Biblical Evidence of an Old Earth

Alice C. Linsley

As discussed in Evidence of an Old Earth - Part 1, the Bible reveals a gap of time between the first created humans, represented by Adam and Eve, and the first rulers listed in Genesis 4 (Cain's line) and Genesis 5 (Seth's line). If Adam and Eve were created around 4 million years ago, and Cain and Seth lived around 3500 BC, that gap involves millions of years.

The age of the Earth is estimated at 4 billion years. The first archaic humans appeared suddenly on the Earth about 3.8 million years ago. The rulers of Genesis 4 (Cains' line) and Genesis 5 (Seth's line) lived during the Holocene Wet Period (the Neolithic Subpluvial) between 7500 and 3000 BC.

In Evidence for an Old Earth - Part 2, I presented but a very small portion of the evidence from archaeology and paleontology for the presence of humans of the Earth from 160,000+ years ago. (For more on this, see "Facts About Human Origins.")

It is clear from scientific analysis of the "begats" in Genesis 4 and 5 that these lists represent established royal lines that practiced endogamy (marriage between the lines). The lines of Cain and Seth intermarried according to a distinctive pattern involving two wives, as shown in the diagram below. This pattern can be traced throughout the Bible, so that there is no doubt that Jesus is a direct descendant of these early rulers.

Lamech Segment Analysis: Genesis 4 and Genesis 5
© 1998 Alice C. Linsley

Explanation of Symbols
O Female
Δ Male
= Marriage
/ Line of descent
_ Siblings

Note that Lamech's daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their first born son Lamech, after her father. This is called the "cousin bride's naming prerogative." This feature identifies the ruler-priests lines of the Bible, making it possible to trace the ancestry of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David and Jesus back to these earliest Biblical rulers.

The oldest named rulers were Nilo-Saharan and Sahara-Nubian. Because this is so, often it is necessary to investigate these peoples and their languages and practices to understand very old material in the Bible. Consider the first three words of the Ten Commandments are: Anochi, Havayah Elohecha, meaning "I am God, your Ruler." The Talmud (Shabbat 105a) questions the word anochi (I) because it is an unusual form of the pronoun, as opposed to the more commonly used ani. The point of origin of this unusual pronoun is the Nile Valley. In the ancient Egyptian language anochi refers to the royal first person.

Hebrew does not have the letter V (see chart.) However the letter V, which appears in other Biblical words, is found in the Nilotic languages such as ancient Egyptian and Luo. An example is Havilah (Gen. 2:11), which refers to a region in the Upper Nile Valley. This is further evidence that the words Anochi Havayah are not originally Hebrew.

The word anochi is found among other African peoples also. Among the Igbo, anochie means “a replacer” or “to replace” and among the Ashante anokyi means "Ano Junior." In both cases, one finds the idea of succession from father to son, suggesting a royal line. A Nigerian reports that "anochie means 'direct heir to a throne'." The words Anoch and Enoch are clearly associated with royal ascendancy. They may also be related to the Biblical word Anakim (Gen. 23:2).

Cain married his patrilineal cousin, a daughter of Enoch. Enoch is a royal title and means "heir to the throne." Cain married into a royal house, a family to which he was related. Adam is the representative of the whole of created humanity in the Bible, but Enoch is the representative of the oldest known line of kings in the Bible. That may be why these two are paralleled in Psalm 8:4: What is man (Enoch) that you spare a thought for him, or the son of Man (ben' adam) that you care for him?

Cain and Seth were great rulers in Africa. Cain's territory probably extended between Kano and Nok in modern Nigeria. Seth or Seti is a name found among the ancient Nilotic rulers. Ta-Seti was one of 42 administrative divisions (nomes) along the Nile and is the earliest Nubian Kingdom, dating to 5,900 BC. So Cain and Seth were African rulers whose lines intermarried.

Further, as is evident from the diagram below, both rulers married daughters of another African royal house.

Again we find the cousin bride's naming prerogative. Cain and Seth married the daughters of Enoch, a royal title. Those daughters named their first born sons after their father. Clearly, Cain and Seth are not the literal sons of Adam and Eve, but rather their distant royal descendants.

Cain is also a royal title. The following words are related to the word Cain or Kain: King, Khan, Kandake (Candance in English Bibles), and the Greek for hunter - κυνηγος (kinigos). The kings of the archaic world were great hunters, like Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Gen. 10:9). These "mighty men of old" are also called "nephilim" which comes from npyl in Aramaic, meaning "great one" and is equivalent to nfy in Arabic, meaning hunter.

By the time of Jude's epistle (c. 68 AD), Cain was solidly established as the archetype of an earthly ruler. Jude warns those who might abandon Christ because God punishes those who rebel against Him. He uses three men as examples: Cain, the ruler, Balaam, the prophet, and Korah, the priest. These were the three most sacred offices among Abraham’s people and often they were filled by people corrupted by the world.

Related reading: Theories of Creation: An Overview; The Genesis "Begats" Speak of Archaic Rulers, Jesus Christ; The Dispersion of Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Kushite and Horite Rulers Linked; A Scientific Timeline of Genesis; On Gaps and Overlaps; Evidence of an Old Earth - Part 1; Evidence of an Old Earth - Part 2; Sodom, Gomorrah, and the Seismic History of the Dead Sea: Support for Biblical History – Yes! Support for a Young Earth – No!