X Marks The Spot

The "Israeli task force" of Sean, Josh, Becky, and me, along with Liz, James and Aly, spent Sunday afternoon and evening studying in detail the maps and copied documents along with the extensive research downloaded from Caleb's computer.

One document referred to a work and a map dated 1695 from the British Library. The work, Paradise or the Garden of Eden with the Countries Circumjacent Inhabited by the Patriarchs, was by Joseph Moxton. At first glance, it seemed to be a straightforward map of the Middle East but closer inspection revealed an illustration of Adam and Eve in the top right-hand corner.

Sean read from some notes that Caleb had made: "More recent discoveries in 1994 in Turkey were believed to be at the heart of the Paradise of Genesis. Tending his flock, a Kurdish shepherd found a large oblong stone. Dusting off the sand, he was amazed to find text and pictures of people. The man looked around the area and found 45 stones. The site at Gobekli, named the Turkish Stonehenge, was of paramount importance to archaeologists around the world. Carbon dating showed the stones to be at least 12,000 years old, meaning the site was constructed in 10,000 BC. As a comparison, Stonehenge was built around 3,000 BC and the Pyramids of Giza in 2,500 BC." (Curry, Andrew (November 2008))

I said, "Gobekli Temple was certainly an important discovery but does it help our quest?"

"Maybe you have to search for some pillars in the sand, Dad," James said.

"Look here folks," Becky said, "Caleb has written some notes in italics. 'Genesis 2:10-14, And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is, it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah (Arabia), where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon; the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia (Africa). And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is, it that goeth towards the east of Assyria (north of Babylonia). And the fourth river is Euphrates.'"

"I know those passages," said Josh, "they're part of Jewish history."

Following the biblical references to the four rivers, Caleb had added detailed maps of the earth's plates and land mass changes since biblical times. He had added a comment in the margin, "It's a fact that many precious stones and gold have been found in India and Australia, former fragments of the land known as Havilah or Arabia."

There followed a long debate regarding the four rivers. James and Aly were convinced that the ancient rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris being the two remaining, had originally flowed into the Persian Gulf. They were equally convinced that Kuwait was built near to a space ship and that the US military knew about it but had kept the details secret.

Becky believed the centre of the rivers, in Turkey, to have been at the base of Ancient Armenia. She read Caleb's notes about a fertile plain near a village called Harput, in Eastern Anatolia, which had been destroyed by an earthquake. She was sure we should search there.

Josh, with his Jewish background, gave by far the most persuasive argument. Quoting Caleb's notes and biblical references in Ezekiel, he believed Eden to be in Lebanon, south of Jerusalem. "In Ezekiel 28:12-19, the prophet sets down God's word against the king of Tyre," Josh said. The king was the 'seal of perfection, adorned with precious stones from the day of his creation, and placed by God in the Garden of Eden on the holy mountain as a guardian cherub. But the king sinned through wickedness and violence, and so he was driven out of the garden and thrown to the earth, where now he is consumed by God's fire. All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.' The trees of the garden are mentioned in Ezekiel 31, and scattered passages from Ezekiel, Zechariah and the Psalms refer to trees and water in relation to the temple without explicitly mentioning Eden."

Josh continued, "All four of the rivers in Genesis had one thing in common. They were all connected to the Great Rift system. And that is the key to the mystery! Two rivers presently originate out of Turkey to the north and two other rivers flowed south of Israel. The latter are now underground or else they have dried up. The geographical centre of these four points of flow is neither Turkey nor Kuwait; the centre is somewhere near present-day Israel and Jordan. The Bible says that the river flowed out of Eden, but nowhere does the Bible give a geographical size for what constituted the area of Eden. Therefore, the actual source of the waters could have been south of Lebanon. More specifically, those waters could have originated near Jerusalem in present-day Israel."

The four rivers, Josh explained, would have sprung forth from the ground in Messiah's reign, flowing through the City of God, the New Jerusalem. Josh reminded us that according to the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, the river that flowed through New Jerusalem had a tree in its centre and it was a commonly held belief of the Israeli people that its leaves would bring healing to the world.

Following our discussions, we decided to fly to Jerusalem and start our search south of the city. It would also allow Becky to meet Josh's family. Josh arranged a week's leave from his work in the Israeli Embassy in London. Mossad had a special relationship with Jewish embassies around the globe.

Colonel Balak in Tel Aviv was interested to hear that his sergeant was travelling to Tel Aviv with his friends. He immediately deduced the purpose by commenting to Josh on the phone, "Ah. You intend to find Eden and acquire more leaves."
It was pointless to deny it.