21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 2:14, a crossover

OK, I owe you two posts because as you very well know, I never covered this verse.

Genesis 2:14

יד וְשֵׁ֨ם הַנָּהָ֤ר הַשְּׁלִישִׁי֙ חִדֶּ֔קֶל ה֥וּא הַֽהֹלֵ֖ךְ קִדְמַ֣ת אַשּׁ֑וּר וְהַנָּהָ֥ר הָֽרְבִיעִ֖י ה֥וּא פְרָֽת:

Translation: The name of the third river is Chideqel, it goes east of Asshur; the fourth river is Prat.

The Chideqel was known to the Greeks as Tigris, and the Prat as Euphrates.

These verses about the rivers are part of what Olrik would call a horizon, the geographical setting of material. Horizons are not fixed in the material. Olrik says that oral narratives arise close in time and place to whatever cultural or historical events inspire them. He does not require that they contain geographic material. When they do, it's because the location helps the audience understand the narrative.

But if the culture survives and the narrative is transmitted for long enough, the horizon may dissolve. Olrik says this is particularly common if the population migrates, whether voluntarily or under compulsion.  In the previous verses about the other two rivers, they are described in detail. In particular, if Kush is the great city of Kish, the narrative about Gan Eden made sense to an audience that knew Kish well, and probably lived within the territory it controlled.

In this verse, the name of the third river mirrors the name used for it in Mesopotamia, and gives another geographical reference for it, but does not go into the detail needed for the Pishon or Gichon. It's a bigger river and only needs one other geographical identifier -- only just less famous than Prat, which needs no other introduction.

There is a claim that this narrative was invented hundreds of miles from Mesopotamia, but that doesn't allow for this level of geographic detail. The invention supposedly took place centuries after the ancestors of the Jews left Mesopotamia on their own, and a few centuries before they were sent there forcibly. The claim arose as part of DH, which I do to death on the other Torah thread. You should read at least the first four posts to clear your head, and then come back here and finish learning Hebrew.