Paradise on a great height (1)

Text
The paradise rivers are said to descend through a water pipe. The same imagery is sometimes used in pagan writers to denote the descent of the soul into the body.

Ephrem Syrus, Commentary on Genesis 2.6:
Even though the regions from which these (= the paradise rivers) flow are known, this does not apply to the head of the source; for paradise is situated on a great height, and the rivers are swallowed up under the surrounding sea, descending as it were down a tall water pipe (sōlēn); having passed through the ground beneath the sea and reached this earth, the earth then spouts forth with one of them in the West - the Danube, or Pishon - the Gihon in the South, and the Euphrates and Tigris in the North.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Ephrem Syrus, Commentary on Genesis 2.6

Bibliography

Amar Annus

URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001498.php