It may be objected, that
such a process of reasoning as that put forward, is not convincing to a
general reader who has not the means of criticizing or testing Professor
Delitzsch's conclusions: he therefore cannot be sure that, in selecting
two channels to represent the Pison and the Gihon, and in identifying
"Mashu" with Mesha of Havilah, and one of the Babylonian districts with
Kush, the Professor has at last hit off a solution of the problem which
will not in its turn be disproved, as all earlier solutions have been.
There is, however, this important conclusion to be safely drawn, viz.,
that a complete explanation in exact accord with the Hebrew text is
_possible_, and that hence nothing can be urged against the _narrative_,
on the ground (hitherto sneeringly taken) that the geography _was
impossible_ and so forth.
Next let me very briefly sum up what it is that Dr. Delitzsch has
done--marshalling the evidence, beginning from the broad end and
narrowing down till we arrive at the point.
(1) First, then, we are fixed by the narrative to some place between the
Euphrates and the Tigris.
(2) We find in the ancient inscriptions of the chief city of this
locality, constant allusions to a Garden, a primitive pair and a
temptation: one of these almost exactly reproduces the Bible story; it
is not of the earliest date and is a copy.
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