As nearly as we can gather from the Scriptural de- scription, Eden was a tract of country, the finest imag- inable, Ij'ing probably between the 35th and the 40th degree of N. latitude, of such moderate elevation, and 80 adjusted, with respect to mountain ranges, and wa- tersheds, and forests, as to preserve the most agreeable and salubrious conditions of temperature and all atmos- pheric changes. Its surf;ice must therefore have been constantly diversified by hill and plain. In the finest part of this land of Eden, the Creator had formed an enclosure, probably by rocks, and forests, and rivers, and had filled it with every product of nature condu- cive to use and happiness. Due moisture, of both the ground and the air, was preserved by the streamlets from the nearest hills, and the rivulets from the more distant ; and such streamlets and rivulets, collected according to the levels of the surrounding country (" it proceeded from Eden") flowed off afterwards in four larger streams, each of which thus became the source of a great river.
Here, then, in the south of Armenia, after the ex- plication we have given, it may seem the most suita- ble to look for the object of our exploration, the site of Paradise.
That the Hiddekel (tliis name is said to be still in use among the tribes who live upon its banks — Col. Chesnej', Exp. to Tir/ris and Euphrates, i, 13) is the Tigris, and the Phrath the Euphrates, has never been denied, except bj' those who assume that the whole narrative is a m\'th which originated elsewhere, and w^as adapted by the Hebrews to tlicir own geographical notions. As the former is the w.inw of t\u' great river by which Daniel sat (Dan. x, 4), and the latter is the term uniformly applied to the Euphrates in the Old Testament, there seems no reason to suppose that the appellations in Gen. ii, 14 are to be understood in an}' other than the ordinary scnso. One cirQumstance in the description is worthy of observation. Of the four rivers, one, the Euphrates, is mentioned by name only,
as if that were sufficient to identifj' it. The other three are defined according to their geographical posi- tions, and it is fair to conclude that they were therefore rivers with whicli the Hebrews were less intimately acquainted. If this be the case, it is scarcely possible to imagine that the Gihon, or, as some say, the Pison, is the Nile, for that must have been even more famil- iar to the Israelites than the Euphrates, and have stood as little in need of a definition.
But the stringent difficulty is to find any two rivers that will reasonably answer to the predicates of the Pishon and the Gihon, and any countries which can be collocated as Havilah and Cush. The latter name, in» deed, was given by the Hebrews and other Orientals to several extensive countries, and those very distant both from Armenia and from each other. As for Hav- ilah, we have the name again in the account of the dispersion of the descendants of Noah (chap, x, 29) ; but whether that was tlie same as this Havilah, and in what part of Asia it was, we despair of ascertaining. Reland and others, the best writers upon this question, have felt themselves compelled to give to these names a comprehension which destroys all preciseness. So, likewise, the meaning of the two names of natural products can be little more than matter of conjecture — • the hedolach and the stone shoham. The former word occurs only here and in Num. xi, 7. The Septuagint, our oldest and best authority with regai-d to terms of natural hislorj', renders it, in our passage, by anthrax, meaning probably the ruby, or possibly the topaz ; and in Numbers by crystallos, which the Greeks ap- plied not merel}' to .rock-crystal, but to any finely transparent mineral. Anj"^ of the several kinds of odoriferous gum, which many ancient and modern au- thorities have maintained, is not likely, for it could not be in value comparable to gold. The pearl is pos- sible, but not quite probable, for it is an animal prod- uct, and the connection seems rather to confine us to minerals ; and pearls, though translucent, are not transparent as good crystal is. Would not the dia- mond be an admissible conjecture ? The shoham oc- curs in ten other places, chiefly in the book of Exo- dus, and in all those instances our version says onyx ; but the Septuagint varies, taking onyx, sardius, sar- donyx, beryl, prase-stone, sapphire, and smaragdus, which is a green-tinctured roclv-crystal. The prepon- derance seems to be in favor of onyx, one of the many varieties of banded agate ; but the idea of value leads us to think that tlie emerald is the most probable. There are two remarkalde inventories of precious stones in Exod. xxxix, 10-13, and Ezek. xxviii, 13, which may be profitably studied, comparing the Sep- tuagint with the Hebrew. See Havilah. For at- tempted identifications of the Pison and Gihon, see those names respectively.
IV. For the Literature of the subject, see Paradise.
2. (p", Sept. 'E("e/.(, but omits in Isa. xxxvii, 12, and Ezek. xxvii, 23 ; Vulg. Edeii), one of the marts which supplied the luxury of Tyre with richly embroi- dered stuff's. It is associated with Haran, Sheba, and Asshur ; and in Amos i, 5, Beth-Eden, or " the house of Eden," is rendered in the Sept. by Chan-an (S.ap- pai'). In 2 Kings xix, 12, and Isa. xxxvii, 12, "the sons of Eden" are mentioned with Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, as victims of the Assyrian greed of conquest. Telassar appears to have been the head-quarters of the tribe ; and Knobel's (Comm. on Isaiah) et^miology of this name would point to the highlands of Assyria as their wliereabouts. But this has no sound founda- tion, although the view which it supports receives con- firmation from the version of Jonathan, wlio gives ainn (Chndib) as the equivalent of Eden. Bochart proved (^Phaleg. pt. i, p. 274) that this term was applied by the Tahnudic writers to the mountainous district of Assyria, which bordered on Media, and was known as Adiabene. But if Gozan be Gausanitis in Jleso*