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3. Of the four rivers mentioned, the only two that are known are the Tigris and the Euphrates. Whatever one thinks that "head" means, this refers to Mesopotamia. The Gihon and the Pishon are not known. Identifying them with the White and Blue Nile is pure conjecture.
4. The end of ch. 3 makes it clear, that after man was banished from the garden, God made it unfindable, and guarded it with a cherub and a flaiming sword. Anyone who takes the biblical story literally enough to search for the garden in "real" geography, should take this litearlly as well. In my opinion, what the book is saying, is that the garden is NOT in our "real world", so don't bother to look for it.
5. Once again, those who take the story literally, should remember that there was a great flood which probably wiped out most landmarks, anyway.There is something more which can be answered by those who don't take the story literally. The author clearly set his story in specific geographic location. He didn't have to say anything about where Eden was. But he chose to give this rather detailed description. This suggests, to me at least, that he had in mind not a totally fictional setting but some real place, which he believed to have been the original home of humanity, or perhaps which he considered to be a suitable setting for a fictional account. Of course he was very likely influenced by ancient traditions, but there remains a real question of what place those ancient traditions were pointing to.
6. For those who don't take the story literally, the only "historical" question is not where the garden was, but what ancient traditions influenced the author when he composed his story.
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