In search of paradise
Of course, one of the mysterious passages in Genesis is the description of Paradise. At the same time, topographically, the description of where paradise is located is so accurate that it seems to get to the places where the first people once lived - Adam and Eve, in principle, everyone. However, the name of 2 rivers, about which we actually do not know anything today, will complicate these searches.
From the text of Scripture
While reading these Divine lines, a natural question arises: was the Paradise described in Genesis and which, probably, could be located in the East, a spiritual symbol, or did this place actually once exist on Earth? A number of theologians, in particular, Archpriest Alexander Men, support the first point of view.
Heaven on Earth …?
But, as if rejecting in advance any possibility of considering Paradise an allegory, the everyday writer called the exact and rather detailed topography of Paradise, thereby claiming that it actually once existed on Earth.
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Paradise Geographical Features (Paradise Rivers)
So: "A river came out of Eden and then divided into 4 branches …" And although this is a very important geographical feature of Paradise, it does not give much to determine its location, because this river does not have a specific name in the Hebrew text of the Bible. We only know that it flowed from the land of Eden, which, according to assumptions, was located in the northern regions of Mesopotamia or on the southern spurs of the mountains of Armenia, flowed through the whole of Paradise and at the exit was divided into 4 branches.
Pison is the name given to the first of these sleeves. But it is difficult to say which specific river they meant by this name. Therefore, to solve this riddle, Bible scholars have proposed several versions.
So, according to one of them, this river could be the largest channel of Mesopotamia, along which the waters from the Euphrates were thrown directly into the sea. In ancient times, the Greeks called him Pallokopas. Where did this hypothesis come from? The fact is that in ancient Assyrian inscriptions one can sometimes find the word "pisanu", meaning "channel, bed, channel." And because it is consonant with the biblical name "Pison", which means "full-flowing", the researchers suggested that the first river is an ancient canal. Although, in this version, one moment confuses: Pallokopas is an artificial structure. But, firstly, Moses, judging by the text of Genesis, describes not the primitive, but the modern location of Paradise for him. And, secondly, the canal itself, according to some studies, passed along the dried-up bed of a river that once really existed.
According to the opinion of St. Ephraim, Pison is the Danube. In turn, St. John Damascene believes that this river is the Ganges. The second assumption is more likely, because in India, in reality, there is a lot of gold and precious stones, and this river has been considered sacred for a long time. Indeed, the Scriptures say that “it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; tambdolach and the onyx stone”(Genesis 2: 11-12).
About the second river it is said that its name is "Gihon (Geon)" and that "it flows around the whole land of Kush" (Gen. 2: 13). But with such, in general, relatively complete information, its modern name, and hence its location, is also very difficult to determine.
To solve this problem, the researchers tried to find out which country the author of Genesis calls "the land of Kush". It is possible to assume that, most likely, this is the eastern coast of the lower reaches of the Tigris and the northeastern corner of the Persian Gulf, that is, those areas where the Kushites lived - the descendants of Hamov's youngest son Kush, or Khus (Gen. 10: 5-8). In another way, this place is called the Shinar Valley. Later, the Babylonians and Assyrians called it Mesopotamia, and the ancient Greeks called it Mesopotamia. Thus, Gihon, or Geon, is quite logical to take for the Mesopotamian branch of the Euphrates, which flows around the entire land of Kush, now located on the territory of the Republic of Sudan. All holy Fathers and exegetes of the Bible adhere to this hypothesis.
As for the other 2 rivers, in this case the interpreters of the Bible have no questions. These rivers and now under the same names pour their waters into the Persian Gulf. “The name of the third river is Hiddekel (Tigris); it flows before Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates (Gen. 2:14).
But if 4 rivers emerging from Paradise are identified, then why has not this blessed place itself been found so far.
The vision of paradise by the saints
The Holy Fathers tried to solve this problem. For example, the Monk Ephraim the Syrian, who lived in the 6th century, said: “With a spiritual eye I gazed at Paradise. The peaks of all mountains are low before its height. Barely his heels touched the high waves of the flood; reverently kissed his feet, and returned back, suppress and trample the peaks of mountains and heights … Paradise is far from sight, beyond the reach of the eye; therefore one can venture to portray him only in comparisons. In the bright crown, which we see near the moon, imagine paradise; and he also surrounds and embraces both the sea and the land."
Elsewhere Sirin is more concrete: “Although we know the places,” he wrote, “where these rivers flow from, the beginning of the source is unknown; because Paradise is at a great height. Near Paradise these rivers are swallowed up and descend into the sea, as from a high water body, and, passing in the land under the sea, pour out. So, based on the description of Sirin, Paradise is in heaven. Although, on the other hand, it is still earthly.
It happened that in Paradise, by the special favor of the Most High, some of the mortals also fell. For example, the famous Christian saint Andrew the Fool (or Andrew of Tsaregradsky), who lived in the late 9th - early 10th centuries. He describes his vision of Paradise as follows: “There were many gardens filled with tall trees, which, swaying with their tops, gladdened my eyes, and a great fragrance emanated from their branches. Some of those trees bloomed incessantly, others were adorned with golden leaves, while others bore fruit of unspeakable beauty; These trees cannot be compared to any earthly tree, for they were planted not by a human hand, but by God. In those gardens, there were countless birds with golden snow-white and multi-colored wings. They sat in the branches of the trees of paradise and sang so amazingly that I could not remember myself from their mellifluous singing:so delighted my heart, and I thought that their singing could be heard even at the highest heavens. Those beautiful gardens stood in rows, like the way one regiment stands against another … There, from all 4 sides, quiet and fragrant winds blew, from the breeze of which the gardens swayed, producing a wonderful rustle with their leaves …
Is paradise in a parallel world?
It is natural to make the assumption that Paradise is located in one of the parallel worlds. However, if this is the case, then it must meet several specific characteristics of Paradise: for example, there is no time and aging in this world. But the scientific world says that it is in the quantum world that there is no present, future and past, that is, there is no time flow there. This means that the existence of Paradise is possible.
The fact that one of the main signs of Paradise is light, that is, subtle matter, can also speak of a certain connection between Paradise and subtle matters. So, all the appearances of the Mother of God, as well as the righteous and saints, are accompanied by bright light. And light also comes from the inhabitants of Paradise.
Views of religion and science
Two Spaniards - physicists José Viña and Jorge Perez, from the University of Santiago de Compostela, back in 1998, based on the Holy Scriptures, determined the temperature of hell and heaven, as well as their locations.
According to them, the physical parameters that define paradise are found in the Book of Isaiah. It says that the light of the Moon will become similar to the light of the Sun, which will be brighter in every possible way - like the light of seven days … The Spaniards, determining the temperature of paradise, relied on the law of radiation discovered by Stephen-Boltzmann, and in order to set the temperature of hell - to heat a function called enthalpy.
As a result, they were able to calculate the temperature in Hell and Heaven with a fairly high "accuracy", as well as to determine their locations most "reliably". German professor Gero Hilmer joined his Spanish colleagues, claiming that they had data that hell was located in the depths of the earth at a distance of about 14 km.
Vigna and Perez, "translated" into the scientific language of physics the words of the prophet that the heavens are radiated from the sun 50 times more than our planet, passing them through the prism of Boltzmann's law, as well as conducting meteorological analysis. As a result, they made a sensational discovery: Paradise is located at an altitude of about 200 km above the surface of our planet.
No matter how they think, paradise is located in the atmospheric layers, exactly where the paths of spaceships and satellites pass, where the temperature reaches 232 °.
It turns out that the souls of the righteous, who throughout their lives dreamed of getting into the kingdom of heaven, may not feel very comfortable there, even if they are deprived of a “quasi-body”. In such conditions, when there are bitter frosts all around, and in paradise the temperature reaches 232 ° as a result of solar radiation, there should be a complete vacuum with a negligible amount of air.
It turns out that in heaven - in paradise - both frost and scorching heat are at the same time, which once again can serve as proof of a truly unsurpassed truth - the ways of the Lord are inscrutable.
But with such a loud statement, the Catholic Church strongly disagrees, whose representatives - namely, the Head of the Vatican, the Pope - back in 1999, on the eve of the new millennium, declared that there is no paradise in heaven and there cannot be, for the simple reason that paradise is not a physical place that is somewhere in the clouds, but a direct living spiritual connection with the Holy Trinity. To mean everything that seems to be heavenly paradise to man - green lawns, blooming gardens, crystal clear springs, murmuring among white clouds - all these pictures of a touching pastoral idyllic world, where angels live and where all the righteous are waiting for a serene and blissful life, are in reality a metaphor, a figment of the imagination.
True, the Pope explained that paradise is not an abstraction, but simply a feeling of completeness of communion with the Almighty, while urging the righteous not to exaggerate, describing the life of heaven and the colors of hell with cauldrons of boiling tar and instruments of torture.
So, the views of religion and science on the existence of Paradise find more and more points of contact. This is a very important moment in the development of human civilization, because later it can change people's understanding of their destiny and give them an opportunity to understand deeper that they come to this world in order to start moving towards the light, that is, to Paradise.