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I'm not disputing the claim that the text may be referring to a confluence of rivers rather than a split as in the KJV translation but would like to see a proper scholarly reference. When I recently edited the article I went straight to the Hebrew text and ignored translation. My understanding of the text is that first it mentions a river watering the garden and then says that from there, there were four sources (lirerally "heads") so that it is not talking about one river forking into four but four separate sources existing. Kuratowski's Ghost (talk) 17:46, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The KJV Gen. 2:10 says that "four heads". You just have to understand it. It is saying the same thing in interpretation. KJV in parenthesis. Hebrew, from there "from thence" there were four "it was parted and became four" it's not saying they split but you can't have four from one without division or you still have one. The Hebrew is saying- from there, not to there. Which is another way to say outside of where you are; Eden, there where four sources. So even though the sources flow into Eden, if you are in Eden, from that standpoint, they lead out and "become" four heads. --173.170.134.224 (talk) 18:31, 23 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]
A confluence and a division/split are the same thing, depending entirely on which way you are following the river. Logically, it makes far more sense to speak of the rivers "dividing" in the upstream direction, i.e. a confluence at Eden, than to suppose Eden was the source of four separate headwaters. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blyden (talk • contribs) 23:23, 30 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The article mentions possible identification of the Pishon with "a dry channel which begins in the Hijaz Mountains near Medina to run northeast to Kuwait". This is the Wadi ar-Rummah – Wadi Al-Batin valley, not Wadi Bisha. The reference given (to the Focus article) does not mention the wadi by name, but the description fits Wadi ar-Rummah, not Wadi Bisha. The articles in Biblical Archaeology that the Focus article refers to identify the Pishon with the so-called "Kuwait River" discovered via satellite imagery in the 1990s; this is the Rummah/Batin valley, which empties into the Persian Gulf north-east of Kuwait. (I don't know where the Wadi Bisha system ends up; it might have flowed into Rummah/Batin, but it might also have gone south of Riyadh, reaching the Gulf somewhere near Qatar. Modern maps are hard to interpret.) See the following online references:
If there are maps or sketches available for each of the suggestions, they would helpful tools for us see the different possibilities being described. I'm going to look at the link provided in talk (thank you) and try to find my own maps to see for now. --173.170.134.224 (talk) 18:39, 23 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]
