GARDEN OF EDEN

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1929, Page 8

GARDEN OF EDEN

WHERE IS IT? (The decision of some Anglican theologians that many of the Old Testament stories are merely legends gives interest to the claim ol Commander C. E. V. Crawlui’d, a British naval olficer, that lie has lound the Garden of Eden—beneath the waters of the Persian Gull.) Where is the Garden of Eden V Bihical information is very precise: “ And a river went out ol Eden to water the garden; and from thence il was parted, and became into to nr heads And the fourth river is Euphrates.” Nothing incomprehensible there so lot us start to examine the Euphrates. Along its present course the Euphrates shows no evidence ot either a past or present junction of lour great rivers. In past ages car. the Euphrates have expended farther along its eo ; sc The answer is yes, and that is the key tc, the* problem. The Persian Gulf is a basin valley which has been inundated at some past periodand according to geological estimate that inuncltioii has I ten ve —y recent. In the Persian. Gulf; from Kuo. its western extremity, to Ormuz, el the east, there is no soundings showing ocean trend. Directly we pass from the Persian Gulf through the Straits ol Ormuz and into tlm Gulf of Ormuz wo meet true ocean. Undoubtedly the Persian (Rill west of Ormuz was once a hasui valley through which the Euphrates fimve-.l on past Fan. onward bordering the Kowoi tand llasa territories, on past the northern coasts to .Muscat territories and so outward to its ocean co llot. ol Ormuz, which was then the nv. ti.-wes tern limit of the Indian Ocuan. Before the Flood the vailey held a Garden of Pleasantness, a l iver basin bordered to notrhward by Hie liidlekel and to southward by the Ik.phi ales Its eastern extremity was the junction ol four rivers, three of which are suppi jicil to have been lost, all <4 "lii' li have now been lound.

The Euphrates flowed onward, eastward past- Fan (its present termination!, to its river junction, an l as it flowed onward from there its name changed. From the Eden junction onward to Ormuz this river was caned the Bilion, “the same is it that compassoth the whole land of Ethiopia.” The Gilion compassed or encircled the whole land of Ethiouia, the land ot the black Arabs. Do not confuse this biblical Ethiopia with Hie modern Ethiopia which we now call Abyssinia. Ancient Ethiopia is now called the llasa and the Muscat Territories.

Now we have the approximate latitude of the Garden of Eden. If you wish for more precise information you must patrol the pearl hanks of Bahrein situated in those localities. Where the pearls are host, where their lights aio most exquisite—there you are uoai to the Garden of Eden. The natives will assure you that Iresli water from the ocean bed gives these pearls their exquisite bin's and render them the most valuable jewels of the world’s peail harvest. They are watered by seapage from the lost River Gilion. » When the Ocean Flood, of earthquake and tidal wave origin, inundated the Basin Valley, it swept from the Jmlian Ocean westward, drowning the whole of the Adamite world with the exception of Noah, Shorn, Ham. Japhct. and their wives and families. The Flood retreated gradually and left the Pison as a subterranean river, whose course is still clearly indicated by the Wadi Dawasir, which eompassoth the whole land of Havilah, “ where there is gold . . - there is bdellium and Hie onyx stone.” The geological location is a very exact one. These three substances are in three distinct geological strata. 1 have seen the gold of Havilah, in the next strata I have been shown the “ bdellium,” a curious lime marble so beautitul "> colouring that it is a semi-precious stone. In the last of the three strata is the onvx stone, both the genuine onyx of modern elassilieation and Hit biblical onyx or agate.