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Bible Dictionaries
River
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (ποταμός, Acts 16:13, 2 Corinthians 11:26, Revelation 8:10; Revelation 9:14; Revelation 12:15; Revelation 16:4; Revelation 16:12; Revelation 22:1-2; the references to rivers in the Gospels are even fewer [cf. Matthew 7:25, Mark 1:5, Luke 6:48 John 7:38])
The Jordan is the only river in Palestine proper, worthy of the name. It is rightly called the Jordan, which probably means ‘the Descender,’ as it falls some 2,000 ft. in a distance of 100 miles. Among the other streams and mountain torrents in Palestine there are the Kishon, which drains Galilee westward; the Yarmuk and the Jabbok, which carry the waters of Bashan and Gilead into the Jordan; the Leontes and Orontes, which rise in CCEle-Syria and drain the great basin between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and the Euphrates, greatest of All, forming the boundary of Palestine on the N.E.
The rivers mentioned in apostolic history carry us beyond Palestine. Certain references to rivers, indeed, are but figures of speech. That alluded to in Acts 16:13 is best identified with the Gangitis, a tributary of the Strymon near Philippi. On its banks St. Paul and his companions found a place of prayer, with a small building possibly in connexion with it. According to Josephus (Ant. XIV. x. 23), the decree of Halicarnassus allowed the Jews ‘to make their places of prayer by the seashore, according to the custom of their fathers.’ Tertullian (ad Nat. i. 13) also, about a.d. 200, mentions ‘prayers on the shore’ as characteristic of the Jews (cf. Acts 21:5). The Jews in Philippi at that time were probably too few in number to possess a synagogue. This ‘place of prayer,’ being situated by a river, was convenient for ceremonial washings. In another passage (2 Corinthians 11:26), St. Paul, in illustration of his unflinching Christian endurance, recounts the perils he had suffered in his missionary journeys from swollen and turbulent ‘rivers,’ which had been treacherous to ford or swim. Doubtless he had had many hazardous experiences of this character. When the rivers of Asia Minor and Palestine are in flood, to ford them is little less than a tragedy. The rains and melting snows keep most of them bridgeless.
Two references in the Book of Revelation are of similar import and may be considered together. In the first (Revelation 8:10), when the third angel sounds, there falls from heaven a great star, burning as a torch, upon the third part of the ‘rivers’ and upon the fountains of waters. The star is called ‘wormwood,’ a bitter drug, typical of Divine punishment, and regarded as a mortal poison. In the second passage (Revelation 16:4), the third angel pours out his bowl into the ‘rivers’ and fountains of waters, and they become blood. In consequence, there is no more drinking water. All nature is in convulsion, the special object of the Apostle being to announce the doom of Rome and of the worshippers of the Emperor.
There are three other passages in the Apocalypse which may very appropriately be discussed by themselves. In the first (Revelation 9:14), the sixth angel with the trumpet is bidden to loose the four angels that are bound at ‘the great river Euphrates,’ that they may lead forth a mighty army to the sad disaster of Rome. The Euphrates, which in the olden time had been the ideal eastern boundary of Israel’s territory, is here conceived of as the frontier between Rome and her enemies the Parthians. In a parallel passage (Revelation 16:12) the sixth angel pours out his bowl on the Euphrates, and its waters are dried up that the way may be ready for the kings (of Parthia) to cross over (cf. Revelation 17:12; Revelation 17:16). Both predictions have to do with the Roman Empire and its fate. In the remaining passage (Revelation 12:15) the dragon casts water out of his mouth ‘as a river’ that the Imperial mistress (Rome) may be carried away as by a deluge. In all these passages the Seer is attempting to picture the marvellous deliverance of God’s people from their Roman enemies. For the Roman armies under Nero threatened to sweep away Christianity in the wreck of the Jewish nation.
The most beautiful reference to ‘rivers’ in the whole Bible is yet to be discussed. It is found in Revelation 22:1-2, ‘And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.’ To the Seer of Patmos, the New Jerusalem would not be complete without the river of water of life. The original Paradise (Genesis 2:10) possessed a river, and Paradise Regained must possess one too. Rivers, in the East especially, have the power to turn a wilderness into a garden of beauty and fertility; hence the river is here an apt symbol of life. Its waters are ‘living waters’ (Jeremiah 2:13) and healing (Ezekiel 47:1-12), making ‘glad the city of God’ (Psalms 46:4). In Ezekiel the life-giving stream issued from the Temple; now, inasmuch as the city is all temple, the river’s ultimate source is from the presence of the king. The river and the street run side by side through the city, as the Barada and the street upon its left bank do to-day in the city of Damascus. Trees of life are placed in rows on either side of the intervening space. Both river and trees are within reach of every one. The river is no longer a mere boundary (Numbers 34:5) or a highway for navigation (Isaiah 18:2), nor are its banks even a place of prayer (Acts 16:13); it is rather a source of spiritual irrigation to immortals. Thus John uses the realistic though archaic language of Jewish piety to delineate the bliss of the Redeemed in a future state. In his picture the river becomes the symbol of the spiritual happiness of the followers of the Lamb; thus heaven is to possess all that Judaism had ever claimed or craved.
George L. Robinson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'River'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/r/river.html. 1906-1918.
