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A44892
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A treatise of the situation of Paradise written by P.D. Huet; to which is prefixed a map of the adjacent countries ; translated from the French original.; Traité de la situation du Paradis terrestre. English
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Huet, Pierre-Daniel, 1630-1721.; Gale, Thomas, 1635?-1702.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing H3302; ESTC R13499
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84,326
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218
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capable to do it than he by reason of the understanding he had of the letter of Holy Scripture which he got by a very long Study by reason of his great skill in the Oriental Tongues and by reason of his being so well versed in the Prophane Authors He hath a little declared his mind upon this question in some places of his Works but so variously that he seems to contradict himself for in his Phaleg he places Paradise about Babylon and in his Book of the Animals mentioned in Holy Scripture he seems to be almost of the opinion of Calvin who placed it upon the sides of the Tigris and Euphrates joyned together in Chaldaea between the City of Apamea and the Persian Gulf. However being long uncertain whether the Relations of Mr. Bochart would find at last in his Closet that work perfected as he had insinuated I still deferred to collect my Observations But seeing that after four and twenty years which is the time that this learned Man hath been dead no body gives us hopes of any such work I 'll try to give some light to this matter VII But because the only thing we may rely upon are the words which Moses makes use of in describing the Situation of the Earthly Paradise we must first of all recite them to you translating them word for word out of the Original CHAP. I. The Text of Moses and a Summary Exposition of our Opinion I. The Text of Moses where the Situation of Paradise is described II. The Opinions aforementioned do not agree with the words of Moses who describes it exactly III. No other Opinion but ours can agree with it IV. A brief Exposition of our Opinion V. No other Opinion comes so near to ours as that of Calvin and Scaliger I. GEnesis Chap. II. v. 8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed V. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil V. 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads V. 11. The name of the first is Phison that is it which compasses the whole land of Chavilah where there is gold V. 12. And the gold of that land is good there is Bdellium and the Onyx-stone V. 13. And the name of the second river is Gehon the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Chus V. 14. And the name of the third river is Chiddekel that is it which goeth toward Assyria And the fourth river is Euphrates V. 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it II. The Situation of the Earthly Paradise seems to me so exactly determined by these words that I very often wondred at the Interpreters shutting their eyes at it to give way to so many frivolous Conjectures who have so little relation to it for if you ask for example those who place it in Syria near Damascus where be those four Rivers and those Regions of Chavilah and Chus they let you stay without any answer at all If you ask those who will have it to be in Mesopotamia or in Babylonia above the place where the Tigris and Euphrates joyn together where may then be the Countries of Chavilah and Chus they are forced to set them in such places as contradict the Testimony of all Antiquity If one objects to those who fansied that the Nile was the Gehon and the Ganges the Phison the distance of their Springs and those of the Tigris and Euphrates They defend themselves by Miracles or by Fictions giving out what they think may be instead of what is and affirm without any proof that the Spring of those four Rivers was really in Paradise but that after having watered that delightful place they dived into the Earth and went to look for some other Sources towards the end of the World through some subterraneous Canals Thus humane minds go astray when once they swerve from Truth III. But I will not lose time in refuting particularly all these Opinions it will be sufficient to propose my own and to shew not only that it perfectly agrees with Moses's description and the ancient Geography but also that it is the only one which answers to it and that whosoever will look for another will fall into insuperable Difficulties IV. I say then that the Earthly Paradise was situated upon the Canal which the Tigris and Euphrates joyned together do make between the place of their coming together and that of their going one from another before they fall into the Persian Gulf. And because this Canal made some turnings or windings I say to speak more precisely of it that Paradise was situated upon one of those turnings and likely upon the Southern Branch of the biggest which hath been marked by Agathodaemon in the Geographical Tables of Ptolomy when that River comes Eastward again after having made a long turning towards the West about 32 Degrees 39 minutes Northern Latitude and 80 Degrees 10 minutes Longitude according to the Delineation of Agathodaemon very near the place where he sets Aracca which is Erec in Scripture Now my design is not to examine whether the Position of Ptolomy be right it suffices me to have delivered my opinion I add to it that the four heads of this River are the Tigris and Euphrates before their coming together and the two Channels that carry it into the Sea after it has divided it self that the more Western of these two Channels is the Phison that the Country of Chavilah through which it goeth is part of Arabia Felix and part of Arabia Deserta that the Gehon is the Eastern Channel of the two aforementioned and that the Country of Chus is Susiana V. Of all those that inquired into this matter none is come nearer to the opinion I propose than John Calvin in his Commentaries upon Genesis Joseph Scaliger followed him close and after him the Divines of Lovain and afterwards a great many others but they took no notice of that Meridional Branch of the great turning of the River tho' the words of Moses expresly require it as I shall shew They have set the Gehon at the West and the Phison at the East and they consequently displaced the Countries of Chus and Chavilah all which makes their opinion and that which I maintain essentially different But to confirm it with solid proofs and to shew the perfect agreement of it with the Description of Moses it is necessary carefully to examine his words CHAP. II. An Explanation of the eighth Verse of the second Chapter of Genesis I. Obscurity and Ambiguity of this eighth Verse II. What the word Eden is Many
and says That those who went to build the Tower of Babel departed from the East to go into the land of Seâ—â—aar He uses it twice in the same sence when he describes the Situation of the Mountain where Abraham did incamp after he went from Sichem to signifie that the Town of Hai was on the East of that Mountain and the Mountain on the East of Bethel and Bethel towards the Sea that is to say on the West of the Mountain making an opposition between the East and the West He takes it so too when he relates the parting of Abraham and Lot from each other saying that the latter retired towards the East And finally he makes use of it in the same sence in the book of Numbers when he gives us to understand that Ribla was on the East of Ai. I shall not quote many other places out of the other Sacred Authors in which this term is taken in the same sence These will suffice to shew that it was appropriated as it were to descriptions of places V. But all the Ambiguity is not yet taken off for altho' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mikkedem is here the name of a place and denotes the East yet it is uncertain whether Moses would only give us to understand that Paradise was Easterly in respect to himself when he was a writing this and in respect to the Promised Land to the Inhabitants whereof he did write or whether he meant that it was in the easterly part of the Land of Eden But I think that Moses having said that Paradise stood in the Land of Eden and the Land of Eden being so near the Arabia Petraea where then the Israelites were very few of them were ignorant of its Situation and it sufficed him to have said that Paradise was in the Land of Eden to let us know that Paradise was easterly in regard to himself and to the Promised Land Whereas it was necessary to mark in what place of the Land of Eden Paradise was For what likelihood is there that Moses having undertaken to describe exactly the Situation of this Garden of which he in the Series of his Narrative gives so precise and uniform marks after he had said that it stood in the Land of Eden should neglect to express the part of that Land where it stood and should speak of the time of its Creation which had been marked enough in the first Chapter where he relates the creation of Plants Was it more necessary to know into how many branches the River that watered Paradise did divide it self and into what Countries these branches extended themselves and what Commodities were brought out of those Countries than to know in what part of a Province to which some Authors give a very great exâ—â—nt this delicious Garden was situated Would this be agreeable to the exactness of a good Historian who being willing to relate how the Venetians took lately from the Turks Napoli di Malvesia should only say that it is a Town in the Morea Ought he not to have added that it is situated on the easterly Coast of that Province CHAP. IV. Explanation of the tenth Verse I. Ambiguity of the tenth Verse II. The Ground of the Opinion of those who think that the four Rivers of Paradise spring out of the same Head and having entred into the Earth again come forth in other places III. The Opinion of those who maintain that the River which came out of Eden to water Paradise had its Spring out of Paradise and Eden is better grounded IV. It is established upon the description of Moses himself V. We begin to know more precisely the Situation of Paradise I. VErse 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil Verse 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads The words of the ninth Verse have no relation to the Situation of the Earthly Paradise and are out of the subject of this work But he that will read the following words with application will find that none in all this description do more exactly mark the Situation of Paradise yet none have been so little understood none also have been a greater cause of mistakes to those who passed them over with a â—light and superficial view and knew not how to get clear of the Ambiguities that are there at least in as great a number as in the foregoing places for when Moses says that a river went out of Eden to water the garden we know not whether he means that a River went out of the Earth and had its Spring in the Province of Eden from whence it run along into the Garden or whether he means that its Spring was in the Garden it self that was in the Province of Eden or whether his meaning be only that after having run through that Province it went out of it to water the Garden All these significations have their defenders both ancient and modern The number is great of those that by the word went out understand grew or sprung out of the earth And because this River divided it self into four others the heads of which are far from the Province of Eden some have imagined subterraneous Conduits through which the Waters of this Fountain were carried very far and went out again to make the Ganges Tigris Euphrates and Nile Such is the opinion of those who think that the sealed Fountain Fons signatus which they pretend was the same that is now adays to be seen between Bethlehem and Hebron and of which Solomon speaks in his Songs was the Spring of the four Rivers and that the enclosed Garden Hortus conclusus which they set in the same place was the Earthly Paradise St. John Damascene fansied that the Ocean was that Spring and consequently that all the Earth was Paradise Some believed that though the word River be here made use of in the singular Number yet it hath a plural and collective Signification which comprehends the four Rivers Upon this ground having found the Springs of the Tigris and Euphrates pretty near one another in the greater Armenia they looked thereabouts for the Spring of the Phison and Gehon and deceived by some conformity of names or some light resemblance they made divers conjectures all which have some essential defect and do agree but with one part of the description of Moses El-idris the Geographer whom they without reason call Nubian it being much more probable that he was born a Subject to Roger the second King of Sicily This Geographer I say fansying that the Spring of this River spoken of by Moses was in Paradise placed Paradise at the Spring of the Chamdan a great River in China II. Although the