Hiddekel

Biblical Text

Hiddekel appears twice in the Korean Revised Version Bible.

• Genesis 2:14: It is the third of the rivers that flowed out of Eden and parted into four heads (Genesis 2:10). The text states that this river "goeth toward the east of Assyria." The other three rivers are the Pison, the Gihon, and the Euphrates.
• Daniel 10:4: In the third year of the Persian king Cyrus (Daniel 10:1), Daniel mourned three full weeks and ate no pleasant bread. Afterward, on the four and twentieth day of the first month, "by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel," he saw in a vision a man clothed in linen (Daniel 10:5–6). This vision continues through the final chapter of the book of Daniel.

Name and Geography

The Hebrew Ḥiddeqel is generally regarded as cognate with the Akkadian Idiqlat and the Sumerian Idigna. The Greek Tigris refers to the same river. The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) renders the name in Genesis 2:14 as "Tigris." Among Korean Bibles, the New Korean Standard Version and the Korean Common Translation also render it "Tigris."

The Tigris River rises in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and flows south through Iraq. In its lower course it joins the Euphrates and empties into the Persian Gulf. The land between the two rivers is called Mesopotamia ("the land between the rivers"). Ashur, the ancient capital of Assyria, and Nineveh were both situated on the banks of this river.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

Of the four rivers of Eden, the Pison and the Gihon have not been identified. The Hiddekel and the Euphrates, by contrast, are names of actual rivers. The Eden narrative of Genesis is thereby linked to the Mesopotamian geography familiar to its readers.

In the book of Daniel, the bank of a great river in a foreign land appears, from the time of the exile onward, as a place where revelation from God is received. The New Testament does not mention the Hiddekel directly. Many interpreters, however, see the image of the river flowing out of Eden as carried forward in the waters of the temple seen by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47) and in the river of the water of life in Revelation 22:1–2.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• East of Assyria: The original expression can also be rendered "in front of Assyria." Because the Tigris flows through the heart of the Assyrian region, opinions differ on what exactly "east" is measured from. Some explain that if "Assyria" here is read not as the nation but as the city of Ashur, which lay on the west bank of the river, the meaning is that the river lies east of that city.
• The location of Eden: Interpreters differ on the location of Eden.
• One view places it somewhere in Mesopotamia.
• Another view holds that the terrain changed after Noah's Flood, so that it can no longer be located today.
• A third view reads the river names as theological and symbolic geography.
• The text does not specify the exact location of Eden. Specific claims such as "Eden was near a certain city" are later conjectures, not statements of the biblical text.