In an interesting section of his book on the temple and soteriology, LDS author Marcus M. Ladd wrote the following about the relationship between Eden and our weekly partaking of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper:
Eden’s Sacrament
Whether the Garden of Eden or a sacrament meeting, what is eaten, and what it represents, has present and eternal consequences. When making ancient covenants, eating played a key role just as it does today in our sacrament (covenant renewing) service. Meals to ratify and seal covenants appear in many Bible stories, all the way up to the great wedding supper of the Lamb in Revelation, when those who have been coventally true and faithful will dine in celebration with the Lord (Rev 19:8-9). Subsequently, as we partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants I am reminded of Adam and Eve, who assuredly ate of the tree of life in the first temple, the Garden of Eden, before their fall. As they sampled the many fruits in Eden, their favorite surely must have been the fruit from the tree of life—which was “sweet above all that is sweet.” (It is likely the fruit that preserved them in their immortal state while in Eden.) Nephi also tells us that this tree represented the love of God, the fount of living water, who is Jesus Christ. In a way, when we partake of Christ (his emblems) we are a type of Adam and Eve. As they fellowshipped at His tree we can imagine that they (just as we do) tasted the delicious love of God in their hearts. Each week as we partake, in a sense we are placed in the midst of the Garden of Eden, and like our first parents we are given a choice between two trees. As we partake of His emblems we witness our choice to eat solely from the tree of life; i.e. we reject any forbidden fruit which would separate us from God’s love and covenant to give no place in our hearts for the enticings of Satan. In Hebrew we learn that Eden means pleasure or delight, which correlates very well to what Nephi tells us about the supernatural tree found in the garden, that its fruit is the most desirable and joyous—or pleasurable and delightful—to the soul. Though we are not physically there, nonetheless we can have the joy of Eden in us, shed abroad in our hearts through the Spirit as we faithfully and truly renew our covenants. (Marcus M. Ladd, The Temple Pattern: An Ancient Celebration of the Plan of Salvation [Tafiat Publishing, 2015], 232-33)
As an aside, with respect to the meaning of Eden as “pleasure” or “delight,” HALOT offers the following definition of עֵדֶן:
6814 עֵדֶן
II עֵדֶן, SamP. eÒdÝn, Sept. Εδεμ Gn 28.10 416 n.top.; homophonic with I עֵדֶן from which it is probably also derived: “land of bliss”, “happy land”; because of the phonetic incongruence the suggestion that it is derived from Sum.-Akk. edinu steppe (AHw. 187b; CAD E:27; mentioned also in KBL) is less likely, see Westermann BK 1/1:286, which lists further literature; Ug. Ádn (Gordon Textbook §19:1824; Fisher Parallels 2: p. 307 no. 75) means a plain and is also the name of a place: Eden )Westermann BK 1/1:284-7; Reicke-R. Hw. 365f(: בְּעֵדֶן גַּן Gn 28; > ) גַּן עֵדֶןthe name of the garden was transferred from the region in which it was situated( Gn 215 323f Ezk 3635 Jl 23; עֵדֶן Gn 416 Is 513, Ezk 2813 )parallel with (גַּן אֱלֹהִים, cf. Zimmerli 684(; Ezk 319.16.18 עֲצֵי עֵדֶן; flourishing as in Eden כעדן ברכה Sir 4027 )Sept. παράδεισος, cf. SirMII17(. †
