Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-11-06
THE CHRONICLE.
WHERE WAS EDENY

In discourse delivered some time
since by Sir Henry Rawlinson, be-
fore the Royal Society of London,
England, on the site of the Garden of
Eden, that distinguished Assyrian ex-
plorer asserted that he had deciphered
the word Eden" in some of the hie-
roglyphics or cuneifOrm inscrip-
tlOns on the ruins of Nineveh,
and that it was name given to Baby
Ion; whence he argued that the last
named ancient city had been built on
| that spot where Adam and Eve resi-
| ded in their state of innocence. This
conclusion has not been generally re-
ceived, notwithstanding the high
reputation of the author. 1t is a mat
ter of controversy whether the sacred
narrative is to be understood literally
or allegorically. The Rev. w. A.
Scott, of San Francisco, in an inter-
esting paper just published, adopts
the strictly literal sense. His argu-
ments are perhaps as concise an en-
bodiment of reasoning on behalf of
the literal Interpretation of SCRIPTURE
as could be furnished. The first of
them is that Eden was the name of
country wherein everything needful
to man was produced, and that this
name was descriptive of it, signifying
"a land of pleasure" The second is |
that the Garden, or, as the Greeks |
calledit, Paradise was not Eden
itself, but only a portion of it. And, |
thirdly, that this garden was east
SCard of the writer's location; all
which appears to be clear, from the
text. And the Lord God planted a
garden, eastward, in Eden.n The au-
thor of the narrative, standing in
Syria, would look eastward when he
turned in the direction of Mesopota-
was the name given to
the country lying between the river
was the probable site of the cradle of
the human race is confirmed by what
"And a river went out of
the Ccountry of Eden to water the 4,
Garden Paradise; and from thence
it was parted, and became into four
heads.H These heads or streams are
named Pison, Gihon, Hid
iekel and Euphrates, in the narra-
i've. The first of these DIR. Scott iden- )
,ifies with the Phases or Hays of lat /,
,er times. Its source is near the head
,fthe Euphrates, and it flows north !
seven hundred miles, into /.
he Black Sea. The second is ihe
Araxes, which rises ten miles from
he source of the Euphrates, and flows :
thousand miles, little north of east l
nto the Caspian Sea. The third, "the :.
.reat river which is Hiddekel," ;" l
Daniel X, A. is generally admitted to =
,e the Tigris. And, as TO the fourth,
there is 10 dispute about 4
t. Now all these four rivers have I
heir sources in the highlands of 7
armenia, and, as it is stated, that it !,
7as from the garden that they parted y
nd became four heads, it follows that =
be site of Paradise was that portion Z,
{ Armenia in which these sources ?
re found. DR.. Scott advances three II
Elections to the theory that the face T
the Gorden of Eden was so changed :;
v the flood as to be irrecoverably q q
st. In the first place, he says, it is a a
Y no means certain that Noah's flood y
as universal, in the strict meaning II
that word; but in arguing this he SS:e
iolates his own principle of adhering ~
the strictly literal meaning of the ssi
xt, for it is clear from the two nara ~ ~
YES which are given in Genesis of a. ~
le deluge, that it was supposed to be ~ ~
e., extending all over the u
Irface of the globe. In the second -
ace, he mentions that the univer- ~
lity of the deluge is disputed by al y.
ost every geologist. And, in the p
ird place and this is his strongest Vi
gument, it is inconsistent with the
written after the deluge, to
Y that the site of Eden is lost. The Nh,
ur rivers remain, and their sources Il
n be seen in Armenia. Why should
ey still exist, and yet the land in
hieh they spring have changed en- be
ely? Ararat is there as it was in "a
e days of Noah, before the flood. In an
18th, there has been no such trans br
of the soil as certain theOlo- ag
ans have asserted. Man has changed. cs
lis region lay between the Persian of
llf and the Caspean Sea, where now th
e wild Arab roams about; the cities tel
= desolate, and the cruel despotism DO
the Persian and the Turk "hath
led up realms TO deserts" no
1t must be said, however. that the ha
,rd "Eden," (signifying delights tn,
used in various mean wa
Is in other portions of the Scrip ke
res, sometimes to denote people; wa
ain to denote a country, and again du
the name of a person, and finally me
a number of ways inconsistent with of
, idea of literal Interpretation. pu