Four heads

2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

The first part doesn't sound like it makes much sense.  If the garden is in Eden, the river should go into Eden to water the garden.  If the garden isn't in Eden, why did you just tell us it was there?

But there's a way around this.  First, assume that the author is lousy at communication.  Second, read it thus: And a spring came up in Eden to water the garden, and from that spring a river went out of Eden.

This is written to sound like "God created a river", but it doesn't really say that.  The normal thing is that you find a water source and put the garden there.  But this could be interpreted that way.  The "And" wouldn't be so much sequential in time as "And, by the way, there was a river there."

Then the river split into four parts.  I don't have much to say about that.  I'm going to break with tradition and add 4 more verses here which I also don't have much to say about.

2:11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 
2:12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
2:13  And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 
2:14  And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

My usual comments apply: the verses are grouped oddly.  The whole thing is inconsistent; why no information about Euphrates, but so much about Havilah?

Beyond that, what is notable is that there is a startling amount of geographic detail.  This sounds like the authors are really making an effort to provide directions to locate a real place.  It's a pretty odd way to make up a creation myth, since it's practically begging for someone to verify it (or disprove it).  If you lived in that area a few thousand years ago, all it would take would be the willingness to go an a hike up to the source of whichever river was nearest, and locate the garden.  So, wouldn't people have done that, and kept track of the location?  Why isn't the garden a tourist destination today?