Bible Dictionary: Tigris

Jump to: Smith's • ISBE • Concordance • Thesaurus • Greek • Hebrew • Library • Subtopics • Terms

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Tigris

is used by the LXX. as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Hiddekel , and occurs also in several of the apocryphal books, as in Tobit, ch. 6:1, Judith, ch. 1:6, and Ecclesiasticus, ch. 24:25. The Tigris, like the Euphrates, rises from two principal sources in the Armenian mountains, and flows into the Euphrates. Its length, exclusive of windings, is reckoned at 1146 miles. It receives, along its middle and lower course no fewer than five important tributaries. These are the river of Zakko or eastern Khabour , the Great Zab (Zab Ala), the Lesser Zab (Zab Asfal), the Adhem , and the Diyaleh or ancient Gyndes. All these rivers flow from the high range of Zagros. We find but little mention of the Tigris in Scripture. It appears, indeed, under the name of Hiddekel, among the rivers of Eden, (Genesis 2:14) and is there correctly described as "running eastward to Assyria;" but after this we hear no more of it, if we accept one doubtful allusion in Nahum (Nahum 2:6) until the captivity, when it becomes well known to the prophet Daniel. With him it is "the Great River." The Tigris, in its upper course, anciently ran through Armenia and Assyria.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

TIGRIS

ti'-gris (Tigris, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew chiddeqel): One of the rivers of Eden going "eastward to Assyria" (Genesis 2:14 margin), called the Great River (Daniel 10:4), elsewhere mentioned in the apocryphal books, as in Tob 6:1; Judith 1:6; Ecclesiasticus 24:25, called Diglath in Josephus, and Diglit in Pliny, now called in Mesopotamia Dijleh, generally supposed to be a Semitic corruption of Tigra, meaning originally an arrow, which from its rapidity of motion is symbolized. The Tigris rises in the mountains of Armenia, latitude 38 degrees 10 minutes, longitude 39 degrees 20 minutes, only a few miles from the main branch of the Euphrates. After pursuing a tortuous southeasterly course for 150 miles, it is joined by the east branch at Osman Kieui, some distance below Diarbekr. Here the stream is 450 ft. wide and 3 or 4 ft. deep. Passing through numerous mountain gorges for another 150 miles, it emerges into the region of low hills about Nineveh, and a little below into the great alluvial plain of Mesopotamia. Thence in its course to Bagdad it is joined by the Great Zab, the Lesser Zab, the Adhem, and the Diyaleh rivers, bringing a large amount of water from the Zagros Mountains. At Bagdad the overflows from the Euphrates in high water often increase the inundations. The flood season begins early in the month of March, reaching its climax about May 1, declining to its natural level by midsummer. In October and November, the volume of water increases considerably, but not so much as to overflow its banks. Below Bagdad, throughout the region of Babylonia proper, the Tigris joins with the Euphrates in furnishing the water for irrigation so successfully used in ancient times. English engineers are at present with great promise of success aiming to restore the irrigating systems of the region and the prosperity of ancient times. The total length of the river is 1,146 miles. It now joins the Euphrates about 40 miles Northwest of the Persian Gulf, the two streams there forming the Shat el Arab, but in early historical times they entered the Persian Gulf by separate mouths, the Gulf then extending a considerable distance above the present junction of the rivers, the sediment of the streams having silted up the head of the Gulf to that distance.

See also EDEN.

George Frederick Wright

Greek

3318. Mesopotamia -- Mesopotamia, a region through which the ...
... Mesopotamia, a region through which the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow. Part of
Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: Mesopotamia Phonetic Spelling: (mes-op ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3318.htm - 6k

3536. Nineuites -- a Ninevite, an inhabitant of Ninevah
... Nineuites Phonetic Spelling: (nin-yoo-ee'-tace) Short Definition: a Ninevite Definition:
a Ninevite, an inhabitant of Nineveh, a city on the Tigris in Assyria. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3536.htm - 6k

3535. Nineui -- Nineve.
... Noun, Indeclinable Transliteration: Nineui Phonetic Spelling: (nin-yoo-ee') Short
Definition: Nineveh Definition: Nineveh, a city on the Tigris in Assyria. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3535.htm - 6k

Strong's Hebrew

7772. Shoa -- probably nomads East of the Tigris and in the Syrian ...
... Shoa. 7773 . probably nomads East of the Tigris and in the Syrian desert.
Transliteration: Shoa Phonetic Spelling: (sho'-ah) Short Definition: Shoa. ...
/hebrew/7772.htm - 6k

2313. Chiddeqel -- Hiddekel, ancient name of a Mesopotamian river
... Chiddeqel. 2314 . Hiddekel, ancient name of a Mesopotamian river. Transliteration:
Chiddeqel Phonetic Spelling: (khid-deh'-kel) Short Definition: Tigris. ...
/hebrew/2313.htm - 6k

763. Aram Naharayim -- "Aram of (the) two rivers," a district of ...
... Aham-naharaim, Mesopotamia. From 'Aram and the dual of nahar; Aram of (the) two
rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) or Mesopotamia -- Aham-naharaim, Mesopotamia. ...
/hebrew/763.htm - 6k

2975. yeor -- stream (of the Nile), stream, canal
... origin; a channel, eg A fosse, canal, shaft; specifically the Nile, as the one river
of Egypt, including its collateral trenches; also the Tigris, as the main ...
/hebrew/2975.htm - 6k

Library

Expedition of Julian into Persia; He was Worsted and Broke
... He then selected twenty thousand armed men from among his troops, and sent them
towards the Tigris, in order that they might guard those regions, and also be ...
/.../the ecclesiastical history of sozomenus/chapter i expedition of julian into.htm

The Life of Adam
... This goeth about Inde. The second is called Gijon, otherwise Nilus, and that runneth
about Ethiopia, the other two be called Tigris and Euphrates. ...
/.../wells/bible stories and religious classics/the life of adam.htm

The Jewish World in the Days of Christ - the Jewish Dispersion in ...
... [31] For Syria and Mesopotamia, eastwards to the banks of the Tigris, were supposed
to have been in the territory which King David had conquered, and this made ...
/.../the life and times of jesus the messiah/chapter i the jewish world.htm

The Survival of the Fittest.
... At last the ship approached the mountain Nisir which lay on the northern horizon,
as viewed from the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Here the ship grounded. Then,. ...
/.../christianbookshelf.org/kent/the making of a nation/study iv the survival of.htm

Concerning the Waters.
... which is the Indian Ganges; the name of the second is Geon, which is the Nile flowing
from Ethiopia down to Egypt: the name of the third is Tigris, and the ...
/.../john/exposition of the orthodox faith/chapter ix concerning the waters.htm

Nineveh.
... This Assur began building, on the banks of the Tigris, the great city of Nineveh,
one of the mightiest in all the world, and the first to be ruined. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/yonge/the chosen people/lesson ix nineveh.htm

Chapter xxiv
... Of the several Arams mentioned in the Scriptures this is the one "of the two rivers"
naharayim which are not the Euphrates and the Tigris, for Aram did not ...
/...//christianbookshelf.org/leupold/exposition of genesis volume 1/chapter xxiv.htm

Chapter x
... The nucleus of this second undertaking was "Nineveh," known in cuneiform inscriptions
as Ninaa or Ninua, and situated on the upper Tigris opposite the present ...
//christianbookshelf.org/leupold/exposition of genesis volume 1/chapter x.htm

Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddæus,
... And having left them, he went to the city of Amis, great metropolis of the
Mesechaldeans and Syrians, that is, of Mesopotamia-Syria, beside the river Tigris. ...
/.../unknown/acts of the holy apostle thaddaeus/acts of the holy apostle.htm

On the Creation of the World
... Christ the Lord, the Son of God; and four living creatures, viz., a man, a calf,
a lion, an eagle; and four rivers, the Pison, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the ...
/.../victorinus/on the creation of the world/on the creation of the.htm

Thesaurus

Tigris (2 Occurrences)
... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia TIGRIS. ti'-gris (Tigris, the Greek equivalent
of the Hebrew chiddeqel): One of the rivers of Eden ...
/t/tigris.htm - 9k

Asshur (133 Occurrences)
... 14 "Assyria" ought to be "Asshur," which was the original capital of Assyria, a
city represented by the mounds of Kalah Sherghat, on the west bank of the Tigris...
/a/asshur.htm - 46k

Assur (2 Occurrences)
... Apparently about 2000 BC a colony of Babylonians migrated northward along the Tigris
River and settled upon the right shore about halfway between the Upper and ...
/a/assur.htm - 13k

Sherghat
... Apparently about 2000 BC a colony of Babylonians migrated northward along the Tigris
River and settled upon the right shore about halfway between the Upper and ...
/s/sherghat.htm - 12k

Hiddekel (2 Occurrences)
... Gesenius interprets the word as meaning "the rapid Tigris." The Tigris rises in
the mountains of Armenia, 15 miles south of the source of the Euphrates, which ...
/h/hiddekel.htm - 8k

Cush (31 Occurrences)
... the Red Sea. Rawlinson takes it to be the country still known as
Khuzi-stan, on the east side of the Lower Tigris. But there are ...
/c/cush.htm - 25k

Euphrates (36 Occurrences)
... miles from the source of the former, and 270 from that of the latter, they meet
and form the majestic stream, which is at length joined by the Tigris at Koornah ...
/e/euphrates.htm - 26k

Tikvah (2 Occurrences)
... The Tigris rises in the mountains of Armenia, latitude 38 degrees 10 minutes, longitude
39 degrees 20 minutes, only a few miles from the main branch of the ...
/t/tikvah.htm - 10k

Eden (19 Occurrences)
... The site must undoubtedly be sought for somewhere along the course of the great
streams the Tigris and the Euphrates of Western Asia, in "the land of Shinar ...
/e/eden.htm - 28k

Calah (2 Occurrences)
... Resen" (Genesis 10:11, RV). Its site is now Marked probably by the Nimrud
ruins on the left bank of the Tigris. These cover an area ...
/c/calah.htm - 14k

Bible Concordance

Tigris (2 Occurrences)

Genesis 2:14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
(See JPS BBE NAS RSV NIV)

Daniel 10:4 And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel,
(See JPS NAS RSV NIV)

Subtopics

Tigris

Related Terms

Asshur (133 Occurrences)

Assur (2 Occurrences)

Sherghat

Hiddekel (2 Occurrences)

Cush (31 Occurrences)

Euphrates (36 Occurrences)

Tikvah (2 Occurrences)

Eden (19 Occurrences)