And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the
first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah,
where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is
bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon:
the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 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. And the Lord God took the
man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."
(Gen. ii., 8-1-5.)
As the four rivers named in Genesis are not branches of any one stream,
and head in very different regions, it is evident that there was an
attempt, on the part of the writer of the Book, to adapt an ancient
tradition concerning another country to the known features of the region
in which he dwelt.
Josephus tells us (chap. i., p. 41), "Now the garden (of Eden) was
watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was
parted into four parts." Here in the four parts we see the origin of the
Cross, while in the river running around the whole earth we have the
wonderful canal of Atlantis, described by Plato, which was "carried
around the whole of the plain," and received the streams which came down
from the mountains.
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