Rivers
in Cosmology
Genesis
2:10–14 describes the garden in Eden as the source of an
unnamed river that subsequently divided into four “headwaters”:
the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. This
description defies any attempt to locate the purported site of Eden
in terms of historical geography. The Tigris and the Euphrates do not
diverge from a common source, but instead converge before emptying
into the Persian Gulf. Moreover, the Gihon, if it is to be identified
with the sacred spring of the same name in Jerusalem (1 Kings
1:45), is several hundred miles away from the Tigris and the
Euphrates. The Pishon is otherwise unknown. If, as various
commentators since antiquity have suggested, the Gihon and the Pishon
are to be identified with other great rivers in the same class of
importance as the Tigris and the Euphrates (the Nile, the Ganges,
etc.), then this would further confound any attempt to understand
Gen. 2:10–14 in terms of historical geography. The image of
four rivers emanating from a primordial garden and dividing
unnaturalistically from a common source is attested in ancient Near
Eastern art, notably in the eighteenth-century BC wall painting
illustrating the investiture of Zimri-Lim. In this image, two
goddesses stand in a paradisiacal garden, guarded by mythical,
sphinxlike creatures (cf. the cherubim in Gen. 3:24), holding vessels
from which four rivers flow.
In
his vision of the restored land of Israel, Ezekiel sees a great river
emanating from the temple in Jerusalem, flowing into the Judean
desert, and ultimately turning the Dead Sea into freshwater (Ezek.
47:1–12). Along the banks of the river, Ezekiel sees fishermen
and perpetually fruitful trees. Similarly, the vision of the new
Jerusalem in Rev. 22:1–2 describes a river of the “water
of life” flowing through the city and watering trees that bear
fruit in every month. In both cases, the visions draw on the notion
that Jerusalem is the cultic and religious center of the world and
therefore endow its spring—geologically speaking, an
insignificant body of water—with a cosmological significance.
It was perhaps this same impulse that led the author of Gen. 2:13,
probably himself a Jerusalemite, to mention the Gihon in the same
class as the Tigris and the Euphrates.
In
Ps. 89:25, in the context of a poem describing the adoption of the
Davidic king as a divine son, God is described as promising to “set
his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers.” Like
the sea, a symbol of cosmic chaos in ancient Near Eastern mythology,
the rivers represent a force that is overcome by the divine warrior
and then placed under the subjection of his human representative, the
beloved king. In this connection, it is significant that the
exodus—in many ways the preeminent foundational moment of the
Israelite religion—involved the splitting of both a sea (Exod.
14:21–22) and a river (Josh. 3:16; Ps. 114:3) and the
subsequent passage of the Israelites on dry ground. This
people-creating deliverance, in turn, is comparable to the account of
creation in Gen. 1, where the Creator God drives back the waters to
prepare a dry-ground habitation for humanity (vv. 9–10). In
Ugaritic mythology, Yamm, the sea god, also bore the epithet “judge
river,” underscoring the cosmological connection between sea
and river. As we will see, prophetic oracles of divine judgment,
especially when they are directed against the river-based
civilization of Egypt, often recapitulate the theme of the God of
Israel fighting against the river.
The
Nile River
The
Nile (Heb. ye’or) is fed by two major tributaries: the White
Nile, which begins at Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile, which begins
in Ethiopia. At over four thousand miles, the Nile is the longest
river in the world. The ancient civilization of Egypt depended
entirely on the flow of the Nile and upon its annual flood (the “gift
of the Nile”) for irrigation of crops. Even today, arable land
along the Nile is confined in some places to an area no more than a
few miles from its banks.
Given
the dependence of Egyptian civilization on the Nile, especially its
annual flood and the accompanying deposit of silt, it is not
surprising that the river figured prominently in Egyptian mythology
and religion. In particular, the story of the dying and rising god
Osiris was linked with the annual ebb and flow of the great river.
The annual inundation is still impressive today; an ancient
impression may be gleaned from Amos 9:5, where the prophet appeals to
the rising and falling of the Nile as a description of divine,
earth-melting judgment.
Two
of the plagues sent by God upon the Egyptians took place at the Nile,
an appropriate setting for a confrontation between the God of Israel
and the Egyptian pharaoh, himself a living representation of the
Egyptian pantheon. In Ezek. 29:3 the God of Israel says to Pharaoh,
“I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great monster
lying among your streams. You say, ‘The Nile belongs to me; I
made it for myself.’ ” Since the Nile was
perhaps the preeminent natural or environmental symbol of Egyptian
culture, the God of Israel’s assertion of control of that river
would have been understood as an unmistakable claim to sovereignty.
At the time of the birth of Moses, the Nile was a place of extinction
for the Israelites, for Pharaoh had commanded that every boy born to
the Hebrews be thrown into the Nile (Exod. 1:22). Ironically, Moses
was saved when his mother put him in the Nile in a pitch-coated
basket, where he was found by the royal daughter of Pharaoh, who had
come to the Nile to bathe (2:3, 5).
God
told Moses to confront Pharaoh at the Nile (Exod. 7:15), and the
first plague with which God afflicted the Egyptians consisted of
turning the Nile into blood, causing its fish to die and rendering
its water unsuitable for drinking. The Egyptians were forced to dig
wells along its banks (7:20–21). The second plague involved the
multiplication of frogs in the Nile, to the point of great
inconvenience (8:3).
Isaiah
continues the theme of God punishing the Egyptians by attacking the
Nile: “The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed
will be parched and dry. The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt
will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither, also the
plants along the Nile” (Isa. 19:5–7). The passage goes on
to underscore the importance of the Nile as a source of irrigation
water and fishing and the devastation that results from the failure
of the Nile to flood as expected. In other texts, where the emphasis
is on the better fortunes of Egypt, the power of Egypt is symbolized
by the mighty Nile: “Who is this that rises like the Nile, like
rivers of surging waters? Egypt rises like the Nile. . . .
She says, ‘I will rise and cover the earth; I will destroy
cities and their people’ ” (Jer. 46:7–8).
The
Euphrates River
The
Euphrates is the westernmost of the two great rivers of Mesopotamia
(along with the Tigris [see below]), the land “between the
rivers.” As mentioned above, the Euphrates was one of the four
rivers flowing from the garden of Eden, according to Gen. 2:14. Along
the Euphrates were located the ancient cities of Carchemish, Emar
(Tell Meskeneh), Mari, Babylon, and Ur. The Euphrates runs over
seventeen hundred miles from northwest to southeast, beginning in the
mountains of eastern Turkey before joining with the Tigris and
entering the Persian Gulf.
In
the Bible, the Euphrates represents the northern boundary of the
territory granted to Abraham (Gen. 15:18; see also Exod. 23:31).
David extended his territory as far as the Euphrates when he fought
the Aramean king Hada-de-zer (2 Sam. 8:3), and so the dimensions
of Israel at its apex under Solomon are described as controlling all
the kingdoms “from the Euphrates River to the land of the
Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt [i.e., the southern limit
of his realm]” (1 Kings 4:21).
In
addition to its significance as a political boundary, the Euphrates
marked an important cultural boundary in Israelite thought. Abraham
and his family are remembered as having come from “beyond the
Euphrates River” (Josh. 24:2). The exile was described as a
scattering “beyond the Euphrates River,” an expression
that underscores complete dispossession from Israel’s own land
(1 Kings 14:15). Interestingly, the cultures to the east of the
Euphrates shared the notion that this river marked a major boundary,
as evident from the convention among the Neo-Assyrians and the
Persians of referring to western lands by the name “Beyond the
River” or “Trans-Euphrates” (Akk. eber-nari; Aram.
abar nahara). This was the name of the province encompassing the land
of Israel in the time of Ezra (see Ezra 4:10).
Isaiah
made use of the association between the Euphrates and the
Mesopotamian empires when he likened the king of Assyria to the
mighty waters of the river (Isa. 8:7). The Euphrates figures
prominently in Revelation, where it restrains punishment from the
north, a punishment that is released when God dries up the river,
allowing “kings from the East” to cross over (Rev. 9:14;
16:12).
The
Tigris River
Along
with the Euphrates, the Tigris (Heb. khiddeqel ) was one of
the two rivers of ancient Mesopotamia. The Tigris lies east of the
Euphrates and runs over a course of approximately 1,150 miles from
northwest to southeast, finally joining with the Euphrates and
emptying into the Persian Gulf. In antiquity, the cities of Calah,
Nineveh, and Ashur lay along the Tigris. The Tigris is mentioned
twice in the Bible: first, as one of the four headwaters emanating
from the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:14) and, second, as the location of
Daniel’s visionary experience (Dan. 10:4).
The
Jordan River
The
Jordan (Heb. yarden) runs southward from the Hula Valley into the Sea
of Galilee (also known as the Sea of Tiberias; modern Lake Kinneret)
and from there through a river valley (the “plain of the
Jordan” [see Gen. 13:10]) to the Dead Sea. Over its course of
approximately 150 miles, it descends dramatically from an elevation
of approximately 200 feet in the Hula Valley to an elevation of 690
feet below sea level at the Sea of Galilee, and then farther downward
to an elevation of 1,385 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea.
Fittingly, the name “Jordan” is related to the Hebrew
word yarad
(“to go down”).
In
the story of the exodus and conquest, the Jordan River marked the
boundary of the “promised land,” despite the fact that
two and a half tribes received inheritances on the eastern side of
the river (the Transjordan [see Num. 32:32; 34:12, 15]). For those
living in the land of Israel, the river marked the boundary between
them and what they termed “the other side of the Jordan”
(Heb. ’eber hayyarden [Num. 32:19; Deut. 1:5]).
In
the OT, several memorable stories are set near the Jordan. In
addition to Joshua’s dramatic crossing of the Jordan (Josh.
3:1–17), the “fords of the Jordan” were strategic
locations, and it was there that the Gileadites slaughtered forty-two
thousand Ephraimites as they attempted to return to their territory
on the western side of the Jordan (Judg. 12:5). Elisha instructed
Naaman, the leprous Aramean general, to bathe seven times in the
Jordan for the healing of his condition (2 Kings 5:10). When
Elisha’s companions wished to build shelters for themselves,
they went to the Jordan, where they knew they would find abundant
vegetation and poles (2 Kings 6:2; cf. Zech. 11:3). When one of
them dropped an iron ax head into the water, Elisha caused it to
float to the surface (2 Kings 6:6–7).
In
the NT, the Jordan was the site of much of John the Baptist’s
ministry (Matt. 3:5–6; Mark 1:5; Luke 3:3). John 1:28 specifies
that John was on the eastern bank (also John 3:26; 10:40). It was in
the waters of the Jordan that he baptized those who came to him,
including Jesus (Matt. 3:13; Mark 1:9; Luke 3:21).
Tributaries
of the Jordan
South
of the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan is fed by several tributaries. The
Yarmuk River joins the Jordan just south of the lake, draining the
biblical region of Bashan to the east. The Wadi Far’ah joins
the Jordan from the west, halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the
Dead Sea, and drains the hill country of Ephraim. Nearly across from
the Wadi Far’ah, the biblical Jabbok River (Wadi Zerqa) enters
the Jordan from the east. In biblical times, the Jabbok was the limit
of Ammonite territory (Num. 21:23–24). The Arnon River (Wadi
Mujib), not a tributary of the Jordan, enters the Dead Sea from the
east, opposite En Gedi. It was the border between the Moabites and
the Amorites (Num. 21:13).
The
Wadi of Egypt
In
a number of texts the “wadi of Egypt” (or “brook of
Egypt”) represents the far southern limit of Israelite
territory. Some ancient interpreters understood this as referring to
the Pelusian branch of the Nile River delta, while most modern
scholars favor the Besor River, farther east, in present-day Israel.
Besides the Bible, Assyrian texts also refer to the Wadi of Egypt. In
733 BC Tiglath-pileser III set up a victory stela there, perhaps
to advertise to the Egyptians the southern extent of the territory
that he claimed for Assyria.
Several
biblical passages refer to the Shihor River as marking a boundary
between Egypt and Israelite territory (Josh. 13:3; 19:26; 1 Chron.
13:5; Isa. 23:3; Jer. 2:18).
The
Orontes River
Although
it is not mentioned in the Bible, the Orontes marked an important
international boundary in the biblical world. The Orontes begins in
the Bekaa Valley in present-day Lebanon, then flows northward between
the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges before turning
sharply westward to empty into the Mediterranean Sea. Along the
Orontes lay the kingdom of Hamath (see, e.g., 2 Sam. 8:9;
2 Chron. 8:3; Jer. 39:5). Because it ran through a valley that
was an artery of travel from north to south, the Orontes was the
perennial focus of strategic interest, and several important battles
were fought at or near the Orontes. In 1274 BC the Egyptian pharaoh
Ramesses II fought the Hittite king Muwatallis II at the
Battle of Kadesh. In 853 BC the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III
was challenged at Qarqar on the Orontes by a coalition led by
Hadadezer of Damascus and including King Ahab of Israel.
