Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
River Details
Up to this point, in reading the account of Genesis and the creation of the universe, everything is understandably brief and summarized. With regards to landscapes, plants, animals etc. we're only told what we absolutely need to know. Given this approach I figure - and this is how I've been reading Genesis thus far - anything that is mentioned in detail is done so for a reason.
Having said that, I'm at a loss to explain why it is that five incredibly detailed verses are devoted to these four rivers within Eden: names, descriptions, surrounding areas etc. Up until this point everything, including mankind, has been described in very broad and poetic terms and these verses just seem to stick out like a sore thumb both in their written style and detail.
Does anyone have any ideas?
(back to Genesis 2)
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1 comment:
Hey Jon
I have three hypotheses. I could be way off.
1. Moses wanted to show evidence that there had been a global flood that radically changed the world's natural systems (e.g., I've heard, but may be wrong, that two of the rivers that are said to interesect here, do not actually meet one another, which is probably a result of the flood). This is not too implausible considering that it would evidence the enormous impact that sin, the dominant theme of Genesis 3, would have on all of creation, not just man.
2. Least plausibly, to show that where the garden once was, God was going to give to Israel. This seems implausible to me because I've never heard it before whereas if it were true I'm sure that it would have popped up at some point in our studies and sermons on Genesis.
3. Alternatively, and more plausibly, it could have happened that Moses wanted to make sure that everyone knew that the garden was no longer there. They could hear reports from the peoples living in that area that it was just like the rest of the world. By giving precise coordinates, the Israelites could find out that paradise was gone from earth and it would help them to not go seeking after it.
I'm really not sure, but it's possible. Thanks for your devotion thinking about the most small of details. Your blog's been a lot of fun to read.
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