The garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were placed. It is also used to denote heaven, Luk_23:1-56. As to the terrestrial paradise, there have been many inquiries about its situation. It has been placed in the third heaven, in the orb of the moon, in the moon itself, in the middle region of the air, above the earth, under the earth, in the place possessed by the Caspian sea, and under the arctic pole. The learned Huetius places it upon the river that is produced by the conjunction of the Tigris and Euphrates, now called the river of the Arabs, between this conjunction, and the division made by the same river before it falls into the Persian sea. Other geographers have placed it in Armenia, between the sources of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxes, and the Phasis, which they suppose to be the four rivers described by Moses. But concerning the exact place, we must necessarily be very uncertain, if, indeed, it can be thought at all to exist at present, considering the many changes which have taken place on the surface of the earth since the creation.
See MAN.