A Story of the Planet Venus

Appendix 9

Garden of Eden

Contents

Introduction                                                             

In the Beginning                                                      

Story Telling                                                             

Details of Interest                                                   

Other Considerations                                            

Rivers from Eden - Biblical Names                      

    Pishon                                                                  

    Gihon                                                                   

    Chidekel                                                              

    Phirat                                                                   

How Should We Think of the Garden of Eden? 

If It Was So Good, Why Did We Leave?               

Enter the Venus Comet, aka "The Serpent"       

The Tree of the "Knowledge of Good and Evil" 

After the Garden                                                   

And in Closing

Introduction

If you have read the Abstract or the Introduction to my Book entitled  "Venus; The Late-Arriving Planet", you will be aware that my intention was to investigate why researchers never mentioned documentary evidence of the presence of the planet Venus prior to 800 BCE. Some might mention the name of the Planet when listing the Earth's companions, but they were really assuming that all the present planets had "always been there".

 In my research, I became aware of the entity that I refer to as the Venus Comet. It forms the core thought in the Book. I found that multiple civilisations knew of it and had their names for it. Most of them described it as a "SERPENT" or “DESTROYER”. When it was far away in the sky, its serpentine motions were apparent, but when it came very close to the Earth, they described it as being fiery, smoky, noisy, scary and often destructive and deadly.

 My Book documents the Comet’s motion, appearances, and its interactions with the Earth. The author gathered available descriptions, destructive episodes, and the mythology that has grown around it in over 80 cultures. He has even found eye-witness drawings of it made thousands of years ago. Its effect is visible in the Greenland ice cores of 50,000 Years Ago and it was feared all over the Earth for at least the last 10,000 years of its existence!

 Then one day, during my writing, I remembered that the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden, had a major character referred to as "The Serpent". It was the really bad guy in the story, and caused Adam and Eve to get things messed up. This essay attempts to compile some of my thoughts on the topic of the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve themselves. Included are details from the Bible, and notes from my work on the Venus Comet. I also did an in-depth assessment of geography, and derivation of the associated names of locations, rivers and other features. I have been amazed by how well the details have fitted together.

 In the Beginning

 Most of us know of the story in the Book of Genesis in the Bible(1) and recognise that it is a part of Jewish, Christian and Islamic teaching. As such it is included to tell the reader that God has been with mankind since the beginning of time. Their God has remained in close contact, whether mankind accepted God's presence and guidance, or rejected it.

 In the telling of that story, some events and locations have been included as background information. The Bible is not intended to be a complete, definitive historical document. Occasionally you wish there were more details. To read the story of Eden and its garden, go to Genesis, Chapt. 2:v5 - Chapt. 3:v24  in the Bible. Translations do vary. Search out modern ones as well as ancient ones to become aware of the thinking of various writers and translators, and their times.

 In the story, there is this original place called Eden, created by God. Within Eden there is a particular area which has been created as a garden. It is watered by streams flowing from Eden and is described as having lush vegetation. Adam and Eve are created, and they live in the Garden. Four rivers flow from the Garden in four different directions.

 Genesis 2:10–14 lists the four rivers in association with the garden of Eden as

-  Pishon by the land of Havilah,

-  Gihon by the land of Cush,

-  Chidekel/ Ḥîddeqel (said in the Bible to be the Tigris), and

-  Phirat (said in the Bible to be the Euphrates).

 The land of Cush was generally considered to be today's Ethiopia, but some other scholars thought it was to the east of ancient Babylon. Havilah was said to be in Arabia. In the "Antiquities of the Jews", the first-century Jewish historian Josephus identifies the Pishon River as what "the Greeks called Ganges" and the Geon (Gehon) as "the Nile".

 Many people have tried to pin-point the location of the Garden of Eden. While multiple locations have been picked, no general agreement has been found. Virtually all assume a Middle East location, and then have trouble when they put Havilah's location in Arabia and Cush's location in Ethiopia. Additionally, they must find four significant rivers flowing from one area, but in different directions. They ignore the challenge in geography, and the dynamics of water flow.

 Story Telling

 My approach to the challenge is to recognize that this story has been passed on in oral form for a long time before being put into a written form. Its understanding has morphed even more as it passed through the nuances of translations. Moses is credited as having created the first five books of the Bible between the time of the Exodus and his death, about 1446-1406 BCE. How much earlier the story of Eden came into being, is open to discovery: 1,000 years? 5,000 years? 10,000 years? 50,000 years? The only dating clue that I recognised is that this story is positioned as the first in line after the Creation Story and the Creation of Man. Chapter 5 of Genesis  then enumerates the descendent generations of Adam down to Noah (he of the Flood story), most of whom have very long lives. The author believes that the Flood occurred in 11,053 BCE as derived in his Venus Story, and is aware of ice-core data back to 50,000 Years Ago. He declines to speculate on the dating of activities in those years of long ago.

 Let's pause for a moment and consider "story telling". When an important story is being related, a skilled and trusted story-teller would try to convey it exactly as remembered. His credibility was at stake if his story varied. When asked for an explanation on "how big were the rivers", he might say "I think that they possibly were something like the Tigris or Euphrates that we know". Another person repeating the story many years later might remember that those two rivers were named when they heard it as a child. Stories can and do change as they pass through the years. In this story, the single, important, unchanging point being emphasised, is that God has been with mankind since time began. The other details are accessories to the main point.

 How can we sort out which pieces of information might not have changed with the telling? We know that names can change, directions can change, lengths of time can change, reasons for actions can change. I, personally, take particular note of physical things.

 Details of Interest

 One item of interest to me is that the story mentions four significant rivers flowing from one area.  This implies that the area must be quite considerable in size. Looking for those rivers means closely examining world maps for the arrangement of their rivers and bordering lands. It also leads to questioning where all that water comes from.

 Another item is that details are given on the lands past which the first two named rivers flow but the names of the rivers themselves are not noted in present day usage. The second two named rivers have been given present-day names locating them in arid Mesopotamia. No story has survived to explain how the verdant Garden might have became the dried out area of the Middle East. The author's thoughts on the names of rivers is given below.

 The author recognises that absence of such a story is not proof that it did not happen to such an area, but it does give cause to follow other leads. This suggests to me that the original names of the second two and the description of the lands through which they flowed, may have been forgotten and replaced. By using the names of the Tigris and Euphrates, which is the area to which the Hebrew people trace their early beginnings later on in Genesis, would neatly wrap up the story, "and that's how we got here."

 Other Considerations

 In the last 20 years, people working in the sciences have published multiple papers identifying the migration of peoples during the last 500,000 years or more. While they may dispute with one another on the timing of those migrations, they do agree that the movements came from Africa to the Middle East via Arabia quite early in history.

 Recent work has compared the DNA of some aboriginal people of Australia with multiple groups in Africa(2). That work found a close correspondence with some people in the Kalahari area of southern Africa. The Australian DNA is known to have been in Australia 45-50,000 years ago, but the research indicates that it divided from the Kalahari group about 600,000 years ago. This suggests that some people moved north, and out of Africa, while others stayed or moved within the limits of the continent.

 Today in the middle of Africa are the nations of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana. This is an area that currently has a combination of lush jungle, grassy savannah, as well as desert, and is sliced by a huge rift. Mountains, and mountain ranges, tend to be around its periphery, enclosing a basin-like area. Animal life flourishes there although human habitation is difficult. What it was like 100,000 years ago or more, would be sheer speculation. However if the "basin" configuration existed then, perhaps it was a desirable place for animals and humans alike.

 Rivers from Eden?

 Very interestingly FOUR major rivers drain that Central African area to the sea and there are indications of marshy areas. The rivers are the Nile draining northward to the Mediterranean Sea past Ethiopia (thought to have been called Cush a long time ago);  the Congo draining westward through jungles to the Atlantic Ocean;  the Zambezi draining eastward to the Indian Ocean and forming the northern boundary of Zimbabwe (once known as Havilah);  and the Limpopo River. Maps suggest that the original drainage area of that river included southeast Angola from where it flowed further south and then east around a huge craton, to reach the Indian Ocean. Some event dried up the middle portion of that river and its lake. The Angola portion now dissipates in the Kalahari Desert and a series of oases. Today's Limpopo River begins south of the craton on the east side of Botswana and runs to the Indian Ocean. Google Earth allows you to check out these rivers.

 In an effort to better understand these rivers, I endeavoured to examine them for any meanings within their names. I list my findings:

 The Bible entries found in Exodus 2 are:

 River Pishon:   "Encircles all the land of Havilah where there is gold, frankincense, crystals, bdellium and carnelians." Josephus, writing ca 60 CE, labeled it as the Ganges River in India.

 - The word "Encircles" can be understood in two somewhat different meanings. A ribbon tied onto a parcel encircles the parcel by passing over four or six sides of the object. A different understanding for “Encircles” is “goes around” or "skirts" implying that it “does not cross over or through”.  It therefore “borders” the land. In old records, today’s country of Zimbabwe, and possibly a portion of Zambia, was called Havilah long before the British named the area Rhodesia. On a map of Africa, it incorporates a huge rocky bulge, geologically called a craton, an outcropping in a some what circular form. The Zambezi River forms its northern boundary. Gold, diamonds (crystals?), and carnelian (a red/red-brown semi-precious onyx gem-stone) and bdellium are mentioned today as native to Zambia and Zimbabwe.

-  Commiphora wightii (Arnott) Bhandari, a highly valuable medicinal plant, yields an oleo-gum resin important in Ayurvedic medicines of India (Chakravarty, 1975). The plant is known as ‘Indian bdellium’ in English, and yields a myrrh-like sweet ointment. Liswoski et al. (1972) recorded different species of Commiphora from Zaire (on the north side of the Zambezi River) and elsewhere in East Africa.(3)

-  The name "Zambezi" is of english language origin and pronunciation, deriving from the local word "Yambeji" of the Lunda-Luba language. The term means "plenty of water". The River has rapids; it carves channels and leaps from Victoria Falls.

-  The Hebrew meaning of the name ‘Pishon’ comes from the old Hebrew root ‘P-O-SH’ {פ-ו-ש} which means ‘to jump’ or ‘to bounce’ and refers to a strong stream of water.(4)  It is an apt name for the Zambezi River even today.

 River Gihon:   "Encircles all the land of Cush". Identified by some as the Nile River in north-east Africa. See note above on “Encircles”. If Cush is Ethiopia as many believe, then the Nile does “skirt” or border part of it.

 -  The Hebrew meaning of the name Gihon comes from the Hebrew root ‘G-Y-CH’ {ג-י-ח} which means ‘to gush’ – and as in the case of the first river, ‘Pishon’ – refers to the flow of the water. This description of "gushing" fits when the Nile is in spring flood. That flood begins with the water flowing from the White Nile which arises far to the south. Then the water from the more-northerly arising Blue Nile, dumps  its later melting runoff into the White Nile. There is a sudden and very apparent enlargement in the Nile River's flow at Khartoum and downstream.

-  The name Nile appears to come from from a Semitic root 'nahal' meaning "river." In the Old Testament, it is always simply called "the river" (Hebrew ‘yeor').

 River Chidekel:   [Also  Ḥîddeqel]  No associations are given with it.  A seeming insertion gives "Which runs east of Ashur." and later identifies it as the Tigris River which did run east of Ashur. The author suggests the following thoughts.

-  The derivation of the name Tigris (/ˈtaɪɡrɪs/) as given in Wikipedia as (Sumerian: 𒁇𒄘𒃼 Idigna or Idigina;  Akkadian: 𒁇𒄘𒃼 Idiqlat;  Arabic: دجلة Dijlah [didʒlah];  Syriac: ܕܹܩܠܵܬ Deqlaṯ; Armenian: Տիգրիս Tigris;  Դգլաթ Dglatʿ;  Hebrew: חידקל Ḥîddeqel;  Turkish: Dicle;  Kurdish: Dîcle, Dîjla دیجلە).  Each of these names implies fast-flowing water with rapids.

-   Accepting that Haddakel, Ḥîddeqel and Chidekel are equivalents, suggests that the river, like the Tigris river, had many passages with rough waters.

 -  The Limpopo River that separates the country called South Africa from Zimbabwe and Botswana, is the second biggest river in Africa. It’s name "Limpopo" from the local Sepedi language means "strong gushing waterfalls", of which there are many. This suggests that our story teller gave a comparative description, "It was a strong river like the Tigris which flows on the east side of Ashur."

   As shown on Google Earth, the Limpopo River empties into the Indian Ocean after passing across much of the south of Africa. It "appears to" arise at Mabule, SA at the southern face of the Botswana Craton and is known both as the Marico River (in Botswana) and the Limpopo (in South Africa). Going "upstream" from Mabule, SA, the Botswana/South Africa boundary follows the dried-up, very old riverbed of the Limpopo River west and then north to the boundary with Namibia near Karakubis, Botswana. The riverbed seems to have passed near Dekar, Botswana and included Lake Ngami at the southwest corner of today's Okavango Delta, up against the north side of the craton. This pathway encircles the north-west, western and southern edges of that elevated craton and indicates the path of a broad ancient river, the old Limpopo River.

   In this manner, the Limpopo appears to have also drained the swampy south half of Angola and also western Zambia. The northern portion of its drainage is today called the Cubango River and forms the boundary between Angola and Namibia before entering Botswana. That desert area was part of Lake Ma-'kgadi-'kgadi[5], an ancient lake dried up by the early Holocene (pre-20,000 YA) and today is the Kalahari Desert (see page 5 above). Today the Cubango River disappears into a huge swamp called the Okavango Delta, that is mentioned above.

-  The above reference states "DNA research suggests the lake region is the homeland of Homo sapiens, where they first evolved into a distinct species about 200,000 years ago, and then expanded to other parts of Africa about 70,000 years later."(6),(7)

River Phirat:    No associations are given with it. Later writers identify it as the Euphrates River which is the largest river in the Near East in both length and spread. It waters the bread-basket of that area. The author suggests the following thoughts based on the Wikipedia etymology of the name.

 The Ancient Greek form Euphrátēs (Ancient Greek: Εὐφράτης, as if from Greek εὖ "good" and ϕράζω "I announce or declare"), was adapted from Old Persian 𐎢𐎳𐎼𐎠𐎬𐎢 Ufrātu, itself from Elamite 𒌑𒅁𒊏𒌅𒅖 ú-ip-ra-tu-iš. The Elamite name is ultimately derived from a name spelt in cuneiform as 𒌓𒄒𒉣 , which, read as Sumerian language, is "Buranuna" and read in Akkadian language as "Purattu". In both these languages, the name declares that it is a good provider and the word is prefaced by a "divinity" identifier. In simple terms, the message is "I am the way your god feeds you."

 -  The above entries leave the Congo River with its many tributaries as the fourth major river running from The Garden of Eden. It discharges into the Atlantic Ocean at the boundary between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Previously it was called the Zaire River, derived from the Portuguese Zaire, itself an adaptation of the Kikongo language  nzadi o nzere, meaning   "the river that swallows all rivers". The author suspects that the paralleling of the Euphrates to this African river points to the broadness of the Congo's huge catch basin, and its fertility.(8)

 How should we think of the Garden of Eden?

 I see the "original" Eden as being a large, well-watered, sheltered area with lakes, some high grounds that did not flood, passage-ways discovered by the animals and people to carry them through the marshes and over the dry land, and rivers draining separate parts of it. The marshy areas would divert the water in a myriad of directions. The flow rates would be slowed down and this would effectively control the water going to each of the four outlet rivers. It would stretch from the Great Rift valley westward nearly to the Atlantic. They would include the Congo, the White Nile in the Rift and westward, the Zambezi west of the Rift and south to the rocky shield of Zaire, and the Limpopo in much of Angola and south to Botswana including the now Kalahari desert. It was a huge shallow basin that even today supports a large wildlife population roaming wild. Its water source would be monsoonal rainfall. Food would be abundant.

 When Eden was described in later years to listeners in arid Arabia and Canaan, and later yet recorded in writing, the quantity of water involved in that basin, would be unbelievable. It would likely be thought of as a large damp/wet area, a single lake. To the listener of that time, it would be logical that the only place where there would be enough water to fill the four rivers, would be the lake in the Garden of Eden. Of course, there would have to be a river keeping it full, monsoonal rains being unknown to the Israelites.

 Have Bible readers and story tellers today, and in generations gone by, come to think of the Garden of Eden as a small, cosy location? Or was it really a vast space, occupying most of the middle half of Africa, teeming with various species of life which Adam (mankind) named!

 Following the above format of examining the name itself, it was recognised that today most writers on Eden point to "Idin" in the ancient language of Sumer dating to about 4000 BCE or earlier. Its meaning of a "flat area", was brought to southern Mesopotamia when the Yamana people moved from the steppes north of the Caspian Sea. Their new country was named Samarra and later Sumer. They became known as Sumerians. They brought with them the skills of crop irrigation, based on using river water. They were very successful users of intensive agriculture and it seems that sustained agriculture originated in their time and place. Perhaps they saw it as a man-made re-creation of the verdant ancient land of the original Eden. This great achievement and their advanced culture, were destroyed by the Assyrians before 2000 BCE and the technology lost to them. Other cultures retained it. The Sumerian people were methodically dispersed and isolated by their conquerers. (See  Appendix 2  - Serpent & Dragon Lore,  Mesopotamia)

 If It Was So Good, Why Did We Leave?

 In the Genesis passage, we are told that Adam and Eve (mankind) leave the Garden because God drives them out as punishment for having disobeyed the instructions they were given. This is the standard "crime and punishment" treatment that we commonly use even today. It is under-stood by all listeners. Careful reading of Gen: 3: 23-24 implies that they left Eden and the Garden. In reality, the driving force that would have pushed Adam and Eve, was most likely a change in the environment that forced a relocation. The Venus Comet details in the Greenland ice cores(9) indicates that the Comet was leaving its mark on the Earth before 50,000 years ago.The author suspects that it may have damaged living conditions in the Garden, driving people and animals to seek less affected areas.

 Enter the Venus Comet,  aka  “The Serpent”

 While working on this essay, the author was continuing his research and writing in his book "Venus;  The Late-Arriving Planet". He recognised a potential link between the two stories. The "Serpent" in the two stories appears to have been the same entity .....  the Venus Comet. It was what we came to know as the planet Venus, enwrapped in a huge comet-like cloak and tail. Most of the world’s ancient mythology includes an description of that Comet in the sky. It was thought to look and act as a monstrous Serpent might do. Alternately some saw legs on the Serpent and called it a Dragon. (See Appendix 2  -  Serpent & Dragon Lore )

 The people "personified" that frightening object in the sky as an all-powerful goddess that threatened them and demanded their obedience. The God mentioned in the Genesis story, however, came to them in their thoughts but had no visible image. The author suspects that Adam and Eve, as almost all other peoples in that time and later did, took up worship of the Venus Comet, the destructive sky-goddess. They hoped to convince it to leave the Earth undamaged. [They did not succeed!]

 The fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, portrays having great knowledge so that you can distinguish between those two opposites and handle them. You think you know it all. By worshipping the Comet, ie. Doing what it says, Adam and Eve put themselves in between those two moral forces. Their descendants never more had peace. In their own minds, they weighed the ideas that suggest that they have all the smarts needed to handle decision-making. In that story, it is emphasised how "crafty" the Serpent is in allowing them to convince them-selves that they will have no problems with that knowledge. They think that they are just as smart as any god.

 Eve convinces Adam to join her in following the instructions of the Serpent, and disregarding their God. They are "betrayed" by the Serpent after being so "clever" and putting their trust in it. Eve gets blamed for leading Adam astray. [Its always the woman that gets blamed! ] They get their "walking papers". From thereon, they have to seek out "good" and must contend against "Evil". They see this as God's punishment of them rather than the result of their own folly.

 Was the Garden of Eden damaged or destroyed at this time? No mention is made of it later in the Bible except in acknowledging it as an earlier event and place. Nobody gets to revisit it. Did a marked decrease in the flow of water from the Cubango River out of today's Angola, limit the Limpopo River? This would allow sediment to fill the river bed and then create the Okavango delta and the Kalahari desert. Such an event could indicate severe climate change in that part of the world. Mankind in the area would undoubtedly begin migrating, seeking better places.

 Where Adam and Eve go is not stated but we are told that God's presence was still with them. I have no date for this event except the Bible puts it well before Noah's Flood which I believe occurred in 11,053 BCE (13,003 Years Ago).

 After the Garden of Eden

 Adam and Eve have their first two children, Cain and Abel, after leaving the Garden of Eden. Later Cain is ejected from God's presence and wanders to the east, meaning a less desirable place. He builds a city which he named Enoch after another son. Many writers have assumed it to have been beside the Euphrates at its then mouth at the Persian Gulf. In truth, its location is unknown. Cain is the founder of the first set of descendants of Adam and Eve.

 In the verses that follow in Chapter 5 of Genesis, the descendant line of Adam is listed down to Noah but with no mention of places. The next location mentioned is when Noah's ark lands in the hilly or mountainous area of Urartu (Ararat in Hebrew) which appears to be the name of the old area southwest of Mount Ararat in Turkey next to Iraq (homonym of Ararat?). It is also the name of the mountain range along the southern border with Iraq and Syria.

 Mount Ararat itself, is an ancient, snow-topped, currently dormant volcano well north of the Mesopotamian plain. It had been and is still known locally by its old name, the White Mountain of Urartu. It was designated as the official landing place of the Ark by the Archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul) about 1100 CE. The name was later used in the King James edition of the Christian Bible.

 Genetic research indicates that homo sapiens people appear to have moved out of Africa perhaps as early as 70,000 years ago. (see page 8 above) We have been given no details on the travels of the people of Adam, from Eden to the Middle East. It could have happened any time prior to perhaps 25,000 BCE. The research simply reinforces that people did move from Africa through Arabia and into Eurasia. At some time, the Adam and Eve family seem to have started on that trip. Their way-stops are unknown.

 And in Closing

 I have found the task of composing this essay to be a very interesting exercise in rethinking previously fixed ideas of mine. It was initiated by research results in fields of science, that did not exist 20 years ago. That work pointed to Africa as the place where humans originated. Combining that information with an observation on the drainage patterns of central African rivers and the topography of the area, created a "lightbulb moment".

 I hope you find it interesting and thought-provoking. I would be interested in your views and where they take you.

 John M. Collins

Sarnia, Ont.

(1)  Genesis 2: 5 - 3: 24

(2) “The homeland of modern humans”. Garvan Inst. of Medical Research 2019-10-28

(3) "Commiphora wightii (Arnott) Bhandari: A threatened plant of conservation concern", Kulloli R. N.* and Suresh Kumar, Division of Integrated Land Use Management and Farming System, Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur -342 003, India.  Accepted 26 June, 2013  Journal of Medicinal Plants Research, Vol. 7(28), pp. 2043-2052, 25 July, 2013 DOI: 10.5897/JMPR2013.2587  ISSN 1996-0875 ©2013 Academic Journals  pg 2044

(4) Hebrewversity  "The Hebrew meaning of the Rivers of the Garden of Eden (Part I)"

(5)  Wikipedia  -  Lake Makgadikgadi & references  noted 2020-05-23

(6)  Michael Irving (October 28, 2019). "DNA study claims human "homeland" was a southern African wetland". New Atlas. Noted October 28, 2019.

(7) Chan, Eva K. F.; Timmermann, Axel; Baldi, Benedetta F.; Moore, Andy E.; Lyons, Ruth J.; Lee, Sun-Seon; Kalsbeek, Anton M. F.; Petersen, Desiree C.; Rautenbach, Hannes; Förtsch, Hagen E. A.; Bornman, M. S. Riana; Hayes, Vanessa M (20 October 2019). "Human origins in a southern African palaeo-wetland and first migrations". Nature. 575 (7781): 185–189. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1714-1. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 31659339.

(8) Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary    פרר

(9) Alley, R.B.  2004.  “GISP2 Ice Core Temperature and Accumulation Data.”   IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series #2004-013. NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA