Location Of The Garden Of Eden

[Solvedit]

How accurate and complete, without it being open to different interpretations, do you think this 'passing down' of truth or stories could be?

It's clearly only a brief reference of a few verses.  The intended meaning is not clear. 

The headwaters of the Euphrates are a fairly barren looking place but climate change or irrigation could have rendered the area around it a garden.  But the few verses you cited don't affirm or rule out that it was the headwaters of the Euphrates or perhaps just a manmade garden downriver akin to a city park.

[ARM1968]

Could Eden have been a simulation? A construct built for the travellers?

[Solvedit]

Could Eden have been a simulation? A construct built for the travellers?

My lengthy post which is second from last on the first page suggests it might have been a construct built to help keep the king's minions in line.  There is a little evidence.

[Swada]

It certainly is allegorical but not that difficult to understand. Genesis is a blueprint of man.  Adam (male) represents the spiritual nature of our being.  The unmanifested pure awareness (I AM) that allows us to witness all things.  Eve (female) represents the physical manifested nature of our being.  The snake represents our ego with its unquenchable desire to experience materialistic pleasures. The tree with its branches represent our nervous system and sense organs. The four rivers are symbolic of the four elements (water, air, fire, and earth) that represent the four stages of soul development which are all aspects of the one self.

Luke 17:21  "They can’t say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ You see, God’s kingdom is within  you".

[MonkMode]

Genesis 2:10-14: Describes a river flowing out of Eden, splitting into four rivers. The Pishon, Gihon, and Tigris are identified, with the Euphrates being named as the fourth.

AI:
"The Four Rivers: The four branches are:

• Pishon: This river was identified by some scholars as potentially referring to the Wadi al-Batin, a dry riverbed in the Arabian Peninsula.
  

• Gihon: This river's exact location is debated, but some believe it might be the Nile.
  
• Hiddekel (Tigris): This is the name of the Tigris River, which is a well-known geographical feature.
  
• Phrath (Euphrates): This is the name of the Euphrates River, another well-known geographical feature.
  

"Possible Interpretations: Some scholars have speculated that the four rivers may have been meant to symbolize a broader geographical area or even a spiritual concept."

Could Eden have been meant as a spiritual concept. It's interesting to mull that one over.

The Garden of Eden is a symbol of the human body.

The 4 rivers are 4 chambers of the heart.

The tree in the middle of the garden are the sexual organs. where seeds and eggs are formed, stem cells of the human body.

[MonkMode]

KJV does say one of the rivers "encompasseth Ethiopia" but there is no river which connects to the Euphrates and even enters much less encompasses Ethiopia.  Perhaps "Ethiopia" was a community of East African traders in Babylon?  

I am thinking the actual garden may have been a manmade garden in the middle of Babylon.  It may have been only a few acres large.  It may have been a religious shrine to the Priests of An. 

The river may have simply been a small spring which watered the garden and was then allowed to flow by various routes to the Euphrates. 

When Moses wrote the Pentateuch, it was many generations later.

When Moses parted the Red Sea, he cured his IBS.

[rickymouse]

I wouldn't discount the information about the tree of life in genesis.  It may sound far fetched, but I study food chemistry quite a bit and also dived extensively into ancient texts from many cultures.  There is some info in Genesis that can help to increase our lifespan...but it does not make us immortal.  I do believe the exact plant life that the tree of life refers to is now gone, but there could be similar plant chemistries that can still help to make our life less problematic.

Also, the tree of knowledge of good and evil has some basis to it....but I am not confident that the fruit talked about was actually fruit.  Something that hung from the trees back then just like now has some really good properties to it, and if you mess with it you would have to make clothes to hide all the bee stings from trying to take the honey....so the one they referred to as god in the bible would not see all the welts all over your body. 

I do believe there is an entity that they refer to as god, but my focus is trying to identify what god actually is.  God is the word that is not spoken is important to consider.  God may be some kind of universal collective consciousness and there could be some sort of planet local part of it we can learn to utilize....the collective consciousness of all life on earth.

And of course, this whole reality we live in could actually be a very advanced simulation we are part of, a sort of training program and also a test of our worthiness to be brought into the real reality.  A school with tests we must pass to graduate.  There is one they call Sanat Kumara in the ancient city of Shamballa...he is the one that delivers the test of rightiousness to be able to go to Shamballa.  Rearange the letters of Sanat and you come up with two names, one that tests our worthiness and the other that rewards us for being good.

Open your mind to possibilities that people ignore.  I do not understand what demons are, but I suppose that there is also a place where really bad souls go to.  A collective consciousness of evil or bad.

I am not too much into religion because people interpret things by their beliefs, including what is good and what is evil.  I was told by my father that in all good there is some bad, and in all bad there is some good.  If you drop a hundred dollar bill, it is bad for you, but it would be considered good by the person who finds that hundred dollar bill.  My father was a very good and honest person, who would go to church occassionally, but was not religious.  He told me that Church was for those who needed it.  He told me the same thing I now repeat some times, my church is the woods, god is everywhere and not just in churches.

If people need church to keep them doing good, I will not condemn them and actually think they need the church to be good.  But like in all of our societies, there are bad people who go to church just to gain either financially or from prestige.  But still I believe there is a lot of good in Christianity and other peaceful religions.  I have no right to judge anyone.

I also believe that atheism is a religion, just that they believe in man...not much a believer that humans should be in charge of things.  Science causes more destruction of the earth than anything.  Creations created by science sure have messed up this environment and I am not sure science is going to fix things...we're screwed...A collective consciousness cannot fix what science coupled with greed is creating unless this reality is just a similation. 

The reality we live in these days if far from real, we have been conditioned to believe in things not totally true for thousands of years....I cannot even verify if this reality really existed before I was old enough to comprehend things when I was young.  Seen my share of things that do not fit the reality I was taught to accept as real over my lifetime.  There is no way that a picture someone painted should be worth millions of dollars.  There is no way that an ounce of a soft metal should be worth over three grand.  Let alone crypto currency being worth anything.  Everything is based on belief in this reality.

[HumanClay]

Rivers on earth do not split into more rivers. All tributaries add to make one. The sea that these four rivers lead to is the sea of glass or crystal in Ezekiel and Revelation. All elements are contained within that sea of glass. The river that flows out of Eden comes from the throne of God. The sea of glass is creation, it is God's footstool. When you read about kings and the four cardinal directions, it is talking about the four quadrants and the beings that are in control of that quadrant. We know they access any point on the sea by either in four distinct directions and they turn not when they go. Like a x/y plot on a graph. In this manner we can decode what is happening and where. In Zechariah it talks about the North South East and West countries that are the domain of the four spirits that stand before God. They run as lightening. The sea is the great expanse that our reality exists in, the sea where Leviathan plays. It turns into the lake of fire in Revelation. It was designed as a trap. The four spirits also represent time. The whole mentally thing looks like a pyramid with thime starting at the flaming sword when man was driven out of Eden.

[HumanClay]

Revelation 2:7
King James Version

7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Revelation 21:6
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.