The State And Place Of Paradise

Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus paradisum voluptatis a principio, in quo posuit hominem quem formaverit..   Ab illo utique principio Deus plantasse paradisum credendus est, ex quo irrigans terram omnem, remotis quae operuerunt aquis, herbas et ligna fructifera producere jussit; in quo tamen hominem die sexto, quo et ipsum formaverat, posuit. Neque ullatenus dubitandum est paradisum in quo positus est homo primus, et si Ecclesiae praesentis, vel futurae patriae typum tenet, ad proprietatem litterae intelligendum esse, locum scilicet amoenissimum, fructuosis nemoribus opacatum, eumdemque magnum, et magno fonte fecundum. Pro eo autem quod nostra editio, quae de Hebraica veritate translata est, habet a principio, in antiqua translatione positum est, ad orientem. Ex quo nonnulli volunt intelligi quod in orientali parte orbis terrarum sit locus paradisi, quamvis longissimo interjacente spatio, vel Oceani, vel terrarum, a cunctis regionibus, quas nunc humanum genus incolit secretum. Unde nec aquae diuvii, quae totam nostri orbis superficiem altissime cooperuerunt, ad eum pervenire potuerunt. Verum seu ibi, seu alibi sit, Deus noverit, nos tamen locum hunc fuisse, et esse terrenum, dubitare non licet. Sanctus Beda, Hexameron Liber I Source: Migne PL 91.43c-44a

For God planted the paradise of delights in the beginning, in which he placed man whom He had made. 1 In that beginning that God planted paradise should be believed, by whom for the watering of its whole earth it was supplied from deep waters, and He commanded it to produce grasses and fruit bearing trees, in which He then placed man whom He had made on the sixth day. Nor let there be any doubt that the paradise in which he placed the first man is even the present Church, or a type of the future fatherland, which must be understood by the meaning of the words to be a place most pleasant, shaded with fruitful groves, most broad, and made fecund with a great spring. And then, that which our text, which is translated from the original Hebrew, has 'in the beginning', in the old translation, gives as 'in the east.' Because of which not a few wish to understand that the place named paradise is to be found in the eastern part of this earthly orb, although at a very great remove, either beyond the ocean, or many lands, and now hidden from every region where the race of man presently dwells. And thus to which the waters of the flood, which covered to great depth the whole face of our world, was not able to come. But in truth, whether it is there or somewhere else, God knows; we, however, are not permitted to doubt that this place was, and that it was somewhere in the world. Saint Bede, Hexameron, Book 1   1 Gen 2.8