Israel opens ‘prehistoric Garden of Eden’ to public, but …
Thomas Cole’s 1828 portrayal of the Garden of Eden
(photo from Wikipedia)
Israel opened up a new park which it has called the ‘prehistoric Garden of Eden’:
Israel opens ‘prehistoric Garden of Eden’ to public
April 5, 2024
A new Israeli national park in the Jordan Valley was officially opened to the public on Thursday morning, with government officials hailing its … archeological site as a “prehistoric Garden of Eden.”
Ubeidiya National Park, which is located near Kibbutz Beit Zera, south of the Sea of Galilee, and was first discovered in 1959, contains 30 geologic layers with evidence of ancient human activity, researchers say. …
Thursday’s festive opening ceremony was held in the presence of Jordan Valley Regional Council Head Idan Greenbaum, Israel Antiquities Authority Director Eli Escusido, Israel Nature and Parks Authority Director Raya Shourky and Lake Kinneret Authority Chairman Moti Dotan. …
“Every year, the Israel Antiquities Authority develops tens of archaeological sites, making them accessible to the public. But Ubeidiya is unique: This is a prehistoric site of inestimable scientific importance for researching the beginnings of the human race,” said Escusido. …
The Authority declared Ubeidiya a national park in 2022. At the same time, the site was incorporated into a national project to revive the greater Southern Jordan River Reserve, led by the Lake Kinneret Authority and the Jordan Valley Regional Council. https://www.jns.org/israel-opens-prehistoric-garden-of-eden-to-public/
So a new park has been opened, but no this site will not help in the research for origins of our modern human race.
Why?
Because, according to the Bible, this place is not in the right location.
Here are the first passages in the Bible that mention Eden:
8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. (Genesis 2:8-14)
Those rivers do not intersect in the land of Israel.
Here is some of what Wikipedia has about Eden’s location:
The location of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as the source of four tributaries. Various suggestions have been made for its location:[3] at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea;[4] and in Armenia.[5][6][7] Others theorize that Eden was the entire Fertile Crescent[8] or a region of “considerable size” in Mesopotamia, where its native inhabitants still exist in cities such as Telassar. (Garden of Eden. Wikipedia, accessed 04/05/24)
Here is something from the old Worldwide Church of God:
The Forbidden Fruit
Many people are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit tree in the Garden of Eden. But very few have really understood its significance. The Garden of Eden was a carefully planned habitat. As Adam and Eve looked after the garden, they would learn, in the familiar words of the King James Version, how to “dress and to keep” the environment (Genesis 2:15).
God focused their attention on two trees in the garden. He gave Adam and Eve the right to eat from the “tree of life.” This tree represented God’s ultimate purpose for creating man — that he should have LIFE! Not just a temporary mortal existence but eternal life.
The other tree in the garden was the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” but God placed it very firmly “off limits.” There were some aspects of creation that lay outside the human ability to understand or control. In some areas, God knew best and mankind needed to take his word for it. “In the day that you eat of it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die.” he warned (Genesis 2:16-17). …
Where Was the Garden of Eden
The location of the Garden of Eden has been a topic of discussion and debate for centuries. During the Middle Ages, many people believed it still existed and could be rediscovered. Some Spanish explorers searched for the garden paradise in the New World, but without success.
Where was the garden? The Bible does not definitively fix the site. We’re told simply that “the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed” (Genesis 2:8). One additional clue is provided:” Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads”(verse 10).
Since two of those four river names are those of the Tigris(ancient Hiddekel) and the Euphrates(see verse 14), many have felt the garden was in Babylonia or southern Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), where ancient Sumerian legends place a similar garden.
Deposits of silt have radically altered the entire configuration of lower Babylonia over the millennia. Moreover, the Tigris and Euphrates have shifted their river beds several times through history. Archaeological studies have indicated that about 4,000 B.C., a river of southern Iraq “braided” or divided into a number of separate streams (the for riverheads of Genesis 2?) before entering what is now called the Persian or Arabian Gulf.
Other suggested locations for the garden have included Armenia, near the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates; Dilmun (modern Bahrain in the Persian Gulf); or sites in southwest Persia. Southern Babylonia, however, remains the generally accepted locale. If so, the book of Genesis thus places the beginning of human life in the very region that modern archaeology has shown to be the “cradle of civilization,” the original home of the races of men. (Halford J, Stump K. Babylon, Past, Present, … and Future. Ambassador College 1990).
So, has anyone found it?
Some think its location has been identified:
November 17, 2023
Did We Just Discover The Location Of The Garden Of Eden?
Some of you may know Rob Skiba. …
Have you ever wondered where the Garden of Eden is?
If you’ve ever sat down to read your Bible and you start with Genesis, you start reading along and you find out the Bible tells you EXACTLY where it is.
It’s at the intersection of 4 Rivers.
So naturally after you read that in Genesis you think I want to go look that up on a map.
The problem becomes only two of those rivers are still with us.
The third is a dried up river.
And the fourth is a bit more of a mystery.
So you have some clues there but you quickly run into some dead ends.
Rob talks about all of that … He connects dots you’ve never even thought of before, but by the time you get to the end of this 11 minute clip, I think your mind is going to be blown.
As always, it’s all right there in front of us in Scripture, you just have to know what you’re looking for.
And in this particular case, it has everything to do with a place called “Shecham”. https://100percentfedup.com/has-the-ark-of-the-covenant-been-found/
The above is also spelled slightly differently in English language translation of the Bible. Here are the first two biblical references to that location:
6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. (Genesis 12:6)
18 Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram; and he pitched his tent before the city. (Genesis 33:18)
Here is some of what the Encyclopedia Britannica says about it:
Shechem, Canaanite city of ancient Palestine, near Nablus. The two locations have been closely—though erroneously—equated for almost 2,000 years: both rabbinic and early Christian literature commonly equated Nablus with ancient Shechem, and Nablus has been called Shekhem in Hebrew to the present, but Shechem’s ruins lie at a site just east of Nablus.
Shechem was important in ancient Palestine because of its position in an east-west pass between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal (Arabic: Jabal al-Ṭūr and Jabal ʿAybāl, respectively), one of the few such routes in Palestine’s hill country. …
The city is mentioned in Egyptian documents of the 19th century bce. During the rule of the Hyksos kings of Egypt (16th–17th century bce), Shechem was a strong walled city with a triple gate, a fortress-temple, and an acropolis. Some of the sites specifically mentioned in the Book of Judges have tentatively been identified by archaeologists. https://www.britannica.com/place/Shechem-ancient-Canaanite-city accessed 11/17/23
Whether or not the location of the Garden of Eden has been definitively found, the public confirmation of any of it may have prophetic ramifications. But, it is not the park in Israel.
That said, could another ‘Garden of Eden’ be coming?
The old Worldwide Church of God put out the following:
TOMORROW’S WORLD A Global Garden of Eden
Beyond today’s threatening clouds of doom and despair, a golden age of peace and prosperity will dawn. The whole earth will become a veritable paradise — a global Garden of Eden — and all mankind will share it together.
The Good Life
Let’s momentarily peer into the good life of tomorrow’s world, when the scene described above will be duplicated the world over.
“The time will come when there will be such abundance of crops, that the harvest time will scarcely end before the farmer starts again to sow another crop, and the terraces of grapes upon the hills of Israel will drip sweet wine! I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild their ruined cities, and live in them again, and they shall plant vineyards and gardens and eat their crops and drink their wine. I will firmly plant them there upon the land that I have given them; they shall not be pulled up again” (Amos 9:13-15, The Living Bible).
“… The wilderness of Lebanon will be a fruitful field again, a lush and fertile forest” (Isa. 29:17, The Living Bible). “Even the wilderness and desert will rejoice in those days; the desert will blossom with flowers. Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy!
The deserts will become as green as the Lebanon mountains, as lovely as Mount Carmel’s pastures and Sharon’s meadows…. Springs will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground will become a pool, with springs of water in the thirsty land” (Isa. 35:1-2, 6-7, The Living Bible).
“They shall come home and sing songs of joy upon the hills of Zion, and shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord — the goad crops, the wheat and the wine and the oil, and the healthy flocks and herds. Their life shall be like a watered garden, and all their sorrows shall be gone” (Jer. 31:12, The Living Bible).
Did you realize that the purpose of this great Work is to herald the good news of God’s prophesied intervention and coming Kingdom?
Think of it! This present-day earth, sick and diseased, filthy and foul, is going to be healed. A fascinating new world is coming.
That’s what the good news of God’s Kingdom is all about!
Millions today, worldwide, are hearing on radio and television this encouraging message of hope proclaimed! But you are among the privileged few to be reading this advanced knowledge and to come in direct contact with the Work that is paving the way.True Knowledge
Encircles the Earth
Describing the utopian effect this priceless knowledge will have on those who hear and heed it, Isaiah writes: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For you shall go out with joy, and be lead forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree…” (Isa. 55:10-13).
The time will come that every human being on earth will hear the good news and begin to know the true God. “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord…” (Jer. 31:34). “… For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9).
A Righteous Ruler
What really good news! Once the whole human race has been educated in the ways of God, there will be peace and abundance for everyone on earth at last. Christ’s rule will bring to the entire earth the welcome, fresh smell of spring. “Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord… for he cometh to judge the earth” (Ps. 96:12, 13).
As David said in his “last words”: “The Rock of Israel said to me: ‘One shall come who rules righteously, who rules in the fear of God. He shall be as the light of the morning; a cloudless sunrise when the tender grass springs forth upon the earth; as sunshine after rain'” (II Sam. 23:3-4, The Living Bible). Are you actively preparing now so you can share in this coming wonderful world of tomorrow?
(Rice R. TOMORROW’S WORLD A Global Garden of Eden. Plain Truth, September 1979)
Irrespective of where the original Garden of Eden was, yes, a global ‘Garden of Eden’ is coming.
That is part of the good news of the coming Kingdom of God.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism? Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it? Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near? Three related sermons are available Let’s Talk About the Earthly Millennium, Millennial Utopia, and The Millennium.
Could God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2031 or 2025 or? There is also a video titled: When Does the 6000 Years End? 2031? 2035? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?
Biblical Archaeology This is a website that has more information on biblical archeological as is sometimes known as the Bib Arch site.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. It is available inover 1,000 languages at ccog.org. Here are links to four kingdom-related sermons: The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.
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