And a river went out of Eden, to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four main streams.
One stream rises in Eden. It waters the garden, then splits into four great rivers that run out into the wider world. The details sound like geography, yet Scripture never names the main river. So what is this short account for?
Commentators read this as history, not poetry. They still admit the map is hard to draw. One writer places the garden where these rivers rise:
The point matters little in itself. What matters is that we hold the whole account of Paradise to be history in the strictest and fullest sense. More than that, the position of these rivers seems to me to explain the account given here, which has often been a difficulty to many. If the garden of Eden lay in that region (that is, in Armenia), in the part where the springs or watershed of these rivers rise, they would all lie within one limited area, surrounding this garden.
Two of the four are still household names today, but the land they cross is not what it was:
The last two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, are well-known rivers today, though the flood will have changed the shape of the land so much that their courses cannot be the same.
Scripture names the four branches. It never names the river they come from. One writer sees that silence as deliberate:
Notice that in these verses we first hear of a "river." Which river it was that went out from Eden to water the garden seems to be withheld on purpose. If it vanished when the garden was no longer seen, the wisdom of Scripture's silence is not hard to see. Some argue, like the poet Milton, that the Tigris watered paradise. Others say it was the Euphrates and the Tigris joined together. Both certainly do violence to the inspired text.
A reference work comes at it from the other side. Every search for the garden has failed, because "it belonged to the time of innocence, and as that has gone, the earthly paradise has long ceased to exist" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
Notice the order in the verse. The water reaches the garden first. Only then does it divide.
The source of these rivers was the territory from which God had ordered that blessing should flow. River-streams took their source in Eden. This is how the garden was watered, and all their freshness was there. From there the waters flowed here and there. They surrounded other countries and gave them their character… The garden was the first object, but from there they flowed around the world, which needed them.
The number of the branches carries its own meaning:
"Four" is a number with a definite meaning attached to it. The river with four heads went out of Eden to water the garden, and through it the whole earth received its refreshment from the original fountain. Four Gospel writers record the life of Him who was sent to be the Saviour of the world, and their testimony is for the whole earth.
The river is not only a water supply. The same picture returns at the end of the Bible:
Scripture also mentions a river flowing out of the garden. It clearly rose from a spring in the earth, but it watered the garden as it flowed. This speaks of the blessing of God by His word and Spirit. So does the "river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb," described in Revelation 22:1. But this river from the garden of Eden parted into four different rivers, showing blessing increasing as the waters flowed.
The link to Revelation is also a contrast. The difference is in the dividing:
The reference to Genesis 2 is unmistakable: "A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden." The heavenly city's river does not part "into four heads," as the river of Eden did. Nor does it part into east and west, like the living waters of Zechariah. One river flows throughout the city, and one joy is shared by all. In the same way there is only one tree of life, not two trees named on their own, as in the garden on earth. Moses mentions the tree of life first. John refers to the river of life first.
- Source. One unnamed river rises in Eden — the place from which God ordered blessing to flow.
- Garden. Its first work is the garden itself. The freshness is there before it goes anywhere else.
- Four. From there it parts into four heads — the number tied to the whole earth.
- Silence. Scripture never names the main river or fixes the site. That paradise belonged to innocence, and innocence has gone.
- City. Eden's river divided; the last river does not — one river, one tree, one joy, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
The name of the one is Pison that is it which surrounds the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is.
The Pishon — spelled Pison in some translations — is the first of the four streams that flowed out of Eden's river. Two questions follow: is this real geography, and why does the story of paradise stop to point out gold?
One writer sets the geography question aside for the thing that does matter:
This is only a side point. Where the rivers ran is of no great importance in itself. What matters is that we should hold the entire account of Paradise to be historical in the strictest and fullest sense.
Genesis names the Tigris and the Euphrates and moves on. Pishon and Gihon each get a description of the land they encircle. That difference is itself a clue:
It is remarkable that the two less well-known rivers get a fuller description than the rivers everyone knows. This shows that the Spirit of God takes an interest and gives us a thread to help us. We are therefore justified in supposing that Scripture describes them just because they might have been harder to recognise.
Some are content to leave the question open:
Land encircled by the river Pison, where there was fine gold and precious stones. No one has identified it.
Others point to a region long known for gold:
Reland has given strong reasons for concluding that the Pison is the Phasis, though Colonel Chesney argues for the Halys. Reland even held that Colchis, the region the Phasis runs through, is simply the Greek form of Havilah. Ancient sources link gold and precious stones with that land more clearly than with the land the Halys skirts.
One writer notes which metal Genesis names first, and where in the story it appears:
Scripture speaks of copper very early (Genesis 4:22), where it calls Tubal-cain a teacher of those who worked in brass. Tellingly, Genesis names gold first, and before the fall: "the gold of that land is good." God's glory comes first. It may also mean something that copper appears in connection with the family of Cain.
Later Scripture shows what gold stands for:
Gold is a figure of the glory of God, of His attributes of righteousness, holiness, wisdom, power, goodness and truth — everything suggested by the purity, brightness and value of the metal. This is not guesswork. Under God's direction, gold was used wherever these great facts were to be shown. Solomon's temple, as God's earthly dwelling, was overlaid with gold, even its floor (1 Kings 6:21-22, 30). And in the book of Revelation the heavenly city is described as "having the glory of God"; "and the city was pure gold, like clear glass."
Some writers read the names themselves as a picture. The stream does not just pass Havilah; it wraps right around it.
Pison, "increase," is first; it encircles the land of Havilah, "anguish" or "travail," where the gold is that is good. Gold is the symbol of God's glory. Christ has won increase for eternity by encircling the land of anguish — the birth-pains of the new creation, of which He is the Beginning. There, all the same, the glory of God has been found in all its wealth. And if faith can say now, "the gold of that land is good," how much more in the eternal day!
Another writer reads the same river as a picture of God's providence:
Leaving Eden, the river parted into four heads, marking the beginning of God's ways worldwide. The first head became the river Pison, which encircled the land of Havilah, a land that spoke of the richness, fragrance and glory of God's providence in its gold, bdellium and onyx stones.
The last book of the Bible shows another river, in another paradise:
In the earthly paradise there was a river, and with it the riches of the earth, the gold and precious stones (Genesis 2:10-12). In the Paradise of God the seer is shown "the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1). God and the Lamb are the source of divine life and heavenly freshness. Everything flows from the throne that orders all for His glory and the blessing of His own.
- Source. One unnamed river left Eden and split into four named heads — the start of God's ways reaching out over the whole earth.
- Stream. Pishon gets a fuller description than the famous Tigris and Euphrates — a thread left for readers who would need help finding it.
- Land. Where Havilah stood is disputed; some say it has never been identified, others place it at Colchis, long famous for gold.
- Gold. Gold is named before copper, and before the fall — God's glory comes first in the record.
- Glory. The earthly paradise had a river with gold and precious stones; the Paradise of God has the river of the water of life, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.