EDEN, HOUSE OF

material for countless attempts to locate the garden. It has been almost universally agreed that one of the four rivers is the Euphrates and another the Tigris. Here the agreement ends, and no useful purpose would be served by an attempt to enumerate the conflicting theories. Three which have found favour of late, may be briefly mentioned. One is that the Gihon is the Nile, and the Pishon the Persian and Arabian Gulfs, conceived of as a great river, with its source and that of the Nile not far from those of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Another regards Eden as an island not far from the head of the Persian Gulf, near the mouths of the Euphrates the Tigris, the Kerkha. and the Karun. The third puts Eden near Eridu (once the seaport of Chaldaea on the Persian Gulf), and takes the Pishon to be the canal afterwards called Pallakottas, and the Gihon to be the Khoaspes (now Kerkha). In support of the last-named view a cuneiform tablet is quoted which speaks of a tree or shrub planted near Eridu by the gods. The sun-god and 'the peerless mother of Tammuz' dwell there: 'no man enters into the midst of it.' But the correspondences with the BibUcal Eden are not sufficiently striking to compel conviction. At the same time it can hardly be doubted that the Biblical writer utilized traditional matter which came originally from Babylonia. The very name Eden, which to him meant 'deUght,' is almost certainly the Bab. Minnu = ' plain.' The Bab. author would conceive of the garden as lying in a district near his own land, hard by the supposed common source of the great rivers. And this, to the Hebrews, is in the East.

Eden, or the garden of Eden, became the symbol of a very fertUe land (Gn 13'», Is SI', Ezk 31'- "■ ", Ji 2'). The dirge over the king of Tyre (Ezk 28'3i') is founded on a Paradise legend which resembles that in Gn., but has a stronger mythological colouring: the 'garden of God ' (v.") is apparently identified with the well-known mythical mountain of the gods (v."); the cherub and the Idng of Tyre are assimilated to each other; the stones of fire may be compared with the flame of a sword (Gn 3": see also Enoch 24"). In later literature we find much expansion and embellishment of the theme: see Jubilees 3' 4k. Enoch 24'- 32. 60. 61. 2 Es S^K Assump. Mos. ix fl., Ev. Nic. xix. etc. NT thought and imagery have been affected by the description of Eden given in Gn 2 f.: see Lk 23«, 2 Co 12<, Rev 2'. The Koran has many references to the garden of Paradise Lost, and the gardens of the Paradise to come (ix. xiii. xlvii. Iv. Ixvlii. etc.). J. Taylob.

EDEN, HOUSE OF. — A place or district connected politically with Damascus (Am 1' RVra Beth-eden). Of the five suggestions for locality the likeliest is ' Eden or Ehden, 20 miles N.W. of Baalbek, on the N.W. slope of Lebanon. Its most formidable competitor, Bit-Adini, a district on either bank of the Middle Euphrates, fre-quently mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions, is too far — 200 miles — from Damascus, and in the days of Amos had long been subject to Assyria. J. Taylor.

EDER. — 1. Gn 35^1 'And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder.' 'Eder means 'a flock'; and the phrase Midgal-eder ('flock-tower,' cf. Mic 4') would have been the appella-tion given to a tower occupied by shepherds for the protection of their flocks against robbers (cf. 2 K 18', 2 Ch 26'°). The tower here mentioned lay between Bethlehem and Hebron (cf. vv."- "). Jerome mentions a Jewish tradition that this Eder was the site of the Temple, but himself prefers to think that it was the spot on which the shepherds received the angels' message. 2. Jos 15''. The name of one of the towns of Judah in the south,' close to the Edomite frontier; perhaps Kh. el-'AdOr, 5 miles S. of Gaza. 3. 1 Ch 232' 24'». The name of a Merarite Levite in the days of David. i. A Benjamite (1 Ch. 8'*).

EDNA. — Wife of Raguel of Ecbatana, and mother of

EDREI

Sarah, who became wife of Tobias (To ^^■ 10" 11<). See Apocrypha, § 8.

EDOM, EDOMITES.— The Edomites were a tribe or group of tribes residing in early Biblical times in Mount Seir (Gn 32', Jg 6'), but covering territory on both sides of it. At times their territory seems to have included the region to the Red Sea and Sinai (1 K 92«, Jg 5*). Edom or Esau was their reputed ancestor! The Israelites were conscious that the Edomites were their near kinsmen, hence the tradition that Esau and Jacob were twin brothers (Gn 25'"). That the Edomites were an older nation they showed by making Esau the first- born twin. The tradition that Jacob tricked Esau out of his birthright (Gn 27), and that enmity arose between the brothers, is an actual reflexion of the hostile relations of the Edomites and Israelites for which the Israelites were to a considerable degree responsible.

Before the conquest of Canaan, Edom is said to have refused to let Israel pass through his territory (Nu 20"- 2'). Probably during the period of the Judges, Edomites invaded southern Judah (cf . Paton, Syria arid Palestine, 161 ff.).' Possibly Edomites settled here and were in-corporated in Judah, for Kenaz is said in Gn 36" to be a son of Esau, while in Jg 3' he is counted a Judahite.

During the monarchy Saul is said to have fought the Edomites (1 S 14^'); David conquered 'Edom and put garrisons in the country (2 S 8"- ■«); Edom regained its independence under Solomon (1 K ll"-22); Je-hoshaphat a century later reconquered Edom (cf. 1 K 22"- <'), and Edomites helped him in his war with Moab (2 K 3); in the reign of Joram, his successor, the Edomites regained their independence after a bloody revolution (S^"- ^i); at the beginning of the next century Amaziah reconquered them for a short time, capturing Sela, and slaughtering a large number of them (2 K 14'). A little later Amos (Am 1"*) accuses Edom of pur- suing his brother with the sword. During the next century Edom was independent of Israel, but paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser in., Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, kings of Assyria (cf. KIB ii. 21, 91, 149, 239).

In connexion with the wars of Nebuchadnezzar, which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586, many Jews migrated to Edom; but the Edomites rejoiced in the overthrow of the Jews. This deepened the old- time enmity, and called forth bitter denunciations and predictions of vengeance from Israel's prophets (cf. Ezk 26'2-'<, Ob «■, Is 63'-'). A Uttle later great suffering was inflicted on the Edomites by the Nabatseans, who overran the country and crowded the Edomites up into southern Judah. This invasion of Nabataeans is probably referred to in Mai I*"-, for by 312 they were in this region, and Antigonus and Demetrius came in< contact with them (cf. Diodorus Siculus, x. 95, 96, 100).

The Edomites, because of this, occupied the territory of Judah as far as the town of Beth-zur, to the north of Hebron, which became the Idumeea (wh. see) of the NT period. Here Judas Maccabaeus fought with the Edomites (1 Mac 5'- "), and John Hyrcanus shortly before the end of the 2nd cent. B.C. conquered them, and compelled them to be circumcised and to accept the Jewish religion (cf. Jos. Anl. xiii. ix. 1, xiv. i. 3, and XV. vii. 9). This was the end of the Edomites as a nation, but they obtained a kind of revenge on the Jews by furnishing the Herodian dynasty to them. Georqe a. Barton.

EDOS, 1 Es 9'' = Iddo, Ezr 10<'.

EDREI. — 1. A royal city of Og, king of Bashan (Dt V 3", Jos 12' 13>2), the scene of the battle at which Og was defeated (Nu 21", Dt 3'); assigned to the eastern division of Manasseh (Jos 13"). It seems to be the modern ed-Der'a, where are several important remains of antiquity, including a great subterranean catacomb. 2. A town in Naphtall (Jos 19"), not identifled. R. A. S. Maoalister.

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