Gihonis the name of the secondrivermentioned in the second chapter of thebiblicalBook of Genesis.The Gihon is mentioned as one offour rivers(along with theTigris,Euphrates,andPishon) issuing out of Eden, branching from a single river that split after watering theGarden of Eden(Genesis 2:10-14).
Overview
editThe name (HebrewGīḥōnגיחון) may be interpreted as "bursting forth, gushing".
The book of Genesis describes Gihon as "encircling the entire land ofCush",a name associated withEthiopiaelsewhere in the Bible. This is the reason that Ethiopians have long identified the Gihon (Giyon) with the Abay River (Blue Nile), which encircles the former kingdom ofGojjam.From a geographic standpoint this would seem impossible, since two of the other rivers said to issue out of Eden, the Tigris and the Euphrates, are inMesopotamia.However, the scholarEdward Ullendorffhas argued in support of this identification.[1]In theFra Mauro mapof 1459, the Nile is calledGion,giving more credence to this claim.
Some scholars identify Cush in this context as the ancientKassitekingdom, which encompassed a Mesopotamian area that is repeatedly flooded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This view has some support fromHerodotus,who thought there were both an African Ethiopia (Cush) and a northern (Asiatic) Ethiopia.
Nineteenth century, modern, and Arabic scholars have sought to identify the "land of Cush" withHindu Kush,and Gihon withAmu Darya(Jihon/Jayhon of the Islamic texts). Amu Darya was known in the medieval Islamic writers as Jayhun or Ceyhun inTurkish.[2]This was a derivative of Jihon, or Zhihon as it is still known by thePersians.[3][4]
First-century Jewish historianJosephusassociated the Gihon river with theNile.[5]
Gihon (or Pishon) has also been associated with the Araxes (modernAras) river which flows through Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran, or with the river Oxus (the Amu Darya).[6]
Juris Zarinsidentified the Gihon with theKarun Riverin Iran and Kush with the land of theKassites.[7]
TheSefer haYashar,a medieval Hebrewmidrash,asserts that in the time ofEnos,grandson ofAdam,the river Gihon was subject to a catastrophic flood due to the wickedness of man.[8]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Edward Ullendorff,Ethiopia and the Bible(Oxford: University Press for the British Academy, 1968), p. 2.
- ^Encyclopædia Britannica Online - Amu Darya
- ^William C. Brice.1981.Historical Atlas of Islam.Leiden with support and patronage from Encyclopaedia of Islam.ISBN90-04-06116-9.
- ^Svat Soucek. 2000.A History of Inner Asia.Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-65704-0.
- ^Jewish Antiquities,1.39.
- ^"Calumet, A. D. 1672–1757, Rosebmuller, 1768–1835, Kell, 1807–1888, and some other scholars 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." Duncan, George S. (October 1929) "The Birthplace of Man", The Scientific Monthly 29(4): pp. 359-362, p. 360.
- ^Hamblin, Dora Jane (May 1987)."Has the Garden of Eden been located at last?"(PDF).Smithsonian Magazine.18(2). Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 9 January 2014.Retrieved8 January2014.
- ^Book of Jasher/the Upright,Chapter 2:6.