The Bible, Douay-Rheims
Book of Genesis
“2:10. And a river went out of the place of pleasure to
water paradise,
which from thence is divided into four heads.
2:11. The name of the one is Phison: that is it which
compasseth all the
land of Hevilath, where gold groweth.
2:12. And the gold of that land is very good: there is found
bdellium,
and the onyx stone.
Comment: The region in Genesis is usually associated with
either the Arabian Peninsula or north-west Yemen, but in the work associated with
the Garden of Eden by Juris Zarins, the Hijaz mountains
appear to satisfactorily meet the description. The Hejaz includes both the Cradle of Gold
at Mahd adh Dhahab (23°30′12.96″N 40°51′34.92″E23.5036000°N 40.8597000°E) and a possible source of the "Pishon River" — a biblical name that has been speculated
to refer to a now dried-out river formerly flowing 600 miles (970 km)
northeast to the Persian Gulf via the Wadi Al-Batin
system. Archaeological research led by Farouk El-Baz of Boston University indicates that the river system, now prospectively known as
the Kuwait River, was
active 2500–3000 BC.[4]
Bdellium
plants are also abundant in the Hijaz.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havilah
2:13. And the name of the second river is Gehon: the same is
it that
compasseth all the land of Ethiopia.
Perhaps it refers to river Nile as can be seen in picture
below:
2:14. And the name of the third river is Tigris: the same
passeth along
by the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
2:15. And the Lord God took man, and put him into the
paradise of
pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.”
Unfortunately, man has made a complete mess of it.
It seems that the European authors of this particular
version of the Bible believed that The valleys of the rivers Nile, Euphrates,
Tigris and the area of Hijaz now commonly known as the Middle East was actually
paradise and Adam and Eve were banished from it for their indiscretion into
Europe where the human race grew and developed. Their concept of the patriarchs
seems to be of gods similar to those of the Greek mythology. Later when other
parts of the world and other civilizations were developed, the text in later
versions was amended.
