176 
earth and watered the whole face of the land. The name 
seems to have been conferred upon it from its exuberant 
fertility. A similar term (?!?.> Eden) lingered till the late times 
of the Jewish monarchy.* This slightly different form helps 
to mark the district in which the Garden was placed. 
It is remarkable that in this, as in so many other cases, the 
recent discoveries confirm the inspired narrative. A common 
Elamite name of Babylonia was Gan Duniyas and Gan-duni, 
Gan signifying “ enclosure,” cc district,” and Duni or Duniyas 
being the sacred name. The word in the Hebrew translated 
garden is also Gan. Gan-eden and Gan-duni are in all proba- 
bility parallel words — “ Garden of Delight ” or “ Enclosure of 
God.” It is necessary to remember that the genius of the 
nations we are speaking of as the early inhabitants of this 
region, tended strongly to what we call 'paronomasia . Thus, 
according to Jewish commentators, Cain had a double 
meaning (the lamentable or the acquisition) as derived from 
one or other of two similar verbs ; f and, not to multiply 
instances, the word Babel appears to have been at first Bab-il 
or Babilu , “ the Gate of God,” as alluding to the sacredness 
I have above spoken of. When the confusion of tongues had 
taken place, it was called (by the family of Shem) Babel, or 
confusion, with very little alteration of the pronunciation. J 
The whole district was called “ the Dominion of Bel ,} up to 
the time of S argon, who uses this term for Babylonia, and 
Bel or El was the name of God derived from times before the 
flood. The sacredness which belonged to the whole district 
was, so to speak, intensified in reference to the site of 
Babylon. This was always the sacred city in the estimation 
both of the Babylonians and Chaldeans. 
It was, then, in Eden that J ehovah Elohim is described as 
planting the garden, and, though called the garden of Eden 
afterwards (or simply the two words in apposition), there is no 
reason to identify the garden with Eden, which was evidently 
a much wider appellation. 
Now it is remarkable that the most ancient § name of 
Babylon, in the idiom of the ante-Semitic population, was 
Tin-tir-Jci , which signifies, according to Lenormant, “the place 
of the tree of life.” 
Many reasons induce me to believe that the site of Babylon 
was exactly that of the garden itself. Gorruptio optimi fit 
pessima — I commend the thought to the inquiry of students 
of Scripture, but cannot follow it out here. To those who 
* 2 Kings xix. 12 ; Is. xxxvii. 12 ; Ezekiel xxvii. 23. 
f Be Sola, Gen., p. 12, pp or pp. t Soc. Bib. Arch. Trans., i. 31. 
§ Les Origines de VHistoire, pp. 78, 79, note. 
