Reading Genesis as Verifiable History

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Chapters 1-11 of Genesis often are called "Prehistory" in the sense that the persons and events detailed in these chapters supposedly took place before the invention of writing. This is an erroneous assumption because numerous scripts existed before the time of Adam and Eve (c.5000 BC). Among them are Vinča scripts believed to be the earliest form of writing, predating ancient Nilotic and Sumerian writing by thousands of years. What is known of these signs is limited because the inscriptions are short and found mainly on clay burial objects such as the one shown here.

Three 7300-year tablets with incised Vinča scripts were discovered in 1961 at a Neolithic site in the village of Tărtăria, Romania. One is shown above. The tablets were buried with the burnt, broken, and disarticulated bones of an adult male. 

Ancient Nilotic scripts date to c.4000 BC and were the work of priest scribes. Most of the surviving texts appear on the walls of tombs or monuments. Some of these have been collected and translated to English. (See The Ancient Pyramid Texts).

Sumerian scripts date to c.3400 BC and appear on clay tablets. Sumerian royal scribes kept records of transactions, trade agreements, laws, and treaties. Their cuneiform writing was created by making wedge-shaped indentations in clay tablets using a reed stylus.

Akkadian scripts date to c.2500 BC (500 years before Abraham). These were written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay.

All of these languages predate the alphabetic Proto-Canaanite scripts which date from c.1700-1500 BC. The oldest known Paleo-Hebrew scripts date to c.1000 BC. The early Hebrew (5000-2000 BC) did not speak Hebrew or use the Hebrew script.

If we conceive of history as a written phenomenon, Genesis 1-11 clearly cannot be described as prehistory. It is about people and events between 5000-2000 BC when writing existed among various populations.  

"Primeval History" is another Misnomer

Another misleading description of the early chapters of Genesis is "Primeval History." Today much information is available about humans who lived many millennia before the historical Adam and Eve (C.5000 BC). Some fossil remains of archaic humans date to over 3 million years. Archaeological discoveries verify that humans gravitated to the ancient water systems of Africa where they fished using barbed harpoons and hooks made from the jaw bones of crocodiles and from mammal bones. The flood of Noah came during one of the last great inundations of the African Humid Period. We know where and when Noah lived and the type of boats he used. Discoveries at Nekhen on the Nile verify that this was a site of Horite Hebrew worship as early as 4000 BC. Nimrod's extensive construction projects took place during the peak of Sumerian city and monument building. In other words, the term "primeval" can no longer be applied to the narratives of Genesis because they come from a time well after 2500 BC.

Relatively Recent Literature

The first three chapters of Genesis have close affinity with the creation and origin narratives of Africa. The themes of those chapters find their closest parallels in African stories. This should not surprise us since Abraham's Hebrew ancestors came out of the Nile Valley. The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship was a Nekhen, and there were Horite and Sethite mounds the length of the Nile River.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis also resonate to some of the later literary motifs of the Ancient Near East. The story of the first human pair in a garden, a devasting flood, a struggle with a serpent, and a quest for immortality are echoed in portions of the Babylonian poem Enūma Eliš and in the Gilgamesh Epic.

Genesis chapters 1-11 constitute a History of the Early Hebrew

Chapters 1-11 provide data about the religious beliefs and the social structure of the early Hebrew (5000-2000 BC). Early Hebrew rulers are listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 25 and 36. Abraham enters the picture in Chapter 12. Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of these rulers indicates that they are historical persons and that they are all members of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste.

The Hebrew are not listed in the Genesis 10 ethnography because the Table of Nations does not recognize castes. It does mention some Hebrew clans, however. Among them are the clans of Shem, Ham, Japheth and many of their descendants. Some of them are shown on this diagram.

Some argue that the term "Hebrew" is derived from the name Eber, but that is not the supported by the biblical and linguistic data. The term comes from the ancient Akkadian abru, meaning priest. The Hebrew ruler-priests were widely dispersed before the time of Abraham (c.2000 BC). This map shows the regions into which they dispersed.

If this interests you, I recommend my book The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study. It dives into the history of the early Hebrew in great detail and reveals that Genesis is verifiable history. The sequel The First Ladies: An Anthropological Study will be available in February 2025.

Related reading: BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Hebrew Names and Titles; Hebrew, Israelite or Jew?; The Adam and Eve of History; Artifacts of Great Antiquity; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant