Question Two
Where the Paradise of pleasure is situated
It is asked in what part of the world or earth the terrestrial Paradise is situated.
To this all Catholic doctors answer uniformly that it is situated and positioned in the east. They prove this by reason and authorities.
First, by reason as follows. Place and that which is placed ought to be proportioned, according to Book IV of the Physics. But the first one who was to be placed in Paradise was to be the most worthy of all animals, formed by the hand of God, supreme among all theologians and philosophers, instituted king of the whole lower world, destined to dwell there for a long time according to animal life and afterward, once spiritual life had been attained, to be transferred into the empyrean heaven. Therefore a place proportioned to him ought to be singular, befitting his dignity and suitable for the preservation and perpetuation of human nature, in which there would be the disposition of magnificent glory, of most admirable power, and aptitude for celestial influences and contemplations.
Such, however, is the eastern part, which is the right side of heaven and is called such by Aristotle in Book II On Heaven. The right is nobler than the left, since motion begins from it, as is seen in a human being when he begins to move. Therefore, and so forth.
The first authority is that of the Hebrews according to the translation of the Seventy, who say: “And the Lord God planted a garden in delights from the beginning”—not, the Gloss says, the beginning of time, but of place, that is, the east—“in which he placed the man whom he had formed.”
Bede says: “Paradise is a most pleasant place, separated from our habitable region by a long tract of sea and land, so high that it reaches as far as the lunar globe.”
And Damascene says in Book II: “The terrestrial Paradise, planted by the hands of God in Eden, is the storehouse of universal joy and exultation.”
Although that region of Paradise situated in the east is naturally uninhabitable because of its heat, and, as the Philosopher says in the book of Meteorology, because it is beneath the equinoctial circle—as Thomas adduces in Part I, question 102, article 2, the fourth objection—nevertheless, whatever may be the case, the same Thomas says there that it must be believed that Paradise was established in a most temperate place, whether beneath the equinoctial circle or elsewhere.
And since the pleasantness of its situation, vegetation, rivers, influences, air, animals, and other things is required for the goodness of a region or country, as the Philosopher says in Book VI of the Politics, as was touched upon above when hell was being treated, in the second little question, therefore in the terrestrial Paradise the Lord produced from the soil—that is, from moistened earth—every tree beautiful to sight, that is, every tree beautiful in the color and form of its branches, flowers, fruits, and leaves, and pleasant for eating, so that they might provide human beings with spiritual delight and wholesome nourishment. For in the state of integral nature the human being would have possessed animal life, needing the most suitable foods for preserving health.
God produced and planted there a threefold kind of trees.
One kind was for the sustenance of life, by which that which was lost and dissolved from the substance of the human being through the action of natural heat dissolving moisture was restored. These were all the trees of Paradise except two, namely the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.
Another kind was for the testing of obedience. It was not so named from its effect, as Josephus said in the book of Antiquities—namely, that the fruit of that tree had the power to accelerate and sharpen the use of reason for discerning between good and evil—but it was so called from the event which followed. For through eating that tree, which had been prohibited by God, the human being knew by experience how great was the distance between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience toward the Lord God. For if the human being had not eaten of it, he would never have experienced the evil of penal misery but would have persisted eternally, without interruption, in the delight of pure good.
The Hebrews say that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whose fruit our first parents ate, was a fig tree. For immediately after eating it their eyes were opened, and, recognizing that they were naked, they sewed together the leaves of the same tree, namely the fig, and made perizomata for themselves—that is, coverings around the loins. The word is derived from peri, which means “around,” and zoma, which means “body.”
The Master of the Scholastic History says that it was not without cause that they made coverings—that is, short breeches—from fig leaves, because if human flesh is rubbed with their sap, it immediately feels there an itching of pleasure. Therefore immediately after eating that fruit they felt the itching of pleasure.
The third tree in Paradise was the tree of life, for immortality. By eating it the power of natural heat was strengthened and the form of the first radical moisture was preserved, lest it be weakened by an admixture of something foreign.
Here we can observe that, since the power of the tree of life in Paradise, like that of other bodies, was finite, once consumed it could not give life for an infinite time but only for a certain time. If it had been eaten again, the eater would again have lived for many years, but not infinitely.
Hence what God says to the angels in Genesis 3—“See lest Adam perhaps take of the tree of life and live forever”—must not be understood “forever” as though a total restoration of the radical moisture and perpetual life were bestowed through the tree of life. Rather, “forever” is taken for a long time, as it is taken in Exodus 21: “He shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall be his servant forever,” that is, for the time of his life.
These things are from Dominicus Tolosanus.
Concerning this tree of life Hugh of Saint Victor says:
Among the other gifts of God prepared for the pleasantness of human life, this marvel is also commemorated: that in Paradise there is a tree of life whose power is said to be so marvelous that, when taken at certain times, it could have preserved bodily life unharmed in the human being as long as the human being used it—not only from death but from every defect.
Concerning this tree Augustine says in Book XIV of The City of God, chapter 26: “Food was present in Paradise lest the human being hunger, drink lest he thirst, and the tree of life lest old age dissolve him.”
Lord Henry of Hesse nevertheless says here that, in addition to the tree of life, the goodness of nourishment, the suitability of the place, the singular industry or prudence by which the human being was governed there, and above all the gratuitous providence of God, by which every corruptive contrariety was removed, concurred toward the immortality of the human being in the state of innocence.
And because rivers and waters are also required for the pleasantness of a place, a river also sprang forth from the place of pleasure to irrigate Paradise, Genesis 2.
Concerning these rivers Basil says as follows in his Hexaemeron: the terrestrial Paradise is situated upon a certain very high mountain, from which waters flow down with such abundance and noise that they make those who live nearby deaf. Rushing down from the mountain of Paradise, they make a certain very great place of waters, from which, as from a certain very great spring, arise four great rivers, concerning which Genesis 2 speaks.
The name of one is Phison, which is interpreted “change of mouth.” For according to the Master in the Histories, this river in its course has many variations according to different places. Afterward it was called the Ganges, from the land Gangaro. Havilah, which it surrounds, is a certain part of India which after the Flood became the possession of the descendants of Ham, concerning whom Genesis 10 and 1 Chronicles 1 speak. This country abounds in metals, spices, and gems, as Pliny says. Bdellium is a precious stone, and likewise onyx, which is so named on account of its likeness to a human fingernail; for onyx in Greek is called unguis in Latin.
The name of the second river is Gihon, which surrounds the whole land of Ethiopia. Because of its nearness to the sun, that region blackens its inhabitants with heat, has very many peoples monstrous in countenance and appearance, and abounds in horrible beasts. The Ethiopians are named from Cush, the son of Ham, from whom they derived their origin. This Gihon is now called the Nile, as Augustine and Isidore say.
The name of the third river is Tigris. It is so called on account of the swiftness of its flow, because it appears to have the swiftest course among rivers, just as among animals the tiger is the swiftest animal. This river runs against the Assyrians. Syria is a part of Asia and is named from Asshur, the son of Shem, who first inhabited that region after the Flood. From the Assyrians, as Isidore says, first came the furnishing of purple garments and the use of perfumes and ointments, from which flowed the luxury of the Greeks and afterward of us all.
The name of the fourth river is Euphrates. According to the expositors it is the most abundant and most fruitful in gems and other goods. It flows through the midst of Babylon just as the Seine flows through Paris and the Tiber through Rome. It derived its name from abundance, for Euphrata is interpreted “fruit-bearing” in Hebrew.
Augustine says in Book VII Upon Genesis that antiquity changed the names of two of these rivers, namely Gihon, which is now called the Nile, and Phison, which is now called the Ganges, just as the Tiber was at first called the Albula. The other two rivers, namely the Tigris and Euphrates, did not change their names.
Although Sallust and Josephus, desiring to weaken Scripture, say that these four rivers appear in certain regions to be derived from outside Paradise—as the Tigris and Euphrates in Armenia, and so forth—Augustine answers this in Book VIII Upon Genesis: as has frequently been seen, great waters are absorbed into the earth and, after a long subterranean course, later emerge elsewhere, where they appear to arise.
Because, therefore, the place of the terrestrial Paradise is endowed with everything required for the pleasantness and goodness of a place and country, and is so greatly adorned with the things said above Isidore says that the Hebrews call that place Gan Eden, that is, “garden of delights”; the Greeks, “garden of delights”; and the Latins, “paradise of pleasure.”
But if someone, more curiously than usefully, should also ask how great the circumference of the terrestrial Paradise is, it is answered that no one can know this unless God wished to reveal it to him. For after the human being was made like to irrational beasts through sin and was cast out of Paradise, that place was made inaccessible.
For, as Genesis 3 says, after the sin God placed before Paradise Cherubim and a flaming and revolving sword to guard the way of the tree of life. Cherubim signifies the angelic guard; the flaming sword signifies the torrid zone. It is called revolving because the sun, through which the impenetrable heat is caused there, approaches us in summer and recedes in winter. Therefore no one after the sin has been able or will be able to approach that place.
Nevertheless, a certain John the Englishman says in the book which he entitled On the Situation of the World that the circumference of the terrestrial Paradise is equal to the circuits of three great islands—namely England, Sicily, and Sardinia—whose circuits total two thousand seven hundred miles: England is encircled by one thousand seven hundred miles, Sicily by seven hundred, and Sardinia by three hundred.
He could have known this through the operation of some spirit, from the motions of the stars, or from apparitions of stars.
These things are from Thomas, Henry, and those cited within the little question. But these are probable and weak arguments, and the matter need not be sought necessarily.
Addition
The reason is that this place is hidden and unknown to us, as Gabriel Biel attests. No cosmographer has found this place, nor does canonical Scripture certify and affirm its situation, although it says that Paradise is a temperate region in the southern part, beyond the table of the sun and both tropics. Its name is rendered from Greek into Latin as “garden”; in Hebrew it is Eden, which in our idiom is interpreted “delights.”
See more fully the Angelic Doctor, II-II, question 84, article 3, and also Part I, question 102, article 2; Lord Bonaventure, Book II, distinction 17, in the literal doubts; Dionysius the Carthusian, Book II, distinction 17, question 5; Gabriel Biel, Book II, distinction 17, question 2; Paul Cortesius, Book II, distinction 5; Scotus, Book II, distinction 17; Isidore of Seville, Book XIV of the Etymologies, chapter 3; and Jacobus of Valencia at the end of his Exposition of Psalm 71.