Alice C. Linsley
In Genesis, Adam's wife is called Hava (חוה) which is
descriptive of her role as the birther (Gen. 3:20). Just as Abraham left his
father's house to gain a kingdom which required that Sarah give birth to his proper
heir, so Adam was to leave his father and mother and cleave to Eve (Gen. 2:24)
that he might establish a line of descendants. His descendants include
Ammonites, Canaanites, Edomites, Hittites, Kushites, Midianites, and Moabites.
Who might Adam’s father be in the original context of the
Genesis 2-3 narrative? I my view, the Adam and Eve story speaks of African
riverine populations of the middle Neolithic Period (6000-3800 BC). In that
context God is their father.
Adam describes Eve as bone of his bone and flesh of his
flesh, suggesting that she and he may have the same father, as did Sarah and
Abraham. As Adam's half-sister, she would have produced Adam's heir, which is Cain
as the first-born son. This may explain the royal affix -itti- in Genesis 4: I,
where Eve claims to have acquired a man or a ruler with God's help. E. A.
Speiser (Anchor Bible Commentary on Genesis, p. 30) believes that the Hebrew
qaniti (Gen. 4:1) is in assonance with "Cain" (Qayin). However, the
word that appears here is Akkadian, not Hebrew. Iti or itti is an affix that
appears with rulers’ names, and in reference to deities. For example, itti
šarrim means "with the king." Another example: itti-Bel-balatu means
"with Bel there is life." Itti appears in royal names such as
Nefertitti. Even today among the Oromo of the Horn of Africa the affix
designates persons of high social standing: Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and
Dimashqitti.
It appears that Cain's mother believed that she gave birth
to a ruler. Indeed, Cain is the archetypal earthly ruler throughout the Bible.
The Book of Jude warns those who might fall prey to false teachers that God
punishes those who rebel against Him. He uses these examples: Cain the ruler,
Balaam the prophet, and Korah the priest.
Circles represent the wives of Cain and Seth.
Explanation of Diagram: The left side is Cain's line (Gen. 4) and the right side is Seth's line (Gen. 5). The analysis reveals the early Hebrew kinship feature of the cousin bride's naming prerogative. The cousin bride named her first-born son after her father. Kain's unnamed daughter married her cousin Enosh and named their first-born son Kenan/Kain after her father. Irad's unnamed daughter married her cousin Mahalalel and named their first-born sons Jared/Yared/Irad after her father. Lammech the Elder's daughter Naamah married Methuselah and named their first-born son Lamech.Adam, Eve, Kain, Seth and all their descendants listed in
Genesis 4 and 5 are rulers. Their marriage and ascendancy pattern involved marriage
to half-sisters and patrilineal cousins. According to the Genesis 4 and 5 kinship analysis (see diagram above), Kain
and Seth married the daughters of a ruler named Enoch/Enosh/Enos, and their
brides named their first-born sons after their father. Enoch/Enosh is a royal
title referring to succession. Enoch is derived from the Ancient Egyptian
anochi which is the royal first-person pronoun.
Among the Igbo, anochie means “a replacer” or “to replace”
and among the Ashante the word ano kyi means "Ano Junior." In these
cases, we find the idea of succession, suggesting royal lineages. A Nigerian
philologist friend reports that Anochie also means "direct heir to a
throne." Therefore, the biblical name "Enoch" is associated with
royal ascendancy. That may explain why the words Enoch and adam are paralleled
in Psalm 8:4. Their royal lines intermarried.
"What is man (Enoch) that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man (ben adam) that you care for him?”
Perhaps Adam and Eve lived in close communion with the Creator
for eons before Satan tempted Eve. We tend to think of Adam and Eve as callow
youth. Perhaps they did not age physically, but they matured experientially. Why
couldn’t they have lived for eons before the fall?
This is a fascinating aspect of the meta-historical view of
Adam and Eve. In this view, they are above time and ageless. The Bible presents
at least 3 portraits of Adam and this is one of them. It is less about an event
in history than it is about an understanding of God that is typically African.
The late Dr. Abraham Akrong, formerly at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, explains: "God in Africa is a relational being who is known through various levels of relationship with creation. In relationship to humanity, God is the great ancestor of the human race. Therefore, all over Africa God is portrayed more in terms of a parent than as sovereign."
Related reading: Three Portraits of Adam
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