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NASB | Genesis 2:13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 2015 |
Genesis 2:13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the entire land of Cush [in Mesopotamia]. |
Bible Question:
In Genesis 2:10-14, Moses seems to refer to rivers and places that are contemporary to him, i.e. approx. 2,500 years after Eden was planted by God. In other words, Moses lived and wrote Genesis (under the Holy Spirit's inspiration) long after the Fall, Man's expulsion from Eden, and the Flood. Didn't the incredibly powerful, global catastrophe of the Flood obliterate not only Eden itself, but whatever rivers, mountains, and other geographic features might have existed previously? How could the same Tigris, the same Euphrates, and the places on land which Moses mentions have endured from the time of Eden until Moses? Are these post Flood rivers and places which have been given names that pre Flood rivers and places had? For example, Cush was a descendant of Noah, how else could the "land of Cush" (vs. 13) have existed long before Noah's birth? If that is the case, why do our NASB and other English texts give the sense that Moses is writing about places that existed when Eden did? Does the answer lie in better understanding what is meant by the curious phrase in vs. 10, "from there it divided and became four rivers"? |
Bible Answer: RevKGraham, we do not know if the rivers were in existance when Moses wrote about the Garden. We think we know about the last two. Cush could be the one we read about later. Neither do we know the effects of the flood. The "experts" have to guess. I do not like the English language, it does a horrid job many times in the Bible and elsewhere. I take verse 10 to mean that the Eden River had the four rivers flowing from it. Searcher Steve Butler |