Some honest Bible scholars erred in writing that one of the rivers flowing out from the garden of Eden "compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia" (Genesis 2:13, KJV).

Since the garden was "toward the east" (Genesis 2:8) from the place at which Moses was writing (in southwest Asia), it is difficult to think that Ethiopia, which was toward the west, was in the area of the garden of Eden.

The head waters of four rivers were in the garden of Eden: (1) the Pishon; (2) the Gihon; (3) the Tigris; and (4) the Euphrates (Genesis 2:10-14, NASV). Since two of those ancient rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, are still flowing in Iraq in Asia, it is difficult to think that a country in Africa was in the area of the garden of Eden.

Moses did not write that the Gihon River "compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." Instead he wrote that the Gihon "compasseth the whole land of Cush" (Genesis 2:13). Where was the land of Cush?

Moses wrote that the descendants of Cush (one of Ham’s sons) settled in Asia, building the city of Babylon in "the land of Shinar," and Nineveh in "Assyria" (Genesis 10:6-11). Therefore, it is no surprise that Moses spoke of the Gihon River as flowing "around the whole land of Cush" (Genesis 2:13, NASV).

However, both the Gihon River and the name of the land of Cush have disappeared from geography and history. But it was not always so. The commentator Keil wrote that the original land of Cush in Moses’ day "must be connected with the Asiatic kossaia, which reached to the Caucasus, and to which the Jews (of Shirwan) still give the name." Also, the editor of Gesenius’ lexicon, Samuel Prideaux Tragelles, wrote that "the land of Cush" of Genesis 2:13 referred to "an Asiatic Cush" (p.389), not to an African Ethiopia.

Another scholar (THE LAYMAN’S BIBLE COMMENTARY, I, p. 25), writes that those who say that Moses’ Gihon River is the Nile make "a dunce of Moses" because he located "the sources of the Gihon [the Nile?] and the Euphrates in the same spot."

The translators of the KJV are not alone in making the mistake about Ethiopia. A 1995 translation (CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION) has Moses saying that the Gihon River "winds through Ethiopia" (Genesis 2:13). The CEV translators have even added a footnote tht the Cush of Genesis 2:13 "was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan." Also, another 1995 translation (GOD’S WORD) has Moses saying that the Gihon "winds through Sudan" (Genesis 2:13).

Thus the KJV, the CEV, and the GWV, all make Moses look bad. On the other hand, the NKJV, the ASV, the NASV, the NRSV, the NEB, and the NIV all recognize that in the days of Moses it was correct to speak of an Asiatic land of "Cush" (Genesis 2:13), but later the word "Ethiopia" became the correct translation of the Hebrew word Kush. They show, in numerous post-Mosaic citations (I have counted 18 beginning with 2 Kings 19:9), that the meaning of Kush was changed to mean "Ethiopia." Their usage shows that they recognized that the word Kush has two biblical meanings, an earlier and a later. The NIV translators have even inserted a footnote on Genesis 2:13 showing that there was an Asiatic Cush "possibly in southeast Mesopotamia," not in Africa.