Eden, Garden of

The garden of eden appears in the writings of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the biblical creation story of Genesis, it is a beautiful garden of trees planted by God in the land of Eden and watered by a river. God intends that the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, live there in contentment and innocence. God takes all the animals that he has created there so that Adam can name them. At the center of the garden are two fruit trees; the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Adam and Eve, encouraged by a serpent, ignore God's prohibition not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. They thereby gain an awareness of good and evil but lose their ...