GENESIS 2:10-14

Q:  If I should take a figurative interpretation of the existence of the Garden of Eden, why is 

the geographic location specifically mentioned? A figurative reading would just say the intersection of

 four great rivers, not the Pison, Gihon, Euphrates and Tigris.

 

Anyone attempting to locate the Garden of Eden from this description would have a great deal of trouble.

The Tigris and Euphrates are of course located in Mesopotamia, but the Gihon flows from Mount Zion in

 Jerusalem. Cush is usually understood to be in Ethiopia. And no one knows where Pishon is located, but

 from the name Havilah it is probably in Arabia. Therefore this may just be a poetic way of saying that 

Eden waters the whole known ancient world. The imagery here recurs in the similar passage in Revelation

 22:1-2 where a river of life flows from the Throne of God through the New Jerusalem with the tree of 

life on either side to heal the nations. In that passage, the New Heaven and Earth is pictured somewhat

like a return to Eden, but this time it is a city.