HEBREW WORD STUDY – GARDEN OF EDEN  – EDEN GAN  – עדנ גנ  

Genesis 3:24: “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the East of the garden of Eden Cherubim’s and a  flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

I read in Jewish literature another level of interpretation of the flaming sword. In Genesis 3:24 the Hebrew word for flame is lahat.  This comes from the same dual root lahav which is the word used in the Aramaic as well as many other Semitic languages and can also means a flame. But that is not its primary use. When I traced this word to its Semitic origins I found it meant to be thirsty or to burn with such thirst that it caused hallucinations.   In extra Biblical literature, you find it is used when a person is so thirsty in a desert that he actually sees an illusion of water.  We call it a mirage.  In fact, that is how the word is used in extra Biblical literature.  

At  the garden of Eden, a Cherubim is swinging a flaming (lahat) sword at the East of Eden. The word sword is a play on the word cherubim. In Hebrew, the word sword is cherav which could actually be a verb Cherubim and not a noun. As a verb, it means to strike or attack.  This other level of interpretation seems to make more sense.  An angel standing guard at the East of Eden swinging a flaming sword for 5,000 years is a little hard to swallow and besides, what’s to keep someone from sneaking in from the West?  This other level of interpretation teaches that this Cherubim was really striking the Garden of Eden with an illusion. This fits right in with the latest Quantum Physics and Science Fiction fad of alternative universes.  The Garden of Eden still exists to this day but the Cherubim is creating an illusion that it doesn’t or possibly God simply moved the Garden of Eden into an alternative universe, a spiritual realm where we will one day access when we pass by death from this reality to the next reality Eden, paradise.

Which by the way is what the word Eden means, a paradise or a place of pleasure.  Actually, the word rejoice Ayin, Nun, and Gimmel  is an acronym for a description of the Garden of Eden.  The Ayin is the first letter in Eden (pleasure), the Nun is the first letter  for nahar – a river and the Gimmel is the first letter for garden – Gimmel Nun.  You see unlike the rich man in hell who could not ever get a taste of water, the redeemed of the Lord shall enter the Garden of Eden which has a river of water.