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Gihon is the name of the second river mentioned in the second chapter of the
Some scholars identify Cush in this context as the ancient Kassite kingdom, which encompassed a Mesopotamian area that is repeatedly flooded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This view has some support from Herodotus, 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" with Hindu Kush, and Gihon with Amu Darya (Jihon/Jayhon of the Islamic texts). Amu Darya was known in the medieval Islamic writers as Jayhun or Ceyhun in
biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
Book of Genesis. The Gihon is mentioned as one of four rivers (along with the Tigris, Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
, and Pishon
The Pishon ( ''Pîšōn'') is one of four rivers (along with Hiddekel (Tigris), Perath (Euphrates) and Gihon) mentioned in the Biblical Book of Genesis. In that passage, a source river flows out of Eden to water the Garden of Eden and from ther ...
) issuing out of the Garden of Eden
In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...
that branched from a single river within the garden.
Overview
The name ( Hebrew ''Gīḥōn'' גיחון) may be interpreted as "bursting forth, gushing". The author of Genesis describes Gihon as "encircling the entire land of Cush", a name associated with Ethiopia elsewhere 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 of Gojjam. 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 in Mesopotamia. However, the scholarEdward Ullendorff
Edward Ullendorff (1920–2011) was a British scholar and historian. He was a prominent figure in Ethiopian Studies and also contributed work on the Semitic languages.
Biography
Born on 25 January 1920 in Zurich, Switzerland, Ullendorff was e ...
has argued in support of this identification.
Some scholars identify Cush in this context as the ancient Kassite kingdom, which encompassed a Mesopotamian area that is repeatedly flooded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This view has some support from Herodotus, 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" with Hindu Kush, and Gihon with Amu Darya (Jihon/Jayhon of the Islamic texts). Amu Darya was known in the medieval Islamic writers as Jayhun or Ceyhun in Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
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. This was a derivative of Jihon, or Zhihon as it is still known by the Persians.
First-century Jewish historian Josephus associated the Gihon river with the Nile.
Gihon has also been associated with the Araxes (modern Aras) river which flows through Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran.
Juris Zarins
Juris Zarins (Zariņš) (born 1945, in Germany) is an American-Latvian archaeologist and professor at Missouri State University, who specializes in the Middle East.
Biography
Zarins is ethnically Latvian, but was born in Germany at the end of ...
identified the Gihon with the Karun River in Iran and Kush with the land of the Kassites
The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology).
They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon ...
.
The Sefer haYashar, a medieval Hebrew midrash, asserts that in the time of Enos, grandson of Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
, the river Gihon was subject to a catastrophic flood due to the wickedness of man. Book of Jasher/the Upright, Chapter 2:6.
See also
* Jaihan * al-Qurnah *Pishon
The Pishon ( ''Pîšōn'') is one of four rivers (along with Hiddekel (Tigris), Perath (Euphrates) and Gihon) mentioned in the Biblical Book of Genesis. In that passage, a source river flows out of Eden to water the Garden of Eden and from ther ...
References
{{Authority control Torah places Mythological rivers Bereshit (parashah) Hebrew Bible rivers Book of Genesis Nile Blue Nile