Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Mr. Kirk,

yes, rivers with deltas do form short, indistinct branches.  
Yes rivers can be divided by sand bars, ox bows, and 
sloughs.  The Nile does form two main, and many smaller, 
channels in the delta, but not above.  However, no river 
anywhere branches out to form two distinct rivers in 
separate beds in opposite directions, much less into 
separate valleys or basins as the Tigris and Euphrates do.


> From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
> Date: 2005/05/12 Thu PM 07:26:29 EDT
> To: tladatsi AT charter.net
> CC: mattfeld12 AT charter.net,  b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Four Rivers of Eden - Genesis 2
> 
> On 12/05/2005 15:45, tladatsi AT charter.net wrote:
> 
> >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.
> >  
> >
> 
> The Nile branches into at least two main channels, and in 
antiquity into 
> at least four, where it entered its delta. And this is 
common of many 
> rivers entering deltas at the foot of mountains, 
sometimes but not 
> always where they enter seas or lakes. Modern irrigation 
has tended to 
> restrict such rivers to a single course, but this would 
not have been 
> true at the time that these accounts were written.
> 
> -- 
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
> 
> 
> 
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> 

Jack Tladatsi