Thus Antioch in Pisidia wa- sometimes called a Phryg- ian town. Iii g< n. lal t. no- it ma\ he -aid that I'isidia
was bounded on the north by Phrygia,on the wesl by ('aria and Lycia, on the south by Pamphylia, and on the easl bj Cilicia and Isauria (Srrabo, xii, 569; Ptol- emy, v,6). It wa- a mountainous region; but high up
PISON
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PISON
among the peaks of Taurus were some fertile valleys and little upland plains. The province was subdivided into minute sections, and held by tribes of wild and warlike highlanders, who were the terror of the whole surrounding country (Strabo, I. c. ; Xenoph. A nab. i. 1, 11; ii, 5, 13). It was probably among the defiles of Pisidia that the apostle Paul experienced some of those "perils of robbers" of which he speaks in 2 Cor. xi, 2(3; and perhaps fear of the bandits that inhabited them had something to do with John's abrupt departure from Paul and Barnabas just as they were about to enter Pisidia (Acts xiii, 13, 14). The Pisidian tribes had rulers of their own, and they maintained their inde- pendence in spite of the repeated attacks of more pow- erful neighbors, and of the conquests of the Greeks, and even of the Romans. The latter were content to re- ceive from them a scanty tribute, allowing them to re- main undisturbed amid their mountain fastnesses. See Smith, Diet, of Class. Geo//, s. v. The scenery of Pisidia is wild and grand. The mountains are mostly lime- stone, and are partially clothed with forests of oak, pine, and juniper. The lower slopes are here and there planted with olives, vines, and pomegranates. Many of the ravines are singularly grand — bare cliffs rising up a thousand feet and more on each side of the bed of a foaming torrent. In other places fountains gush forth, and streams brawl along amid thickets of olean- der. The passes from the sea-coast to the interior are difficult, and have always been dangerous. See Asia Minoh. Paul paid two visits to Pisidia. In company with Barnabas he entered it from Pamphylia on the south, and crossed over the mountains to Antioch, which lay near the northern border (Acts xiii, 14). Their mission was successful; but the enemies of the truth soon caused them to be expelled from the province (ver. 50). After an adventurous journey through Ly-
Coiu of Auuocu in Pisidia, with the head of Gordiau, as an imperial "colony."
caonia and Isauria, they again returned through Pisidia to Pamphylia, apparently by the same route (xiv, 21- 24). See Arundell, Asia Minor,vol. ii; Fellows, Asia Minor ; Spratt, Travels in Lycia; see also full extracts in Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, i, 1G4 sq., and article Antioch of Pisidia.
Pi'son (Heb. Piskon', "jilZJ^S, streaming; Sept. <fci- aSiv), the second of the four great rivers which watered the garden of Eden, the identification of which has hitherto been attempted variously. It is described in the sacred text (Gen. ii, 11, 12) as "compassing (22"! 5, rather, perhaps, traversing) the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold ; and the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium (bedo'lacJi) and the onyx-stone (sho'- ham)." With regard to this river, the most ancient and most universally received opinion identifies it with the Ganges. Josephus (Ant. i, 1, 3), Eusebius (Ono- mast. s. v.), Ambrosius (De Parad. c. 3), Epiphanius (Ancor.c 58), Ephr. Syr. (Op. Syr. i, 23), Jerome (Ep. 4 ad Bust, and Qucest. Heb. in Gen.), and Augustine (De Gen. ad lit. viii, 7) held this. But Jarchi (on Gen. ii, 11), Saadiah Gaon, R. Moses ben-Nachman, and Abr. Peritsol (Ugolino, Thesaur. vol.vii) maintained that the Pison was the Nile. The first of these writers derives the word from a root which signifies " to increase," " to
overflow" (comp. Hab. i, 8), but at the same time quotes an etymology given in Bereshith Rabba, § 1G, in which it is asserted that the river is called Pison " because it makes the flax ("jfTOS) to grow." Josephus explains it by ttXijSvc, Scaliger by irKiffijivpa. The theory that the Pison is the Ganges is thought to receive some con- firmation from the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, who mentions (xxiv, 25, 27) in order the Pison, the Ti- gris, the Euphrates, Jordan, and Gihon. and is supposed to have commenced his enumeration in the east, and to have terminated it in the west. That the Pison was the Indus was an opinion current long before it was revived by Ew aid ( Gesch. d. Volkes Isr. i, 331, note 2) and adopted by Kalisch (Genesis, p. 96). Philostor- gius, quoted by II net (Ugolino, vol.vii), conjectured that it was the Hydaspes; andWilford (As.Ees. vol. vi), fol- lowing the Hindu tradition with regard to the origin of mankind, discovers the Pison in the Landi-Sindh, the Ganges of Isidorus, called also Nilab from the color of its waters, and known to the Hindus by the name of Nila-Ganga, or Ganga simply. Severianus (De Mundi Creat.) and Ephraem Syrus (Comm. on Gen.) agree with Cttsarius in identifying the Pison with the Danube. The last-mentioned father seems to have held, in com- mon with others, some singular notions with regard to the course of this river. He believed that it was also the Ganges and Indus, and that, after traversing Ethi- opia and Elymais, which he identified with Havilah, it fell into the ocean near Cadiz. Such is also the opin- ion of Epiphanius with regard to the course of the Pi- son. which he says is the Ganges of the Ethiopians and Indians and the Indus of the Greeks (Ancor. c. 58). Some, asllopkinson (Ugolino, vol.vii), have found the Pi- son in the Naharmalca, one of the artificial canals which formerly joined the Euphrates with the Tigris. This canal is the /lumen regium of Aram. Marc, (xxiii, 6, § 25, and xxiv, 6, § 1), and the A rmalchar of Pliny ( N. II. vi, 30). Grotius, on the contrary, considered it to be the Gihon. Even those commentators who agree in placing the terrestrial Paradise on the Shat 1 1- Arab, the stream formed by the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, between Ctesiphon and Apamea, are by no means unanimous as to which of the brandies, into which this stream is again divided, the names Pison and Gihon are to be applied. Calvin (Comm. in Gen.) was the first to conjecture that the Pison was the most easterly of these channels, and in this opinion he is followed by Scaliger and many others. Huet, on the other hand, conceived that he proved beyond doubt that Calvin was in error, and that the Pison was the west- ernmost of the twro channels by which the united stream of the Euphrates and Tigris falls into the Per- sian Gulf. He was confirmed by the authority of Bo- chart (llieroz. pt. ii, 1. 5, c. 5). Junius (I'm!, in Gen.) and Rask discovered a relic of the name Pison in the Pasitigris. The advocates of the theory that the true position of Eden is to be sought for in the mountains of Armenia have been induced, from a certain resem- blance in the two names, to identify the Pison with the Phasis, which rises in the elevated plateau at the foot of Mount Ararat, near the sources of the Tigris and Eu- phrates. Reland (ele Situ parad. ten: Ugolino, vol. vii), Calmet (Diet. s. v.), Link (Urwelt, i, 307), Rosenm idler (Ilandb. der bibl. A It.), and Hartmann have given their suffrages in favor of this opinion. Raumer (quoted by Delitzsch, Genesis) endeavored to prove that the Pison was the Phasis of Xenophon (Anab. iv, G), that is. the Aras or Araxes, which flows into the Caspian Sea. There remain yet to be noticed the theories of Leclerc (Comm. in Gen.) that the Pison was the Chrysorrhoas, the modern Barada, which takes its rise near Damas- cus ; and that of Buttmann (.4 elt. Erdk. p. 32), who iden- tified it with the Besynga or Irabatti, a river of Ava. Mendelssohn (Comm. on Gen.) mentions that some affirm the Pison to be the Gozan of 2 Kings xvii, 6 and 1