Eden

views updated Jun 11 2018

Eden the place (more fully, the Garden of Eden) where Adam and Eve lived in the biblical account of the Creation, from which they were expelled for disobediently eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

The name comes from late Latin (Vulgate), Greek Ēdēn (Septuagint), and Hebrew ῾Ēḏen, perhaps related to Akkadian edinu, from Sumerian eden ‘plain, desert’, but believed to be related to Hebrew ῾ēḏen ‘delight’.

Eden

views updated May 21 2018

Eden (perhaps Heb., ‘be fruitful’, or Sumerian ‘flat plain’). The dwelling place created by God for Adam and Eve. The rabbis described the ultimate destiny of the righteous as gan Eden (garden of Eden), Eden became, in the Jewish imagination, the epitome of perfection
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Eden

views updated May 14 2018

E·den (also Garden of Eden) the place where Adam and Eve lived in the biblical account of the Creation, from which they were expelled for disobediently eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ∎  [as n.] (an Eden) a place or state of great happiness; an unspoiled paradise: the lost Eden of his childhood.

Eden

views updated May 09 2018

Eden abode of Adam and Eve (Gen. 2: 15) XIV; delightful abode, paradise XVI. — L. (Vulg.) Ēden, Gr. (LXX) Ēdḗn — Heb. 'ēdhen, orig. ‘delight’.

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