Abraham's Mother and Seth's Father

Alice C. Linsley

Andrew, a reader of Just Genesis, has asked two interesting questions. The first is about the identity of Abraham's mother and the second pertains to the identity of Seth's father.


Abraham's Horite Mother

The Babylonian Talmud names Abraham's maternal grandfather as Karnevo, an Akkadian form of the Nilo-Saharan word Karnak. Kar refers to an elevated shrine or "high place" and nak refers to rituals. Naak is the ritual removal of front teeth among the Nilotic Luo and the ancient Natufians. Therefore, Karnak means "place of rituals" and indicates a mountain temple or a water shrine.

Karnak on the Nie was a Horite temple. It is likely that Abraham's mother was the daughter of a Nilotic priest. She gave birth to 2 sons: Nahor and Abraham. Nahor was the older and he received his father's territory between Ur and Haran. This means that Abraham's mother was his father's half-sister, as only the firstborn sons of sister brides ruled after their fathers. This is one feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Horim (Horite ancestors).

Abraham and his ancestors married exclusively within their Horite Hebrew caste (endogamy). This is a characteristic of ancient castes. The Horites were closely associated with the rulers of Kush, Nubia and Egypt. Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Onn (Heliopolis) on the Nile. Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian.

Since blood line and ethnicity were traced through the mothers, as with Jews today, it is surprising that the Bible does not tell us about Abraham's mother. Perhaps the final editor of Genesis (the Deuteronomist?) found this problematic because it means that Abraham was not the first Jew as is maintained by the prevailing Jewish narrative.

Andrew's second question deals with Seth's family. "Your statements that Adam and Eve lived millions of years ago as the first humans rings true to me, but Scripture wise where do you get that Enoch was Seth and Cain's father? Genesis 5:3 clearly states the Adam was Seth's father, or am I missing something?"

(Note that there are at least 3 scriptural profiles of Adam.) when Adam and Eve stand for the first humans created by God, they are meta-historical.


Who was Seth's father?

Genesis 5:3 indicates that Seth, as well as Kain, was a "son" and son can mean offspring or descendant. Here the author is connecting Seth to Adam to emphasize that Seth was made in the likeness of Adam who was made in the likeness of God.  There may be a suggestion here that Kain was not in the divine image, but the context is still about deified sons who were rulers.

The rulers listed in Genesis 4 (Cain's line) and 5 (Seth's line) lived about 4000-3000 BC, no earlier. The two ruler lines intermarried, as can be determined by scientific analysis of the kinship and ascendency pattern revealed in the genealogical segment shown below. The ruler who heads this segment was called Enoch/Enosh/Nok. If Adam and Eve were Kain's and Seth's parents they would have been contemporaries of Enoch. These are the historical Adm and Eve, the founders of the Hebrew ruler-priest lineages.

Kain and Set (Set or Seti) were probably the firstborn sons of Enoch's brother by two different wives. It was the custom of these rulers to have two wives. One was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham.  The other was a cousin or niece, as was Keturah to Abraham. Two wives meant there were two firstborn sons.  These sons ascended to different thrones. The firstborn son of the sister wife (probably Kain) was the heir of his biological father. The firstborn son of the cousin/niece wife (probably Set) was the heir of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named. This is why the name of a ruler is often found two generations later in the line of the ruler's fraternal confederates. Esau the Elder had a grandson by this daughter who was Esau the Younger.  This is true for Joktan, Sheba and Lamech, as shown in the diagram below.

They married their cousins and the cousin brides named their firstborn sons after their fathers. This is why Seth's firstborn son and Kain's firstborn son have essentially the same name - Enoch/Enoch/Nok. The root of that name was NK. Later we find that the lines of Ham and Shem intermarried also.

The marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham's ancestors is the same as that of Abraham and Moses. All of these people were Horites, priest devotees of Ra-Horus-Hathor. They believed that "the Woman" of Genesis 3:15 would be of their own people and she would bring forth the divine "Seed" who would crush the serpent's head and lead his people to immortality. Jesus referred to this when He told his disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to die. They refused to accept this, so He explained that unless a seed falls into the earth, it cannot live (John 12:24).


Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendency Pattern of the Horite Rulers; Abraham's Maternal Line; Abraham's Horite Mother; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons

Adam and Estrangement from God

 

The Risen Lord Jesus raises Adam and Eve from the grave.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The Bible presents Adam in at least three ways: mythical, historical, and analogical. Genesis 1 does not speak specifically of Adam. It speaks of how humans were a special creation, made in the image of the Creator on the last day of creation (Day 6).

We first encounter a figure called “Adam” in Genesis chapters 2 and 3. The word Adam is derived from the root אדם (A.D.M), which is a verb meaning "to be red or ruddy" (Strong’s #119). The text says that Adam was formed from the adamah, meaning ground, soil, or humus. This is the etymology of the term “human”.

This Adam is associated with the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Serpent who tempted Eve. He and Eve are blamed for humanity’s “Fall” from the state of grace enjoyed in the Garden. We could take this as an historical account. That is how Fundamentalists read the text. However, humans had already dispersed globally before the historical Adam lived (c.4500 BC). Perhaps we should consider the biblical data that speaks of Adam as a father of Cain and Seth, whose descendants intermarried.

According to this view, Adam is a founding parent of the early Hebrew who descend from Cain (Gen. 4) and Seth (Gen. 5). The historical Adam is the eponymous founder of the mound building Horite and Sethite clans which constituted a caste of priests.

Genesis 5:1 describes Seth as being in the likeness of his father Adam. This may mean that Seth was a red man and could explain why ancient images of Seth show him as a red hippopotamus.

This idea that the first parents caused estrangement from God is a common theme in African stories. The first parents of the Mbiti Pygmy are called Tole and Ngolobanzo.

The first father of the Maasai is known as Maasinta. He had a special relationship with the Sky God who gave the Maasai their first cattle.

Gikuyu and Mumbi are said to be the first ancestors of the Gikuyu of East Africa. Here is a portion of their story:

Now you know that at the beginning of things there was only one man (Gikuyu) and one woman (Mumbi). It was under this Mukuyu that He first put them. And immediately the sun rose and the dark night melted away. The sun shone with a warmth that gave life and activity to all things. The wind and the lightning and thunder stopped. The animals stopped moaning and moved, giving homage to the Creator and to Gikuyu and Mumbi. And the Creator, who is also called Murungu, took Gikuyu and Mumbi from his holy mountain to the country of the ridges near Siriana and there stood them on a big ridge. He took them to Mukuruwe wa Gathanga about which you have heard so much. But He had shown them all the land - yes, children, God showed Gikuyu and Mumbi all the land and told them: "This land I hand over to you, O Man and Woman. It is yours to rule and to till in serenity, sacrificing only to me, your God, under my sacred tree.

While studying tribal peoples in Nigeria, the anthropologist Charles Kraft asked a clan chief, "What did your people believe about God before the missionaries came?" In response, an old chief told this story:

“Once God and his son lived close to us. They walked, talked, ate, and slept among us. All was well then. There was no thievery or fighting or running off with another man's wife like there is now. But one day God's son ate in the home of a careless woman. She had not cleaned her dishes properly. God's son ate from a dirty dish, got sick, and died. This, of course, made God very angry. He left in a huff and hasn't been heard from since." (Charles Kraft, Christianity in Culture, Orbis Books, 1990, p. 153)

Another African story tells how "in the beginning death had not yet entered the world. There was plenty to eat, but a woman became greedy and tried to pound more grain than she was allotted. This required using a longer pestle. When she raised it to pound the grain, it struck the sky and God became angry and withdrew far into the heavens. Since then, people must toil the earth, death and disease trouble the people and it is no longer easy to reach God." (Richard Bush, ed. The Religious World, MacMillan Publishers,1982, p. 38).

In the last two stories the female ancestor is responsible for the estrangement. However, in the Book of Romans, Paul holds Adam responsible for the Fall in his analogical explanation. He contrasts Adam, by whom sin and death entered, and Jesus Christ, the New Adam, by whom sin and death are overcome and justification granted to all who believe (Romans 5:6-10).

“Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people” (Rom. 5:12).

“Death reigned from the time of Adam . . . even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam” (Rom. 5:14).

“Many died by the trespass of the one man” (Rom. 5:15).

“By the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man” (Rom. 5:17).

“Through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners” (Rom. 5:19).

 

In drawing this analogy, Paul clearly believed Adam to be historical. He argues that both Adam and Jesus Christ acted in ways that had lasting consequences in human history. However, he also admits that his presentation of Adam involves typology. Paul writes that Adam “was a type of the one who was to come.” (Rom. 5:14)

It is clear from the Genesis narrative that both Adam and Eve are culpable. This binary balance between male and female ancestors is characteristic of African stories and the biblical narrative of Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve serve as examples of estrangement from God. The estrangement results from disobedience and listening to appealing lies. This applies universally, and a similar idea is found in the myths of many cultures.

Related reading: Three Portraits of Adam; Adam Was a Red Man; The Sethites and the Red Hippo; The Father of Adam and Eve; Male and Female are Primary in Hebrew Scriptures

Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About Adam and Eve

Alice C. Linsley


It is ironic that people insist on reading Genesis 1-3 as history and and yet ignore the historicity of Genesis 4-11. In this later section we find data that is verified by the sciences, especially kinship analysis, DNA studies, migration studies, climate studies, archaeology and linguistics. Were we to pursue the picture of Abraham's ancestors presented in Genesis 4-11 we would better understand the Nilo-Saharan context of the Genesis 1-3 accounts. Only when we put this material in its proper cultural context will we be able to reconcile science and Scripture.

This continues the series on Answers to High Schooler's Questions About Genesis


Q: How did Adam come to earth? Was he made on earth or in heaven and poofed to earth?

A: Genesis tells us that God formed the man from the dust of the earth. The word human reflects this belief. Human is related to the word humus, meaning soil or dirt. Likewise, in many places in the Bible the word Adam is a synonym of human being.


Q:  Were Adam and Eve real?  I  mean did they really exist?

A:  Keep in mind that the Bible presents Adam in two different ways: as the first created human, and as the founder of the line of ruler-priests who are associated with Abraham and his territory in Edom. The idea of Adam as the first man comes from Biblical writers who are speaking analogically (using an analogy). They draw a parallel between the first Adam who caused sin and death and the New Adam - Jesus Christ - who redeems the world from sin and death. This is not to be taken as history.

On the other hand, Adam as the first of the line of rulers associated with the great kings of ancient Israel, has an enormous amount of Biblical support and also aligns with data in the sciences. The Biblical writers recognized that the people among them with red skin were of an ancestral line of extreme antiquity. Some of these people were rulers in Edom. These are listed in Genesis 36. Esau the Elder and Esau the Younger were among them. Esau is specifically described as being red in Genesis 26. King David was also red and he had Edomite ancestry.

The Hebrew word for red is edom and it is a cognate to the Hausa word odum, meaning red-brown. Both are related to the word dam, meaning blood, and to the name of the first man Adam, who was formed from the red clay which washed down to the Upper Nile Valley from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic cambisols have a strong red brown color. It is evident then that the Upper Nile is the urheimat of the Adam and Eve story.

Jeff A. Benner, an expert on ancient Hebrew, explains:

We are all familiar with the name "Adam" as found in the book of Genesis, but what does it really mean? Let us begin by looking at its roots. This word/name is a child root derived from the parent דם meaning, "blood". By placing the letter א in front of the parent root, the child rootאדם is formed and is related in meaning to דם (blood). 

By examining a few other words derived from the child root אדם we can see a common meaning in them all. The Hebrew word אדמה (adamah) is the feminine form of אדם meaning "ground" (see Genesis 2:7). The word/name אדום (Edom) means "red". Each of these words have the common meaning of "red". Dam is the "red" blood, adamah is the "red" ground, edom is the color "red" and adam is the "red" man. There is one other connection between "adam" and "adamah" as seen in Genesis 2:7 which states that "the adam" was formed out of the "adamah".

In the ancient Hebrew world, a person’s name was not simply an identifier but descriptive of one's character. As Adam was formed out of the ground, his name identifies his origins. (From here.)

If Adam and Eve are the first created humans, they would have lived about 3.6 million years ago. That is when the first humans appear on the Earth's surface, and these were fully human. Genesis tells us that Abraham's ancestors came out of Africa. The descendants of Noah were Nilo-Saharans. The Bible sometimes refers to these peoples ar "Kushites." Kush is the Nile Valley, especially the upper Nile region which is where the oldest human fossils have been found. Further, the names Adam (ha-dam, the Blood) and Eve (ha-vah, the Birther) and the creation stories of Genesis 1-4:16 are traceable back to Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors.


Q:  Eve is called the "mother of all living" in Genesis 3:20. Why is Adam never called the "father of all living"?

A:  It is also possible that the ancients from whom we received the information in Genesis knew more than we recognize about the durability of the Mt-chromosome, and the loss of the original Y-chromosome. The most recent male ancestor of all males today lived in Africa around 59,000 years ago. The so-called "Mitochondrial Eve" is dated to about 143,000 years ago. She is considered the mother of modern humans. She is not the mother of archaic humans. That Eve would have lived much earlier.



Q: What fruit did Adam and Eve eat?

A: This information is not found in Genesis. In many works of art the fruit is shown as an apple. An older tradition maintains that the fruit was a fig from the Sycamore Fig tree (Ficus sycomorus) which was abundant along rivers in the region where Eden was located. This tradition is also represented in paintings by the fig leaves covering Adam and Eve's private parts.

The Syacmore fig is a large edible fruit which ranges from green to yellow or red when ripe. In its natural habitat, the tree can bear fruit year round, peaking from July to December. Jesus “cursed” the Sycamore Fig tree when it failed to produce fruit, suggesting that the tree's failure to bear fruit was an effect of the corruption of creation (the Fall).

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. (Mark 11: 12-14)

Range of the Syacmore Fig tree

The Sycamore Fig grew in abundance along the Nile, the region from which Abraham's ancestors came. It was cultivated by the Egyptians and the Kushites. Zohary and Hopf, authors of Domestication of Plants in the Old World (Oxford University Press), assert that Egypt was "the principal area of sycamore fig development." They note that "the fruit and the timber, and sometimes even the twigs, are richly represented in the tombs of the Egyptian Early, Middle and Late Kingdoms. In numerous cases the parched sycons bear characteristic gashing marks indicating that this art, which induces ripening, was practiced in Egypt in ancient times."

In ancient Egyptian iconography the Sycamore stands on the threshold of life and death, veiling the threshold by its abundant low-hanging foliage. The caskets of some Egyptian mummies were made from the wood of the Sycamore Fig tree. Pharaohs called the Sycamore Fig trees Nehet.




Q: Why did Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit?

A: Eve ate the forbidden fruit first and then gave some to Adam. She was tempted by the serpent who appealed to her God-inspired appreciation of beauty. Genesis 3:6 says that the woman saw that the fruit was “pleasing to the eye.” Here we see how the Good in us can be used to make us sin. This is why Genesis 3:1 describes the serpent as “more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made."

Q: Why didn't Adam stop Eve from sinning?

A: Genesis 3:6 says that "her husband" was with her when she took and ate the fruit, but does not offer an explanation as to why he failed to stop her. The book of Genesis typically does not speculate about why men failed to do right. For example, we are not given an explanation about Noah’s drunkenness that led him to curse his son/grandson, or about Lot’s drunkenness that led to incest with his daughters. Both stories indicate that drunkeness is a condition that leads to bad things. Perhaps the moral of this story is that moral weakness in husbands and fathers leads to bad things.



Q: Why did God have to punish all of us if only Adam and Eve sinned?

A: God does not punish us. We suffer the consequences of sin and death because these are characteristics of the fallen world in which we live. God's gifts of forgiveness, strength, wisdom, patience and joy enable us to live in the fallen world as people who grow in the image and likeness of God, according to our original blessing.



Q: Why did God place the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden?

A: Genesis does not answer this question. However, Genesis 3:3 tells us that this tree was in the middle of the garden, which means it was at the sacred center. Among many tribes, the sacred center is where knowledge is revealed. For example, the Lakota vision quest (Hunblecheya) requires that the participant remain at the center of the circle drawn by the shaman until he receives a vision from the Great Spirit about his role and destiny.



Q: Who did Adam and Eve's children marry?

A: God commanded Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it." (Gen. 1:28) Abraham's ancestors obviously took this command seriously because their rulers had two wives and usually two concubines. Marriage partners were carefully selected, especially for rulers and their heirs.  We do not know what rules governed the selection of marriage partners among the earliest humans 3.4-3.6 million years ago, but analysis of the Genesis King Lists reveals a sophisticated marriage and ascendency structure for Abraham's ancestors.




Q: What was going on between Adam and Eve and Noah? How can that be enough time to populate the earth?

A: If Adam and Eve are the first created humans, they lived at least 3.6 million years ago since that is the age of  the oldest human fossils. Noah lived much later, between 2490-2415 B.C. when the Sahara experienced a wet period (Karl W. Butzer 1996).

Before Noah's time there were already human populations dispersed around the world. There were numerous river populations in China between 7000-2000 B.C. In southern Africa, there were forest populations who mined red ochre from the Lebombo Mountains more than 30,000 years ago.  This blood-like substance was used to bury nobles in the hope of life beyond the grave. The practice was widespread, perhaps global, before the time of Noah.

Noah's immediate descendants included Shem, Ham and Japheth, whose lines intermarried. This means that these ruling lines were genetically related.

Ham lived between 2438-2363 B.C. and became the father of Kush. Kush lived between 2417-2342 B.C. and became the father of Raamah and Nimrod. Kush ruled in the Upper Nile and his son Nimrod established a kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley (Gen. 10:8-12).

Obviously, there is a gap of time between Adam and Eve and Noah, plenty of time for populations to migrate. The Kushite marriage and ascendancy structure drove the migration of peoples out of Africa.


Q: Were there other people on earth besides Adam and Eve that God created too?

A: Genesis does not address this question. The material in Genesis comes to us from a people who spread far and wide. This is refered to as the Kushite migration out of Africa, although there were various migrations both in and out of Africa before the time of Kush (Gen. 10). Findings in molecular genealogy indicate that most of the peoples of the world are their descendants, but perhaps not all people. More research needs to be done.


Q: Why did God create the man first

A: So that the stronger of the species could protect the weaker of the species. Unfortunately, Adam failed to protect his wife from the serpent's wiles.

Q: How long were Adam and Eve in the garden before they sinned?

A: This is not answered in Genesis, but the suggestion is that they lived there a good while as caretakers of the ground, the plants and the animals. Eden time probably seemed different than our time since they enjoyed perfect communion with a timeless.


Q: When they were in the garden before the fall, did Adam and Eve have sex

A: Very likely. They were told to bring forth offspring. Sex is not an effect of the Fall. Shame and sexual perversion are.


Q: Why did Adam name the animals. Why didn't God name them?

A: Naming is a way of making sense of our world. Perhaps God thought that this was important for Adam's cognitive development. God alone could create the animals, but by allowing the man to name the animals, God grants him a way to share in the creative process.

St. Anthony the Great offers this explanation:  "God, by His Logos, created the different kinds of animals to meet the variety of our needs: some for our food, others for our service. And He created man to apprehend them and their actions and to appraise them gratefully. Man should therefore strive not to die, like the non-rational animals, without having attained some apprehension of God and His works."


Related reading: Adam and Eve: The "Blood" and the "Birther"; DNA Confirms the Kushite Migration Out of Africa; Questions High Schoolers Ask About Genesis;  Answers to High Schoolers Questions About God

Are Adam and Eve Real?

Alice C. Linsley


In what sense are Adam and Eve real? In biblical parlance they have come to represent the first humans created by God.  As such, we must relate them to the oldest known human populations over 4 million years ago. In this view, they are best described as meta-historical. However, it is doubtful that Adam and Eve lived 4 million years ago. That is not how they are presented in Genesis, although they are interpreted as the first of the human race in other places in the Bible.

The Biblical writers recognized that the people among them with red skin tone were of an ancestral line of extreme antiquity. Some of these people were rulers in Edom. These are listed in Genesis 36. Esau the Elder and Esau the Younger were among them. Esau is specifically described as being red in Genesis 26. David is related to the Horite rulers of Edom and he is described in the Bible as red/ruddy. Samuel, the son of a Horite priest from Ramah, anointed him ruler.

The first historical persons in Genesis are the rulers Cain and Seth. They married the daughters of an Proto-Saharan ruler named Nok or Enoch/Enosh. This has been confirmed through analysis of the Genesis 4 and 5 King Lists.

Must Adam and Eve be historical persons to be real? Only if we insist on reading the text as modern empiricists. When we place the material in Genesis 1-11 in the proper historical and cultural context, we must place their story in the region of Lake Chad and the Upper Nile Valley. This is where Abraham's ancestors originated, and they were known to have a red skin tone. They are the rulers of Edom (Gen. 36) and some of their descendants were described as red: Esau and David.

The Biblical writers recognized that the people among them with red skin were of an ancestral line of extreme antiquity. Some of these people were rulers in Edom. These are listed in Genesis 36. Esau the Elder and Esau the Younger were among them. Esau is specifically described as being red in Genesis 26.

The Hebrew word for red is edom and it is a cognate to the Hausa word odum, meaning red-brown. Both are related to the word dam, meaning blood, and to the name of the first man Adam, who was formed from the red clay which washed down to the Upper Nile Valley from the Ethiopian highlands. These soils have a cambic B horizon. Chromic cambisols have a strong red brown color. It is evident then that the Upper Nile is the urheimat of the Adam and Eve story.


Jeff A. Benner, an expert on ancient Hebrew, explains:

We are all familiar with the name "Adam" as found in the book of Genesis, but what does it really mean? Let us begin by looking at its roots. This word/name is a child root derived from the parent דם meaning, "blood". By placing the letter א in front of the parent root, the child rootאדם is formed and is related in meaning to דם (blood).

By examing a few other words derived from the child root אדם we can see a common meaning in them all. The Hebrew word אדמה (adamah) is the feminine form of אדם meaning "ground" (see Genesis 2:7). The word/name אדום (Edom) means "red". Each of these words have the common meaning of "red". Dam is the "red" blood, adamah is the "red" ground, edom is the color "red" and adam is the "red" man. There is one other connection between "adam" and "adamah" as seen in Genesis 2:7 which states that "the adam" was formed out of the "adamah".

In the ancient Hebrew world, a person’s name was not simply an identifier but descriptive of one's character. As Adam was formed out of the ground, his name identifies his origins. (From here.)

Adam is derived ha-dam, meaning “the blood.” In the original Nilotic and Proto-Saharan context of Abraham’s ancestors “the Blood” simply meant Human. This is why Adam sometimes mean the human/man.

Adam is used in parallelism with Enoch/Enosh in Psalm 8:4 – “What is man [enosh] that you are mindful of him, the son of man [ben adam] that you care for him?” The parallelism makes it clear that the historical Enosh/Enoch is regarded as royal progenitor (Gen. 4 and 5) just as the meta-historical red Adam is regarded as progenitor. Among the ancients the historical and the type were both seen as real. Only empirical moderns have trouble with this.

To Abraham's Proto-Saharan and Nilotic ancestors the idea of a meta-historical archetype was not foreign. They did not require that something be historical to be true or real. They were metaphysical thinkers, something that we are not after generations of Pragmatism in American education.

In this essay we look at five approaches to understanding the Biblical narratives of Adam and Eve.


1. Literal Interpretation

In this view, Adam and Eve were the historical first parents of humanity. Many who hold this view also hold to a young earth creationism, placing Adam and Eve only about 6,000 years ago. They are not concerned with reconciling this view with the fact that the oldest human remains are millions of years old or that the Genesis genealogies are actually King Lists, not lsists of the first people living on earth. Analysis of the Genesis 4 and 5 marriage and ascendancy pattern reveals that Cain [1] and his brother Seth married into the royal house of Nok (Enoch). This would make Nok a contemporary of Adam.

2. Allegory
In this view, the story of Adam and Eve explains how humans fell from innocence to a state in which they experience suffering and death. An allegory is a literary and artistic device in which characters represent an idea or a religious or moral principle. Those who hold this view need not insist that Adam and Eve were historical persons. An example of the allegorical approach is Philo's commentary [2] which looks at the history of mankind, beginning at Genesis 2.


3. Federal Headship
Others view Adam as the “federal head” or head male who brought all of humanity into sin. They argue that Adam must therefore be an historical person. They cite Hebrews 7:9-10: “And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.” Here federal headship rests with Abraham, from whom Levi descended. Levi, who received tithes from his brothers, is said to have acted while still in the loins of his "father" Abraham when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (Gen. 14:20).

Of course, this misses the point that it was Eve who first sinned, not Adam.  She who was the crown of creation, who stood upright with her head to the heavens, submitted herself to the will of the lowest of creatures - one that moves with its belly near the earth. Eve's agreement to do the will of the serpent represents an inversion of the hierarchical order of creation.

Likewise, instead of listening to God, Adam listened to his wife and became like the serpent, eating dust all the days of his toil. Adam’s fall recalls his origins from dust: "And God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7).

4. Typology
In Romans 5:14, Paul declares that Adam “is a figure (tupos) of him that was to come”, i.e., Christ. Charles T. Fritsch [3] wrote that “A type is an institution, historical event or person, ordained by God, which effectively prefigures some truth connected with Christianity.” By this definition we can’t say that Jesus is like Adam or like Melchizedek. Instead we must hold that Adam is a type of the true Man Jesus and Melchizedek is a type of the One Priest whose ministry is Messianic and eternal.

Typology can be approach from another angle. Instead of prefiguring, a type can be understood as a shadow cast on the pages of Old Testament by a reality, embodiment or antitype found in the New Testament. According to this view, Adam is but a shadow (skia, following Colossians 2:17) of the eternal Form Man, who is Christ Jesus.

Typology must always be considered against the backdrop of the pattern of Reality. The use of antitupona, rendered “figures” (KJV) or “pattern” (ASV) in Hebrews 9:24, leads us to explore the pattern shown in Scripture and explored by the Church Fathers. Typology is fruitful because there is a pattern. It is the very weave of Reality and runs deeper than we generally recognize. We discover it when we explore the couplets found in Scripture: Two Passovers and Two Drunken Fathers, 2 Tabernacles: the earthly and heavenly, and 2 trees at the sacred center (here we have another type of the "tree in the midst of the garden" which has as its antitype the Cross at the center of all things, seen and unseen).


5. Myth
Some see the Adam and Eve story as an origin myth. Myths, like dreams, speak in symbols. Symbols pose meaning at the deepest level by presenting relationships. Adam is made from the red earth, which is the meaning of the word adamah. This may also be a reference to the place Adamah in west central Africa and to the ruddy skin color of the Nilotic peoples who give us this origin story. Myths lift up relationships such as flesh to spirit, woman to man, and heaven and earth, and also contain clues to the origin or source of the myth. The Adam and Eve story finds its closest parallels to origin myths of East Africa.

The cultural context of the Genesis creation stories is African [5]. That being so, we must try to understand the story in the context of creation stories held by African tribes. For example, we note the similarities of the Garden of Eden story to the story of Gikuyu and Mumbi, the first ancestors of the Gikuyu (East Africa). Here is a portion of that story:

Now you know that at the beginning of things there was only one man (Gikuyu) and one woman (Mumbi). It was under this Mukuyu that He first put them. And immediately the sun rose and the dark night melted away. The sun shone with a warmth that gave life and activity to all things. The wind and the lightning and thunder stopped. The animals stopped moaning and moved, giving homage to the Creator and to Gikuyu and Mumbi. And the Creator, who is also called Murungu, took Gikuyu and Mumbi from his holy mountain to the country of the ridges near Siriana and there stood them on a big ridge. The He took them to Mukuruwe wa Gathanga about which you have heard so much. But He had shown them all the land - yes, children, God showed Gikuyu and Mumbi all the land and told them: "This land I hand over to you, O Man and Woman. It is yours to rule and to till in serenity, sacrificing only to me, your God, under my sacred tree.

It is evident that Gikuyu and Mumbi are the first ancestors of the Gikuyu. They are not conceived by the Gikuyu as the progenitors of all humanity. Likewise, it is not necessary to insist that Adam and Eve are the progenitors of all humanity. Instead we may understand them as the first ancestors of the people who gave us Genesis. This concept of the first ancestors or heads of tribes and clans is found throughout the Bible. Midian is the head of the Midianites; Jacob is the head of the Israelites, and Lot is the head of the Moabites.

In the Revised Standard Version of the Bible the word adamah is rendered as “land” 105 times, as “ground” 67 times, as “earth” 37 times, as “soil” 6 times, and as “country” twice. It never refers to an historical person.

In what sense may we speak of Adam and Eve as real? The question reveals a shortcoming in the Western approach to Scripture.  We tend to equate real with historical, an equation that would have struck the ancients as strange. Our approach is informed by Empiricism which views as real only what is material and finite.

The biblical worldview, on the other hand, allows for metaphysical realness in the Platonic sense (although Plato likely borrowed his binary idea of Form and Image from the ancient Egyptians). Genesis presents Adam as real, not in the Empirical sense, but in the sense of archetypes.  In Platonic thought, the temporal and material is a reflection of the eternal and immaterial. The temporal passes away, but the eternal can neither pass away nor can it be corrupted or changed. St. Paul is a great master of the method and he views Adam as the archetype of the God-Man. Adam, the temporal and material points to Jesus Christ. Adam experiences corruption and passes away. Christ is ever without corruption and eternal. When Adam was made in the image of the eternal true Form, he was made in the Divine Image. In His incarnation, Christ our God was eternally 'begotten' of the Father, but without corruption since His existence is from before time.


6.  Archetype
Adam and Eve as archetype does not necessarily exclude the possibility that they are also ancestors.  The ancient Afro-Asiatics regarded ancestors as archetypes and archtypes as ancestors. A problem comes when we insist that they lived as the historical first parnets of all the people in the world. When we make this statement we force the Bible to say something that it doesn't say.  In fact, we make it say the opposite of what it says, because analysis of Genesis 4 and 5 reveals that Cain and Seth married the daughters of an African chief name Nok (Enoch) and where there are chiefs, there already exists a social fabric, laws, traditions, language and artifacts. Cain and Seth are themselves associated with the symbols of authority.  So if Adam and Eve are ancestors, they are ancestors of the descendants of Cain and Seth whose reigns were in Central East Africa.


NOTES

1. The genealogical information found in Genesis 4 and 5 reveals that Cain and his brother Seth married sisters. These brides were the daughters of a Nilo-Saharan chief named Nok (Enoch). The Nok civilization is dated between 12,000 and about 2000 years ago and is related to the Naqada civilization. Cain lived close to B.C. 3200 - 3050; the Naqada III civilization; the last century of the Predynastic period of Egypt. 

2. Read http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book2.html

3. Read Charles T. Fritch here: http://www.bible-researcher.com/fritsch.html

4. Read Wick Broomall here: http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/126-a-study-of-biblical-typology

5. Read about the cultural context of the Genesis creation stories here and here.



Reading reading:  Lamech Segment Analysis; Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; The African Cultural Context of Genesis 1-11; Christians Debate Genesis and Evolution; The Genesis King Lists; Bishop Ussher Goofed; Adam and Eve as Archetypal Ancestors; The First Verifiably Historical Persons in Genesis; Eve's Sin

Students Wonder "Why Abraham?"

Alice C. Linsley


Part 6:  Answers to High Schoolers' Questions about Abraham
This continues the series "Answers to Hign Schoolers' Questions About Genesis."

Part 1: About God
Part 2: About Adam and Eve
Part 3: About the Serpent
Part 4: About the Flood
Part 5: About the Earth


Q:  What made Abraham so special that God chose him?

A:  Abraham is a pivotal figure in the Bible. He is mentioned in 230 Bible verses and is the central figure of the book of Genesis. In Romans 4:1, the Apostle Paul calls Abraham "the chief of our forefathers." Paul explains that non-Jews who believe that Jesus is the Son of God have been grafted by God into the faith of Abraham. Here Paul uses the image of a tree, alluding to Jesus' parable of the kingdom of God as a great tree (Matt. 13:31).  He goes on to say that Jews who have rejected Jesus as the Son of God have been pruned from the tree.

Why is Abraham cited as one who had faith in the coming of the Son of God?  Because his Horite people believed that God would overshadow a virgin from among their ruler-priest lines and that she would become pregnant and give birth to the "Seed" of God who was first promised in Genesis 3:15.

In John 8, God promises to provide through Abraham’s Seed (see Acts 7:2ff.). Paul elaborates that the “Seed” of Abraham, through whom blessings are bestowed on all who believe, is Jesus, not Israel.  Jesus referred to Himself as the promised "Seed" when He foretold his death in Jerusalem. He told his disciples "Unless a seed fall into the ground and die, it cannot give life." (John 12:24)

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy Seed, which is Christ… And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:16, 29)

In the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:22-31), Jesus illustrates that not all who call Abraham "Father" will receive heavenly recognition.  To those who claimed special privilege by descent, He said, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do."

Christians assume that we alone are the recipients of God's revelation of His Son, yet Hebrews 4:2 states that the Gospel was preached to the Apostles' ancestors. From this we gather that that Abraham and Moses shared the faith of their ancestors to whom God first revealed the plan of salvation. We might call this the "Proto-Gospel" concerning the Seed of God who would be born of the ruler-priest lines. He was expected to pass through death to life and lead his people from the grave to eternal life. Until the day of resurrection at Christ's return, the faithful dead rest "in the bosom of Abraham."

When Abraham died at age 175 he was “gathered to his people” (Gen. 25:8). This phrase is used interchangeably with the phrase "gathered to his fathers."  The word for "fathers" is Horim and refers to ruler-priests among Abraham’s people. None of the rulers who were buried with great pomp and circumstance ever rose from the dead, but the Ruler-Priest Jesus did, thus proving Him to the the Seed of God.  (The ancient Egyptians regarded 175 as the ideal lifespan. Here we have further evidence of Abraham's Nilotic cultural context.)

Genesis is the story of God’s dealings with Abraham and his ruler-priest ancestors (chapter 1-12). The other chapters deal with Abraham's descendants before the establishment of a unified Israel under King David. Clearly, the promise concerning the Seed of God by the Woman (Gen. 3:15) does not originate with the Jews. It is much older. The expectation of Messiah's coming into the world was preserved by Abraham's ancestors to whom the promise was first made in Eden, a well-watered region that extended from East Africa to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. This appears to be the point of origin of the Proto-Gospel and the faith of Abraham. It is also the origin of the Christian faith. In this sense, the core of Christian belief may be considered the oldest known religion.



Abraham, Moses and David: A Common Pattern

While Abraham is certainly the pivotal figure of Genesis, he is not the only chosen leader in the Bible. Moses and David are other example. Moses led Israel out of Egypt and David ruled in Jerusalem. We cannot grasp the counsel of God or know why God appoints some to leadership, but by exploring what these men have in common, we discern a pattern.

None of these men were in line to rule. Only firstborn sons of wives ascended to the throne.
Abraham, Moses and David were all the youngest sons. This means that God chose the son who was not the heir.  Each of these men was sent away from home as an adult and forced to build a kingdom as God led him and with God's help. Each man was elevated by God to a position of leadership and strengthened through hardships.  The same can be said for Jacob, the young man who preferred to stay home (Gen. 25:27). After attempting to steal his brother's birthright, we was sent away and endured many trials before he returned to Palestine.



Q:  If God gave the land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants, doesn't that mean that He wants the Jews to have it?

This question springs from several false assumptions. First, Abraham was not a Jew.  He was a Horite who spoke a language closer to Arabic than to Hebrew. He lived approximately B.C. 2039-1964, about 1420 years before the Jewish people emerged as a distinct group.

Second, many of Abraham's descendants are not Jews. Abraham had nine sons and only those who descend from his grandson Jacob can be considered Jews. Further, Jewish identity did not exist before the Babylonian captivity (B.C. 587–538). It was formed through that trial where the people suffered far worse treatment than they did in Egypt before the Exodus.

It is impossible to speak of a single direct line from Abraham to the Jews because Abraham had nine sons and their descendants intermarried. The genealogical data in Genesis suggests that Abraham's firstborn son was Joktan, the forefather of the Joktanite tribes of Arabia. Abraham could as easily be described the first Arab, since most Arabs are descended from him through Joktan.

Abraham's descendants by Ishmael are Egyptians, since Ishmael's mother and wife were Egyptians and ethnicity was traced through the women, not the men. Ishmael was not Abraham's firstborn son.

The land was given to Abraham's descendants. Zionists attempt to validate an exclusive Jewish claim to the land by insisting that Jews have always been in Israel. However, Abaham's ancestors and Abraham himself were not Jews. They are best described as Afro-Arabians.

Zionism is a political ideology without Biblical support. It is the brainchild of the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl, who was not religious and was from a secular Pest family.  The Haredi Jews who live in Israel do not recognize the State of Israel because they believe only the Messiah can proclaim the Return. The Haredi are mostly indigenous orthodox Jews whose ancestors never left the land. They did not inherit the Zionist attitudes of Jews from the Babylonian diaspora.




Q:  What is the nature of the covenant that God made with Abraham?

A:  There are at least two covenants involving the person of Abraham. The covenant concerning Isaac is unconditional since Abraham was not able of his own power to produce an heir. The covenant concerning salvation for the world is conditional since it depends upon the faith of the individual, as it did for Abraham (Gen. 15:6). St. Paul says, "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that He would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith." (Rom. 4:13)


The Conditional Covenant with Abraham and His Heirs by Faith

A conditional or bilateral covenant is an agreement that binds both parties to fulfill certain conditions. If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party is required to fulfill the expectations of the covenant.

As Abraham was a Horite, he believed that God would fulfill the first promise of the Bible found in Genesis 3:15. This promise involves faith on the part of those who would enter into the promise.  Without faith, none can receive the gift of eternal life that comes through the work of Jesus the "Seed" of God, a descendant of Abraham. 

This part of the covenant is elaborated in the promise of many descendants. God kept this promise is evident in that Abraham had nine sons and an unknown number of daughters. Here is a list of the sons born to Abraham by his two wives: Sarah and Keturah, and by his two concubines: Hagar and Masek.

Sarah, daughter of Terah the Aramean (Gen. 20:12)
Isaac (Yitzak)

Hagar the Egyptian (Sarah’s handmaid)
Ishmael (Yismael), who was Egyptian since race/ethnicity was traced through the mother, as is true even today among Jews.

Keturah, daughter of Joktan the Afro-Arabian (Gen. 25)
Yishbak (His name means "sent away" and he was a sent-away son.)
Joktan – probably Keturah’s firstborn son
Midian
Zimran
Medan
Shuah

Masek, the Aramean/Syrian
Eliezar of Damascus

The promise of many offspring is amplified in Genesis 17:6 where God promises that nations and kings would descend from Abraham, and that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). This promise is expanded in the Davidic Covenant of 2 Samuel 7:12.  David's throne was not to pass away.  It would be filled by an eternal King, Jesus the Messiah, of whose kingdom there will be no end.



The Unconditional Covenant with Abraham Concerning an Heir


An unconditional or unilateral covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the parties is bound by the terms. Nothing is required of the other party. The unconditional covenant involves the promise of an heir to Abraham's throne by his sister wife Sarah. The enactment of this covenant is described in Genesis 15 where God appeared to Abraham as a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passing between the sacrificed animals halves.

When both parties passed between the animal pieces the fulfillment of the covenant was dependent upon both parties keeping their commitments. However, in this event God alone moved between the halves of the animals because Abraham was asleep. This is an unconditional covenant concerning the miraculous birth of an heir could be fulfilled by God alone. Issac was born and became Abraham's heir, instead of Eliezar.

Jews speak of the sacrifice of Isaac as the "binding of Isaac" (Akeidat Yitzchak) because their rabbis do not agree on what this story means. Most do not believe that Abraham intended to sacrifice his son. The story of the binding of Isaac suggests that Abraham likely believed that Isaac was the promised "Seed" of Genesis 3:15 since many of the circumstances surrounding Isaac align with the ancient Horus myth.

Consider the following correspondences:

Isaac was born miraculously (Gen. 21:5) as was Horus, who was said to have been born of a virgin queen Hathor who was overshadowed by the Sun, the emblem of God. Issac was not born of a virgin, but as with Jesus, he was born miraculously by the will of God, not man.

God named Isaac as the son by whom Abraham's Seed would be called (Gen. 21:12). His brother Ishmael was banished. Horus was exalted after being abused by his brother who was banished. Jesus will be exalted and those who reject Him will be banished to the fire.

Isaac was sacrificed by the father (by faith) and restored to life (Gen. 22:2-9), since to Abraham he was already given up (holocaust). Horus was restored to life on the third day in an Egyptian five-day ceremony. Ancient Egyptian funerary amulets were made in the shape of the Eye of Horus.

Isaac received the kingdom from his father (Gen. 25:25) just as Horus received a kingdom from Osiris. Jesus receives the kingdom from the Father. In the Horite myth, Horus and Osiris are frequently interchangeable - "I and my Father are one," as Jesus explained in John 10:30.

The miraculous birth of Isaac fulfilled the unconditional covenant God made with Abraham and pointed to the future miraculous birth of the "Seed" of God who would be born of the Virgin Mary.



Q:  How do we know that Abraham was a ruler?

A: Abraham was the son of a great ruler named Terah.  Terah was the son of a great ruler named Nahor.  All the men listed in the Genesis "begats" were rulers.  Further, Abraham's marriage and ascendancy structure is that of the ruler-priests. He maintained two wives in separate households on a north-south axis.  His first wife was his half-sister and the wife of his youth.  His second wife was a patrilineal niece or cousin and was taken before he established a kingdom. Abraham's firstborn son by Keturah ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, as was the Horite custom. Isaac, the promised son of Sarah, ascended to the throne of his father Abraham, as was the custom.

Before his death Abraham did two things that tell us that he had become a great ruler. First, he found a second wife for his son Isaac, which was required before Isaac could ascend to his father's throne.  We know that Rebecca was a second wife because she was Isaac's patrilineal cousin or niece. Second, he gave gifts to his other sons and sent them away from Issac to establish their own territories.



Q:  How do we know that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham?

A:  The Horites were a caste.  The ancient world had a strict caste structure. A universal characteristic of castes is endogamy. Endogamy means that caste members marry within their caste, never outside their caste.  The daughters of Horite ruler-priests married the sons of Horite ruler-priests. Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Onn (Heliopolis). Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of the priest of Midian.  This practice continued to Jesus' time.

Joseph, from whom Jesus inherited his social status and occupation, belonged to the ruler-priest line of Mattai (Matthew). Joseph's family lived in Nazareth which was the home of the eighteenth division of priests, that of Happizzez (1 Chronicles 24:15). The words happi and ntjr originate in the Nile Valley, as do the names of many of the ruler-priests listed in the genealogies in Luke and Matthew.

I Chronicles 4:4 lists Hur (Hor) as the "father of Bethlehem." The author of Chronicles knew that Bethlehem was originally a Horite settlement in the heart of Horite territory. The prophets foretold Bethlehem as the birth place of the Son of God.

Jesus' mother was Miriam daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr (Panther) Priests of Nathan of Beth Lehem. From predynastic times, ntjr designated the king among the Kushites. The name Panther or p-ntjr meant "God is King."

It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest caste because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” It is said that she was so despised that some Jews tried to prevent the Apostles from burying her body. Melchi, a name that appears twice in Mary's ancestry, means "my image" in Amharic and refers to kings.



Related reading:  The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; The Proto-Gospel: Jesus, the Son of God Fulfills the Horus Myth; The Ethnicity of Abraham and David; Abraham's Complaint

The Myth of Lilith

Lilith is not mentioned in Genesis. It would be speculating well beyond the biblical evidence to say that Lilith was Adam's first wife. However, early Hebrew rulers did have two wives. The theological problem arises when evil Lilith is posed as Adam's first wife, which according to the Hebrew marriage pattern, would mean she was Adam's half-sister. Did God create an evil wife? The Talmud suggests this. But the Lilith story is based, not on the canonical texts, but on the much later Babylonian myth.


Alice C. Linsley

Did Adam have a wife before Eve? According to Ben Sira he did, and her name was Lilith. There is only one reference to Lilith in the entire Bible. Isaiah 34:14 reads "there too Lilith shall repose." The translation is disputed. Following the King James Version, many Bibles render the passage "there too the night creature" or "the screech owl also shall rest there". Compare these:

Romanized Hebrew: pagšu ṣiyyim et-ʾiyyim w-saʿir ʿal-rēʿhu yiqra ʾakšam hirgiʿah lilit u-maṣʾah lah manoḫ ("yelpers meet-[perfect] howlers; hairy-ones cry-[imperfect] to fellow. liyliyth reposes-[perfect], acquires-[perfect] resting-place." )

Lilith flanked by owls

King James: "The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest."

Regardless of the differences, the context is clear in both texts that those mentioned are under Yahweh's judgment.

Lilith (Hebrew לילית) is a Mesopotamian mythological figure. It is not likely that she was known to Abraham's African ancestors from whom we receive the story of the first Father and Mother in the Garden. Lilith belongs to the pantheon that Daniel and his Judahites companions refused to worship in Babylon. She was associated with wind and storms and was thought to bring disease and death, especially to women and infants. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of Sumerian storm spirits as Lilitu around 4000 BC.

According to the myth of Lilith, she left Adam because he insisted that she submit to him. She spoke the Divine Name and gained such power that she became an angel, but when God told her to return to Adam, she refused and became a demon. She is cast as the epitome of the evil seductress who works in league with Satan to torment and destroy Adam's offspring.

Here is the passage from a 6th century A.D. midrash The Alphabet of Ben Sira:

After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone'. He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels to bring her back.

"Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.'

"'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.'

"When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers."

Lilith's existence as an historical person depends on a reading of Genesis 1 apart from Genesis 2. The woman created as Adam's equal in Genesis 1 is said to be Lilith and the woman created subservient (from Adam's rib) in Genesis 2 is said to be Eve. There are two immediately obvious problems with this interpretation. First, Lilith can hardly be an historical woman if Adam is not an historical person. Both Adam and Lilith belong to the realm of myth and a mythical Adam is as necessary as his historical counterpart Enoch. The Adam of rabbinic writings is more often mythical than historical. He may be considered the Form of Man, in the Platonic sense.

Second, Ben Sira and other rabbis were aware that the great chiefs listed in Genesis had two wives. They are constructing the Lilith myth on this culture trait, but culture traits only apply to historical persons living in real time. Lilith is not mentioned in Genesis because insinuating her presence overthrows the biblical picture of Adam and Eve living close to the Creator in Paradise. This paradise was lost due to disobedience of God's command given to them 'not to eat', not because Lilith refused to take the "missionary position" with Adam.

The Lilith myth reveals more about the 6th-century rabbis' attitude toward women than it does about God and creation.


(This article appeared in Yareah Magazine.)

Related reading: Adam and Eve: The Blood and the Birther; Adam Was A Red Man; The Historical Adam; The Lamech Segment Analysis; The Wisdom of Ben Sira

Cain as Ruler

Alice C. Linsley


If Adam is the first man in biblical parlance, Cain is the first ruler. The Bible reluctantly grants him this status as is evident from a study of what Cain symbolizes in Scripture. In this essay we will explore the symbolism of Cain as ruler.

Cain is one of three sons mentioned in Genesis. The sons are Cain, the first born, Abel the second born, and Seth the third born. Cain killed his brother Abel, not an uncommon occurrence when a dispute arises between brothers, especially brothers listed as rulers. Genesis 4 and 5, when taken together, represent the oldest known list of ruler-priests. These are the first ruler-priests among many who came to control the Afro-Asiatic Dominion, the heart of which was Eden.

The Bible tells us many details about Cain, all of them pointing to his rank as a ruler. When he was born his mother declared kan-itti.  E.A. Speiser noted that Qany(ty) or Qan itti shows close affinity to the Akkadian itti, as in itti šarrim, which means "with the king".  Akkadian was the language of the empire during Nimrod's time (BC 2290-2215). Genesis 10 tells us that Nimrod was a Kushite, so it is not surprising to find that Akkadian shares many words with Nilotic languages. Among the Oromo of Ethiopia and Somalia, itti is attached to names. Examples include Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and Dimashqitti. That itti is associated with Nilotic rulers is evident in the name Nefertitti.

Cain was a tiller of the soil (Gen. 4:2). He controlled a territory as did Noah, one of his descendents, who was said to have planted a vineyard.

Cain married his cousin, the royal daughter of Enoch (Nok) as evidenced by analysis of the Genesis 4-5 kinship pattern.

He was a city builder (Gen. 4:17) as was his descendent Nimrod. These cities represent sacred centers of larger territories.

Cain is associated with metal smiths and one of his descendents – Tubal-Cain – is said to be the “father” of smiths. Smiths held a high social status in the ancient world. Early in the upper Nile, Badari smiths smelted copper. These are the same people who used ritual flint knives for circumcision, such at that used by Zipporah.

Cain’s name is derived from the word meaning “possession” or “lot”. As the first born son, he inherited the role of ruler. We might ask if he inherited it from Adam or by marrying into the House of Enoch (Nok).

He was a religious man, offering sacrifice to God, though his sacrifice wasn’t always acceptable (Gen. 4:5).

His bride named their first-born son after her father, which was the pattern among the ruler-priests of Abraham’s people.

Cain’s first-born son married his patrilineal parallel cousin, a daughter of Seth, and she named their first born son Irad. Irad’s daughter married her patrilineal cousin, Mahalalel and named their first-born son Jared after her father. Irad and Jared are linguistically equivalent, and the name means descent.

One of Cain’s daughters married her cousin Enosh and named their first-born son Kenan or Kain, after her father. Factoring the daughters into the genealogical picture of Genesis 4-5 clarifies the kinship pattern of Abraham's ancestors. The consistency of the pattern supports the biblical claim that this genealogical material presents biological father-son descent rather than a telescopic view. It also makes it clear that the repetition of names in Genesis 4 and Genesis 5 is not a case of literary doublets.

By the time that Jude wrote his epistle (c. 68 AD) Cain was solidly established as the archetype of an earthly ruler. Jude warns those who might abandon Christ because of their suffering and false teachers that 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 they were often filled by people corrupted by the world. Cain killed his brother whose offering was acceptable to God. This speaks of the Jewish rulers who killed Jesus Christ. Balaam prophesied for profit as did the sorcerer Bar-Jesus who was condemned by the Apostle Paul. Korah, Moses’ half-brother (the first-born of Amram by Ishar) opposed Moses’ authority in the wilderness and died. Korah was a priest, as evidence by his name which means shaved one. It is a name associated with Egyptian priests.

So Cain as ruler is an important archetype in the Bible. He represents a rightfully appointed ruler who is corrupted by desire for worldly power, fame and wealth. He murdered his brother who was preferred by God, just as Saul tried to kill David who was chosen by God to take Saul's place. We have no evidence that Cain repented of this murder (as did David of killing Uriah), but God did not execute him as he deserved. Instead God showed him mercy by allowing him to become established as a ruler, by protecting him from those who might kill him, and by allowing him to be one of the ancestors of Christ our God.


NOTE

The name Kandake (Candace in English) is a Kushite name. It is found originally in Meroe/Nubian culture. The Greeks thought that Kandake was a proper name but it is a royal title and the female version of Kain/Kano appearing first in Genesis 4. This is likely the origin of the title Khan and King.


Related reading: Objections to a Fundamentalist Reading of Genesis, Who Was Kain's Father?



 

About Race, Human Populations, and the Purpose of Mankind

Alice C. Linsley


Part 7: Answers to Questions about Race and Population
This continues the series "Answers to Hign Schoolers' Questions About Genesis."

Part 1: About God
Part 2: About Adam and Eve
Part 3: About the Serpent
Part 4: About the Flood
Part 5: About the Earth
Part 6: High Schoolers Wonder "Why Abraham?"



Q:  How did the different races come about?

A:  The modern conception of race is not biblical. This explains why the term "race" does not appear in the Bible. All humans share common ancestry and our point of origin is Africa millions of years ago.

Instead of race, the Bible speaks of ethnicities. In fact it mentions many ancient populations and cultures.

In Genesis 25, we find the words goyim and leumim (peoples) to describe two peoples who descend from Jacob by Rebekah. 

In the New Testament, the Greek word ethnos is used for peoples or nations. The Hebrew goyim is used to distinguish non-Jews from Jews. Both goyim and ethnos refer to peoples or nations, not to races.

The term "race" is misleading. Today molecular genetics classifies populations by "haplogroups" and people who look very different can be in the same haplogroup.

Haplogroups characterize the early migrations of human populations and can be used to connect ancestry with a geographical region or regions. A haplogroup identifies the descendants of a single individual who first showed a particular single nucleotide polymorphism, or SNP. An SNP is a point on the DNA where a single base changes. This SNP change is passed through generations of the family, clan or caste, and can be used to genetically define populations. Individuals with the same genetic SNP mutation or "marker" can be linked back to the population where the marker first made an appearance. 

Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups have different haplogroup designations. The Y-chromosome traces paternal ancestry and the mt-DNA traces maternal ancestry.

Genesis does not tell us about all the haplogroups. It tells us about the peoples in Y-DNA haplogroup A, the lineage of all human males. 

It also tells us about the dispersion of the Y-DNA R1 populations out of Africa, shown on this map.

The dark red spot in central Africa is Noah's homeland, the region of Bor-No.

Mitochondrial Eve

"Mitochondrial Eve" lived about 200,000 years ago. She is the most recent female common ancestor. Found in the energy-producing centers of cells, mitochondrial DNA is passed down the maternal line, and can be traced back to one woman. Both males and females inherit the Mt-DNA from their mothers, but only females pass it on to their children. The people of Genesis are grouped according to their clan mothers: J1, N, X and L1, L2 and L3. 

In these haplogroups we find every "racial" feature: black, white, yellow, and red skin tones; brown, blue, and green eyes; woolly, wavy, and straight hair; facial hair and no facial hair; slanted almond-shaped eyes, round eyes, heavy lids; high foreheads and low foreheads, thick lips and thin lips, prominent noses and flat noses, and every head shape.

The fact that the lines of Ham and Shem cannot be separated linguistically or genetically underscores that their lines intermarried. It also testifies to the biblical assertion of Genesis 11:1 that all the peoples listed in the Table of Nations were one people with common ancestry. The lines of Ham and Shem intermarried as demonstrated by analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's ancestors.

Q:  If Adam and Eve's children married each other, isn't that the sin of incest?

A:  Incest is universally defined as sexual relations between parent and child, not between siblings. In the culture of Abraham's Horite Hebew people, the preferred marriage arrangement for the first wife was a half-sister. Sarah was Abraham's first wife and his half-sister. Jochebed was Amram's half-sister and his first wife. However, sex between parent and child was taboo and forbidden. Such perversion was regarded as so despicable that it was used to slander Lot's Ammonite and Moabite descendants (Gen. 19: 30-38).



Q:  How did the whole earth's population come from just Adam and Eve?

A:  The Bible does not say that all human populations came from Adam and Eve. It does state that all who live today are of "one blood." 

It also is not possible to say that the whole earth's population came from Noah's descendants after the flood. Noah lived about 3490-2800 BC when the Sahara experienced a wet period (the African Aqualithic). He lived at the same time as the Horite Hebrew shrine city of Nekhen.



Q:  Did other families exist on earth at the same time that Adam and Eve lived?

A: In the Bible, Adam and Eve are present different ways. Adam is posed as the archetypal first father and Adam and Eve as the original couple. This is an archetype, not to be taken as historical.

However, Adam and Eve are also presented as historical in the Bible. They are the parents of Cain and Seth who married the daughters of Enoch, a contemporary of Adam. The data of Genesis suggests that Adam and Enoch are the ancestors of the rulers listed in Genesis 4, 5 and 11. This may explain why the names Adam and Enoch are parallel in Psalm 8:4:

What is man (Enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?

The Apostle Paul speaks of Adam analogically. He draws and analogy between Adam by whom sin and death entered and Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, who overturns the curse, defeats death and restores paradise.



Q:  Did all the peoples of the earth come from Noah's three sons after the flood?

A:  No. Humans were already dispersed into Europe and Asia by 100,000 years ago, long before Noah's time. They were in the New World by 11,000 years ago.

Q:  How many generations are from Adam and Eve to Abraham?

A:  That is impossible to answer this because we cannot know when Adam and Eve existed. We also cannot say exactly how many generations from Cain to Abraham since the Genesis Kings lists do not correspond to generations, but to the reign and succession of the Horite Hebrew rulers.

Between 100,000 and 500 BC the average man lived less than 40 years and the average woman lived less than 38 years. These life spans would have been longer for rulers due to their superior diets and access to medical resources. So it is conceivable that the rulers named in Genesis lived relatively long lives, with the exception of those who died by assassination or in battle. We might estimate their life spans to be between 60 and 80 years (average would be 70). This would mean that a dynastic line of a depth of 10 rulers would represent between 300 and 400 years. 

One factor that must be considered is whether a ruler is the firstborn of the sister-bride or the cousin/niece bride. The sister-bride was the first wife and the wife of the ruler's youth. The cousin/niece bride was the wife that the heir married before ascending the throne. For the sister-wife's firstborn son, the father's age would be between 18 and 25 (median would be 21). So we can estimate that generally the firstborn son of the sister-wife would have been born when his father was about 21. For the cousin/niece bride's firstborn son the father's age would be between 45 and 60 (median would be 52). So we can estimate that the cousin-bride produced an heir or priest (for her father, not her husband) when her husband was about age 52.

We do not know how long the rulers of Genesis lived. Noah is said to have lived 950 years. Methuselah lived 969 years. Methuselah's son, Lamech the Younger, lived 777 years. Abraham's father, Terah, lived longer than Jacob by 58 years. The numbers assigned to the Genesis rulers are symbolic and some are linked to astronomical observations. Clearly, symbolic numbers cannot be used to determine actual life spans. 

Q:  Why were the men in Genesis so old?

A. The life spans assigned to the kings of Genesis are symbolic. Ancient clay tablets have been discovered that recount the greatness ofassign as much as a thousand years to some Sumerian and Akkadian rulers. However, all these lived normal live spans for rulers of the time. The average life span for rulers was between 73 and 75 years.

Paleontology indicates that the average lifespan of commoners was shorter. The life span of peoples living in the Nile Valley, Turkey and Mesopotamia during the time of the Genesis rulers was about 35 years for males and 30 years for females. This data corresponds to peoples in the Late Paleolithic (BC 30,000 to 9,000) when males lived about 34 years and females about 30 years. During the Mesolithic (BC 9,000 to 7,000) males lived about 33 years and females about 31 years. During the Early Neolithic (BC 7,000 to 5,000) males lived about 34 years and females about 30 years.

St. Jerome notes: "I am reviewing carefully the places in Scripture where I might find old age mentioned for the first time. Adam lived for 930 years, yet he is not called an old man. Methuselah's life was 969 years, and he is not called an old man. I am coming down all the way to the flood, and after the flood for almost three thousand years, and I find no one who has been called old. Abraham is the first, and certainly he was much younger than Methuselah." (Homilies on the Psalms 21)

Jerome observes that Abraham is the first man described as "old" in Genesis. Those who lived before him are not called old because the numbers assigned to them are symbolic. 



Q:  Why did God create Mankind?

A: The answer to this question varies from religion to religion. Islam teaches that Mankind was created to live in submission to Allah and for the purpose of worshipping Allah. Qur'an 51:56 states, "I have created the jinn and humankind only for My worship."

The Jinn are divided into followers of Islam and followers of the abased Iblis (a sort of fallen angel). The Jinn were commanded to bow down before Adam, but Iblis refused. God said, "What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?" He replied, "I am better than him. You created me from fire and You created him from clay." God said, "Descend from heaven. It is not for you to be arrogant in it. So get out! You are one of the abased." Surah 7 (al-A`raf), 11-13.

In Judaism, Man exists at God's pleasure and has liberty to obey or not to obey God's commands. The rabbis say that "Adam was created from the dust of the place where the sanctuary was to rise for the atonement of all human sin," and this means that sin should not be a permanent or inherent part of man's nature. 

Genesis 1 claims that humans are a special creation, fashioned in the image of the God. Christians believe that Mankind was created to enjoy perfect fellowship with God in Three Persons (the Trinity), in whose image and likeness we were made. When we seek God, we are renewed in our intended nature through Jesus Christ, and grow more like Him by the in-dwelling Holy Spirit. 


Related reading: Three Portraits of Adam; The Historicity of Noah's Flood; The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; Thoughts on Calculating the Dates of the Patriarchs; Lifespans of Archaic Peoples: John Calvin on God's Motive in Creation