Continuing Previous, XI to XX - are Nile Rivers Excluded?

Creation vs. Evolution : How Much was Shinar Devastated by the Flood? · You Find a Fossil Whale Here, a Fossil Pterosaur There ... · Answering Carter and Cosner on Eden · Trying to Break Down "Reverse Danube" or "Reverse Euphrates" Concept · Correspondence of Hans Georg Lundahl : With Damien Mackey on Four Rivers and Related, I to X · Continuing Previous, XI to XX - are Nile Rivers Excluded? · Continuing Previous : XXI to XXXIII - getting to Troy (as we Tend to Do)

XI

Damien Mackey to me

7/5/2018 at 1:30 AM

Re: Gehon

In Sirach 24, the Nile is mentioned separately from the four rivers of Genesis 2, those of Adam's and Noah's time.

So you can't identify them.

It overflows, like the Pishon, with wisdom,
and like the Tigris at the time of the first fruits.
26 It runs over, like the Euphrates, with understanding,
and like the Jordan at harvest time.
27 It pours forth instruction like the Nile,[a]
like the Gihon at the time of vintage.

XII

Me to Damien Mackey

7/5/2018 at 1:48 PM

Re: Gehon

Vintage?

That would perhaps indicate another river than the Nile ...

Well, this was one ex temporary model.

Thing is, Church Fathers have assigned diverse rivers, but are consistent on mentioning Euphrates as Frat and Tigris as Hiddekel.

Most I looked at also mentioned Nile as either Pishon or Gihon.

Ganges and Danube are mentioned as Pishon and Gihon - hence my earlier model taking that more literally.

The pure fact that Nile and Gihon are named in parallel is in itself not impossible to square with identity.

However, Gihon in time of vintage seems to go better with Blue Nile than with White Nile (supposing Ethiopians made wine before they went to farm coffee - Ethiopians in our sense, that is).

That would perhaps make some kind of hay out of my attempt to reassign Pishon and Gihon as both Niles and Danube and Ganges as prolongations of pre-Flood counterparts of Euphrates and Tigris.

If so, Gihon could instead actually be "Ister" i e Danube - at least they do have vintages there.

What Bible or article quoting Bible is the text from and what does footnote a say?

XIII

Me to Damien Mackey

7/5/2018 at 2:30 PM

Re: Gehon - Haydock comment

Ver. 35. Phison. Or Phase of Colchis, which rises in Armenia, like the Tigris and Euphrates, all which overflow their banks at the beginning of summer, on account of the snow melting.

(37...) Gehon. Or Araxes, which descends from Armenia into the Caspian sea, though some erroneously take it to be the Nile, (C.) which overflows at the same time as the Euphrates. Pliny xviii. 18. Solon xlvi.

XIV

Damien Mackey to me

7/6/2018 at 1:37 AM

Re: Gehon - Haydock comment

Solon was not an historical character, but a Greek appropriation of Solomon.

See my "Solomon and Sheba" at Academia.

XV

Me to Damien Mackey

7/6/2018 at 7:08 AM

Re: Gehon - Haydock comment

Ouch, since he is a writer your reconstruction supports ideas like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John not being real Gospellers.

Obviously, for 2000 years, the Church has not agreed with this idea - either of Gospels or even of Solon.

Also, I am not sure the politics of Solomon and Solon are identical, old Israel was less democratic and more age based aristocratic than Athens.

If you say some Athenian adapted sentiments of Solomon (or of any Egyptian for that matter), well, could his name possibly have been ... Solon?

If you deny one did, how do you explain books rewriting themselves in thin air?

XVI

Damien Mackey to me

7/7/2018 at 1:35 AM

Re: Gehon - Haydock comment

Good point about Solon.

Though he is substantially a Greek appropriation of Solon, he is - like all of his appropriated ilk - a composite character.

His laws are reminiscent of Nehemiah's, as scholars have shown, e.g.:

Yamauchi's “Two reformers compared: Solon of Athens and Nehemiah of Jerusalem” (Bible world. New York: KTAV, 1980).

Don't worry, you'll get there.

XVII

Me to Damien Mackey

7/7/2018 at 11:15 AM

Re: Gehon - Haydock comment

My dear, the problem is not whether Solon reused Solomon or Nehemiah, that is entirely possible - though a priori a bit improbable, and due to the existence of natural law not necessary.

The problem is your insistence on making historical characters fictional. No, I'll not get there.

Going back

a bit for a parallel line of mails:

XVIII

Me to Damien Mackey

7/6/2018 at 3:19 PM

saw two papers

I agree Teilhard was .... I think "silly" is too good a word for it.

C S Lewis once seems to have said on Teilhard's "before life, there was pre-life" that before you light a lamp there is of course "pre-light" but sensible people call that darkness.

Have you included that reference yet?

It seems one commentator you referenced considered Gihon as "Nubian Nile" - would that be Blue Nile?

XIX

Damien Mackey to me

7/7/2018 at 2:51 AM

Re: saw two papers

Yes, Blue Nile is the Ethiopian (Nubian) one.

Very good quote re 'Try hard' de Chardin - had not previously known of it.

Now included at: The Sheer Silliness of Teilhard de Chardin
Part Six (b): Reader’s comment on Teilhard’s ‘silliness’
Damien Mackey
https://www.academia.edu/36996226/The_Sheer_Silliness_of_Teilhard_de_Chardin._Part_Six_b_Reader_s_comment_on_Teilhard_s_silliness_

XX

Me to Damien Mackey

7/7/2018 at 11:21 AM

Re: saw two papers

Well, if so, the Sirach problem is solved.

Nile meaning Nile between (probably) Khartoum and Delta, Gihon meaning Blue Nile - that is entirely possible and accounts for a lot of Church Fathers counting Nile as either Gihon or Phison.

Perhaps most common set of "four rivers" being Euphrates, Tigris, Nile and Ganges, another one (seen in a sermon not held but approved by St John Chrysostom, if I recall correctly) being Euphrates, Tigris, Nile and Danube.

I think this would also involve Nile switching roles between Gihon and Phison and if one of them is Blue and other White Nile, it comes clear.

In that case pre-Flood version of Blue Nile flowing South would have turned east and also flowed out by Ganges, pre-Flood version of White Nile West and flowed on by ... I'd take Niger Congo over Danube if so.

And Danube, Araxes and Phasis and the Daria rivers would be continuing either Euphrates or Tigris to North West or North East.