In the previous post, we looked at the two trees in the Garden of Eden. The next fives verses, which are the subject of study for this post, are parenthetical in nature, and introduce us to a river the flowed in the garden and the four headwaters into which this river separated. The main narrative will resume in v. 15, which will be the subject of the next post. But for this post, we will try to understand what the text is trying to tell the reader in this parenthetical section dealing with the river and four headwaters.

Hebrew text:

10 וְנָהָרּ֙ יֹצֵ֣א מֵעֵ֔דֶן לְהַשְׁק֖וֹת אֶת־הַגָּ֑ן וּמִשָּׁם֙ יִפָּרֵ֔ד וְהָיָ֖ה לְאַרְבָּעָ֥ה רָאשִֽׁים׃

11 שֵׁ֥ם הָֽאֶחָ֖ד פִּישׁ֑וֹן ה֣וּא הַסֹּבֵ֗ב אֵ֚ת כָּל־אֶ֣רֶץ הַֽחֲוִילָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־שָׁ֖ם הַזָּהָֽב׃

12 וּֽזֲהַ֛ב הָאָ֥רֶץ הַהִ֖וא ט֑וֹב שָׁ֥ם הַבְּדֹ֖לַח וְאֶ֥בֶן הַשֹּֽׁהַם׃

13 וְשֵֽׁם־הַנָּהָ֥ר הַשֵּׁנִ֖י גִּיח֑וֹן ה֣וּא הַסּוֹבֵ֔ב אֵ֖ת כָּל־אֶ֥רֶץ כּֽוּשׁ׃

14 וְשֵׁ֨ם הַנָּהָ֤ר הַשְּׁלִישִׁי֙ חִדֶּ֔קֶל ה֥וּא הַֽהֹלֵ֖ךְ קִדְמַ֣ת אַשּׁ֑וּר וְהַנָּהָ֥ר הָֽרְבִיעִ֖י ה֥וּא פְרָֽת׃

Transliteration:

10 wə·nā·hār  yō·ṣê mê·‘ê·ḏen,  lə·haš·qō·wṯ ’eṯ- hag·gān;  ū·miš·šām yip·pā·rêḏ, wə·hā·yāh  lə·’ar·bā·‘āh rā·šîm.

11 šêm  hā·’e·ḥāḏ  pî·šō·wn; hū  has·sō·ḇêḇ, ’êṯ  kāl- ’e·reṣ ha·ḥă·wî·lāh,  ’ă·šer- šām haz·zā·hāḇ.

12 ū·ză·haḇ  hā·’ā·reṣ ha·hi·w  ṭō·wḇ; šām hab·bə·ḏō·laḥ  wə·’e·ḇen haš·šō·ham.

13 wə·šêm-  han·nā·hār haš·šê·nî  gî·ḥō·wn; hū has·sō·w·ḇêḇ,  ’êṯ kāl- ’e·reṣ kūš.

14 wə·šêm  han·nā·hār haš·šə·lî·šî  ḥid·de·qel, hū ha·hō·lêḵ  qiḏ·maṯ ’aš·šūr; wə·han·nā·hār  hā·rə·ḇî·‘î hū p̄ə·rāṯ.

NIV:

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.

11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)

13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.

14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Study:

The verse we are dealing with identify four headwaters – Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel and Perat. While is it possible to identity the third and fourth as the Tigris and the Euphrates, the identity of the first two rivers is almost impossible to determine. The mention of Cush in relation to the Gihon leads many interpreters to identify it as the Nile. Cush, after all, is often associated with Ethiopia and Nubia, both reasonably close geographically to the Nile.

The identity of the Pishon is more problematic because no one really knows where Havilah is. This is interesting because this is the headwater that is given the most extensive description of the four. The descriptions progress in decreasing length. What this implies to me is that the identity of the four headwaters also progresses with the most well-known coming last and requiring the smallest description for identification. This means that the Pishon might have been difficult to identify even at the time when Genesis 2 was first composed.

Despite this, many people have ventured to identify the Pishon. Some have identified the Pishon and the Gihon with the Blue and White Niles, not necessarily in that order. The argument they give is that the ancient Israelites knew the region of Egypt and the Levant well and that, therefore, the text would have focused on these regions. Others, including the first century Jewish historian Josephus, have speculated that the Pishon might be the Ganges. And still others have proposed that the Pishon is the Indus. Many arguments are based on specious etymology that are quite unconvincing and would hardly have been in the minds of the person(s) who first composed Genesis 2.

It is hardly likely that we will ever be able to definitely identify the Pishon and the Gihon, especially the former. And, given that these five verses are parenthetical, the identification of the two rivers is not crucial to understanding the main text. So we will leave that mystery and move to something else in the text.

For me, the phrase “from there it was separated into four headwaters” in v. 10 is curious. Rivers do not separate into headwaters! Rather, headwaters are tributaries that join to form a river. So what’s going on here? I think the problem arises because of the way the word שָׁם (shawm) is translated. While it normally means ‘from there’, it has a rarer meaning that is related to time. In this case, the phrase would be “then it was separated into four headwaters.” In other words, the text is telling us that there initially was only one river that flowed through Eden but that at some point in time it was separated into four rivers. When that happened is not specified, but my best guess would be after the events of Genesis 3, when the humans were driven out of Eden.

The idea here is that, when the humans no longer had access to Eden and the river flowing through it, God divided it into four massive rivers to irrigate the land that the humans would inhabit. So the text is actually hinting that a disastrous event is going to occur which required the splitting of the single river into four rivers. Now we know that the largest river by volume is the Amazon, not any of the four mentioned in the text. And there are other large rivers all over the earth. The text only speaks of the areas that the Jewish people were familiar with up until the exilic period. Hence, the two massive rivers of Mesopotamia and the great river of Egypt feature prominently in the text.

And while the text hints at a disaster that is about to happen, it also points toward God’s grace. For even when he exiles the humans from Eden, he provides for them by splitting the river into four so that, no matter where they roamed, they would have fresh water to sustain them.

Prayer:

Almighty, gracious Father. Everyday we are reminded of your immense grace toward us. And in today’s text, we have seen that you have provided for us even through the rivers that sustain our civilizations. But Father, we have not respected this invaluable resource you have given us. We have exploited it for our own gains and have ruined them and killed off many species that depended on these life-sustaining rivers for their existence. We ask you to forgive us for our greed. And we ask that you would transform us into people who are courageous enough to once again respect the creation within which you have placed us. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.