GIHON, the name of one of the four rivers, the source whereof was in Paradisea. Many have believed without any probability or grounds, that this was the river Nile; as if the Nile, which rises out of the earth at above six hundred leagues distance from the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, could be mentioned, as issuing out of the same garden with these two other rivers. The Arabians believe generally, that this is the Oxur, a river which has its rise in the mountains of Imaüs, and runs from East to West: when it comes near the country of Choraruem, it winds much, and seems to return towards the place of its original; but afterwards it turns back, and discharges its waters into the Caspian Sea westward. This river makes the natural separation between the Provinces inhabited by the Eastern Turks and the Persians. Modern Geographers call the Oxur, Abiamu, that is to say, the river Amu; the Arabians name it Gehon, and Neher-Balkh, the river of Balk, because it passes through this city. They believe it to have its rise in Paradise, and that it is one of the four named by Moses.
Others are of opinion, that Gihon is the most western Channel of the two, made by the Tigris and Euphrates, when after their conflux they separate again from one another to enter the Sea. This is the opinion of Calvin, Scaliger, and many moderns; their principal reason is, that the eastern channel is Phison. But the truth is, one is no more certain than the other. Others on the contrary maintain, that Phison is the western channel, that separates the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris; and that Gihon is the eastern, which is formed after the union of these two rivers. As a proof of this opinion, they assert, that the land of Cush, wherein the Gihon runs, is Cissia, or the Chuzestan. And this is the judgement of M. Bochart, and M. Huet.
John Hopkinson, who wrote a Dissertation on the Terrestrial Paradise, takes the arm of the Euphrates for the Gihon, which Pliny says, was diverted from the main river by the Chaldæans, in order to water their plains, and was dried up by the great number of Cuts they made of it.
But there needs but one reflexion to overthrow all these Systems, which is this; that Moses doubtless intended to describe the situation of Paradise, by some geographical marks that were existing and known in his time. Now neither the Cut mentioned by Hopkinson, nor the two arms formed by the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates reunited, and then divided in order to empty themselves separately into the Persian Gulf, were as yet in being in the time of Moses: it cannot be said therefore that this Legislator had any of these channels in view, in his description of the Phison and Gihon.
Pliny says expressly, that it was very late before the channels of the Tigris and Euphrates were joined; that anciently they discharged themselves separately into the Persian gulf; and that their mouths, according to some, were five and twenty thousand paces asunder, or seven thousand, according to others. Inter duorum amnium ostia xxv m. passus fuere, aut ut alii tradunt, vii m. Sed longo tempore Euphratem præclusere Orcheni, & accolæ Idem, l. 6. c. 28. Herod. l. 1.agros rigantes, nec nisi per Tigrim defertur in mare. In another place he says, that they still shew the mouth by which the Euphrates fell into the sea; locus ubi Euphratis ostium fuit. Herodotus ascribes to Queen Nitocris these cuts and drains of the Euphrates, which have made this river, that before was so large and majestick, so weak and destitute of water. This Author1 speaks again of the Euphrates, as falling through its own channel into the Persian gulf, without taking notice of its joining with the Tigris. Pliny2 says, that the drains of the Euphrates were attributed to Gobar Præfect of Babylonia: Sunt qui tradunt Euphratem Gobaris Præfecti opere deductum ubi eum diximus scindi, &c. Now certainly all this is very remote from the time of Moses. We take it to be the Araxes, a celebrated river, which has its source, as well as the Tigris and Euphrates, in the Mountains of Armenia; and running with an almost incredible rapidity, discharges itself into the Caspian Sea. The word Gihon in Hebrew signifies impetuous, rapid, violent. The Author of Ecclesiasticus speaks of the inundations of Gihon in the time of Ecclus. xxiv. 37.vintage, because the Araxes swells towards the latter end of the summer, the snow upon the mountains of Armenia dissolving about that time.
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