Eden

in the Hebrew Scriptures, the first home of mankind. We are told in Genesis that "God planted a garden eastward in Eden," and that he placed man in the garden to care for it. The description of Eden and of its situation, however, is obscure. All attempts to identify it from this description with any existing locality have proved failures. This fact has been variously explained. Luther taught that Eden was protected from discovery by angels until the time of the deluge, when all traces of it were destroyed. Others explain the narrative as an allegory, claiming that Eden represents a state of innocence. The Hebrew word Eden means pleasure or delight, and is of frequent occurrence in literature to designate figuratively some especially delightful region. In King Richard II, Shakespeare speaks of England as "this other Eden."