Impossibility for the Garden of Eden, the rivers do not match up.

by jam 26 Replies latest social current

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  jam

  Genesis identifies four rivers that went out of Eden, Pishon,

  Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. Only the last two of which are

  clearly known to us, but the Gihon is described as being in

  Ethiopia, which is actually in another continent.

  Leon Kass (The beginning of wisdom) says that there can

  be no single terrestrial place that would serve as the common

  source of these four widely separated rivers.

  True, the Tigris and Euphrates do meet, but the lands the

  text associates with the first two rivers are clearly separated

  from the Tigris, Euphrates valley, the first to the north, the

  second to the south.

  This geographical impossibility tells us that the Garden of

  Eden was a purely mythical place.
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  BreathoftheIndianNose

  Your logic is sound when reasoning with a person who believes the geography from the garden of Eden times was generally the same it is today. For those who believe the flood of Noah's day was a real event, modern geography cannot be used as a judge of what the earth looked like before the flood. Especially for rivers, they would've changed incalcubally with a global flood. Regardless, the garden of Eden myth is still just that, a myth.

  IndianNose
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  kurtbethel

  While Eden is certainly a mythical place, I wouldn't make too much about the rivers mentioned.

  Place names are often very dynamic and subjective to who is telling the story.

  
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  Satanus

  There is a mountain in tibet w 4 rivers starting near it.

  'Mount Kailash is a peak in the Kailas Range, which are part of the Transhimalaya in Tibet. It lies near the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia: the Indus River, the Sutlej River (a major tributary of the Indus River), the Brahmaputra River, and the Karnali River (a tributary of the Ganges River). It is considered a sacred place in four religions: Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. The mountain lies near Lake Manasarowar and Lake Rakshastal in Tibet.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash

  S
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  Finkelstein

  You mean the Garden of Eden is just a mythological story......... get out of here .
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  mP

  I read an interesting book which analysed Egypt as the source of the Bible and it points out that there is only one spot nearby to Israel that has 4 rivers, and thats the Nile which has a large delta next to the Med. In a desert the delta when it is wet is a paradise. THe author also showed that the names given for the four rivers can be partly found in names of the branches of the Nile. GIven so much of Genesis, Exodus is Egypt focused it would be a fit.
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  jam

  Thanks folks, I should have posted my topic as a question.

  I have a weekly discussion with a golfer friend(minister), between holes

  we sometimes discuss the bible .That,s why I love this place, I can

  get a different perspective from you folks. Don,t wont to put my

  foot in my mouth.
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  Satanus

  Here is a map

  
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  doofdaddy

  Also the mighty Mekong river has its source in Tibet. Strange when travelling it to realise that this is snow water when the temperature is tropical. Wikipedia tells us that Mekong id the Thai/Lao name for mother, so it is also called the Ganges when translated into Sanskrit...
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  Satanus

  Interesting. I see that the yankze and yellow rivers start there, as well.

  S