Scotus Academicus, Tomus quintus: De Creaturarum Corporalium et de Homine

Note 1. The opinion of the authors concerning the site of Paradise is manifold: for the learned Henry Valesius, in his notes on chapter 5 of the Oration of Constantine to the Assembly of the Saints, produces Stephen Gobarus, who writes that Paradise, in which Adam was placed, existed in the third heaven, and that the trees which are there are endowed with intellect and knowledge, and that Adam after his transgression was cast down from there to the earth. Tertullian seems to favor this opinion in the book On Patience, where he writes of Adam: He was innocent, and from the first a friend of God, and a tiller of Paradise. But when once impatience felled him, he ceased to be wise, and ceased to be able to bear heavenly things. Thenceforth man was given over to the earth, and cast out from the eyes of God. Similarly Origen, as Methodius relates in the book On the Resurrection, placed Paradise, of which Adam was the inhabitant, in the third heaven. Valentine had gone before them, raving as Gomarus afterwards did about a celestial site of Paradise and trees endowed with intelligence, as witness St. Irenaeus, book 1. — Nor have there been wanting those who, contriving an opinion diametrically opposed, as witness Maresino, syllogistic disputation, second part, have dared to assert that this delightful garden, in which innocent Adam had been placed, must be located beneath the earth, confusing it with hell, since it was to that Paradise that Christ declared He would depart with the thief. The most learned Grotius also is made an assertor of this opinion, but erroneously and without any foundation, as William Saldeanus clearly demonstrates, book 2, Exercitations, 2. — The third opinion is that of those who affirm that the Paradise of Adam was more excellent than all the earth and nearest to heaven. So Rupert, book 2, On the Trinity, chapter 21, and certain others cited by St. Damascene, book 2, On the Faith, chapter 11; and St. Basil seems to favor these, in the Homily on Paradise, where he writes: Paradise was a place abounding in delights, surpassing all the beauty of sensible creation; by the sublimity of the place in which it was, admitting no darkness in any part of itself: but always illumined by the splendor of the rising stars, in which there was not even a slight force of winds, no storm of tempests, no horror of winter, no excessive lowness of the air, no burning heat of torrid seasons, no troublesome and harmful autumnal dryness: but a tempered, pacific concord of all seasons within itself, etc. — On the contrary, certain ones with Pererius, book 3, on Genesis, Disputation on Paradise, question 2, judge it more probable that Paradise was situated in some plain: partly because excessive height is adverse to health, on account of the proximity of the stars and of the element of fire: partly also because lower places are more abundant and more fertile. — Finally, the last opinion, midway between these extremes, contends that Paradise was neither so depressed as to lie in some plain, nor so elevated as to transcend the higher mountains: but that it was situated in the uppermost part of this lower region of the air, and established upon the earth.

Note 2. It is constant and ascertained among the ancient Fathers of the Church that Paradise was planted in the East, which indeed they gather from Scripture itself; for whereas our Vulgate translates, And the Lord God planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning, the Seventy wrote in Edem, unto the East; for the Hebrew word Edem can be taken both of time and of place, so as to signify either the East or the time before, or the very beginning of things. Whence all the Greek Fathers, and very many of the Latins, following the Seventy, affirm that Paradise was planted in the East: and they teach that from this arose the custom whereby the Jews, turning toward the South, but we Christians toward the East, adore; that is, that looking thither we may sigh for our ancient fatherland. Let the faithful hear, says St. Athanasius in question 57 to Antiochus, and they say that the holy Apostles commanded the Churches of the Christians to pour forth their prayers toward the East for this reason, that looking toward Paradise whence we had fallen, we may supplicate God, and our Lord, that He may will to restore us to our ancient fatherland, and to the place from which we fell. But to look toward the South the Prophets commanded the Jews, because from the South, namely as regards Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the Lord was to be born; therefore the Prophet said: God shall come from the south; as Bellarmine, book 3, On the Beatitude of the Saints, chapter 3, and Baronius, tome 1, ad an. 58, n. 106, accurately weigh. There are also those who judge it hence established that Paradise is in the East: because those who wish to build sacred houses or temples fabricate altars facing the East, as if God ought to be adored toward that part of the world in which He had first established men as cultivators and adorers of His Divinity. — Now St. Thomas adduces this reason for the Eastern site of this Paradise, 1 p. q. 102. art. 1: that since the East is the right hand of the Heaven, as is clear from the Philosopher, book 2, On the Heavens: and the right hand is nobler than the left, it was fitting that Paradise, the most excellent of all places, should be established in the East. Severus in the Greek catena on Genesis subjoins another: Forewarning, he says, what was to be, God willed man first to dwell there whence the beginning of light arises. For as the stars, tending from their rising toward their setting, appear again: so it was fitting that man should hasten from life to death, and die, and be born again through the resurrection from the dead.

Note 3. That whereas Paradise is said to be planted in the East, no small controversy is moved among the more weighty Authors as to in what manner that "in the East" is to be understood. Yet now the more common opinion of the weightier Authors has prevailed, that it is to be understood of the Eastern part, the region of Mesopotamia; not indeed the whole, but in Edem, which was the Eastern part of that region. For all the regions which lie on this side of the Persian Gulf are accustomed to be named by the title of the East in Sacred Scripture, namely Persia, Arabia, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, all of which are Eastern with respect to the Holy Land. So Job 1, v. 3, it is said of Job, He was a great man among all the men of the East: and he abode in the land of Hus, which lay on the borders of Idumaea and the desert of Arabia; according to that of the Lamentations 1: Gird thee, and lament, O daughter of Edom, which dwellest in the land of Hus. Similarly in Genesis 29 we read: Then Jacob went forward and came into the eastern land: and there, and in the following chapter, it is said that he came into Mesopotamia, where Laban his uncle was. Moreover Balaam, Num. 23, says: From Aram hath Balac, king of the Moabites, brought me from the mountains of the East, that is, from Mesopotamia; for Moses, Deut. 23, says: The Moabites gathered together against thee Balaam the son of Beor from Mesopotamia of Syria, that he might curse thee.

By all these things it is established that Mesopotamia is truly Eastern with respect to Judaea. But whether the earthly Paradise was truly founded in some part of Mesopotamia, the Authors do not so agree: for some affirm, but others deny, admitting indeed that Paradise was established in the East, not only with respect to Judaea, but with respect to the whole world: but in what place, they contend, is utterly unknown. Wherefore two things especially come here to be determined: First, what kind the site of Paradise was, whether elevated or depressed. Second, in what part of the world it was fixed.

First Conclusion. — Paradise is neither so depressed as to lie in some plain: nor so elevated as to rise to the second region of the air.

The first part is proved, first indeed by the authority of the holy Fathers, who almost all agree in this, that the site of Paradise is of such sublimity that it suffers no darkness, nor any storms of tempests: of which there is a twofold foundation. First indeed, because from Paradise flow forth those four mighty rivers by which the whole earth is watered: whence Moses Bar-Cepha, book On Paradise, chapter 9, writes thus: We assert moreover, that the land in which Paradise is, exists far higher and more elevated than this which we inhabit; for that it is so, those four mighty rivers are a proof, which, arising in the land of Paradise, are borne through this our land diverse from it: for unless that land stood higher, it could not come to pass that those rivers should water the whole earth. — The second foundation is, because Paradise ought to be a most salubrious place, and ever free from the blasts of winds and from the grosser vapors of the earth; and therefore it ought to be constituted in a certain higher place than this our common habitation: whence Tertullian, book On the Judgment of the Lord, c. 8, sings thus:

Where the bright light shines, and a wholesomer breeze breathes, And everlasting day, and unchangeable time. There is a region to God most secret, richest in plains, And too blessed, and on the hinge of a seat to be desired, An air unharmed there, and ever to be in light, Mild, and a wind breathing vital blasts.

The second part is proved, namely, that Paradise was not placed higher than any whatsoever most elevated mountains: partly because, as Pererius rightly infers, book 3, on Genesis, qu. 2, and likewise Molinaeus chapter 13, a place so elevated is neither salubrious, nor accommodated to the habitation of men: for the third region of the air suffers excessive dryness, enormous heat, continual agitation, from the vicinity of the element of fire, and from the rush of the Heavens, as also from the multitude of burning bodies, namely Comets, which are formed and kindled in that region.

Next, no sweet and refrigerating wind blows there, no dew tempers the solar heat, no springing of rivers and fountains, no greenness of herbs, no sweet brightness of flowers: finally no delightful sweetness and wholesomeness of fruits can proceed from it. Finally, the air beside the supreme region is not only exceedingly thin, dry and hot, and therefore not at all fitting for the respiration of men and the refrigeration of the heart; but also so unhealthy that those who breathe aught of it seem to swallow death itself. One ocular and experienced witness of this truth will be ours, Father Acosta, book 3, History of the Indies, chapter 9, where he says:

In Peru there is a most high mountain, Periocaca: I had often heard that a cruel disturbance of the stomach befell those who surmounted its lofty ridges: I had strongly fortified myself with antidotes; yet they availed in vain, nor could I avert the present inconvenience. I had reached the summit and the highest parts, which they call the escalas, when I was seized so dreadfully of a sudden with anguish, that I nearly fell headlong from my beast. The sense of pain was most bitter; each of my companions had consulted his own safety with speed, as about to escape a certain peril of death. Left with an Indian servant I besought him earnestly to sustain me with his hands, lest he should dash me headlong from my beast, to which I clung scarcely master of my senses, upon the ground. Soon there followed giddiness of the head and eyes, wearisome nausea, enormous vomitings, in which with so violent an effort I threw up a great force of both bilious humors with all the half-digested food, that I rejected blood also: I had believed my case already desperate; but descending from that monstrous altitude to the inner and milder places, by the benignity of God, the pain began to abate for a time. I found my companions so broken by the sudden malady, that some of them, already thinking their last hour at hand, clamored with loudest cries for sacramental confession: others cast themselves from their beasts; almost consumed with vomit and flux of the bowels, some, made frantic with the rage of pain, dashed and flung their bodies upon the ground, and trembled with mournful sobbing. I learned that certain souls breathed forth their last in that torment. That perpetual tract of the Peruvian mountains, part of the Andes, running out five hundred leagues toward the South, wherever it is crossed on the summit, calls forth those dire torments of the stomach by a marvelous operation. I myself, four times surmounting those most lofty ridges in divers places, was always grievously affected with the inconvenience. That those also who traverse those mountains are afflicted in the same way is most certain. Moreover the learned affirm that the cause of the cruel evil is that the air is most thin and most subtle, which with incredible efficacy pervades, agitates, and rolls about the viscera and all the inner parts: nor indeed has a more potent remedy for warding off the present hurt been hitherto found, than to support the little body on every side with a very thin covering: I do not doubt that those mountains are the highest in the whole world, with which neither the Alps nor the Pyrenees can by any means be compared. There the air is so subtle that it is not fit for human respiration, by which it is drawn in and given back, since that requires a grosser breath. All things are desert for the space of thirty leagues: no mortals, no animals dwell in those places: the herbs are burnt with a virulent air, with a countenance of sky and soil altogether sad and malignant.» These things and others Father Acosta, from which we also infer this, that the higher a place of earth is, the more unhealthy and the less commodious it is for the life of men.

St. Augustine confirms it, book 3, On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 2, saying: Even if a certain one of the secular Poets said truly, Olympus rises above the clouds, and the summits hold peace; because it is reported that on the summit of Olympus the air is so thin that it is neither overshadowed by clouds, nor disturbed by wind, nor can it sustain birds, nor even the men who perhaps have ascended it, to breathe with the spirit of grosser air, as they have been accustomed in this air: whence those who ascend the summit of that mountain, for the sake of sacrificing or of inspecting the stars, are accustomed to carry with them sponges full of water, from which they may suck the moisture again and again to refrigerate the heart; for otherwise, on account of the utmost thinness and dryness of that air, they could not live. These things St. Augustine.

Next, if the sublimity of Paradise were so great that it reached even to the globe of the Moon, it would be descried from some region: moreover, it would at times take away the sight of the Sun or Moon either from us or from our Antipodes, especially since it is believed to be situated in the East. Some add, that if it were so high and elevated that the ascent of it were easy, its base or foundation would have to occupy almost the whole earth, that it might gradually diminish and afford an easy ascent to men from other parts of the earth ascending to it, if indeed the most blessed state of innocence had persevered; as will easily be manifest to one considering the proportion necessarily to be observed between the summit of a mountain and the extension of its root.

You will object 1. The higher mountains are, the more abundant they are, and more fertile in flowers and fruits: therefore in the summit of a certain highest mountain that garden of pleasure and delights ought to have been located. The antecedent is proved concerning Mount Atlas, of which Solinus writes thus in the Polyhistor, chapter 27: Through the people of the Autololes is the journey into the Atlantic solitudes: Atlas, a mountain rising from the midst of a vast expanse of sands, and raised up into the neighborhood of the circle of the Moon, conceals its head beyond the clouds. Where it extends toward the Ocean, to which it gave its name, it flows with fountains, bristles with woods, is roughened by crags, is squalid as if with fasting, bare of soil and not grassy. Where it is turned toward the African side, it is rich in fruits springing up of themselves, most shady with tall trees, whose odor is heavy, their locks like the Cypress, clothed with down, no whit inferior to silken fleeces. On that side also the herb Euphorbia is abundant, whose juice profits for clearness of the eyes, and as a manifold safeguard of health, nor does it strike the power of poisons moderately. Its summit is always snowy. Its glades quadrupeds and serpents of the earth have occupied, and with these Elephants. The same Solinus relates the same concerning Mount Athos of Macedonia, or the Thracian mountain, c. 17 of the Polyhist. And truly Athos is so elevated that it is judged higher than that from which rains fall, which opinion took its credence from this, that on the altars which its summit sustains ashes are never carried out, nor do they lose aught of their heaps; but they remain in the pile where they were left. On the very top was the town of Achrothon, in which the life of the inhabitants was prolonged half again longer than in other lands; wherefore from thence the Greeks called men Macrobius, our authors called them longaevi, long-lived. — I answer, these things were written and narrated by the aforesaid Authors rather from the tablets of the Poets than from experience, or from trustworthy Cosmographers: for neither are those mountains so elevated as to exceed even the middle region of the air, or reach the supreme, of which the manifest sign is that the summit of Mount Atlas is always covered with snows: it is therefore within the supreme region of the air, and is raised only to the beginning of the middle. Add that if those mountains occupied the middle region of the air, or even the supreme, they would be not only unhealthy but also utterly uninhabitable for man; since the middle region binds with excessive cold, and is the parent of snows and clouds: but the supreme, on account of the vicinity of the element of fire, and also on account of the vertiginous whirling of the Heaven, grows warm in a wondrous manner, and is unstable: therefore so far is it from being the case that men could there live wholesomely and long, that indeed not even for a brief time could they there pass their life in safety.

You will object 2. The sublimity of the site of Paradise ought to have been such that the inundation of the deadly deluge could not reach it; but that rose higher than the common mountains which are elevated: therefore it was necessary that Paradise should have been located on the most elevated of all mountains.

I answer: The Doctor answers in 2 dist. 17, qu. 2, that as the general deluge happened not by the natural occurrence of things, but by a miracle divinely wrought; so also it was done by a miracle that Paradise was preserved from the destruction of the deluge. Add that from Genesis, chapter 7: The waters prevailed greatly over the earth: and covered all the high mountains under the whole heaven: the water was fifteen cubits higher above the mountains which it covered. Therefore for this reason Paradise ought not to have been located on the most elevated mountain; since the inundation of the deluge covered all the mountains which are under heaven, it would also have covered that one on which Paradise had been located. But if they think Paradise must necessarily be excepted from that general sentence, then no reason therefore urges that Paradise be made of such great sublimity on account of the waters of the deluge. But as to the holy Fathers attributing to Paradise an altitude nigh to heaven, I say with St. Thomas, 1 part, qu. 2, article 1, that they used hyperbolic or metaphorical speech, nor did they will to signify anything else than the sublime and surpassing beauty and amenity of Paradise, far surpassing every other earthly one, and almost nigh to, and consimilar to, celestial beatitude.

Second Conclusion. — It is probable that the earthly Paradise was established in the confines of Mesopotamia and Oriental Arabia, not far from Chaldaea and Damascene Syria: so that toward the East it had that part of Persis which tends toward Parthia: toward the South the Persian Gulf, and Oriental Arabia: toward the North Assyria, and the region toward Babylon and Seleucia: toward the West Chaldaea, and Damascene Syria, and the region toward Judaea. This is the more common opinion among the Recent Writers, and they prove it with many reasons: Sixtus Senensis, book 5, of the Bibliotheca, annotation 3; Genebrard, book 1, Chronographic; Pererius, book 3, on Genesis, n. 122; Maldonatus on 27 Matt. verse 11; Cornelius on the second chapter of Genesis, etc. And they prove this opinion with very many reasons: First indeed, because Sacred Scripture expressly indicates that Paradise was established in Edem, for whereas our Vulgate has: And God had planted a paradise of pleasure, the Hebrew text, God had planted a paradise in Edem: but that Edem was in Syria, or in the confines of Mesopotamia, is gathered from the same Sacred Scripture, 1 Kings chapter 19, v. 12, where the proud Sennacherib speaks thus: Have the gods of the nations delivered each one whom my fathers have destroyed, namely Gosan, and Haram, and Reseph, and the sons of Eden which were in Thelassar? By which it is plainly signified that Edem is the name of a region; since it is joined with Gossana, Haram, and Reseph, as being neighboring and contiguous places. For Gossan, say Eusebius and St. Jerome, is in the region of Emath, on the confines of Damascus; and they think it to be the Gausanitis region which the River Chabores separates from the confines of Acrabene in Mesopotamia. Similarly the same men affirm that Reseph is a city of Syria, and judge it to be Rhesipha, which Ptolemy places in Mesopotamia; for it is certain that Mesopotamia is comprehended under Syria. But concerning Thelassar they say it is a region of Syria, or of Mesopotamia, afterwards named Seleucia: therefore truly Eden was in Syria, or Mesopotamia. But Moses asserts that Paradise had been planted in Edem; therefore in Syria, or Mesopotamia Paradise was planted. — It is confirmed from that of Ezekiel c. 27, v. 23: Haran, and Channe, and Eden, thy merchants. Now Haram is that celebrated Charra, or Haran, which Abraham inhabited, and in which his father Thare finished his life, as is established Gen. 11, v. 31, and Acts c. 7, v. 2; concerning which Eusebius and St. Jerome in the Hebrew Places write thus: Charra is a city of Mesopotamia beyond Edessa, which is to this day called Charra, where the Roman army was cut down, and the general Crassus taken captive: but that Charram was a city of Mesopotamia is indicated not only by St. Stephen in the places cited; but Plutarch also affirms it in the Life of Crassus, and Strabo, book 16, On the Situation of the World: therefore since Sacred Scripture says that Eden was not far from Charra, and the same Scripture teaches that Charras was in Syria, or Mesopotamia; and all Writers establish the same; and again the sacred Moses affirms that Paradise was planted in Eden, by an ineluctable consequence it is evinced that in the confines of Mesopotamia and Oriental Arabia, not far removed from Chaldaea and Damascene Syria, Paradise was founded.

It is confirmed moreover from that of Genesis 4, verse 16: And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive in the land on the east side of Eden; by which words Edem is doubtless the proper name of a Region: but it is likely that Cain dwelt together with his father not so far from that region in which the earthly Paradise was planted: for certain ones with Genebrard, book 1, Chronographic, judge that Cain the fugitive from the place where Adam was dwelling with the assembly of the pious removed toward the East beyond the Edem of Mesopotamia, where Paradise was, and settled in that region which was Oriental to Eden itself, or to Paradise. To wit, they say, Cain with his posterity inhabited Assyria, or some other such region beyond the Tigris and Euphrates, which was Oriental to Mesopotamia itself, or to the Garden of Eden: whereas Adam, Seth, and the other true worshippers of God, in whom was the Church, inhabited Syria and the neighboring regions on this side of the Euphrates, which were Occidental to Mesopotamia itself and to the Paradise of Eden: and so the Garden of Eden was in the midst between both, and separated these from those. Nor does it matter that our Vulgate wrote, "Paradisum inplantandatis" for "Paradisum in Eden," as if Eden were not the proper name of the place in which Paradise was founded; but only an appellative, signifying a place filled with all manner of pleasure; whence St. Augustine, book 8, On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 7, reads "Paradise in delights": and Severianus, although a Greek, also interprets Eden as delights: as if to say, Adam planted a paradise in pleasure, or delights, that is, in a place breathing forth pleasure. This, I say, does not matter, for the Seventy Interpreters interpreted Eden as the proper name of a place; and with them agree not only very many Fathers, both Greek and Latin, but also very many Hebrews: whom Maldonatus, book On Paradise, c. 18, relates at length, and praises; but let one suffice us, Moses Bar-Cepha, book 1, On Paradise, c. 21: We have said, he says, that Eden is a spacious, ample, delightful, more salubrious region: but that Paradise is a place adorned with beautiful, fruitful, excellent, and habitable trees beyond the other places in all Eden sought. For Paradise is a part of that region which is called Eden, the most excellent of all the others, most laudable, and most commodious for its inhabitants. To this subscribe Eusebius and St. Jerome, who, when they describe the Hebrew places of cities and regions, concerning Eden as concerning a particular place where Paradise was, say: Eden is the sacred place of paradise toward the East, which is transferred to pleasure and delights.

It is proved 2. From the abundance of the Mesopotamian region, which is celebrated with such encomiums of the Cosmographers that it seems far to excel all other parts of the earth in the sweetness of its fruits, in delights of every kind, and also in various gifts of nature, as Strabo and Curtius relate, book 5, etc.; which certainly is an indication that Paradise was established chiefly in this region, whose abundance indeed flowed back and overflowed into the neighboring region.

Third. Paradise does not seem to have been situated so far from Judaea, since it is likely that the first parents, cast out of Paradise, traversed no long spaces of land, but where they first found earth commodious for human habitation, there they stopped, and hired a dwelling: but it is certain that Adam lived and closed his last day in the land of Judaea, or at any rate of Chaldaea; for his sepulchre also existed in the holy land, as will be proved within: therefore Paradise was not far from Palestine, or Chaldaea: and yet Mesopotamia also does not stand far from Judaea: therefore it is likely that Paradise was located in it. The major is proved from that Gen. 3, where our Vulgate has: And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims; the Seventy Interpreters render: And he cast out Adam, and placed him over against the paradise of pleasure; but in the Complutensian, And he placed him before the paradise of pleasure. Thence the holy Fathers note particularly that Adam was placed by God not far from Paradise, and always had it in prospect, that having his loss continually before his eyes he might be spurred to severe penance for the perpetrated crime. For not this only was an argument of mercy and benignity, says St. Chrysostom, Hom. 18 on Genesis, that He sent him forth, and cast him out; but He made him to dwell over against that Paradise, that he might have continual grief daily, considering whence he had been cast out, and into what state he had thrown himself: the like is had by St. Cyril of Jerusalem in Catechesis 2, Theodoret qu. 10, and St. Augustine book 2, On Genesis against the Manichaeans.

Fourth. Paradise was established there where the Euphrates and the Tigris are: and yet these flow in Mesopotamia and Armenia: for the Euphrates is the river of Babylonia, between which and the Tigris the intercepted region is called Mesopotamia, as it were in the middle between the two rivers; which indeed Dionysius the Geographer thus describes, touching upon the speech concerning the Euphrates and Tigris:

Yet all this land the river, which both encircle, The natives for the reason named Medamne,

Because all these mid lands the rivers gird.

For it must be known that the Tigris and Euphrates at length unite above the Persian Gulf into one, and again divide, and then change their name: for one, gliding into the Persian Gulf, is called Phasis, or Phasitigris, which seems to be the Phison, celebrated among Curtius, Pliny, and others: this circles the land of Evilach, that is Chavila, namely the Chaulataeans, whom Strabo, book 16, places in Arabia next to Mesopotamia. The other, seeking desert Arabia and the neighboring places, seems to be that which here is called Geon: this circles Aethiopia, not that of the Abyssinians which is below Egypt, but that which is about Arabia. For in Scripture the Madianites, and others dwelling beside the Persian, or Arabian, Gulf are called Aethiopians. — Paradise therefore seems to have been in that place where the Euphrates and the Tigris confluence: for from that confluence they are divided and distinguished into these four rivers; for above are the Euphrates and the Tigris; but below are Geon and Phusitigris, or Phison. That these rivers, after they have united, again divide, is clearly manifest from the more exact tables of the Cosmographers Gerard Mercator, Ortelius, and others. For Mercator in the table of Asia, table 1, plainly shows the Tigris and the Euphrates to run together near Appamia, and again to divide near the city which is called Asia; and to make an island sufficiently great; and finally for both to flow into the Persian Gulf, and there to end. Add that it is likely these rivers were more divided in the time of Moses, for the reason that afterwards they changed their channel, and confluenced more: as many other rivers and seas changed their channel from the time of Ussher, as Torniellus noted. These things will be more evident, if we discuss and open them specifically,

What indeed is the source and course of the Tigris and Euphrates?

Moses, chapter 2, describing the earthly Paradise, says: A river went out of the place of pleasure to water the paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads. The name of one is Phison; it is that which compasseth all the land of Eviluth, where gold is born.... and the name of the second river is Geon, it is that which compasseth all the land of Aethiopia; but the name of the third is Tigris: it goeth toward the Assyrians: but the fourth river is the Euphrates. Concerning these two last rivers there is no controversy, or at least only a slight one, among all Authors: for it is established that they have their origin from Mount Taurus of greater Armenia: their course through Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Chaldaea; but their exit into the Persian Gulf, as we said above. — But one is called Tigris, either from the swiftness of its course, according to Isidore, book 13, Etymologies, c. 21, by a similitude drawn from the Tiger, the swiftest of animals, whose wondrous swiftness in running Pliny describes, book 8, c. 18; or rather it is so called from its swiftness, which the Persians and Medes call Tigris, as witness Curtius. But the other is named Euphrates from the Hebrew word Purrache, drawn from the root Parrua, signifying to fructify and make fruitful: because overflowing after the manner of the Nile it waters and makes fruitful the lands: whence Cicero, book 2, On the Nature of the Gods; Mesopotamia, he says, the Euphrates makes fertile, bringing in new fields each year. — Now the origin and course of each of these rivers Strabo thus describes, book 11: Taurus, he says, separates Armenia from Mesopotamia: hence flow the Tigris and Euphrates, which surround Mesopotamia, and cohere together among the Babylonians: then they are emitted into the Persian sea, of which the Euphrates is the greater, and traverses more of the region with its flowing channel. It has its sources in the Northern part of Taurus; it flows toward the west through Armenia, which is called the greater, as far as lesser Armenia, which it has on the right, but on the left Lisiana: then, bending toward the South, it joins its confines to the Cappadocians, whom it leaves on the right, on the left the confines of the Commageni; and again, with Sophene of greater Armenia left on the left from Sicensina, it advances into Syria, and again takes another course toward the Babylonians and the Persian Gulf. The Tigris, borne from the same mountain to Seleucia, approaches the Euphrates, and there makes Mesopotamia: then it enters into the same Persian Gulf. The sources of the Euphrates and of the Tigris are distant from each other two thousand five hundred stadia, that is about three hundred miles. — Similar to these are the things which Philostratus, book 1, On the Life of Apollonius, chapter 14, hands down concerning the same rivers: This region, he says, which is therefore called Mesopotamia because it is placed in the middle between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, flowing down from Armenia and the roots of Taurus, encircle; but it is cultivated for the most part in farms and villages: but the peoples are called partly Armenians, partly Arabs, of whom a great part wanders with uncertain abodes: thinking themselves shut in as it were as an island. But the rivers, when they have gone around that part of the continent of which we spoke, run down into the same sea. There are those who say that a very great part of the Euphrates glides away into a certain marsh, so that it does not reach the sea, but receives the end of its course in the earth: certain ones, also speaking more boldly concerning it, assert that it has flowed longer beneath the earth, to appear again in Egypt, and to be mingled with the Nile. These things Philostratus. — Quintus Curtius, book 5, hands down almost the like concerning the same rivers: Between the Tigris, he says, and the Euphrates the lands lying are so rich and fertile of soil, that cattle are said to be repelled from pasture, lest satiety destroy them. The cause of the fertility is the moisture, which flows from each river, sweating through veins of waters through almost the whole soil. The rivers themselves flow forth from the mountains of Armenia, and then with a great parting of the waters run through the journey which they began. Two thousand five hundred stadia did those measure who marked the amplest interval about the mountains of Armenia. The same, when they began to cut through the lands of the Medes and Gordianians, gradually draw together more closely, and the further they flow, the narrower space of earth they leave between themselves. Nearest to these plains are those which the inhabitants call Mesopotamia, for it shuts in the middle on either side; the same burst forth through the confines of the Babylonians into the Red sea. So Curtius. But Lucan, book 3, indicates that those rivers flow forth from the same source, when he says:

Whence with swift Tigris great Euphrates lifts its head, which they bring forth not from diverse fountains, Persians, and it is uncertain whether the earth mingle the rivers, Which rather should be the name of the water; but scattered into the fields. Fruitful Euphrates performs the office of Parim with its wave, But the earth suddenly swallows Tigris with a gaping, And covers its hidden courses, and again, reborn, With a new source the river denies not its waves to the sea.

Boethius also, book 5, On the Consolation of Philosophy, first metre, declares that the Tigris and the Euphrates have one and the same source, in these verses:

Rock of the Achaimenidae, where fleeing battle, turned, fixes its darts in the breast of the pursuer. Tigris and Euphrates resolve themselves from one source, And soon, their waters parted, are disjoined.

But, says Pererius, more is to be believed to Strabo, Curtius, and others more skilled in Cosmography, asserting their sources to be diverse, and sufficiently distant from each other: unless perchance for this reason they are said to flow from one source, because both arise from the one Mount Taurus of greater Armenia.

You ask 2. What rivers are Phison and Geon?

Since these two rivers related by Moses are in no way named by the Cosmographers, it is scarcely permitted to judge where and what they were. The common opinion of the holy Fathers and Doctors is that Geon is the Nile, and Phison the Ganges. Thus think Saint Epiphanius, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Theodoret, Josephus, Damascene. And it is proved first, because the Seventy Interpreters at Jeremiah 2, v. 18, where the vulgar edition has: Quid tibi via Aegypti ut bibas aquam turbidam? (What hast thou to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water?), translate it as: that thou mayest drink the water of Geon; and St. Jerom, in his Commentary on this passage, testifies that Geon was always in the common edition: whence even today the Abyssinians call the Nile Guion, by the testimony of Francis Alvarez, Histor. Aethiopiae, cap. 122. Secondly, because the Ganges properly encircles the land of Evilath, that is, India, which lies within the Ganges, where gold is of the best; nay, the Ganges itself, by the testimony of Pliny, bears both gold and gems. Moreover Ganges is called Phison, that is, multitude, from the root Pusa, that is, to abound and multiply, because ten great rivers empty themselves into the Ganges. So Josephus, book 1. Antiquitatum, c. 2, and Isidore, book 13. Ethymologiarum, cap. 21. In like manner Geon, that is, the Nile, encircles Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, where Prester John reigns; for of all rivers the inundation of the Nile is most swift: but this also Ecclesiasticus attributes to Geon itself, cap. 24, v. 35 and 37, where speaking of the wise man he says: Qui adimplet quasi Phison sapientiam, et sicut Tigris in diebus messium: qui adimplet quasi Euphrates sensum, qui multiplicat quasi Iordanis in tempore messis: qui mittit disciplinam sicut lucem, et assistens quasi Geon in die vendemmiae (He shall fill up wisdom as Phison, and as Tigris in the days of new fruits: he shall fill up understanding as Euphrates, who multiplies as Jordan in the time of harvest: who sends discipline forth as light, and standing as Geon in the day of vintage); at which place Rabanus, Jansenius, and other Interpreters wish Phison to be understood of the Ganges, and Geon of the Nile.

Besides, as Jansenius rightly noted, Ecclesiasticus, wishing to compare the wisdom of God with the five most celebrated rivers, described those rivers in that order which they truly have among themselves: for first from the East is the Ganges: second the Tigris: third the Euphrates: fourth the Jordan, last the Nile. Hence the very order of the narration compels that by Phison the Ganges be understood, and by Geon the Nile, since Phison seems to be named in the first place, and Geon in the last; nor can there be any reason why the Jordan was named before Geon, unless because it is prior as regards situation. This Claudius Marius Victor confirms, who in book 1 of his poems on Genesis sings thus:

Nor lesser thence Geon, but gentler in placid waves, lifts up the waters of Nile, and covers with pious flood the fields soon to burn far and wide over the earth, and, rebelling against heaven, temper his waves in Ethiopian refluent pools.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE OPPOSING OPINIONS. — Truly, says Cornelius, it seems incredible that this river of Paradise, or rather these four rivers, should hide themselves under the earth across so great and so vast a space, and afterwards rise again in places so widely sundered. For, as Ptolemy teaches, between the Euphrates and the Ganges there intervenes a space of seventy degrees, that is, more than 1300 miles. The same may be said of the Nile. Secondly, these four rivers rise so moderately in the places already a little before mentioned, and sufficiently well known, that it appears at once that they are first born there, and then little by little grow by the confluence of rivulets here and there: therefore they are not born from that one great river of Paradise. Thirdly, Vega on the Apocalypse, cap. 11, Section 5, and other most learned men have noted that neither India, nor the Ganges, nor other regions or rivers which lie beyond the Persian Gulf are called in Scripture Eastern, or the East; but only those which lie this side of the Persian Gulf, such as Armenia, Arabia, Mesopotamia. Therefore the inhabitants of these, namely the Arabs, Idumaeans, Madianites, Armenians, are called Eastern, or sons of the East, with respect to the Jews: yet Paradise was in the East, as the Septuagint has it. Fourthly, if Geon is the Nile, and Phison the Ganges: then Paradise must have embraced all the intervening regions along the Nile from the Euphrates and Tigris to the Ganges, namely Babylonia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Media, Persia, and many others besides: which assuredly is not credible, since Paradise is called a garden; but who would conceive a garden of such magnitude?

I confess indeed that by these arguments our opinion seems the more probable, yet the opposing opinion is not therefore altogether to be rejected; since they could maintain that the River itself, welling up in Paradise, after it had watered and washed through the whole most delightful garden, did not from the very first founding of Paradise break forth outwardly in an open and visible course: but that there, being received at the very utmost edge of Paradise upon the earth, it was divided thence by subterranean and most vast channels into those four rivers; or, if anyone prefers, that from the very edge of Paradise those four rivers were diverted in an open course above the earth up to a certain place, where they were swallowed up through caverns: which nevertheless, entering beneath the earth through the longest spaces, sometimes glide under the sea, and emerge in the most distant regions of the world, and raise their first fountains. Whence although the sources of the Ganges, the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates appear indeed known and conspicuous in places so mutually separate, nevertheless by the flows of the inward bowels of the earth, and by perennial subterranean channels, all of them can be derived from the one fountain of Paradise. And they hold that this counsel of God was touched upon most wisely, whereby the place of Paradise should be more hidden, lest human curiosity, squandered away thence by its own fault, should attempt by the traces of all the rivers flowing thence to go again into Paradise, or at least should desire to know the place. — To these Saint Epiphanius gives favor in the Ancoratus, where he affirms that the Tigris and the Euphrates flow from Paradise under the earth, and burst forth in Armenia, writing thus: The third, he says, river Tigris, making its course in the sight of the Assyrians: for it spreads abroad through the parts of the East, and plunges beneath the earth, and rises again in Armenia through the midst of Carduchia, as of the Armenians, and breaks forth once more, that it may cut its way into the land of the Assyrians. But also the fourth river, Euphrates, in like manner entering under the earth after the same fashion, emerges from Armenia, and so washes Persia. — To this Saint Augustine concurs, book 8. De Genesi ad litteram, capit. 7, saying: Because the place of Paradise itself is most remote from the knowledge of men: thence the four parts of waters must be believed to be divided, as most faithful Scripture witnesses. But those rivers whose sources are said to be known have burst forth somewhere within lands, after tracts of prolix regions, in other places; yet these also are reported to be known in their own fountains; for who is ignorant that waters are wont to do thus?

All these things Moyses Bar-Cepha lucidly expounds in the book De Paradiso, capit. 21, discoursing in this manner: Therefore that river truly immense irrigates all Paradise: which being washed through, it is then divided into four rivers, and those themselves great, which, drawn off from it, as soon as they leave Paradise glide away beneath the very shore of the ocean sea, and thence in turn emerge in this earth inhabited by us. Nor do we devise these things of ourselves, but pronounce them as words consonant with Moses the Prophet, who sufficiently indicates that those four rivers, after they left Paradise and slipped down beneath the earth, at last burst forth and well up in this world cultivated by us. But someone will press: how can it come about that those four rivers, having gone out from Paradise, should be precipitated beneath the shore of the ocean sea, and thence at last burst out into this our earth? To him we answer first, that those things which are judged impossible for us to do are easy for God. For that which we say concerning the course of the four rivers, and others of that kind, is a divine work, not human. Next we also maintain that Paradise was situated in a far more sublime region than this our earth exists: and hence it comes to pass that thence the rivers are borne down by a precipice with such impetus as you could not express in songs; and driven by that impetus, headlong they plunge beneath the shore of the ocean sea: whence again they spring forth and bubble up in this world cultivated by us. That Lord Ephrem holds this opinion, and with him other Doctors affirm, wherefore we too gladly assent. Thence it is evident how those words of Moses, cap. 2, Fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis ad irrigandum Paradisum, qui inde dividitur in quatuor capita (A river went forth from the place of pleasure to irrigate Paradise, and from thence it divides into four heads), seem to be understood; for that inde (thence), or, as the Hebrew reads there, can be referred either to the place of Eden, so that at the very going forth of the river from Eden it would straightway be divided into four heads: or to Paradise, so that that river, going out indeed from Eden as one, but having entered Paradise would be divided into four rivers, whereby the whole land of Paradise might be more conveniently irrigated: or finally it can be referred to the going forth of that river from Paradise, so that the river, after it had irrigated Paradise, having gone out beyond its bounds, was afterwards distributed into four rivers. It is uncertain moreover at how long an interval after the going forth of this river from Paradise it was cut and divided into four other rivers. Wherefore it is not necessary that the sources of those rivers conspicuous to us be near to Paradise. Finally, for greater elucidation it pleases to append here what Rupertus writes concerning the fountain of Paradise and concerning those four rivers, lib. 2. De Trinitate, cap. 21 and 29. The nature of waters, he says, is of itself salt, nor fit for drink, as the sea shows in itself: but ascending from the abyss, which is the matrix of all waters, into that as it were milk-giving breast of the great body of the earth, that is, the fountain of Paradise, it took a certain sweetness, and it irrigates the surface of the whole earth, that according to the Psalmist, all the beasts of the wood may drink, and the wild asses may expect in their thirst; nay more, that every land might grow sweet unto the nourishing of the green herb, and the fruitful tree with its fruit, which the earth had been commanded to bring forth: and this chiefly glows in the Eastern lands, most fertile not only of bread, and wine, but also of precious aromatics, metals, and stones. All potable and healthful waters therefore, wheresoever they flow, and from whencesoever they appear, draw their origin from the fountain of Paradise through hidden passages, and from its sweetness they have this, that they are potable and healthful. And as the liver in the body of an animal is the fountain of blood, as the Physici teach, dispensing blood to all the veins scattered through the body, and by this ministry preserving the life of the animal: so that fountain, irrigating the whole earth through hidden veins, is ruled, and overflows into many fountains and rivers; but of them all those four are the heads, that is, principal. Going forth therefore let the Tigris and Euphrates be shown forth in Armenia if you please; and yet through the way which the author of the rivers alone knows, God, let them be believed to flow from Paradise according to the truth of this Scripture. So Rupertus.

All these things Alcimus Avitus, bishop of Vienna, represents most beautifully in his song De creatione mundi, although he recedes somewhat from our opinion:

A river drawn forth from the smooth summit of the fountain, Straightway divides into four broad streams. Euphrates and Tigris they call them, who within fixed bound Make the long confines with the arrow-bearing Parthians. Third thence Geon, whom in Latian name Nile Is called, more noble to all for his unknown rising. Whose light wave glides gently down into Egypt, To enrich his own land at a set time. For as often as he breaks through the banks with swollen flood Watering, and bathes the plains with black sands, Fertility is rated by the water, and while the sky is void Diffused the river stretches out an earthly rain. Then Memphis lies hidden beneath the wide gulf, And above absent fields the possessor sails. Every landmark is gone, equalized by the wave as judge, The covered boundary suspending yearly disputes.

The sea smiles as the known grasses sink. And into the place of herds, acres of green field Give way — fish swimming through alien waters.

But after, enriching the buds from ample store, He married the parched inner parts of the thirsty earth, Nile returns, and gathers back his scattered waves. He becomes a river while the lake perishes: then is rendered back in fair sort The pristine barrier of the banks, the floods shut in, Until, scattering his divided end through wandering paths With sevenfold gulf he runs through the spacious open deep.

But why should thy Nile be said to lie hid only in the summit of the world? For thou who knowest not thyself from thy rising, Not alone, but wast the fourth, diffused from that one Who looks down from lofty course upon all rivers, And as father of the sea himself overtops them all, Those waters which mountains, which plains, which clouds pour forth.

Fourth will be Physon, whom India possesses as Ganges. As often as he grew with fragrant crest in motion, Those falling flowers which rivers scatter in beauty, Passing before, he steals their riches, and with gulf leads ours Into exile. For on each bank it is abundant, As with our streams 'tis wont to bear unbound papyrus reeds, Or lead down written and light seaweeds: Drawing off the refuse, so the great Ganges enriches This world also with that gift which he casts into the fair sea.

QUAERES. — In what part of the world was Paradise constituted?

Respondeo: it seems the more probable opinion which asserts that Paradise was planted in one of the Oriental islands of India, or of China. Hence Saint Isidore of Seville, libr. 14. Originum, capit. 3, makes Paradise the first region of the greater Asia from the rising of the Sun. Many other SS. Fathers also favor this; most especially Epiphanius in the Epistle to John of Jerusalem; Saint Basil, Homil. 11 on Genesis; Ambrose, in the book De Paradiso, and the rest. Whence Tertullian, in the book De Genesi, cap. 2, sings thus:

Paradise is set up in a milky hall, And beholds the lights of the first sun.

And in the book De Iudicio Domini, cap. 8, he says:

There is a spot beloved by the Lord in Eastern shores; Where bright India shines resplendent, and breathes a wholesomer air.

And Lactantius, lib. 2. Divinarum Institutionum, cap. 13: After these things God placed man in Paradise, that is, in a garden most fertile and most delightful, which he stocked in the parts of the East with every kind of trees. And in the Song concerning the Phoenix:

There is a blessed place remote in the first East,

Proba Faltonia in the Virgilian Centos De Paradiso says:

Behold now beneath the light of the first sun and its rising.

Marius Victorinus in his book of poems on Genesis, likewise De Paradiso:

The fountain opens in the blessed land, where its retreats.

Saint Alcimus Avitus in book one De initio mundi:

There is a place kept in the Eastern pole of the world, By nature's own secrets, where from the rising of the Sun Dawning, born anew, beats back upon the neighboring Indians.

And a little lower:

Therefore where, the Indians passed beyond, the crown of the world begins, A grove remains inaccessible to all mortals by an unassailed citadel It abides: shut in by an eternal boundary, after here He fell, expelled, the author of the first crime.

By which it is evident that author placed Paradise in India, or in the nearer ulterior Oriental region. Therefore it could be affirmed that Paradise was planted in one of the most delightful and most fertile Oriental islands; in which that whole Paradisine river flowed forth, and was divided into those four immense rivers, which perhaps, absorbed at the very limit of Paradise, through subterranean passages flow forth again into various parts of the world. And so concerning the site of Paradise the dispute still hangs under judgment.