A Scientific Timeline of Genesis

Alice C. Linsley

In this overview I am not attempting to provide a "history of humankind" but instead I am attempting to trace the dispersion of the ancestors of Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel and Jesus Christ.

Between JUST GENESIS and my other blog Biblical Anthropology, I have investigated the prehistoric roots of Biblical peoples more deeply than any other anthropologist to date and I have done so using the standard tools and methodologies: kinship analysis, comparative linguistics, comparative cosmologies, climate and migration studies, molecular genetics, and archaeology.


Africa is the point of origin of all living humans

It is accepted that Africa is where the first human populations emerged and the oldest human fossils have been found there. The oldest languages are in the Afro-Asiatic family and comparative study of these languages suggests a dispersion out of Africa. Scholars have recognized, for example, linguistic affinity between Manding and Japanese and between Manding and words found across Southeast Asia. Dr. Clyde A. Winters has demonstrated the linguistic connection between ancient Elamite, Dravidian, Manding and Sumerian. He believes that these diverged from a common Paleo-African language used by the Proto-Saharans.

The name Sulawesian, for example, is derived from the word Sulawe which appears to be related to ancient Egyptian and Dravidian words for rice and writing. The Egyptian word for writing is ssw; and the Mande sewe; and the Dravidian ha-verasu (referring to written record of rice sales). Likely, "Sulawesi" is a reference to written accounts of rice sales. If those who were moving from island to island were merchants, they would have recorded their transactions.

On Madagascar, the weight of one grain of rice is called vary, and corresponds to the Swahili wari and to the Dravidian verasu. The Hebrew word for rice is orez and Arabic ruz and these share the RZ root with Dravidian. The Dravidian word reflects the written records of commercial weights.

Linguistic connections are further evident in the term for slash and burn cultivation used in Sulawesi and East Africa. The word trematrema is used in Northeast Betsimisaraa to refer to a one to three year old slashed-and-burnt field. It is related to the Swahili word tema, ‘to cut’, and the redoubled form tematema, ‘to slash, to chop." This technique is used also by Sulawesians who practice "dry rice" planting.

Recent linguistic studies indicate that the basic phonemes found in virtually every language can be traced back to a words spoken by our Stone Age ancestors in Africa.

Anthropologists have noted similarities in religious practices pertaining to the ancestors, knob sticks used by rulers, burial in red ocher, and shrine settlements along major rivers and at elevated rock shelters called by various names, including kar/car, tamana, or ophel. The Bible is often critical of "the high places" because of some of the occult practices done there.

Genetic diversity

When the average person thinks of Africa today, they imagine people with a black or dark skin tone and wooly hair. This is a false idea. From the beginning the greatest genetic diversity has existed in Africa. There were black and red Nubians, for example. The San Bushmen, one of the oldest known groups in the world, have a skin tone associated more with the Chinese. The Khoisan-Japanese connection seems more probable when we consider the other names  Arabic name for the San: Wakwak (Arabic) and Wanege (Sandawe of Tanzania). Wa was the earlier name for Japan and the word appears in the name Okina-wa. The African variant is Jokinawah, which may be related to the names of the biblical rulers Joachin and Joktan.

Recent DNA studies have revealed that the Ainu of Hokkaido and the Ryukyuans of Okinawa have a closer genetic affinity than either group has to the Japanese.

For the Biblical Anthropologist, the peoples in the R1b Haplogroup (Y-DNA) and the X Haplogroup (MY-DNA) are of special interest. R1b is found widely in Africa, Southern Europe, France, and the British Isles. This dispersion took place over thousands of years beginning about 20,000 to 18,000 years ago.

Haplogroup R1b, also known as haplogroup R-M343, is the most frequently occurring Y chromosome haplogroup in Western Europe, some parts of Russia (the Bashkir minority), Central Asia (e.g. Turkmenistan) and in the region of Lake Chad and along the Nile.

This is the Haplogroup of Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors who dispersed widely and are known my many different names in ancient history: Kushites, Kushan, Ainu, Saka, Hittites, etc. Among them was a caste of priests known in ancient texts as 'Apiru, Hapiru, Habiru or Hebrew.

The word "Hebrew" appears in ancient Egyptian and Akkadian texts. The Habiru were already widely dispersed in the 14th-13th centuries B.C. Their spread was driven by their unique marriage and ascendancy pattern by which sons were sent away to established their own territories.


Forming a hypothesis using biblical data

The book of Genesis is an extremely valuable source of significant data about the earliest human populations. It provides details that are useful in reconstructing a picture of human origins, diversity of populations, migrations, technological development, religious practices, early rulers and the Afro-Asiatic worldview.

There is no conflict between the data of Genesis 1-12 and the concrete findings of science. Genesis provides an accurate and reliable picture of reality, as we will see in this scientific timeline of Genesis.



ca. 4.6-4.8 billion years the Earth formed. Genesis 1 begins with the Earth already formed. The primal substance is water in a chaotic state. The Breath/Spirit of God (Ruach) went forth and established order, separating the waters above from the waters below (vertical axis), and the dry land from the sea (horizontal axis).  Here the cross is already prefigured in Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:9 says that there was only one body of water (rendered "one mass" in the Greek; "one place" in the Hebrew). This indicates that there was one land mass at the beginning. God called the land "Earth" (Gen. 1:10). Scientists call this "Pangaea."

ca. 65 million years ago the great dinosaurs disappeared though the aviary dinosaurs continued to exist for some time.

ca. 4 million years ago humans appear suddenly and unheralded upon the Earth in the region designated as Eden. Genesis describes Eden as a vast area extending from East Africa to Mesopotamia.These archaic populations were fully human, as evidenced by human dentition, tools, controlled fire, evidence of hunting, and anatomical structure like modern humans.

ca. 100,000 - 20,000 years ago human populations had spread out of Africa to virtually every continent. During this time rulers were buried in red ochre powder, a symbol of blood, by which they expressed hope in life after death. Perhaps the oldest case (at least 50,000 years ago) involves the burial of a small boy in the Lebombo Mountains of Southern Africa. He was buried with a sea-shell pendant and covered in red ochre dust (ground hematite).

A man buried 45,000 years ago at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in southern France was packed in red ochre.

The Fox Lady of Doini Vestonice in Czechoslovakia was covered in red ochre at her burial 23,000 years ago.

Ainu/MicMac of Canada

The Red Lady of Paviland in Wales was buried in red ochre about 20,000 years ago. Her skeletal remains and burial artifacts are encrusted with the red ochre. Another 20,000 year old burial site in Bavaria reveals a thirty-year-old man entirely surrounded by a pile of mammoth tusks and nearly submerged in a mass of red ochre. Native Americans used red ochre for ceremonies and also to bury their dead.

ca. 20,000 - 12,000 years ago there began to be a distinction between two main genetic and linguistic groups: African and Asiatic. This is remembered as a time when "the whole world had one language and a common speech" (Gen. 11:1). The two main groups of peoples were still so closely related that this period may be referred to as the "Afro-Asiatic dispersion" or the Afro-Asiatic Dominion.





ca. 8000 years ago the Ainu/Anu were migrating out of the Nile Valley toward Finland and Japan. They spread into Europe, Central Asia and the British Isles. From Finland they crossed to Greenland and Labrador and from Labrador to the eastern seaboard of Canada. The Ainu were a seafaring people. They ranged in skin tone from red to reddish brown and tan, and the men wore beards and had long wavy hair.

Ainu elder of Northern Japan

The Ainu are in mtDNA haplogroup X. The dispersion of haplogroup X is shown below. The greatest concentrations are indicated by the darker shade. MtDNA traces lineage by the mitochondria, received from the mothers.

There is a connection between Abraham's ancestors and the Ainu. Abraham's father held the title Terah/Tera which is an Ainu word, meaning "priest." Tera-ntr refers to a ruler-priest. Het/Heth was a Sidonian ruler-priest who ruled at a temple in Canaan (Gen. 10:15). The following image is from Petrie's 1939 archaeological discoveries.[1]

Note the skullcap with dark frontal piece, and the beard and moustache are like that of the Ainu elders shown above. Note also the knob stick, called "rod" in Numbers, where we are told that the rod of Aaron blossomed. This was carried by the clan chief and passed through the generations from chief to chief.

Further confirmation of the connection between Abraham's ancestors and the Ainu is the obvious correspondence of the Ainu and the Hebrew scripts. The Ainu were the original settlers of the islands of Japan. They are sometimes called "Hannu" which may be the etymology of Han, another script used in Japan. The character table shown below was developed during the 7th century and brought by Yuetzhi scribes who came to Japan via the Korean peninsula. It is believed to have been finalized by the Buddhist monk Kukai. The Yuetzhi were ethnically Kushite.

There also are many similarities in clothing, facial appearance, skin tone, and religious practices among the Kushan-Yuetzhi and the Nilotic Ainu. Both mummified their rulers. The gold medallion belts found at Kushan graves are similar to the roundel belts depicted on statues of ruler-priests found within the temple complex at Hatra between the Tigris and Euphrates. The rulers of Hatra controlled commerce that moved through their territory along the two main caravan routes that connected Mesopotamia with Syria and Asia Minor. The principle deity was Shamash whose emblem was the Sun. Shamash means "throne of the Sun" in Arabic. This is the same deity as Ra who overshadowed Hathor. She became pregnant and gave birth to Horus, called "son" of the Creator.

The rulers of Edom were devotees of Horus and therefore known as Horites. The Edomites are associated with the color red and edom means red. Probably some had red hair and a reddish skin tone. This is the Biblical description of Isaac's son Esau who was born red and hairy. Esau the Younger married a Horite woman of Edom, a descendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. 36).

Abraham's territory was entirely in the region of Edom. It extended between Hebron, where Sarah reside, and Beersheba, where Keturah resided.

There are many connections between Japanese and African words. For example, the name Isahi is a variant of Esau or Issa. Kishi appears to be a variant of Kish and Kush. Obito, the title for a regional chief in Japan, is related to the Edo (Africa)/Edomite (Southern Arabia) word for chief, which is Oba. The first ruler of Petra was the Horite ruler Obodas. These ancient rulers were said to have a reddish skin tone, as was the case with Esau and David. The ancient Greeks called Edom "Idumea" which means "land of red people." The original name of Tokyo was Edo.

The dispersion of the ruler-priests

Abraham's ancestors were priests who were devotees of Horus. They were called "Ha-piru" or "Ha-biru" which refers to the Sun temples (O-piru = Sun house/temple). Ha-biru (HBR) is the origin of the word Hebrew (HBR). This was a caste that of great antiquity and prestige. These priests were attached to rulers and kingdom builders from Africa to China and from Anatolia to Ireland.

ca. 6000 years ago Abraham's ancestors built temples to worship the Creator and His son Horus who was said to be born of Hathor, a virgin of their ruler-priest lines. Hathor and she conceived by the overshadowing of the Sun, the emblem of the Creator.  Her totem was the cow and she was portrayed as wearing the sun in the horns, as a sort of solar cradle, indicating divine appointment. At the Dedura Temple at Karnak she is shown holding her newborn in a manger.

One function of the ruler-priests was circumcision using flint knives such as the one shown here from the Naqada III culture (3200-3050 BC). The practice of circumcision originated in the area of the Nile and Sudan. This was a time of transition from loosely associated communities under local chiefs to the unification of the Upper and Lower Nile regions under powerful kings. King Menes was the first to unite the peoples of the Nile Valley and he instituted the Law of Tehut to govern his kingdom. 

Genesis 4 and 5 lists the Nilo-Saharan rulers who lived 5000-4800 years ago.    . Among them are Enoch, Cain, Seth, Methuselah and Lamech. These rulers had a unique marriage and ascendancy pattern that also served to drive many of their  sons out of Africa into Mesopotamia, the Indus River Valley and Southern Europe. One of these sent-away sons was Nimrod who build a great kingdom in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Abraham is one of his descendants. 

Noah lived in the region of Lake Chad about 4500 years ago. This corresponds to a prolonged wet period in the Sahara know by various names: the Africa Humid Period, the Aqualithic, the Gurian Wet Period, etc.  This corresponds to the time of the Old Kingdom, a period of great cultural and technological achievement. This places Noah and his sons in relatively recent history, not at the dawn of human existence.

Possibly Noah was the last predynastic Proto-Saharan ruler. The Proto-Saharans are called "Kushites" in the Bible and Saka in Vedic texts. They are said to have ruled the ancient world for 7000 years.

Once we arrive at the time of Noah (2490-2415 BC), it is easier to calculate dates because there is a great deal of historical information about the Nilotic peoples and the rulers of Egypt.

Alignment of Egypt Chronology with Genesis King Lists, following Breasted’s Egypt timeline [2].

First Intermediate Period
7th - 8th Dynasties: 2475-2445 BC
Shem
Ham (2438-2363)
Japheth
Kush (2417-2342)

9th -10th Dynasties: 2445–2160 BC
Salah (2217-2042)
Eber (2196-2121)
Peleg (2175-2100)


Middle Kingdom
11th Dynasty: 2160-2000 BC
Reu (2154-2079)
Serug (2133-2058)
Nahor (2112-2037)
Terah (2091-2016)
Abraham (2039-1964)

12th Dynasty: 2000-1788 BC
Joktan the Younger, Abraham's firstborn son (1987-1912)
Esau
Jacob
Joseph

Note that the reigns of some of these rulers overlapped. For example, Tubal-Cain (Gen. 4:22) and Methuselah (Gen. 5:22-25) ruled at the same time. This is another reason that the "begats" of Genesis cannot be used to calculate the age of the Earth, as was attempted by Bishop James Ussher.


NOTES

[1] Flinders Petrie (1853 – 1942) was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artifacts. He held the first chair of Egyptology in the United Kingdom, and excavated many of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt.

[2] James Henry Breasted (1865 – 1935) was an American archaeologist and historian. After completing his PhD at the University of Berlin in 1894, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago. In 1901 he became director of the Haskell Oriental Museum at the University of Chicago, where he continued to concentrate on Egypt. In 1919 he became the founder of the Oriental Institute at the University, designed to be a lab for research into the rise of civilization in the Near East. In 1905 Breasted was promoted to professor in the first chair in Egyptology and Oriental History in the United States.


Related reading: When is the Evidence Sufficient?; Millions of Years a Stumbling Block;  The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Was Noah Mesopotamian or Proto-Saharan?; The Nile-Japan Ainu Connection; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; Genetics Confirms Biblical Migrations; The Horite Ancestry of Jesus Christ; The Genesis King Lists; Objections to the Fundamentalist Reading of Genesis 1-5; Abraham's Ainu Ancestors; Jesus Fulfills the Edenic Promise; The Biblical Evidence of an Old Earth; Millions of Years Between Genesis 4:1 and Genesis 4:17; Adam Was a Red Man