Every one who has seen one
of the great rivers of Northern India will at once realize the changes
that take place where a river liable to floods has its bed at a high
level. It is almost a matter of certainty that, in the course of years,
the branches and channels of rivers so constituted will change, and old
ones be left dry and deserted. These essential topographical conditions
have always to be remembered in interpreting the narrative of Genesis
ii.
In fact, they furnish us with points which help us in the problem at the
outset. (1) There is a part of the Euphrates, just above Babylon, where
the river naturally furnished abundant irrigation for a Garden planted
eastward of it, by means of natural irrigation channels flowing from the
high level down to the lower valley of the Tigris; and (2) there is also
a point from which the Euphrates did branch out, and several important
arms anciently existed.
Nor is the locality, in point of verdure and fertility, unsuitable. Not
only do the ancient histories make frequent mention of the canals and
streams flowing from the Euphrates which I have alluded to, but they
speak of the palm groves, the vines and the verdure of the Babylonian or
Chaldean region. Herodotus, in his first book, has the most glowing
description of the scene; and the kings of Babylon had numerous enclosed
gardens or parks: these were imitated in Persia, and gave rise to the
Persian name "Firdaus," which Xenophon imported into Greek in the form
of [Greek: paradeisos] or "paradise"--the term which was adopted by the
Seventy translators.
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