LatineEnglish
ON THE FOUR RIVERS of Paradise.1
DE QUATUOR FLUMINIBUS Paradisi.
GENESIS 2, verse 10. — And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water Paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads.2
GENES. 2. VERS. 10. — Et fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis ad irrigandum Paradisum, qui inde dividitur in quatuor capita.
SI qua extant in Sacris litteris illius paradisi vestigia, quibus insistendo ad aliquam loci et situs Paradisi notitiam sine errore perveniri possit, ea profecto haec Mosis historia de quatuor Paradisi fluminibus potissimum continet: quocirca omnia eius verba cum cura et diligentia sigillatim ponderanda, et subtiliter atque enucleate declaranda sunt. Cur autem Moses tam distincte ac minutatim de fluminibus Paradisi scripserit, origines eorum, cursus, terrasque quas praeterlabebantur, earumque terrarum insignia enarrans, non aliam equidem reor fuisse causam, nisi ut pateret omnibus Paradisum fuisse locum corporeum et terrestrem, et ut aliqua signa et indicia daret quibus in qua parte orbis, in quibus regionibus, apud quas gentes olim fuerit paradisus cognosci posset.
If there exist in the Sacred writings any vestiges of that paradise, by treading upon which one might without error arrive at some knowledge of the place and site of Paradise, these surely this history of Moses about the four rivers of Paradise chiefly contains: wherefore all its words must be weighed with care and diligence, one by one, and declared subtly and clearly. But why Moses wrote so distinctly and minutely about the rivers of Paradise—relating their origins, their courses, and the lands which they flowed past, and the notable features of those lands—I for my part think there was no other cause, except that it might be plain to all that Paradise was a corporeal and terrestrial place, and that he might give some signs and indications by which it could be known in what part of the world, in what regions, among what peoples paradise once was.3
VERUM expendamus suprapposita verba Mosis, in quibus tria subobscura sunt et aliquam desiderant explanationem. Ante omnia est illud, Fluvius egrediebatur ex loco voluptatis: nam Hebraice pro loco voluptatis est עדן Heden, quam vocem supra docuimus aliquando significare voluptatem, nonnunquam vero in scriptura nomen esse proprium certae cuiusdam regionis ac loci. Priori modo accepit eam Latinus interpres, quem secuti Latini expositores intelligunt significari a Mose fluvium illum scaturivisse ex ipso Paradiso, et primo ad eum irrigandum aquas suas diffudisse. Graeci autem interpretes secuti translationem Septuaginta, Hebraei quoque scriptores ut supra, sic etiam hoc loco per עדן Heden intelligunt certam quandam regionem in cuius orientali parte Paradisus erat consitus; itaque censent egressum esse fluvium illum ex regione Heden, et inde cursum direxisse ad locum Paradisi ut eam irrigaret. Visum est quibusdam fluvium dici hoc loco pro fluviis, singulari numero posito pro plurali, existimantibus ex regione Heden multos fluvios ad irrigationem Paradisi confluxisse. Non est autem necessarium illo verbo Egrediebatur significari primum ortum primamque illius fluvii originem, sed tantum indicari flumen illud ex regione Heden profluens directo itinere et cursu in Paradisum influxisse. Est enim admodum verisimile flumen hoc non fuisse aliud quam Tigrim et Euphratem, scilicet ubi...
But let us weigh the words of Moses set down above, in which three things are somewhat obscure and require some explanation. Before all is this: A river went out of the place of pleasure. For in Hebrew, for "place of pleasure" there is עדן Heden, which word we taught above sometimes signifies pleasure, but sometimes in Scripture is the proper name of a certain region and place. In the former way the Latin interpreter took it; following whom the Latin expositors understand it to be signified by Moses that that river welled up out of Paradise itself, and first poured out its waters to water it. But the Greek interpreters, following the translation of the Seventy, and the Hebrew writers also (as above), so likewise in this place, by עדן Heden understand a certain region, in the eastern part of which Paradise was planted; and so they judge that that river went out from the region Heden, and thence directed its course to the place of Paradise, to water it. It seemed to some that "river" is here said for "rivers," the singular number being put for the plural, they thinking that many rivers from the region Heden flowed together for the watering of Paradise. But it is not necessary that by that word "went out" the first rise and first origin of that river be signified, but only that that river, flowing from the region Heden, flowed into Paradise by a direct route and course. For it is quite probable that this river was none other than the Tigris and Euphrates, namely where...4
...[scilicet] ubi mixtis aquis unum in locum circa Mesopotamiam confluunt, et unius fluminis instar aliquanta terrarum spatia peragrant: ille concursus et confluxus duorum fluminum et fiebat in regione Heden, et vocabulo unius fluminis appellatur, cum ante et post duo sint diversa flumina, quorum fontes et origines (ut infra dicemus) in montibus Armeniae maioris apparent et extant. ALTERUM quod in hac oratione Mosis obscuritatem habet est illud, Ad irrigandum Paradisum: quemadmodum videlicet unus ille fluvius totum paradisum perluere atque irrigare potuerit. Verum id quatuor modis fieri potuisse cogitandum est: vel ut fluvius ille multos sinus et anfractus faciens usquequaque Paradisum allueret et irrigaret; vel ut ex eo complures alvei ducerentur et in omnes Paradisi partes derivarentur; vel ut, modo Nili ac Iordanis statis anni temporibus augescens et superfluens, Paradisum inundaret atque irrigaret; vel denique ut per subterraneos meatus universam Paradisi terram humore suo perfunderet ac foecundaret.
...namely where, with their waters mixed, they flow together into one place around Mesopotamia, and like one river traverse some spaces of land: that meeting and confluence of the two rivers both happened in the region Heden, and is called by the name of one river, although before and after they are two distinct rivers, whose springs and origins (as we shall say below) appear and exist in the mountains of Greater Armenia. The second thing which has obscurity in this discourse of Moses is this: To water Paradise—namely, in what manner that one river could wash through and water the whole of paradise. But it must be considered that this could happen in four ways: either that that river, making many bends and windings, washed and watered Paradise on every side; or that from it several channels were led and derived into all the parts of Paradise; or that, swelling and overflowing at fixed times of the year (in the manner of the Nile and the Jordan), it inundated and watered Paradise; or finally that, through subterranean passages, it soaked and made fertile the whole soil of Paradise with its moisture.5
AD extremum, illud quoque in his verbis Mosis videtur ambiguum, quod proxime subditur, Qui inde dividitur in quatuor capita. Hoc enim referri potest aut ad locum Heden (ut videlicet in ipso egressu fluminis ex Heden statim divideretur in quatuor capita), aut ad paradisum (ut fluvius ille egrediens quidem ex Heden unus esset, sed ingressus in Paradisum divideretur in quatuor flumina, quibus omnis terra paradisi commodius irrigaretur), aut denique potest referri ad egressum illius fluminis ex paradiso (ut flumen illud, postquam irrigasset paradisum, eius finibus egressum, postea in quatuor fluvios esset dispertitum). Incertum autem est quanto intervallo post egressum eius fluminis ex paradiso ipsum fuerit in quatuor flumina dissectum ac divisum. Quocirca non necesse est fontes eorum fluminum bis conspicuos esse paradiso propinquos. Tostatus, ut supra ostendimus, duos gravissimos testes excitat Basilium et Ambrosium, affirmantes fluvium illum ex paradiso delapsum in maximam planitiem efficere lacum amplissimum ex quo illa quatuor flumina dimanant. Quosdam etiam non ignobiles scriptores memorat Moses Barcepha in eo libro quem de Paradiso scripsit, a quibus proditum sit illum fluvium e sublimi loco paradisi precipitatum mergi in terram et subter Oceani vada delatum in hanc nostram terram variis ex locis erumpere: quo factum esse ut praedicta quatuor flumina non uno ex loco, sed ex diversis et longissime dissitis originem ducere videantur. Verum ista, ut fabulosis similia, supra confutavimus.
Lastly, this also seems ambiguous in these words of Moses, which is added next: Which from thence is divided into four heads. For this can be referred either to the place Heden (namely, that at the very going-out of the river from Heden it was at once divided into four heads), or to paradise (that that river, going out indeed from Heden, was one, but on entering Paradise was divided into four rivers, by which all the land of paradise might be more conveniently watered), or finally it can be referred to the going-out of that river from paradise (that that river, after it had watered paradise, having gone out of its bounds, was afterward distributed into four rivers). But it is uncertain at how great an interval, after the going-out of that river from paradise, it was cut and divided into four rivers. Wherefore it is not necessary that the visible sources of those rivers be near paradise. Tostatus, as we showed above, summons two most weighty witnesses, Basil and Ambrose, affirming that that river, having fallen from paradise into a very great plain, makes a very vast lake, from which those four rivers flow. Moses Bar-Cepha also recalls certain not ignoble writers, in the book which he wrote On Paradise, by whom it has been reported that that river, hurled down from the lofty place of paradise, is sunk into the earth, and carried beneath the depths of the Ocean, bursts up in this our land from various places: whereby it has come about that the aforesaid four rivers seem to draw their origin not from one place, but from diverse and very far-distant ones. But these things, as being like fables, we have confuted above.6
NON alienum puto adscribere hoc loco memorandam sane de hoc paradisi flumine et aliorum quatuor fluminum origine Ruperti sententiam: quam equidem auguror lectori fore mirabilem magis quam credibilem. Is igitur libro secundo de Trinitate et operibus eius capite 24 et 29 ita scribit: Aquarum natura per se salsa est, nec idonea potui, sicut in se ipso ostendit mare, ascendens autem de abysso, qua[e]...
I think it not amiss to set down in this place the truly memorable opinion of Rupert about this river of paradise and the origin of the other four rivers: which I for my part forebode will be to the reader more marvelous than credible. He, then, in the second book On the Trinity and its Works, chapters 24 and 29, writes thus: The nature of the waters is in itself salty, and not fit for drinking, as the sea shows in itself; but ascending from the abyss, which...7
"...but ascending from the abyss, which is the matrix of all the waters, into that as it were teat of the great body of the earth (that is, the fountain of Paradise), it takes on, in a way, a milky sweetness, and waters the surface of the whole earth; so that, according to the Psalmist, all the beasts of the forest may drink, and the wild asses look for water in their thirst; nay, that all the earth might grow sweet, to nourish the green herb and the fruit-bearing tree which the earth had been commanded to produce; and this avails most of all in the Eastern lands, most fertile not only of bread and wine, but even of precious aromatics, of metals, and of stones. All potable and healthful waters, therefore, wherever they flow and from wherever they appear, draw their origin from the fountain of Paradise through hidden passages, and from its sweetness have this, that they are potable and healthful. And just as the liver in the body of an animal is the fount of the blood (as the natural philosophers teach), dispensing blood to all the veins scattered through the body, and by this ministry preserving the life of the animal: so that fountain, watering the whole earth through hidden veins, quickens it, and redounds into many founts and rivers. But of all these, these four are the heads, that is, the principal ones. Let the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, then, be pointed out in Armenia, if one likes; and yet, by the way which God alone, the author of the rivers, knows, let them be believed to flow from Paradise (according to the truth of this Scripture)." Thus Rupert.8
...[ascendens autem de abysso] quae est matrix omnium aquarum, in illam quasi magni corporis terrae mammam (id est Paradisi fontem) quodammodo lacteam assumit dulcedinem, et irrigat universae terrae superficiem; ut iuxta Psalmistam, potent omnes bestiae silvae et expectent onagri in siti sua; immo ut dulcesceret omnis terra ad nutricandam herbam virentem lignumque pomiferum quod iussa erat terra producere; atque hoc potissimum valet in terris Orientalibus, non solum panis et vini sed etiam preciosorum aromatum, metallorum ac lapidum fertilissimis. Omnes igitur aquae potabiles et salubres, ubicumque fluant et undecumque appareant, de fonte Paradisi per occultos meatus originem trahunt, et ex eius dulcedine hoc habent ut potabiles et salubres sint. Et quemadmodum iecur in corpore animalis fons est sanguinis (ut docent Physici), cunctis per corpus sparsis venis sanguinem dispensans, atque hoc ministerio vitam animalis conservans: sic ille fons universam terram per occultas venas irrigans vegetat, et in multos redundat fontes ac flumina. Sed eorum omnium ista quatuor sunt capita, id est principalia. Fontes igitur Tigris et Euphratis, si libet, in Armenia demonstrentur; et tamen per viam quam solus novit auctor fluminum Deus, de Paradiso (secundum veritatem Scripturae huius) manare credantur. Haec Rupertus.
Translator’s notes
- A new major section of the commentary begins: On the Four Rivers of Paradise (Genesis 2:10–14). The side-reference reads "GENES. 2. VERS. 10." ↩
- Scripture lemma for the section: Genesis 2:10—the river of Paradise that divides into four heads (the four rivers). ↩
- If any vestiges of Paradise survive in Scripture to guide one (without error) toward its place, they are chiefly in this account of the four rivers—so every word must be weighed carefully. Why did Moses describe the rivers so minutely (origins, courses, the lands they pass and those lands' features)? For no other reason, Pererius thinks, than to make clear to all that Paradise was a **corporeal, earthly place**, and to give signs by which one might know in what part of the world, in what regions, and among what peoples Paradise once was. ↩
- Three obscurities in Gen 2:10. **First**: "a river went out *of the place of pleasure*"—in Hebrew "place of pleasure" is **עדן** (Heden/Eden), a word (shown earlier) that sometimes means "pleasure," sometimes is the proper name of a region. The Vulgate took it the *first* way (the river welled up from Paradise itself); but the **LXX (Septuagint)** and the Hebrew writers take עדן as a *region* in whose eastern part Paradise was planted (so the river went out *from the region Heden* to water Paradise). Some take "river" (singular) for "rivers" (many converging from Heden). But "went out" need not mean the river's *first origin*—only that it flowed from Heden straight into Paradise. **Pererius: this river was very probably none other than the Tigris and Euphrates** [joined], where... Continues onto next page (catchword "ubi"). [Hebrew עדן verified on the 300-dpi crop.] ↩
- Marginal gloss: "Quomodo ille fluvius irrigaverit Paradisum." The river = Tigris and Euphrates where, with mixed waters, they converge around Mesopotamia and run a while as one river; that confluence was in the region Heden, called by one river's name though before and after they are two distinct rivers rising in the mountains of Greater Armenia. **Second obscurity:** "to water Paradise"—how could one river water the whole? Four ways: (1) winding in many bends, it washed Paradise on every side; (2) several channels were led from it into all parts; (3) swelling and overflowing at set seasons (like the Nile and Jordan), it flooded Paradise; (4) it soaked the whole soil through subterranean passages. ↩
- Marginal gloss: "Ubi facta sit illius unius fluminis in quatuor alia flumina divisio." **Third obscurity:** "which from thence is divided into four heads." This may refer (a) to the region Heden (splitting into four at its exit), (b) to Paradise (one river entering, dividing into four to water it), or (c) to the river's *exit* from Paradise (one while watering, then divided into four after leaving). The distance of the division below Paradise is uncertain—so the rivers' visible sources need not be near Paradise. **Tostatus** cites Basil and Ambrose (the river falls into a plain, forming a vast lake whence the four flow). **Moses Bar-Cepha** names writers who report the river plunges from Paradise's height, sinks underground beneath the Ocean, and bursts up in our land from various places (so the four seem to rise from diverse, distant places)—but these fable-like tales Pererius refuted above. ↩
- Marginal gloss: "Mirabili de illo fluvio Paradisi Ruperti sententia." Pererius adds Rupert's truly memorable opinion on this river and the four rivers' origin—"more marvelous than credible." Rupert (de Trinitate et operibus eius 2.24 & 29) begins: "The nature of the waters is in itself salty and unfit for drinking, as the sea shows; but ascending from the abyss, which..." The block quotation continues onto the next page (catchword "qua"). ↩
- Marginal gloss: "Psalm. 103" (Ps 104:11 Heb. / 103:11 Vulg.). Conclusion of Rupert's block quotation (de Trinitate et operibus eius 2.24 & 29): water is salty by nature, but ascending from the abyss (the "matrix of all waters") into the "fountain of Paradise"—the "teat" of the earth's great body—it gains a *milky sweetness* and waters the whole earth (Ps 103:11: the beasts and wild asses drink), making the earth sweet for herb and fruit-tree (most fertile in the East—bread, wine, aromatics, metals, gems). So **all** potable, healthful waters everywhere draw their origin from the fountain of Paradise through hidden passages. As the **liver** is the body's fount of blood (dispensing it through all the veins, preserving life), so that fountain waters the whole earth through hidden veins and redounds into many founts and rivers—of which these four are the chief. So the Tigris and Euphrates may be shown rising in Armenia, yet are to be believed to flow from Paradise by a way only God knows. ↩