Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Four Rivers of Eden - Genesis 2

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: <tladatsi AT charter.net>
  • To: <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Four Rivers of Eden - Genesis 2
  • Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 10:45:02 -0400

Walter & Co.

I was not making geographical argument. No river anywhere
branches out as it flows down hill. Branches of a river
come together on the downward path not apart. The nearest
thing to what is described is in Cambodia where the Mekong
River overflows it's banks in the wet season near Phnom
Penh into a short river and then into a lake (Tonle Sab).
So for part of the year, the Mekong river branches out. A
similar situation occurs on the Nile with Al Fayyum Lake
and in southern California with the San Gabriel River and
the Rio Hondo. Those situations are at best seasonal and
involve one branch, not four.

Rather, my point is, where would someone listening to
Exodus 2 being read in ancient times think Eden was based
on the description. It is doubtful that too many people in
those days had detailed knowledge of the various river
basins in question but they knew that these rivers came
down from the mountains of what is now Turkey.

An analogy would be if you told someone in San Fransisco
that there was a beautiful place in the Sierra Nevada
mountains with a river running through it branched out into
the American, Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus
Rivers all originated. Few people would doubt that it
exists even though it is not geographically accurate or
geologically possible. Why? The Sierra Nevada's are well
known for their beauty and the source of many rivers. The
minor detail that the headwaters of these rivers are
actually many miles apart and do not share a literal common
source would be known to very few and be of interest to
even fewer.

Jack Tladatsi





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page