1. The garden of Eden was in Iraq .

2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq , was the cradle of civilization!

3. Noah built the ark in Iraq .

4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq .

5. Abraham was from your, which is in Southern Iraq !

6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor, which is in Iraq !

7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq .

8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq .

9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel .

10. Amos cried out in Iraq !

11. Babylon, which is in Iraq, destroyed Jerusalem .

12. Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq !

13. The three Hebrew children were in the fire in Iraq (Jesus had been in Iraq also as the fourth person in the fiery furnace!)

14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the "writing on the wall" in Iraq .

15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq .

16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq .

17. The wise men were from Iraq .

18. Peter preached in Iraq .

19. The "Empire of Man" described in Revelation is called Babylon , which was a city in Iraq !

I came across this, what do you all think forumites? Quite interesting, let's hear your take.

We should all start a yearly pilgrimage to Iraq?

hmmm i knew the Garden of Eden was
in Iraq

but didnt know all that
is interesting,

http://www.crivoice.org/urbanlegend.html

The garden of Eden was in Iraq.

FALSE.  No one knows where the Garden of Eden was.  The Bible nowhere gives a location for it other than “in the East.”  Of course, where that is depends on where one starts.  From Israel, that could be anywhere from Arabia to China.  But since Israel does not yet exist in Genesis 2, there is no guarantee that “east” is from Israel.

Further, this assumes that “east” is a geographical comment.  In many cases in the Old Testament, such simple indications of direction or location are far more symbolic than they are geographical. “East” is often a way to speak of threat or failure, and coming "from the East" is a way to talk about hope and possibility.  Note that when Adam and Eve are driven from the garden they go to the east.  Cain must live in the east as punishment for killing his brother. When Lot separates from Abram, he moves to the east.  Abraham sent his other sons (besides Isaac) to the east country.  There are other examples that all suggest that “east” is not a geographical location as much as it is a way of talking about failure or promise.

Some have suggested that since Eden is mentioned in Scripture along with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers this clearly locates Eden in Iraq.

2:10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. 2:11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 2:12 and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 2:13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. 2:14 The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Several things need to be noted here.

a) There is only one river in Eden.  It is only when it flows out of Eden that it divides and “from there” becomes four rivers. That would suggest, if we are dealing with physical description here, that Eden was described as being located at the head waters of the two rivers, which would place Eden somewhere in the mountains of Armenia or Southern Turkey south or east of the Black Sea.

b) The geographical location for the Tigris is not clear since the Tigris runs through the middle of ancient Assyria, not to its east. It is possible that only the city of Asshur, the 15th century BC capital of ancient Assyria, is meant. But that raises an entirely different problem of chronology since that city would not exist for several thousand years after the setting of the Genesis account.

c) The identity of Pishon is uncertain. Pishon only occurs here in the Old Testament.  It is associated with “the land of Havilah” and that area along with Ophir, a near legendary source of gold, is mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament as being in Arabia (Gen 10:7, 29, 25:18, 1 Sam 15:7, 1 Ch 1:9, 23). That suggests that Pishon may be located generally in the area of Arabia. It may refer to the Persian Gulf, the Red  Sea or more narrowly the Gulf of Aqaba or the Gulf of Suez, the River of Egypt (Wadi el-Arish), or some unknown river in Arabia.

d) The identity of Gihon is likewise uncertain.  It is mentioned as flowing around the area of Cush.  Elsewhere in the Old Testament Cush refers to the area of Northern Africa generally from Ethiopia to eastern Egypt (for example, 2 Chron 16:8, Psa 68:31; in most cases modern English translation of cush is “Ethiopia”).  That suggests that Gihon refers to the Nile. In some genealogies, Cush is the father of Nimrod, who is the ancestral founder of Nineveh, the later Assyrian capital.  That suggests connections between north Africa and Mesopotamia, at least on the level of relationships between peoples.  However, it gives us no geographical information.

e) Large rivers like these do not usually divide; they usually come together to form larger rivers.  Some have suggested that this places Eden near the mouth of the four rivers where they empty into the Persian Gulf.  This would place Eden somewhere near Bahrain, or on one of the islands in the Persian Gulf.

f) All of this assumes that the description of Eden is to be taken literally and is accurate in its geographical description.  That evokes a certain view of Scripture that raises several questions.  Why would Eden be described in terms of general geographic landmarks known to the Israelites in 1200 BC when the time setting of the story is many thousands of years earlier?  Would that not suggest that the ancient Hebrews and Israelites were describing Eden in terms of locations with which they were already familiar?  Is it at least possible that the ancient Israelites did not know ancient Near Eastern geography precisely, so that they were roughly bounding an area rather than giving precise and literal descriptions?  How would they know the precise geography, unless we posit a certain theory of biblical inspiration and then use that theory as a basis for interpreting the material rather than using what we actually have in the biblical text from which to work?

g) The best conclusion that we can reach from the evidence is that we have no idea within a thousand miles and two continents what location is being described in Genesis 2. Maybe that is the point of the description, not to locate Eden at all but rather to place it somewhere within the immediate known world of the Ancient Near East.

h) It seems that the description of Eden is intended to locate it generally within a world with which the ancient Israelites were familiar, yet without precision. Since we have no way to identify precisely the location from the description, it seems that any interpretation of the Bible that depends on such precise location is pointless and driven by other agendas than sound biblical interpretation.

http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVarticles/FlawsInTheIraqInterestingEMail.htm

FALSE. No it wasn't - or if by some strange coincidence it was, there is no way of proving it. A careful study of the Bible will show that nowhere is the location identified. Yes, the Bible does state that two of the rivers flowing out of Eden were the Tigris and Euphrates, but using that to justify this claim is like saying that the capital of the British Empire really was located in Connecticut because there is a Thames River there, or that ancient Germans actually lived in North America because there is a Rhine River in Wisconsin. The location of the Garden of Eden is not known because the Noahic Flood completely reshaped the entire earth.

omoge:



1. The garden of Eden was in Iraq .

2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq , was the cradle of civilization!

3. Noah built the ark in Iraq .

4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq .

5. Abraham was from your, which is in Southern Iraq !

6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor, which is in Iraq !

7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq .

8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq .

9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel .

10. Amos cried out in Iraq !

11. Babylon, which is in Iraq, destroyed Jerusalem .

12. Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq !

13. The three Hebrew children were in the fire in Iraq (Jesus had been in Iraq also as the fourth person in the fiery furnace!)

14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the "writing on the wall" in Iraq .

15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq .

16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq .

17. The wise men were from Iraq .

18. Peter preached in Iraq .

19. The "Empire of Man" described in Revelation is called Babylon , which was a city in Iraq !

I came across this, what do you all think forumites? Quite interesting, let's hear your take.

^^
#5. UR