Eden, Garden of
in the Old Testament Book of Genesis, biblical earthly paradise inhabited by the first created man and woman, Adam and Eve, prior to their expulsion for disobeying the commandments of God. It is also called in Genesis the Garden of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and, in Ezekiel, the Garden of God. The term Eden probably is derived from the Akkadian word edinu, borrowed from the Sumerian eden, meaning “plain.”According to the Genesis story of the creation and fall of man, out of Eden, east of Israel rivers flowed to the four corners of the world. Similar stories in Sumerian records indicate that an earthly paradise theme belonged to the mythology of the ancient Middle East.
The story of the Garden of Eden is a theological use of mythological themes to explain human progression from a state of innocence and bliss to the present human condition of knowledge of sin, misery, and death.
- Ḥasan
- Ḥasan al-Bannāʾ
- Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, al-
- Ḥasan-e Ṣabbāḥ
- Ḥasdai ben Abraham Crescas
- Ḥasidism
- Ḥasi, Tel
- Ḥassān ibn Thābit
- Ḥassūnah, ʿAbd al-Khāliq
- Ḥawrān
- Ḥaydar, Shaykh
- Ḥayyim ben Joseph Vital
- Ḥazāra
- Ḥaḍramawt
- Ḥaṭṭīn, Battle of
- Ḥillah, Al-
- Ḥillī, al-
- Ḥimyar
- Ḥimṣ
- Ḥisdai ibn Shaprut
- Ḥiṣn al-Ghurāb
- Ḥudaybiyah, Pact of Al-
- Ḥudaydah, Al-
- Ḥulwān
- Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq