A discourse of the terrestrial paradise aiming at a more probable discovery of the true situation of that happy place of our first parents habitation / by Marmaduke Carver ...

CHAP. XIII.

Proving the other Branch of this Divi∣sion to be Pishon.

AND as we doubt not but this Stream was Hiddekel; so there is no more doubt to be made that the remaining Stream was Pishon. And this we are the more embol∣dened to affirm, because here we fall in with company: for not onely Junius, but di∣vers other Learned men both before and after him, have been awakened to the ob∣servation of this, by the name Pasitigris, or Pisotigris, given it by Pliny and others; being indeed no other then its own pro∣per name compounded with the common and vulgar name of this River. Where∣unto we may adde the Testimony of Xeno∣phon, who calls this River Physcum amnem, (by an easie mistake for Phison) De Expe∣dit. Cyri lib. 2. A Tigride verò quartis castris M. pass. LXXX. confectis, ad Phys∣cum amnem pervenere. Hujus latitudo pass. erat XX. Ponte is jungebatur. Nec longè aberat ampla Civitas, Opis nomine. If any prejudge this Testimony as imper∣tinent, because Xenophon saith that they

had passed Tigris already, and left it 80 miles behind their back, before they came to the River Physcus: let them but consult the History, and they shall be forced to ac∣knowledg, that Xenophon had often before this called the Branches of Euphrates by the name of Tigris; and that this Branch which they now had passed from was Na∣har-malca, the uppermost of its Streams, from which directing their march towards Assyria, (which afterward they entered in∣to not far from the River Lycus, having first passed the former Stream of this Di∣vision of Tigris at a Town called Caenae, after they had marched with it on their left hand some while in the Campi Cauchae, or, as he calls them, Solitudines Mediae) this Physcus amnis, which they met withall in the mid way, could be no other then the remaining Stream of the same Division, which Moses calleth Phison. And that it was a part of Tigris, we have farther assu∣rance from the City Opis situate so near un∣to it, and lying a little above the Bridge where they passed over it. For in the same manner hath Strabo also described the De∣course of the River Tigris by this City, Geog. l. 11. In intimo Paludis recessu Ti∣gris in voraginem incidens, longóque spatio

infra terram labens, apud Chalonitidem emergit: indè ad Opin & Semiramidis mu∣rum procurrit. Quintus Curtius is obser∣ved several times to call the River Tigris by the name of Phasis, (being so taught by the Natives of those parts) which D. Marius Niger imputeth as an Errour to him, Geog. Asia Com. 3. Curtius Tigrim Fluvium Phasim incolas vocare ait; nescio an erro∣re inductus, quemadmodum de Tanaï fecit. But if he erred no more about Tanais then he did about Tigris, our charity will easily absolve him from much guilt, and judge him not onely worthy of a pardon, but of thanks, for acquanting us so honestly (though not without some little imperfection) with the testimony of the Natives touch∣ing the name of this River in their own language: for better witnesses then these we cannot desire; and we have great presum∣ptions to believe, that howsoever it seemed to sound Phasis in his ears, yet it was Phi∣son in their mouths, the true and ancient name of this River. The same pardonable mistake is noted in Pasitigris for Phisoti∣gris: and some have observed the like in the Praenomen of the City Charax, built not far from the mouth of this River, where it emptieth it self into the Persian Gulf. For

whereas Dion in the Life of Trajan calls it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and so doth Stephanus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. in Pliny l. 6. c. 27. it is Pasines; Junius thinks it ought to be read Phisonis Charax, as taking denomination from this River. But because those Authors agree that it took that name from Spasinus or Pasines, (a petty King in those parts) who re-edified it, we will not press that Con∣jecture too far; but rather, turning our eyes from the Out-let of this River to its Fountain, take notice of that Field that lay near about it, which hath retained the name of this River so entirely, that, not∣withstanding the succession of so many Ages, no corruption hath eaten into it. Procop. De Aedif. Justin. l. 1. Martyro∣poli ad Solem occidentem locus adjacet Phi∣son appellatus. If this place (whatsoever it was) lay to the West of Martyropolis, it lay not far from the Fountains of Tigris; so that in all likelihood its Stream ran either through or by it, and (as may be supposed) gave it this name. Whereupon will far∣ther follow, that though this name of Phison be properly due to this fourth and last Di∣vision of the Streams of Tigris, yet that it shed it self also through the whole Cur∣rent of this River, even to its Fountain:

and this (perhaps) was the reason why the uppermost and greatest of these Streams (which we have found to be Gihon) was by the Ancients commonly called Phison. Yea Moses himself may be supposed therefore to have named Phison the first amongst those Rivers, because it was the main Stream out of which the rest did flow.