[Footnote 1: And it is astonishing to find the error generally
perpetuated in maps attached to modern Bibles.]
[Footnote 2: As distinct from a real philological connection of a modern
name with a more ancient one, and so forth.]
Turning now to the second of the two theories, the identification of the
site on the lower part of the Euphrates after its now existing junction
with the Tigris (and which the supporters of the theory have justified
by making the Gihon and Pison two rivers coming from Eden) must also be
set aside.
For the important fact has been overlooked that it is quite certain,
that anciently, the joint stream, (Shatt-el-'Arab), as it now is, did
not exist. Though the Genesis narrative tells us of a junction
_immediately outside_ the southern boundary of the Garden, the Euphrates
channels and the Tigris branch (with part of the Euphrates water in it)
flowed separately to the Persian Gulf. It is quite certain that, in the
time of Alexander the Great, the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris were
a good day's journey apart. For this separate outflow there is the
incontestable evidence of Pliny and other authors quoted by Professor
Delitzsch. I may here also remark, that anciently the Persian Gulf
extended much farther inland than it does now. In the time of
Sennacherib, an inland arm of the sea extended so far, that a _naval_
expedition against Elam was possible; more than one hundred miles inland
from the present sea-line.
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