Genesis 2:10-17: “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

From previous study, we saw that it is very likely that Eden is a mountain. The garden of Eden would be on the side of the mountain. Remember, there are two trees, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the other tree is the tree of life. They’re both centered together in the midst of the garden. Both trees are interestingly alike if the tree of life is olives and the tree of knowledge of good and evil is grapes. That is if you look at them at their unripe stage.

Some Bible believers think that they were intertwined together, so Adam and Eve could not tell the difference. We don’t know for sure, so let’s say that they’re together in the midst of the garden.

The following are theories that Pastor Kim has:

  • Eden is a mountain.
  • Tree of life has olives.
  • Adam and Eve were there for a short season.

These are all theories. Why give theories? If there is something unsure in the Bible, it is our job to explore all areas. It is important not to teach something unsure like it is certain. Doing that causes more division in the church.

In Genesis 2:9, we see that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is in the midst of the garden. The garden is coming from out of the river. We are going to combine verse 10, 11, and 12 with Ezekiel 31 later. Let’s culminate all this together.

The four rivers

Verse 10, “and a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” Now, remember that Eden could be a mountain. If that is the case, look how it matches. A river goes out of Eden and waters this garden. The Bible says, “and from thence it was parted.” After it goes to the garden of Eden, it slits into four major rivers. What are these four rivers? The Bible says in verse 10, “and became four heads.” Remember that. If you search the exact location on the Persian Gulf, you will see Tigris river and Euphrates rivers, and two rivers are missing.

The name of the first river is Pison. That is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. Whatever this land is, it was called Havilah. Havilah means anguish.

It was not like the third world civilization as you might picture it today. Africa was one of the richest geographical locations that the entirety of Europe had to depend upon during Moses’ time.

Why is that? It is because there was so much gold there. You might notice Africa is closely located to this Persian Gulf region. Remember that Egypt was very prosperous, it was the most prosperous civilization in the world. Egypt is the land between the rest of Africa and the Persian Gulf.

The second river is Gihon. It hits towards the land of Ethiopia (the lower part of the Persian map).

The name of the third river is Hiddekel, and it goes toward the east of Assyria. Hiddekel is another name for Tigris. Hiddekel means a sharp voice.

The other time Hiddekel is mentioned is Daniel 10:4. How we can tell Hiddekel is Tigris is because of the next river close to it. It parts from the river Euphrates and it goes towards the east of Assyria.

The fourth river is Euphrates. So, there are four rivers here. If these theories are true that we have looked at so far, then the following might make sense.

Theory 1: The four rivers came out from Eden, a mountain

Eden is a mountain. If Eden is a mountain, where do rivers come from? Out of Eden, comes these four rivers, and it waters the garden and the entire land. Then, a single river goes down the mountain and splits into four.

The rivers must come out of Eden, but Eden is no more. If the Lord got rid of this mountain and these rivers seemed to come out of it. It’s similar to Sodom and Gomorrah about the dead sea. What happened to that location?

A few years ago, they discovered through technology that there used to be these two water beds that do not exist anymore. These desert terrains today used to be wetter. When God talks about the land of Canaan, it was a land flowing with milk and honey.

When we go there today, we see a desert or dry land. That is why God comes down in the millennium at the dessert where the Jews are at. He will water it. The Lord will restore the earth to its natural beautiful environment. So, these two rivers once existed but dried out a long time ago.

Now, if there is one area that seems to be contradictory, it would probably be Gihon at verse 13. Gihon is supposed to compass Ethiopia. When you look at Gihon, it just hits toward the Red Sea, but Ethiopia is further south.

Possibility A) This theory is wrong. These riverbeds are not Gihon and Pison. However, there is no doubt that Gihon and Pison used to exist but dried out now.

Possibility B) It is common knowledge that when there’s a particular land like France, the current land borders are not the same as it was for a few hundred years ago. Imagine going back 4,000 years. It is possible that Ethiopia was much larger back then.

Theory 2: The land was covered with gold and Adam was made from the minerals (containing gold)

Now, let’s look at Pison, “…the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good.” Havilah means anguish. It says that in Havilah, there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.

If we look up gold, it is interesting how some people attribute it to a reddish color. Why? What does the Bible say about suffering? Concerning about suffering, the Bible says you come out as fine gold.

Havilah means affliction. With this reddish color, it refers to affliction, suffering, kind of like red blood a little bit. Notice what the Bible says about Christian suffering. If you want gold at the Judgement Seat of Christ, it comes through suffering.

1 Peter 1:7: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”

Adam, when he was created, he was created with the image of God. God’s image is holy, pure, undefiled and not like a corrupt man’s state. Adam, in his nature was created in the image of God. But, because of his fall in his sin, he does not have the same operation and system that he used to be in Eden. In other words, his previous bodily state was different than his fallen state.

The Bible says he was created in the image of God. We know that God’s image is different from man’s fallen image. It is supposed to be a glowing heavenly figure. Mankind in their fallen nature, lost this image because of sin. You have to realize you are not in the image of God right now. You are in the image of Adam after he fell. The point is, that we took Adam’s fallen nature, not Adam’s nature before the fall.

1 Corinthians 15:47: “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”

1 Corinthians 15:49: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

First, man is of the earth means that we have borne the image of the earth. This is Adam. But if Adam was created in the image of God, we should also carry that right? No. God puts a distinguishing here. The second man is the Lord from heaven, that is Jesus. We shall bear the image of the heavenly, that Jesus. That shows that God put two different images here. You might say, “but I thought Adam had the image of God?”. Yes, but he fell. Notice what the Bible says the image of the heavenly will look like.

1 Corinthians 15:41-42: “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

What is this resurrected body we are going to have?

Remember the context this time is about the heavenly image. Notice that the heavenly image has a glow. Then, Adam’s image before the fall, had a glow. If we go back, Adam came from a land of gold. He had like a golden image and that’s something Hollywood stars love to have.

But you and other Christians will become a golden image. It is a golden image because man is created from the dust of the ground, and the Bible says the land of Havilah has much gold. Many people dig into the earth to find gold, and the Bible says that we come from the low parts of the earth. That is how we are made. We come from rich minerals from the ground.

Psalms 139:14: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”

This is talking about mankind’s creation. It is not talking about the womb of the mother, but the womb of the earth. That is why people talk about mother earth. The idea is that we come from her originally. We are familiar with that there is a new age reference to that, which is why we Christians do not use the phrase mother earth. New agers will spiritualize it, but we Christians mean mother in the sense that minerals and resources from the earth which the Lord used to create us. Look at Psalms 139:15, we see the womb is from the earth.

Psalms 139:15: “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.”

It is indicating that when we were made, it was something secret and spectacular. If you look at the last part of verse 15, there is a special location. If you go down and dig deeper into the ground, you will find something people have been attempting to find for thousands of years: gold and rich minerals.

Genesis 2:15: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

We see that God put him into the garden of Eden. So, he took him from the goldish land around and then moved him into the garden of Eden. Let’s suppose that this region was consisting of and was surrounded by gold. Then something could make sense here if you look at Genesis 2:12 mentioning gold and onyx stone. Go to Ezekiel 28 and see who has been in the garden of Eden before Adam. Notice the wording when Lucifer/Satan was in Eden in the mountain of God.

Ezekiel 28:13: “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.”

These elements were Lucifer’s covering from Eden. Lucifer was covered with gold. This gives credence to what was mentioned earlier that Adam was covered with gold. That can also make way more sense why mankind has a similarity with angelic beings. If you are a saved child of God, you are called a son of God. Angelic beings were called sons of God. See the similar wording. Jesus also mentioned we would be like the angels of heaven when we go up to heaven. Then it makes sense that Lucifer has jealousy and hate towards us because he was close with God being the anointed cherub that covered the throne of God. God rejected him and loved and accepted man, so there must be a lot of hate and anger from Satan towards man.

Theory 3: Eden was a part of Lucifer

Ezekiel 28:13 says that Lucifer has been in the garden of Eden, but it said every precious stone is his covering (we assume these stones are from Eden). Science eventually can show how a land relates to a person. When studying the Bible, it is interesting how celestial heavenly beings and sometimes God Himself, would take an object to be connected to their presence or identity. The idea is that Eden becomes a part of Lucifer. If that is the case that Eden has a part of Lucifer, then could we also say that for the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

Ezekiel 31:8-9: “The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.”

Look at Ezekiel 31 how it is similar to the same description as the person at Ezekiel 28, Lucifer. Ezekiel 31:8-9b talks about the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We see that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is attributed with the same language as Satan at Ezekiel 28. So we see the tree is connected to Satan too. We will find out a little later in Genesis 3 that when Eve partook of the fruit, there was a little bit of a sexual language that the Lord used in Genesis 3 and 2 Corinthians 11.

Please keep in mind that all these are theories. When it comes to abstract things, we have to dig deep to find more clarity in the scriptures. Now, let’s continue in verse by verse study, from verse 15 and onwards.

Genesis 2:15: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

We see from this verse that Adam took care of the garden. It was his job.

Genesis 2:16: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:”

In verse 16, we see that God gave Adam a command. He tells him that he can eat of every tree in the garden freely.

Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

The tree of knowledge of good and evil was the only tree that was the exception. God says “you will surely die.” This is where atheist professors will say that we did not die because we are still alive. But they do not understand what is meant with death. Look at Ephesians for answers.

Ephesians 2:1: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”

Quickened means to make alive. Why were you made alive? Dead in what? Trespasses and sins. When you were dead in your sins, that’s a spiritual nature. Notice when you read verses 2 and 3, it is not physical, it is not bodily, it is spiritual. Spiritually, you will die from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The atheist will disagree and say, “No, their eyes were opened, they started to know what is right and wrong.” That is stupidity. They might know a little more about sin but were in their previous state innocent. They were kind of like children. God wanted to keep them pure and not be familiar with evil.

What we can learn from this is when God says, “surely,” believe it, fear the Lord, and don’t let someone put doubt in His words.

For more verse by verse Bible study on Genesis, please refer to this Youtube playlist.