Page 7 - Bible Geography and Near East Studies

moderate. But man’s heart was filled with wickedness, and God decided to destroy the earth, and all
that breathes air, except Noah and his family.

The tremendous amount of water that caused the flood was a result of water falling from the sky,
perhaps melting the canopy, as well as deep fountains of the earth being broken up (Genesis 7: 11-12).
According to Genesis 7:20, the waters submerged the world’s highest mountains under 22 feet of water.
That means that the flood covered the highest pre-flood mountains. For the volume of water to flood
the entire earth, an enormous amount of water came down on the earth and out of the earth in a very
short time. The hydrological effects on land masses, besides the loss of life of all air-breathing animals,
totally changed the landscape of the Earth. Scientists call this a cataclysm. Mountains were destroyed,
tons of earth were moved from one location to another, and massive graves of all forms of life were
created, all in a matter of days!

The Flood destroyed the Garden of Eden. The beautiful Garden specially created by God may have been
located somewhere in southern Mesopotamia, because the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were mentioned.

Genesis 2: 10-14 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and
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became four heads. The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of
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Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx
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stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of
Cush. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel (the Tigris): that is it which goeth in front of Assyria.
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And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

To answer the question, “Where was the Garden of Eden?” the answer is, “We have NO IDEA specifically
where it was. We can presume upon a general location in the Mesopotamian Valley, but cannot be
dogmatic. Obviously, the flood destroyed all the vegetation and the beauty of the original garden.

It is important to remember that the flood probably changed the entire geography of the earth, and the
rivers mentioned before the flood may have taken a different route to the sea after the flood. The
geological violence of the flood was overwhelming. As the waters receded from the continents, they
would have eroded the land, leaving shapes that form the landscapes we see today and altered pre-

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