Was There Really a Garden of Eden? ?????

[Bible Speaks]

Was There Really a Garden of Eden?

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DO YOU know the story of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden? It is familiar to people around the world. Why not read it for yourself? 

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You will find it at Genesis 1:26–3:24. 

Here is the gist of the story:

Jehovah God* forms a man from the dust, names him Adam, and settles him in a garden in a region called Eden. God himself planted this garden. It is well-watered and abundant with beautiful fruit-bearing trees. At its center is “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.” 

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God forbids humans to eat from this tree, stating that disobedience will result in death. In time, Jehovah makes a companion for Adam—the woman Eve—forming her from one of Adam’s ribs. God gives them the job of caring for the garden and tells them to multiply and fill the earth.

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When Eve is alone, a serpent ?? speaks to her, tempting her to eat the forbidden fruit by cla

iming that God has lied to her and is withholding something good, something that will make her godlike. She gives in and eats the forbidden fruit. Later, Adam joins her in disobeying God. Jehovah responds by pronouncing sentence on Adam, Eve, and the serpent. After the humans are expelled from the paradisaic garden, the angels block the entrance.

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Among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, it was once popular to attest that the events recorded in the Bible book of Genesis were true and historical. These days, skepticism about all such matters is more in fashion. But what is the basis for the doubts about the Genesis account of Adam, Eve, and the garden of Eden? Let us examine four common objections.

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1. Was the garden of Eden a real place?

2. Is it really believable that God formed Adam from dust 

and Eve from one of Adam’s ribs?

3. The tree of knowledge and the tree of life seem mythical.

4. A serpent that talks seems to belong to fairy-tale lore.

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The Most Compelling Evidence

Would you not agree that the skepticism about the Genesis account has little real basis? On the other hand, there is powerful evidence that the account is true history.

For example, Jesus Christ is called “the faithful and true witness.” (Revelation 3:14) 

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Being a perfect man, he never lied, never misrepresented the truth in any way. What is more, he taught that he had existed long before his life as a man on earth—in fact, he had lived alongside his Father, Jehovah, “before the world was.” (John 17:5) So he was alive when life on earth began. What is the testimony of this most reliable of all witnesses?

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Jesus spoke of Adam and Eve as real people. He referred to their marriage when explaining Jehovah’s standard of monogamy. 

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(Matthew 19:3-6) And Pharisees came up to him, intent on tempting him and saying: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on every sort of ground?” 4 In reply he said: “Did YOU not read that he who created them from [the] beginning made them male and female 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? 6 So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together let no man put apart.”

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If they never existed and the garden in which they lived was a mere myth, then either Jesus was deceived or he was a liar. Neither conclusion is feasible! Jesus had been in heaven, watching as the tragedy unfolded in the garden. What evidence could be more convincing than that?

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In reality, disbelief in the Genesis account undermines faith in Jesus. Such disbelief also makes it impossible to understand some of the Bible’s greatest themes and most reassuring promises.