The area shaded in red is the location of biblical Eden. It was said to be a well-watered area. Today this is one of the driest regions on earth, but during Noah's time and before it was vastly wetter. Abraham's ancestors came from this region. It is the point of origin of the Afro-Asiatic peoples who came us the Bible.
Between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago the Nile river system filled with waters from the Angolan Highlands. Before this time, the streams of the Ugandan highlands flowed west to join the Congo River, which drains into the Atlantic. Geological uplift about 12,000 years ago tilted the region to create Lake Victoria and direct its excess flow north into the White Nile. The waters of the White Nile provide most of the Nile's water during the dry season. Essentially the entire Albertine Rift was a vast flood plain extending 3,700 miles from Syria to central Mozambique.
Likewise, the now dry Botswanan lake basin in southern Africa was once a sea, filled by water from the Angolan Highlands. Thousands of manmade stone tools have been found in the area dating to between 80,000 and 100,000 years.
Between 12,000 and 7,000 years ago Lake Chad filled its present drainage basin and spilled southwest out the Benue River to the Atlantic. It was called "Lake Megachad" and during that time it was the world's largest lake with a surface five times larger Lake Superior.
Genesis 2:10-14 says that Eden was watered by four rivers: the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Pishon and the Gihon. Two are in Mesopotamia and two are in Africa. This is the heart of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. This is the place of origin of the ruler-priests and of "him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden" (Amos 1:5).
The Ethiopians identify the Gihon with the Abay River, which encircles the former African kingdom of Gojjam (where Ge'ez was spoken, the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox church). The Pishon "flows through the whole land of Havilah" (Gen. 2:11). Havilah is a son of Kush (Gen. 10:7) and the "Kushites" lived in the upper Nile region and the Sudan. Kushite kings also ruled in Egypt.
The description of Eden as a well-watered region is supported by climate and geological studies. These four rivers encompass the heart or Eden of the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion which was ruled by a network of chiefs who were priests. They controlled the major water systems and built shrines along the rivers.
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8 comments:
So my question is then, what do you make of the references to the Tigris and the Euphrates?
Are we left with two conflicting traditions in the same story? Or is this really an attempt at some sort of symbolism?
Reading Anonymously for a Long Time Now,
Ed
I don't see conflicting traditions. Both are Afro-Asiatic and the fact that there are eastern and western Afro-Asiatic traditions supports the claim that Genesis is the story of Abraham's people. If these differences didn't appear, we might suspect corruption of the text, just as a judge suspects collusion when the accounts of 2 witnesses are identical.
Both traditions are evident in the Genesis creations stories as well. Both are evident in the details of Noah's flood. In the eastern tradition, Noah sends out a raven. In the western, a dove. There are no ravens in Africa, but many types of doves. The dove that Noah sent out was probably the pink-bellied dove which is plentiful in west central Africa where Noah lived.
Thank you for reading faithfully. I hope that this research is spiritually beneficial. May God bless you!
Noah would have had both birds on the ark. I am sure that God had a purpose for sending both birds out.
Also, the dry land we see today was not the same as the days of Noah. Much topography has changed. The Scripture says that the garden also was "eastward" in Eden and a river went out of Eden and split into four branches as named in the Bible. Some sources think that one river circled the entire Arabian peninsula while another circled the continent of Africa and that the Tigris river went all the way up around England. Interesting theories, but we may never know for sure until the return of Christ. I am sure though, that the truth concerning this (if we could know it now) would satisfy everyone's version.
Carol,
The four rivers ARE identified in Genesis. Two (Tigris and Euphrates) are in Mesopotamia and two (Gihon and PIshon) are in Africa. At the time of the flood - the Holocene Wet Period - these rivers were much bigger than today. And the entire area between them was wet due to geological uplift in central Africa which caused run-off water from the Angolan Heights to flow toward the Nile rather than toward the Atlantic.
So the Gihon spring of Jebus/Jerusalem was not the Gihon river of Eden?
The Gihon on the west boundary of Eden would have been a tributary of the Upper Nile. It was associated with the land of Ha-vilah, known for gold. Ha-vilah is related to the Hebrew word te-vilah which pertains to immersion in water.
Eden was not a small place. It was a vast territory under the control of Afro-Asiatics and their Ha-piru (Ha-biru) ruler-priests. Horus shrines were found widely. These had falcon-shaped fire altars.
Fascinating about the drainage changes on the African continent, Alice. The Wikepedia article doesn't really deal with this. Do you have other links that give this geological sequence?
See this:
http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2012/05/potts-variability-hypothesis-has.html
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