Two of the four named rivers of the mythic Eden—the Tigris, Euphrates, Pishon, and Gihon—are well known. Pishon, however, cannot be identified and Gihon, whose name means “gusher,” is given two very different geographical locations in the Bible. On the one hand, Genesis 2:13 informs us that Gihon circles the land of Cush, which is Ethiopia (Gen 10:6). 2 Chronicles 32:30, however, informs us that it was a river spring near Jerusalem which supplied the city with its water, and that “it was Hezekiah who stopped up the spring of water of upper Gihon, leading it downward west of the city of David.”
Some scholars, however, have argued that the use of the term Cush not only identifies the land of Ethiopia, a Hebrew homonym, but also the country of the Kassites in Mesopotamia, pronounced Kushshu in the Nuzi documents. The Mesopotamian country of the Kassites is, nevertheless, still quite some distance from Jerusalem. And Hezekiah certainly did not draw water from Mesopotamia during the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 702 BC, which is the historical context for 2 Chronicles 32:30. At any rate, and congruent with Near Eastern literary parallels, the biblical Eden is an ideal geography, and its four rivers symbolic for the life-giving fertility that flows out to the rest of the world from this mythic paradise.
This is not the only occurrence of a biblical author making a geographical error. We will encounter other examples of this sort.
Couldn’t it just be two different rivers….?
Indeed. And some of these early contradictions may be tenuous or trivial — my attempt at being thorough. More interesting and theologically vexing are on their way….
Have done a little study of the Eden river complex. Gihon could be both the spring @ Jerusalem, and have been the source of the “that flowed from it.” I read where Assyrian cuniform tablets describe their armies went to war with Egypt in ancient times, and fought at the Great Egyptian river. After they were successful they travelled west and fought another battle at the Nile. Would indicate that at one time the Great Egyptian River wasn’t the Nile. Somewhere east would place the first battle @ the area of the Red Sea…which is a natural channel caused by The Great Rift…extending from Syria on the north and going through the Red Sea, across the western African continent, and out into the ocean. About the middle of the Saudi Peninsula there seems to be a dry riverbed channel cutting accross easterly towards the Persian Gulf. If Gihon actually “gushed” in huge quantities at that time, water coming from it would run both north towards Syria, and south through the current Red Sea (along The Great Rift) and the water would have been fresh. Review some of the largest lakes in Africa (along the rift…they are fresh water). The quantity of water coming from any source had to be extremely large if it supplied the headwaters for 4 rivers. Large rivers normally don’t form headwaters for others, they are made up of many smaller tributaries. Read the accounts of the Flood and you will see that it not only rained 40 days/nights, but the fountains of the deep opened up, implying a huge water source there….maybe from Gihon Spring and others.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that the Garden of Eden was just north of the Persian Gulf. Genesis says the river flowed from the Garden and became the headwaters of 4 rivers. Looking at the Tigris & Euphrates in relation to a river eminating from a garden located in that area, to flow from the garden and include those rivers these rivers would have to have reversed their course…flowing north instead of their current southeastern flow. Further in the northern hemisphere rivers flow generally south…like these do now. I believe the Garden was somewhere near the Temple Mount of today and the Gihon Spring was at one time gushing huge quantities of water, like the account of the flood indicated some of the fountains of the deep were able to provide. Gihon would not only provided waters for the 4 rivers of Eden’s time, but still be an intermittent spring of David’s time…about 1000 years later.
Terry, thanks for the contribution. As I noted to another reader, there may have been some confusion about Gihon’s location or indeed there may have been two Gihon’s. But what I find particularly disturbing in your response is that it is all predicated on a faulty, and erroneous, modern assumption—namely that the biblical scribes, here as elsewhere, were recording historical fact. Nothing could be further from the truth, and further from a knowledge of ancient literature on a broader scale. The garden of Eden story is a myth, and more so the biblical story is adopted from a literary genre that is also found in other ancient Near Eastern cultures. Ditto for the flood narratives—plural—in Genesis. See contradiction #14-18. When modern readers try to rationalize these accounts by historicing them, they become negligent of the authors’ own cultural and literary worlds and in the end are guilty of imposing modern misconceptions onto these ancient narratives.
You might also be interested in How we know that the biblical scribes were NOT written history.
Thanks for this opportunity, all I want to say some scholar made mistake when they translate sometimes they write what they wish to write or what will suit them .The really Jerusalem is not where it is now , because of map changing places names.what I say is go back to Africa you will find the TRUTH.thank you so much.
Israel is right in the Area of Egyt where the 4 rivers end..also to the right of Egypt in the Negev or dry land. You are the only one who’s on the right track..and you also know that the piece of land they are killing over called Israel today..isn’t true Israel. Israel is a construct of the US and Great Britain and they know its all a lie..and by design its a lie. They work for Satan and you know the rest of the story.
Steven, Thank you for your response & information. I guess the best way to describe me right now is I have the audacity to question everything. At 18 I questioned how Jerusalem/Israel would ever become “A cup of trembling.” I was pumping gas at $0.25/gal regular, and $o.33/gal premium…and now today? I once read where a rather intelligent man said he didn’t mind criticism, as long as it allowed him to find the truth, and find that a rather appealing. To a large degree I see society looking at the “effect”, and thinking it’s the “cause.” So I’m reverting back to what I know works…Biblical principles.
I’ve read your paper on the contradictions in the Bible. How does the fact that other cultures who wrote of similar events make the biblical account not true/mythical? How does the fact that archaelogical evidence says something conflicting make that document more valie?…who’s doing the interpretation, and how certain are we the “evidence” is valid? Couldn’t the writers of conflicting archaeological documents have the same bias you ascribe to the biblical authors? I guess I’m saying as with our current society, we tend to minimize those things that will make us look bad, and accentuate those that make us look good. e.g. Heen taught history years ago, I don’t recognize the same history as it’s being taught to my grand kids today. There is such a wide chasm between science & religion that I view any “findings” of either with a rather skeptically. That being said, how does one look at the findings of any ancient document and, with certainity conclude it’s true…particularly if the one who wrote it, as well as the one reviewing it has his/her own axe to grind in its content/interpretation? Hence, my audacity to challenge anything today.
At 18, I concluded that we all could go our own way, and have a very amicable world…and did. Fifty years later, and much /world grief, have had to conclud “there is a way which seems right unto man…the end of which is destruction.” And that the general concepts presented in the Bible will offer a more gratifying life (on earth), as well as offer one in the hereafter.
Terry
Gihon could have easily have flowed from Turkey, where the Tigris and Euphrates originate, followed the River Jordan past Jerusalem and down along were the Red Sea is by Ethiopia. The great flood could have then have resulted in the Red Sea we see today.
Except that the Gigon and the other 3 rivers all flowed north. Hey I got an idea..look at northern Egypt where there are 4 actual rivers that flow north…yes right there where Israel truly exists.
Yes, it should be two different rivers at two different times with similar name Gihon.
I absolutely agree Terry Knez. At the end of the day, all the ants and the multiple voices expressing and postulating their views will be gone. Too many voices in this world. The Bible text will stand.
And yet, this is exactly what the Bible (a 2nd century AD creation) is—multiple voices expressing multiple, varying, and even competing and contradictory views. Indeed, let’s start being honest to this collection of ancient texts and their voices—not that homogenous voice which is implied and imposed by this centuries-later label “the Book”!
A reminder, if the Gihon river is to be said that its a flow from the main river that God created, then it’s wrong because Gihon (So called Blue Nile now) is not a flow from anywhere it starts from Ethiopia and goes up to Kushs land (which is now little bit of Ethiopia and Sudan on the map) and so on.
And in the bible it’s said that main river created to water the garden was created from the east; spring of Gihon (Jerusallems) isn’t in the east, but Gihon river is (Ethiopia is located in the east) the other 3 rivers, do anyone know where they start from? The only clear message I see from the bible is the word ‘Gihon that surrounds the Kushs land, and that Gihon the only river that’s surrounds that part is the Blue Nile now. Probably Eden is found somewhere in the middle of Kushs land :L
Nowhere in the KJV bible is the word spring used re the Gihon. What you must remember is that there are about 50 versions of the Christian bible all written to generate confusion to hide the fact that the Hebrew people are Africans and that Israel in the bible is not the Israel of today. And to hide the origin of the Ashkenazi Khazars who call themselves Jews but are East Europeans who had to travel up the Gihon to Ethiopia (formerly Abyssinia) to study Geez in order to identify where to put the vowels points in the modern day Hebrew they invented to replace there Yiddish.
Yes I actually think the Israels today aren’t the old ones, they could be those tanned. Queen Sheba doesn’t use to only rule Ethiopia; Yemen and so was hers and she went to Israel met with King Solomon then got admired by her beauty and so then had a son; King Menelik 1. I think the Israels could be those brown skins like Ethiopians (they had pretty strong relationship I’m King Solom days) haha not too sure. And they were Jews lived in Ethiopia since anged they still live and called Felashas.
About The Garden of Eden, no one could ever know about it. Its confusing and also since 2 Gihons are mentioned (I’m guessing, but I know for sure about the Gihon that sourrounds the land of Kush).
The Gihon in Israel was named during the time of David. I dont thi8nk there is contradiction. If you read If there is someone by the name of Daniel,(IChron.3:1) one of the sons of David, it doesn’t mean that it contradicts the name Daniel who was taken as captive by Nebuchadnezzar. Names happened to be used several times. It is also possible that the Gihon during the time of David is not the Gihon mentioned in Gen. 2:13. To me, there is no contradiction.
The Talmud in Berachos, 10b, talks about the river Gichon and the great, Jewish scholar, Rashi, comments there that there were two Gichons, one smaller and one larger. Please check your facts before making outlandish claims.
If you look at the globe you can see the broken puzzle. Isaiah 55: 8,9 sums up everything. With all due love and respect my friend. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Receive His Gift of pardon and you will be saved from eternal fire.
No! I believe in Yahushuwa Hamasiach and his grace. And every man and woman, boy and girl who takes up their stake and follow him will be saved, Jesus Christ as I recall is a European creation exploited for military purposes. He has nothing to do with the son of the living God in the bible. UNDERSTAND.
This is by no means an error it’s a deliberate attempt to displace Africa by the translators.
The Gihon river flowed to Etheopia before the great flood, but when the earth’s plates shifted, and the underground cisterns were broken up, an ocean of water and steam flowed out, seperating Ethiopia from Arabia, creating the red sea and likely the medeterranian sea as well. Certainly, those who crossed the Red Sea understood that this sea did not exist before the flood. It’s only unbelievers who did not know about the shifting of contenents until the 20th century AD.
IT COULD HAVE DIVIDED AROUND THE FLOOD OR GENSEIS, 10:25 PELEG EARTH WAS DIVIDED
Genesis has a river rising in Eden and eventually splitting into four streams, the Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Euphrates. The science of Hydrology has traced the origins of the Euphrates back millions of years, and it never was part of a four river system. The Tigris (Hiddekel) was never a part of a river system from which sprung the Euphrates. These two rivers are fed by different tributaries and always have been that way. Ergo, the Bible’s notion that the Tigris and Euphrates come from a shared source is not substaniated by the findings of Science or Hydrology. This is a myth. Why all the concern about these rivers by Jews, Christians and Moslems? It is assumed that the garden of Eden can be found if these rivers are correctly identified. My research understands Eden is a recast of the Sumerian EDIN, the floodplain of the Euphrates river, in modern Iraq. Genesis has four rivers emanating from one source, an un-named river in Eden. What saith the Mesopotamian myths that are refuted by Genesis? The Sumerian god Enki is described as masturbating and filling the empty river beds of the Euphrates and Tigris, dug by the Igigi gods with hoes, with life-giving freshwater. His penis is the ONE SOURCE of EDIN’S rivers in myth. He is shown with two streams erupting from his body, in art forms, sometimes he holds a pot against his belly from which two streams pour forth. He lives in the depths under the earth of a freshwater stream, the source of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in myth. Today we know the source of these two rivers is not Enki and his dwelling at Eridu in the EDIN, its melting snows from the mountains surrounding Mesopotamia. Hence the reason why some scholars locate EDEN in these mountains (Like David Rohl). For my part, Genesis is refuting Mesopotamian myths, EDIN’S GODS HAVE BEEN RECAST INTO EDEN’S GOD. So, where is the Garden of Eden? According to Mesopotamian myth Enki is the creator of Mankind at Eridu, a city in modern Iraq, once on the Euphrates river. At Eridu Enki warns a man called Adaba in Sumerian, or Adapa in Akkadian/Babylonian, “DO NOT EAT THE BREAD OF DEATH TO BE OFFERED YOU, YOU WILL DIE!” When Adaba/Adapa is offered the bread of life by the God Anu, in heaven, he remembers Enki’s warning and refuses to eat what he believes is the bread of death. He returns to the earth, to die, for had he eaten he would have obtained immortality for himself and for mankind. So, Eridu is the pre-biblical origin of the Bible’s garden of Eden myth about a god warning man not to eat or he would die. I have written all this up in two books, in 2010, available at Amazon.com on the internet from several book sellers, they are (1) Eden’s Serpent: Its Mesopotamian Origin, and (2) The Garden of Eden Myth: Its Pre-biblical Origin in Mesopotamian Myths. Or you can google “Mattfeld, Eden’s Serpent, or “Mattfeld Pre-biblical Garden of Eden.”
My research indicates that Man’s creator in Mesopotamian myth was USHUMGAL ENKI of Eridu. USHUM-GAL is Sumerian for “GREAT SERPENT” or “GREAT SERPENT-DRAGON,” an epiteth borne by Enki, a mythical beast, red in color, with four legs, two horns, two wings, and a serpentine, scaly body, who’s bite is poisonous. That is to say EDEN’S SERPENT is USHUMGAL ENKI, the creator of man at Eridu. Eridu is 12 miles southwest of Ur of the Chaldees, where lived Abraham. On a clear day one can see Eridu’s Ziggurat from Ur’s Ziggurat (biblical tower of Babel). The Bible errs, Ziggurats wer considered by their builders not to be towers to reach intoi heaven, they were MOUNTAINS for the gods to come down to and had a room at their tops with a bed for the god to sleep on.
The author lost me the moment he referred to , “the mythic Eden”, as if Eden is myth that never existed. If he believes Edden does not exist why waste time even writing this article about the rivers.
I knew this article was bogus after reading the second sentence. When he mentions 1,000,000 years. If you truly believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God then you can do the math. The earth, according to the Bible is, give or take a few hundred years, only about 6000 years old. So there is the authors first problem. His second problem is that he doesn’t take into the consideration of the Flood. Not only did it rain but the earth was broken up. So the rivers in the garden of Eden are not in the same place as they were before the flood. I hope this is helpful and praise be to Jesus our King!
I would say for one Gihon River flows through Ethiopia and not around it, compasseth the land not surround the land. I also would say since the Word says it flowed through Ethiopia that it’s should cause confusion when the Word says Hezekiah cause the waters of Ghion to go DOWN westward of the city of David cause what is down from Ethiopia? More proof right there that you believe on the false location of Israel and Iudah. The White man has taken all that they could take out of Africa yet Yah made sure that His Word would still not turn to Him void so His true children would come out of their slumber that He put them in for worshiping the idols of the Gentile nations. So downward of Ethiopia is further down Africa. Look at ancient maps and you will find the true location of Yahs people.
His Word says that beyond the river of Cush (Ethiopia); not two different areas as one stated above, land was named after one person not two land after the same person.. with His children be dispersed (Taken for the last slavery) according to the curses of Deut 28 that only one people got EVERY single curse. The fact the Bible never states where the location of the Great River Euphrates is, makes the false claim of it being in the Middle East that’s nothing but North Africa even more a lie.
In addition, to even prove more that, that little false land is not the promise land, Jeremiah stated Jerusalem would be heaps and Iudah would become the Wilderness (desert) inhabited with Jackals and not no man would ever inhabit it again. Well then that place could be it. Israel is a good land: a land that is massive not small, a land of much cattle, many trees that yield plenty fruit, where the mountains has streams of fountains of water and much green, a land that is not always hot nor always cold, a land where Mt Zion is looking at Mt Sinai and also faces Eden. Adam means son of the red Earth, the red soil of Africa.
Yah said when he gather both stick back to the land, not one stick and later the other stick; that they would see war no more (does the false Israel have both sticks at one time that sees no more war), that the Messiah would dwell with them and the gentiles would be their servants (well He not here), that there would be peace and no more sorrow (we haven’t even seen the Antichrist yet). However, the false Israel is steady sending fire power to their enemies and is the country with the most gays and they celebrate pride month.
If the white man didn’t want to hide the truth, why did tell change the names and locations of ancient maps, why are they always digging in Africa, why did they still African countries ancient artifacts, why did they enslave Blacks and change their names and give them a title of African American… yet they didn’t do that to the indentured white slaves. Why did they not allow African Americans to read and on top of that read the Bible.
Well let me tell you why in my closing, we Nigerian Igbo’s never needed the white man to come and bring us a Bible to we as before we ever read the Bible we already knew who Abraham, Issac and Israel were, we never stopped the traditions of our forefathers, still to this day we are a people that have been do it even though we were and some still are a stiff neck people. Those Khazars which come from the seed of Japheth, those Europeans that the book of Revelations speaks of (He know them that calls themselves Jews but are not) they come to our land to study us, not us study them. The Euphrates River, Ghion, Hiddekel, and Pison are all in Africa. As Ethiopia is the one country the white man couldn’t take so they couldn’t change the name or quiet the people. Yah knew this, that is why He constantly spoke of Ethiopia and told the true children aren’t they like the Ethiopians. Let the True Word tell the truth and every man be a lie.
FollowerofYah, First, I am not sure a good argument can be made that the earth in its current form is much like it was in the Garden of Eden before the floodwaters destroyed the earth (Genesis 9:11) and scattered the peoples. Though we completely disaggree on much of what you said, I can relate to your pursuit of truth and passion for God and can believe you are sincere. You reject the Bible as the true word of God and refer to Israel as “the false Israel.” It is therefore logical that you reject Yeshua Jesus, the Messiah born in the Land of Israel, who’s life, death, and resurrection declared him to be the Son of God. I suppose you search this website because you want to strengthen your argument that the Bible is full of lies. If that is the case, I suggest you read the book, “The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell and see if your conclusions still hold up. My second point is that in Christ, God changes men and commands us to forgive and accept each other and begin to realize the beauty in our differences. Of course, not everyone who calls themself a Christian is a true follower of Jesus. In Jesus Christ, there is no Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, nor female. God is not separating us by race or creed or status in life but bringing us together to be what all races were created to be part of (The Israel of God, spiritual Israel, made up from every nation, tribe, and tongue), a people who are obedient to him and who love one another. Physical Israel brought the Bible to the world and brought Messiah to the world and has a place in revealing the truth of his word since he predicts so much of their future in recorded prophecy. But the Israeli people are not some sort of biblical master race by blood line or skin color. Each individuals their must be saved like anybody else to be in God’s kingdom. He promised that one day he will rule the world from that nation. However, I can tell you it will be made up of people born again not by a natural descent or act of human will but born of God. As the Prophet Zechariah says (Zechariah 13), one day Israel will repent as a nation and mourn for the One they pierced, and he will return and a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the people of Jerusalem to cleanse them of their sin. That’s when you will see the Gihon gushing forth. He will save ALL who long for his appearing will be saved and they will be established in his kingdom. There are many wonderful people among all nations, tribes, and tongues in this world. There are many believers everywhere but there are also those who have and who will distort the truth and enslave. I pray you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved while he may yet be found. A great deception is coming, a famine in the world for the word of God.