Was there actually a flaming sword placed in the east of the Garden of Eden?

Answer 1

A brief analysis of the biblical story of the Garden of Eden tells us that there never could have been a Garden of Eden as described. The Book of Genesis identifies four rivers that went out of Eden, the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The Tigris, and Euphrates are clearly known to us as being in south-western Asia, but the Gihon is described as being in Ethiopia, which is actually in another continent.

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Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says that there can be no single terrestrial place that would serve as the common source of these four widely separated rivers. True, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers do meet, but the lands the text associates with the first two rivers are clearly separated from the Tigris-Euphrates valley, the first to the north, the second to the south. This geographical impossibility tells us that the Garden of Eden was a purely mythical place.

If there was no Garden of Eden, there was no flaming sword to block the path to the Tree of Life. In ancient times, with no concept of guns or land mines, a flaming sword seemed the most terrifying weapon to threaten anyone who attempted to find a way back.