Egypt and the Exodus
Eden in Egypt
The river of Eden read as the Nile
Ralph Ellis
Extract from Eden in Egypt and Mary Magdalene, Princess of Orange. Copyright line 2004.
From Genesis 2:10, the river of Eden is read as the Nile, and the garden and the Tower of Babel are placed in Egypt rather than in Mesopotamia.
The verse he starts from
He quotes Genesis 2:10. A river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided into four branches. He says the Hebrew names in the chapter are Chiddeqel and Parath, and that these are not automatically the Tigris and the Euphrates. He says Josephus retells the same account. The section of Josephus was not complete in the lines this page is drawn from, so it is not invented here.
His reading
He writes that many authors place the Tower of Babel in Sumer, and that Mesopotamia is not the only reading the verses will bear. In his account the Nile is the river that runs through a garden and then divides, and it had four branches in antiquity rather than the two of the modern delta. From that he places Eden and Babel in Egypt.
He goes further. He says the Genesis story comes from the Amarna years, when Akhenaten was on the east bank of the Nile, and he cites the Great Hymn to the Aten from N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna. Volume and page are not in his note. His conclusion, which he himself calls explosive, is that Adam and Eve were Akhenaten and Nefertiti. That is his inference from the hymn and the Genesis text. It is not a result the excavation at Amarna states.
This page is the introduction. The full article is on its own page, and the PDF remains there. The file says it is extracted from Eden in Egypt and from Mary Magdalene, Princess of Orange. Ancient Origins printed a two-part extract on 7 and 8 July 2014. Those pages are linked from the journal list. They are not merged into this text.
Evidence library
Sources
- Ralph Ellis, “Eden in Egypt,” hosted file. The file says it is extracted from Eden in Egypt and Mary Magdalene, Princess of Orange, and it carries a 2004 copyright line.
- Genesis 2:10, as he quotes it. He does not name a Hebrew edition. The Latin checked for the library is the same public-domain Vulgate. In that file the next verses name Phison, Geon, Tigris, and Eufrates.
- N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, cited for the Great Hymn to the Aten. Volume and page are not in the note.
- Josephus, mentioned in the opening. The section number was not complete in the lines used here.
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