinguished as four princigarden was situated. We are constrain-pal rivers, four capital streams; a preed, therefore, to reject the idea of but a single river being intended. We adopt also the opinion, that the phrase 'from thence' (mishsham) is indicative rather of time than of place; a sense which it undoubtedly has in the following among other passages, Hos. 2. 15, 'And I will give her vineyards from thence (n),' i. e. from that time, afterwards. Is. 65. 20, 'There shall b. no more thence () an infant of days,' i. e. from that time. Thus interpreted the historian's meaning is simply, that from the beginning four considerable rivers, including the three principal in central Asia, flowed over or along the pleasant land of Eden, by means of which, or some of their branches, the enclosure of the garden was watered and fertilized; that at the time of which he speaks neither the region of Eden, nor the rivers themselves were distinguished by names; but that afterwards (2) at a period indefinitely subsequent, geographical distinctions arose, the extensive tract was divided into minor portions, and the rivers were 'parted,' that is, assigned in geographical reckoning to particular districts or territories embraced in the larger original whole. These rivers thus 'parted' were afterwards known by the names which he proceeds to specify, and by the designation of which he would help the reader to understand the true topography of the primitive Eden. As to a physical partition or division of a single river into different channels or courses, it is by no means necessarily implied in the import of the original word. It is the proper term for expressing that kind of conventional allotment which we understand by it. See note on Gen, 25. 23.-¶ Became into four heads. That is, came to be

Accordingly, the author of Ecclesiasticus, ch. 24. 25, in allusion to this etymology, says of God, 'He filleth all things with his wisdom as Pison.' As the names of the two first rivers here mentioned have long since become obsolete, they can only be determined by settling the locality of the countries to which they are adjacent, and even this is a matter of no small difficulty from our yet imperfect knowledge of the geography of the East.¶ Which compasseth. The original word does not always signify to encircle or surround, but sometimes merely to pass along by the side of, to meander or wind its way through. It occurs Josh. 15. 3 and 6. 16, where it is properly rendered passed along and passed by; in which sense it is probably to be taken here.- - The whole land of Havilah. So called from the name of its first and most distinguished occupant, like 'land of Ashur,' 'land of Edom,' 'land of Zebulon,' &c. all so named from the individuals by whom There were two they were settled. persons of the name of Havilah, one the son of Cush, the son of Ham, Gen. 10, 7, whose territory lay in Arabia, near the Persian Gulf, Gen. 25. 18. 1 Sam.

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