The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is translated into English as “garden” is translated into Naskapi with a word that means “a place for things to grow.”
Doug Lockhart (in Word Alive 2013 ) explains: “‘Garden’ was another term that had no Naskapi equivalent. ‘There are no gardens here,’ Bill [Jancewicz, a translation consultant] explains. ‘So what word do you use for ‘Garden of Eden,’ and have it communicate something logical in Naskapi? We finally came up with a word that means ‘a place for things to grow,’ like a park.'”
The Hebrew in Genesis 2:10 that is translated in English as “water the garden” is translated in Newari as “cause the garden to be drenched.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
2:1 God had finished creating the heavens and the earth and everything in them. This took seven days, so God worked for seven days creating the heavens and the earth and all the things He placed in them.
2:2 On the seventh day God rested.
2:3 God blessed the seventh day as His own special day. Why? Because he had completed His work creating the heavens and the earth and on this day He rested.
2:4 So that is it.
The heavens and the earth were created by Yahweh a very long time ago. This story is about what happened afterwards.
2:5 The earth had not yet grown green grass or trees. Why? Because Yahweh had not yet made it rain on the earth. There was also no one to sow the land and take care of the plants.
2:6 From deep within the earth, water sprang up and spread over the ground [mud]. This was used to create human.
2:7 Yahweh took this mud from the ground and formed a human. And Yahweh breathed life into the human and he inhaled and became living.
2:8 In the east, Yahweh planted a garden, He named this garden Eden. Then Yahweh took the human he created and placed him in the garden.
2:9 In the garden there were beautiful trees of every different kind that all produced fruits that were good to eat. Among all these trees stood one tree in the middle of the garden that was the tree of life. Next to it was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If someone eats from the tree of life, they will live forever. If they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they will come to know good and evil.
2:10 A river flowed out of the garden of Eden that nourished the trees. It parted and became four rivers.
2:11 The first river was called Pishon which flowed out into the land called Havilah. Havilah had these three things: a lot of gold,
2:12 Bdellium [gum from a tree that is used to make fragrance] and onyx [a shiny black stone].
2:13 The second river Gihon, which flowed out into the land called Cush.
2:14 The third river called Tigris, flowed out into the land called Assyria in the east. And the fourth river was called Euphrates
2:15 Yahweh placed the human in the garden of Eden to work and take care of it.
2:16 Yahweh commanded the human, “You may eat from any tree in this garden.
2:17 But the tree in the middle- the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat from this tree. If you disobey me and eat from this tree your life will be ruined and you will die.”
2:18 Yahweh looked at the human and said, “He is lonely, this is not good. I will create another person to help him.”
2:19 Yahweh had already created all the animals. He called all the animals to the man, all the four-legged beasts, the crawling creatures and winged animals, He called them to the man.
2:20 And the man gave names to all the animals. The man gave names to all the animals, to the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the forest, he named them all. The man saw that there were many, many animals but none was human like him.
2:21 So Yahweh caused the man to fall into a very deep sleep. As he slept, Yahweh took one of his ribs from his body and then healed his skin.
2:22 Then Yahweh used the man’s rib to create a woman. He sent her to the man. The man awoke and saw the woman.
2:23 He said, “Finally! A person like me. We are both bone and flesh. We are the same. She was created from my rib. She is ‘woman,’ my companion.”
2:24 This is why a man leaves his mother, his father and family to find a woman who will become his wife and they two will become one.
2:25 The man and the woman were both naked, but they were not ashamed.
Back-translation by Amakedia Wallen, coordinated by Tashi Widmer
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 2:10:
Newari: “One river of water came out from Eden to water the garden. [lit.: to cause the garden to be drenched.] and from there it separated, becoming four rivers.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “In Eden there was a river that flows, that which gives water to the garden. It branched/divided into four rivers.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “A river flowed from Eden to provide water for the park/garden. Outside of Eden, the river divided into four rivers.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
With verses 10-14 the creative acts of God are interrupted to fill in more details of the description of Eden, and in particular to give the names of the rivers that water the garden. There are two ways to regard these verses: (1) as an attempt to give real geographical detail to Eden and the garden by using such names as Cush, Tigris, and Euphrates, and (2) not as describing the geography of Eden and the garden, but asserting that the fertility of every place has its origin in the rivers that watered Eden and its garden.
A river flowed out of Eden: flowed out means “rose, had its source, had its headwaters”; that is, “A river began to flow from Eden” or “A river had its headwaters in Eden.” This is the main river and is not named. To water the garden means “to irrigate the garden” or “to water the trees and plants in the garden.”
And there it divided and became four rivers: there can mean that the division took place in Eden before reaching the garden, or that there were four tributaries in Eden that flowed into the main stream, or that the main river divided into four streams somewhere in the garden, or, as nearly all modern translations interpret it, that the main river flowed through the garden and upon leaving the garden divided into four streams. This last view is the one recommended to translators. Four rivers is literally “four heads,” which refers to the parting points where the smaller streams separate from the main river.
Languages differ considerably in the use of terms for river, depending on whether they flow to the sea, empty into another river, or into a lake. Also distinguished sometimes are rivers that flow year round and those that flow only during the rainy season. Furthermore, some languages distinguish between the main river and its tributaries or branches. The picture in verse 10 is the separation of four streams from the main river.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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