St. Jerome on the Historicity of Paradise

Blessed Jerome ca. 347-420

Ezekiel…had seen a great vision beside a river, the Chebar (Ezek. 1). And it was by the stream of the Jordan that the heavens were opened to the gaze of our Lord and Savior and also to John the Baptist (Mat. 3). Therefore those critics should leave off their foolish objections who raise questions about the presence of shadows and symbols in a matter of historical truth and attempt to destroy the truth itself by imagining that they should employ allegorical methods to destroy the historicity of rivers and trees and of Paradise [mentioned in Scripture]. (Commentary on Daniel, Chap. 10)