Commonly accepted locations for Eden

For those who are not familiar with this issue, here are the most commonly accepted locations for Eden according to Bible scholars, and why?

Southern Iraq – This is where the Tigris & Euphrates empty out into the Persian Gulf, and now that they found Pishon, it appears that it empties into the Gullf in the same area as well.
Eastern Turkey – This is the location of the Tigris & Euphrates headwaters
Eastern Africa – The Apocrypha Book of Jubilees seems to suggest that to get to Eden, you need to follow the Gihon (The Nile) river south, and then travel East. Book of Jubilees: Chapter 8:16

The strengths & weaknesses of the Eastern Turkey option for Eden are:
Strengths – Two of the four river headwaters mentioned in Genesis 2 are located here. This is also a special area in that Noah’s Ark rested on Mt Ararat, just East of the 2 rivers headwaters.
Weaknesses – The most identifiable river of the four in Genesis 2 is Gihon, as the river is described to go around the entire land of Cush, which at that time was well known to be the area south of Egypt. There are almost 30 references in the Bible to Cush, and they all refer to Africa. Also, Josephus & the Book of Jubilees associated the Gihon river with the Nile. This would mean that for the Gihon to have originated in Eastern Turkey, would have had to travel across oceanic plates in the Mediterranean or Indian Ocean, to Lake Victoria in Africa, and then travel all the way back north to its river mouth in Mediterranean off the coast of Egypt. This is just a silly proposition, and really quite impossible, as rivers cannot ever be suggested to have ever moved across oceanic plates. The Eastern Turkey location also cannot deal with the Pishon in Arabia for similar reasons.

The strengths & weaknesses of the Southern Iraq option for Eden?
Strengths – Two of the four river mouths mentioned in Genesis 2 are located here. Since the river Pishon in Arabia has been identified and determined to also empty out into this same area, there is only one river that the proponents of this location need to fabricate.
Weaknesses – To accept Southern Iraq as a possible location for Eden, you need to imagine that the people of Moses time saw river heads like the heads of serpents, and the heads were where the rivers spilled out into the ocean or a sea. However, the biblical reference to where Eden’s river turns into the other four rivers is “ro'sh”, which is used to describe: the height of a star, the tip of mountain, and the head of an animal. It means the top of each of these four rivers and not the river mouth!
The most identifiable river of the four in Genesis 2 is Gihon, as the river is described to go around the entire land of Cush, which at that time was well known to be the area south of Egypt. There are almost 30 references in the Bible to Cush, and they all refer to Africa. Also, Josephus & the Book of Jubilees associated the Gihon river with the Nile. This would mean that for the Gihon to have originated in Southern Iraq, it would have had to travel across oceanic plates in the Indian Ocean or the Red Sea to Lake Victoria in Africa, and then travel all the way back north to its river mouth in Mediterranean by Egypt. Once again, this proposition is really quite impossible, as rivers cannot ever be suggested to have move across oceanic plates.

The strengths & weaknesses of the African option for Eden?
Strengths – Very few strengths here, other than the fact that east of Lake Victoria at the headwaters of the Nile is the beautiful Kenyan wilderness.
Weaknesses – 1) You need to fabricate 3 other rivers in Africa for this to be the original location of Eden. We knoow where the other rivers are, and there not in Africa.
2) The verse in the book of Jubilees that’s referred to as pointing to Eden’s location is really describing the territorial boundaries of Shem’s descendents, defined by the Gihon river (Nile), the Mediterranean, and Eden to the East.


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