The Nile river has been identified with the Gihon river appearing in Genesis 2:13 since the creation of the Septuaginta, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible by Jews for Jews living in Alexandria, Egypt circa the 3rd century B.C. The late 2nd century B.C. Jewish Book of Jubilees also portrayed the Nile as being the Gihon. The first century A.D. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his history of the Jews written after 70 A.D., apparently following the Septuaginta and Book of Jubilees also identified the Nile with the Gihon. The early Church Fathers of the Christian Church accepted these Jewish identifications. The Gihon is described as flowing about or through the land of Cush (Ge 2:13) which may have suggested to the 3rd century B.C. Jewish authors of the Septuaginta that Egyptian Cush or Kush (modern-day Sudan) was meant.
To the degree that Gihon might refer to the Nile "in" Cush, it is worth noting that several maps on the internet appear label a portion of the Nile (or is it a village?) as Wadi el Gineina or Wadi al Junaynah south of Lake Nasser and the Aswan Dam. In antiquity Cush's northern border began at the first cataract of Nile which is near Aswan (Greek Syene). So Wadi Gineina (apparently a portion of the Nile? or a village?) south of Aswan in antiquity apparently lay in Cush. Does Gineina(Junaynah) preserve in Arabic the Gihon which flowed through Cush? Please click here to see Wadi el Gineina on (?) or a part of (?) the Nile south of Aswan and Lake Nasser.
Genesis 2:13 RSV
"The name of the second river is Gihon, it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush."
Most commentators understand that Cush is a reference to the Egyptian Kush (Cush), a land south of ancient Egypt (the modern-day Sudan).
However the Bible suggests for some scholars that Nimrod, a son of Cush, was associated with Babylonia (the land of Shinar) proposing that perhaps the Kassite dynasty of Babylonia is being recalled via a homophone or homonym confusion (similar sounding words which have different meanings in different languages).
A "third" possibility is that Cush might be a shortened form of Cushan, a term used in parallel to Midian. If this is the case then Moses' "Cushite" wife may have been a Midianite of a subclan called Cushan and not a black african Cushite from Cush to the south of Egypt. This then opens up the possibility that "the land of Cush" associated with a river called the Gihon might be in addition to the Sudan and Lower Mesopotamia (Kush and the Kassites), the land of Midian as Cushan.
Cohen on Moses' "Cushite" wife possibly being a Midianite and of Cushan:
"Cushan, koo'shan, (Habakkuk 3:7). A name used as a parallel to Midian. It may be an older and poetical name of Midian, based on the presence of tribes descended from Cush. It is probable, therefore, that the word Cushite, applied to the wife of Moses (Numbers 12:1) does not mean Ethiopian," but rather refers to the Midianitess, Zipporah."
(p. 751. Vol. 1. S. Cohen."Cushan." Goeorge A. Buttrick. Editor. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville & New York. Abingdon Press. 1962)
Habakkuk 3:3-7 TANAKH
"God is coming from Teman,
The Holy One from Mount Paran...
When He stands, He makes the earth to shake...
The age-old mountains are shattered...
His are the ancient routes:
As a scene of havoc I behold
The tents of Cushan;
Shaken are the pavilions of Midian!"
(TANAKH, The Holy Scriptures. Philadelphia & New York. The Jewish Publication Society. 1988. Year of Creation 5748)
Some scholars have suggested the land of Midian might be the region called Midyan south of the modern port of Aqaba in present day Saudi Arabia (cf. the below map of "Midyan" on the map titled Africa North East Arabia. Number 954. Michelin. 1990. Clermont-Ferrand, France. Scale: 1:4,000,000; 1 Centimeter equaling 40 kilometers)
If the Gich'on/Gihon is Wadi Aqiq and if Cush is Kishb, then apparently the Jews' knowledge of this area is probably derived from the incense trade with Southwest Arabia and the Yemen (the Queen of Sheba). Some scholars have suggested that the Pishon river might be Wadi Bishah (some 300 miles in length), which is encountered about 170 miles south of Wadi Aqiq. Havilah, associated with the Pishon is thought by some to be Khawlan a region famed for its gold just east of San'a in the Yemen. That is to say, the Gich'on and Cush (Aqiq and Kishb?), Pishon and Havilah (Bishah and Khawlan?) are all encountered along the great incense route from the land of Sheba to Jerusalem. Please click here for my article which identifies various scholars who have identified the Pishon with Wadi Bishah and Havilah with a gold-bearing region called the Khawlan.
Professor Price (1907) of Chicago University cites the German Professor and Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch as suggesting two canals called the Guhana and Pisanu may lie behind Eden's Gihon and Pishon rivers:
"The vexed question of the location of the Garden of Eden is not solved by the inscriptions of Babylonia. They make frequent mention of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and, among a list of irrigation canals of that great valley, Prof. Delitzsch has found two by the names Guhana and Pisanu, answering to the requirements of the narrative (Gen, ii. 10-14) in the Old Testament."
(p. 87. Ira Maurice Price. The Monuments and the Old Testament, Oriental Light on Holy Writ. Chicago. The Christian Culture Press. 1907. 5th edition)
A number of scholars have suggested the Garden of Eden lies in Armenia as the Euphrates and Tigris rise near each other in its mountains. Rasmussen, however, has dismissed this location, noting that because it is a mountainous region it would be too cold for a "naked" Adam and Eve and it is too cold for fig trees to grow:
"We can infer that it [The Garden of Eden] was a warm climate -note the mention of fig trees and the lack of clothes...However this region [Armenia] does not match the warm conditions implied in the biblical account." (p. 70. "Garden of Eden." Carl G. Rasmussen. Zondervan NIV Atlas of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan Publishing House. 1989)
Why have four streams sudividing in Genesis' Eden (Sumerian: edin)? Archaeologists and Paleohydrologists have determined that in antiquity the Euphrates broke up into three major streams as it crossed the floodplain of Lower Mesopotamia south of ancient Sippar. In the course of the 6th-3rd millenniums B.C. the Tigris had merged with the Euphrates near ancient Sippar which lies just west of modern Baghdad, to create four streams flowing through Lower Mesopotamia. By the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. the Tigris had split off from the Euphrates and began to wander eastwards. Perhaps this archaeologically attested fact is "behind" the Bible's notion that "once upon a time" a single stream arising in Eden/Edin subdivided into four streams? The names of the Euphrates' three streams were the (1) Purattu (Euphrates); (2) Arahtu/Arakhtu; (3) Abgal (Apkallatu) to be joined near Sippar and Tell ed-Der by the (4) Id-Iglat (Persian: Tigra, Greek: Tigris, Arabic: Digla/Dijlah).
Professor Bailey has a map of Lower Mesopotamia (Sumer), Nippur to Eridu, showing a canal labeled as the
Id-Ninaki-Gena south of ancient Girsu (Tello). Was Gena _morphed_ by the Hebrews into the Gihon (the Greek Septuaginta Bible's "Geon"), one of the rivers of Eden (note also the plain labeled Edin to the west of the
Id-Ninaki-Gena)? (cf. p. 34. "Map of Sumer." Lloyd R. Bailey. Noah the Person and the Story in History and Tradition. Columbia, South Carolina. University of South Carolina. 1989. Said map being reproduced from the journal titled Iraq. vol. 26. 1964. Plate XVIII. British School of Archaeology in Iraq).
Please note: the word id can mean a river or a man-made canal. The Mesopotamian myths claim the Igigi gods dug-out the river-beds for the Tigris and Euphrates then the god Enki filled these empty man-made beds with water. Perhaps this myth explains why canals and rivers are both called id, both being man-made with hoes?
Please click here and scroll down for Bailey's map showing the Sumerian canal called Id-Ninaki-Gena.
Below, a map "close-up" showing Wadi al Ghinah draining into Wadi as Sirhan, which lies east of the Dead Sea. Could Ghinah be the Gihon River associated in Genesis with the lands of Eden and Cush? (For the below map cf. Map titled "Middle East." 1:2 million Scale. Geo Center International. RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag. Berlin, Deutschland. 1993-1994). The problem? No area called Cush appears to be near the Ghinah, which is a minor wadi and not a great river like the Tigris and Euphrates.
Below, a map "expanded-view," showing the Wadi al Ghinah draining northeastwards from Jabal at Tubaiq, and northwards into the Wadi as Sirhan which lies east of the Dead Sea. (For the below map cf. Map titled "Middle East." 1:2 million Scale. Geo Center International. RV Reise- und Verkehrsverlag. Berlin, Deutschland. 1993-1994)
Gihon according to Strong's Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary (James Strong. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible. Waco, Texas. Word Books. 1970): # 1521, Giychown, ghee-khone, or Gichown, ghee-khone from
# 1518 stream; Gichon, a river of Paradise. # 1518, giyach, ghee'-akh, or goach, go'akh, a primitive root to gush forth (as water). The problem in identifying the Aqiq with Gich'on is the missing "g". I note the Septuaginta renders Ai which fell to Joshua as Gai. Is it possible that the "g" went missing as in Ai being rendered Gai? _If_, on the other hand, the Nile is the Gihon, could the cataracts of the Nile be what is behind the notion of "gushing water"?
The problem? How did the Nile come to known to the Jews as the Gihon? The Bible knew it as ye'or, which believed by some scholars to be a form of the Egyptian i(t)rw, "river" (cf. p. 1108. Vol. 4. John R. Huddlestun. "Nile (OT)." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992) . Hebrew pronounces Gihon as gich'on, the -on being a Hebrew place name sufformative. No Egyptian text identifies the Nile as the Gihon on Gich'on or Gich.
Could perhaps the Nile _not_ be the river Gich'on? Might it be Wadi Aqiq in Arabia (modern Saudi Arabia) and the land of Cush is Harrat Kishb to the east of this wadi? The wadi is some 220 miles in length beginning in the mountains just north of at-Taif (just east of Mecca) extending northward to Mahd adh Dahab and further north to end just south and east of Medina in a Sabkhat lake. Cush might be preserved in a region called Harrat Kishb, Wadi Aqiq being the western border of this area? That is to say, the Nile might not be the Gih'on or Gich'on, perhaps it is Wadi Aqiq, and Egyptian Kush/Cush is not Genesis' Cush, but possibly an Arabian Harrat Kishb? Of interest is that Arabia's most prolific gold mine is near some of the headwaters of Wadi Aqiq, it is called Mahd adh Dhahab "the mother of gold" and appears on the maps with a crossed shovel and pickax symbol with the letter Au for gold. The Midianites in the Bible are famed as being Kenites or metal smiths in Moses' encounter in the Sinai and as raiders of settlements the gold bracelets and earrings they wore are spoken of. Was the Midianite/Cushite gold from Mahd adh Dhahab and the nearby Harrat Kishb?
Does Midian recall the city of Medina (rendered on the below map as al Madinah)? Medina/Madinah in Arabic means "city" and by Hellenistic times some biblical commenators thought the land of Midian Moses fled to possessed a city called Midian or Madian. Perhaps this confusion is based on the Arabic medina meaning "city" (again, this might be another example of a homophone or homonym confusion)?
I have overlapped the map images for clarity of detail (for the below maps cf. the map titled Africa North East Arabia. Number 954. Michelin. 1990. Clermont-Ferrand, France. Scale: 1:4,000,000; 1 Centimeter equaling 40 kilometers)
