What is…
Gihon

also known as: Gihon Spring, Fountain of the Virgin, Saint Mary’s Pool

Hebrew: גִּיחוֹן —transliteration: Gichon —meaning: “a bursting forth,” a stream

This is the name of two biblical water sources.

  1. Gihon River of Eden

    This is one of the four extinct pre-Flood rivers of Eden (Genesis 2:13). According to the Biblical narrative in Genesis, all the rivers of Eden flowed from the headwaters of the same pre-Flood river of Eden which apparently flowed from undergound.

    These other extinct rivers (destroyed by the Flood) were the:

    1. Euphrates, the pre-Flood river, not the post-Flood
    2. Hiddekel (aka Tigris), the pre-Flood river, not the post-Flood
    3. Pison (Pishon)

    The Gihon and all of Earth’s other rivers were destroyed by the global flood cataclysm described in Genesis.

    People who have not understood the true magnitude of the worldwide Flood, Biblically or scientifically. Thus, they misidentified the Gihon River with the Nile, the Oxus, the Araxes, and even the Ganges. Not only are all of these rivers post-Flood features, but none fit the Biblical description.

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  2. Gihon Spring of Jerusalem

    Gihon is the name of the only natural spring of water in or near Jerusalem.

    Matthew Easton wrote,

    It is also called the “Fountain of the Virgin”, which rises outside the city walls on the west bank of the Kidron valley.

    When the Assyrian army under Sennacherib approached Jerusalem, King Hezekiah, in order to prevent the besiegers from finding water, “stopped the upper water course of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David” (2 Chronicles 32:30; 33:14). This “fountain” or spring is therefore to be regarded as the “upper water course of Gihon.”

    From this “fountain” a tunnel cut through the ridge which forms the south part of the temple hill conveys the water to the Pool of Siloam, which lies on the opposite side of this ridge at the head of the Tyropoeon (“cheesemakers’”) valley, or valley of the son of Hinnom, later filled up by rubbish.

    The length of this tunnel is about 1,750 feet. In 1880 an inscription was accidentally discovered on the wall of the tunnel about 19 feet from where it opens into the Pool of Siloam. This inscription was written in all probability by Hezekiah’s workmen. It briefly narrates the history of the excavation.

    It may, however, be possible that this tunnel was executed in the time of Solomon. If the “waters of Shiloah that go softly” (Isaiah 8:6) refers to the gentle stream that still flows through the tunnel into the Pool of Siloam, then this excavation must have existed before the time of Hezekiah.

    In the upper part of the Tyropoeoan valley there are two pools still existing, the first, called Birket el-Mamilla, to the west of the Jaffa gate; the second, to the south of the first, called Birket es-Sultan. It is the opinion of some that the former was the “upper” and the latter the “lower” Pool of Gihon (2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 7:3; 36:2; 22:9). —Mathew G. Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary

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Article Version: September 19, 2024