Biblical river
Picture of mosaic representing Pishon from Church of Theodorias (Qasr Libya ) ca 539 CE.
The Pishon (Hebrew : פִּישׁוֹן Pīšōn ; Koine Greek : Φισών Phisṓn ) is one of four rivers (along with Hiddekel (Tigris ), Perath (Euphrates ) and Gihon ) mentioned in the Biblical Book of Genesis . In that passage, a source river flows out of Eden to water the Garden of Eden and from there divides into the four named rivers .[ 1] The Pishon is described as encircling "the entire land of Havilah where is gold; bdellium and onyx stone."[ 2]
Identification
Unlike the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Pishon has never been clearly located. It is briefly mentioned together with the Tigris in the Wisdom of Sirach (24:25/35), but this reference throws no more light on the location of the river. The Jewish–Roman historian Flavius Josephus , in the beginning of his Antiquities of the Jews (1st century AD) identified the Pishon with the Ganges .[ 3] The medieval French rabbi Rashi identified it with the Nile .[ 4]
Some early modern scholars such as Antoine Augustin Calmet (1672–1757) and later figures such as Ernst Friedrich Karl Rosenmüller (1768–1835), and Kell (1807–1888), believed the source river [for Eden] was a region of springs: "The Pishon and Gihon were mountain streams. The former may have been the Phasis or Araxes , and the latter the Oxus ."[ 5]
James A. Sauer, former curator of the Harvard Semitic Museum , made an argument from geology and history that Pishon referred to what is now the Wadi al-Batin , a largely dry channel which begins in the Hijaz Mountains , near Medina , to run northeast to Kuwait .[ 6] With the aid of satellite photos, Farouk El-Baz of Boston University traced the dry channel from Kuwait up the Wadi al-Batin and the Wadi al-Rummah system, originating near Medina at Jibāl al Abyaḑ .[ 7]
David Rohl identified Pishon with the Uizhun ,[citation needed ] placing Havilah to the northeast of Mesopotamia . The Uizhun is known locally as the Golden River. Rising near the stratovolcano Sahand , it meanders between ancient gold mines and lodes of lapis lazuli before feeding the Caspian Sea . Such natural resources correspond to the ones associated with the land of Havilah in Genesis.[ 8] [ 9]
References
^ Genesis 2:10
^ Genesis 2:11
^ Josephus, Flavius. "Antiquities of the Jews – Book I" . Chapter 1.3. And Phison, which denotes a multitude, running into India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes down into the Red Sea.
^ Wolf, Shaul. "Where Are the Four Rivers that Come from Eden?" . Chabad.org . Retrieved 2 June 2018 .
^ Duncan, George S. (October 1929) "The Birthplace of Man" The Scientific Monthly 29(4): pp. 359–362, p. 360.
^ James A. Sauer, "The River Runs Dry," Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 22, No. 4, July/August 1996, pp. 52–54, 57, 64
^ Farouk El-Baz, "A river in the desert", Discover , July 1993.
^ Sandys, Edwin. "Bishop's Bible" . studybible.info . Retrieved 5 May 2020 .
^ Sandys, Edwin. "Bishop's Bible" . studybible.info . Retrieved 5 May 2020 .