And a river went out from Eden

Paradise was in former days thought to be near the sources of Tigris and Euphrates. The bible says in Genesis 2 that a river is going out from the Garden of Eden and that this river splits up into four arms which are called Pishon, Gihon, Hiddeqel and Perat. Hiddeqel is thought to be Tigris (arab.: Didschla) and Perat/Pherat is used for Euphrates in all parts of the Hebrew bible.

The medieval Ebstorf Map found 1830 in a monastery in Lower Saxony has the paradise with its four rivers in it.

Paradise is, in the imagination of Islam full of irrigating channels. My old German translation of the Quran says there are creaks rushing through (durcheilt von Bächen). In the Biblical imagination paradise is itself a source of rivers supplying the world around.

The Bible begins and ends with a river or stream flowing from paradise – first the four-armed river from Genesis 2 and then at the end a crystal clear river from Revelation 22, the last chapter in the bible.

Here the crystal river in the old English of the King James Version:

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God.


A River Runs Through It is the title of a book and a film about two brothers who go out fly-fishing. It contains all the beauty that is in the quick flow of clear water. Paradise must be a lot like this. Will we get an idea of how it looked liked, before time began?