Genesis 2:13
And the name of the second river is Gehon: the same is it that compasseth all the land of Ethiopia.
Open Genesis 2:13 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et nomen fluvii secundi Gehon ; ipse est qui circumit omnem terram Æthiopiæ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ὄνομα τῷ ποταμῷ τῷ δευτέρῳ Γηών· οὗτος ὁ κυκλῶν πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν Αἰθιοπίας.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְשֵֽׁם הַנָּהָ֥ר הַשֵּׁנִ֖י גִּיח֑וֹן ה֣וּא הַסּוֹבֵ֔ב אֵ֖ת כָּל אֶ֥רֶץ כּֽוּשׁ
The Fathers on this verse
St Hippolytus The Refutation of All Heresies, Chapter IV
They assert, however, that Edem is the brain, as it were, bound and tightly fastened in encircling robes, as if (in) heaven. But they suppose that man, as far as the head only, is Paradise, therefore that “this river, which proceeds out of Edem,” that is, from the brain, “is divided into four heads, and that the name of the first river is called Phison; this is that which encompasseth all the land of Havilath: there is gold, and the gold of that land is excellent, and there is bdellium and the onyx stone.” This, he says, is the eye, which, by its honour (among the rest of the bodily organs), and its colours, furnishes testimony to what is spoken. “But the name of the second river is Gihon: this is that which compasseth the land of Ethiopia.” This, he says, is hearing, since Gihon is (a tortuous stream), resembling a sort of labyrinth. “And the name of the third is Tigris. …
St Augustine On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Chapter 1
Chapter 1. 1. The comparison of the Church with Paradise shows us that men may indeed receive her baptism outside her pale, but that no one outside can either receive or retain the salvation of eternal happiness. For, as the words of Scripture testify, the streams from the fountain of Paradise flowed copiously even beyond its bounds. Record indeed is made of their names; and through what countries they flow, and that they are situated beyond the limits of Paradise, is known to all; and yet in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt, to which countries those rivers extended, there is not found that blessedness of life which is recorded in Paradise. Accordingly, though the waters of Paradise are found beyond its boundaries, yet its happiness is in Paradise alone. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, From Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem
5. Of one position which he strives to maintain I hardly know whether it calls for my tears or my laughter. This wonderful doctor presumes to teach that the devil will once more be what he at one time was, that he will return to his former dignity and rise again to the kingdom of heaven. Oh horror! that a man should be so frantic and foolish as to hold that John the Baptist, Peter, the apostle and evangelist John, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets, are made co-heirs of the devil in the kingdom of heaven! I pass over his idle explanation of the coats of skins, and say nothing of the efforts and arguments he has used to induce us to believe that these coats of skins represent human bodies. …