🔼The name Pishon: Summary
- Meaning
- Shaking The Region
- Great Diffusion
- Etymology
- From (1) the Sanskrit noun sim, region, and (2) the verb dhu, to shake or tremble.
- From the verb פצץ (pasas), to break apart or scatter.
🔼The name Pishon in the Bible
The Pishon is the first of four rivers in Eden, which reportedly flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold (Genesis 2:11).
The Haddakel and Parat are known today as the Tigris and Euphrates, but the Pishon and Gihon seem to have no alter egos in observable reality.
One (slightly daring) theory is that these four rivers represent the supersymmetry that may or may not lie at the heart of creation. Another, no less daring, is that the Pishon is the Indus (see below). Thirdly, the four rivers may depict the evolution of human civilization — see our article on the name Tigris for an elaborate defense of this hypothesis.
🔼Etymology of the name Pishon
In Hebrew the name Pishon could be derived from פוש (push) meaning to spring about or to be scattered:
פצץ
The verb פצץ (pasas) means to break apart or scatter and so does this verb's by-form פוץ (pus). Noun מפיץ (mepis) describes a scatterer or disperser. Either an identical other verb פוץ (pus) or the same one may also describe an overflowing (of springs or cities), which is an action obviously not far removed from scattering.
Verb פוש (push) appears to have the same meaning as פוץ (pus I) and means to scatter. Either an identical other verb פוש (push) or the same one may also describe the darting about of young calves, which is really rather similar to scattering.
Verb פשח (pashah) means to tear in pieces.
Here at Abarim Publications we suspect that the name Pishon may be a Hebraized form of the Sanskrit name for the Indus, namely Sindhu (hence the names India and Hindu). The word Sindhu consists of sim, meaning region, and dhu, meaning to shake or tremble.
🔼Pishon meaning
The name Pishon possibly refers to a river that originates from a spring and forms into a delta. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Great Diffusion. NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Freely Flowing.