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The narrative says there was a place called Eden or being eden (a watered valley) and then God planted a garden inside of it where Adam was placed.

Why was this place a garden, and not a city, a village, a field, a forest, or a manor, or a farm? IIRC, the word גן does not appear in the Torah outside the story of Eden, so it is hard to understand its true meaning (Even-Shushan dictionary derives it from Akkadic "fruit garden") but I'll assume it IS a fruit garden. After all, it is a public place (angels and God were there also), hence my other question "did-adam-and-chava-have-a-house-in-eden", it should be free of wild animals, otherwise, it would be a forest, etc.

Was it a garden only to promote the narrative of the forbidden trees or was there another reason it was a garden?

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  • City village manor and farm are all eliminated simply because such things required that there were men pre-Adam who would build them first etc. – David Kenner Feb 13 at 23:55
  • @DavidKenner It is possible that there were other people living before Adam and Eve ( Sefer ha-Temunah, “Book of the Figure,” Rabbi Kaplan). – Turk Hill Feb 14 at 0:50
  • They were placed in a Garden because a garden is an ideal state before the fall. – Turk Hill Feb 14 at 0:50
  • @TurkHill Be that as it may, the setting in the exact and specific place of "gan eden" for the start of Adam's situation, seems seperate and pristine from other adjacent surroundings. It seems like only after Shabbos, did Adam enter the possibility to interact with those pre-Adamites etc. – David Kenner Feb 14 at 1:09
  • @DavidKenner Good point but what source is it that Adam had no contact with pre-Adamites only after Shabbat? – Turk Hill Feb 14 at 1:36

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