(Series in Creation: 1) The Garden of Eden

[intricatic]

I've read a number of articles on this where some anthropologists and Christian archaeologists insist that the garden of Eden was purely allegorical - that is, that Eden describes early humanity and the reltionship between men, God, and the world around them. They insist Eden was never a real place, in a geophysical way, but a condition or age of man before the fall.

This statement comes in part by anthropology and archaeology's lack of sufficient evidence for a geophysical eden - and this statement from Genesis;

21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
(Genesis 3)

It's presumed that if the garden of Eden is a real place, then it should still be a paradise protected by angels to ensure mankind never enters. As such, it should be very prominent on the geographic landscape of the Earth.

How should we answer such an argument?

[Pete Martinez]

Most likely wiped out in the flood

[intricatic]

The angels, too?

[Theofilus]

There were two of each kind of angel (seraphim, cherubim, etc.) on the ark, so they weren't wiped out, but the garden was, along with all other geographical features of the pre-flood earth.