Adam According to Mesopotamian Tradition

An interesting presentation by Dick Fischer at the annual American Scientific Affiliation conference held in Tulsa, Oklahoma in July 2015. He makes an argument for Adam as an historical figure living in Mesopotamia.

I agree that historical Adam is the progenitor of biblical peoples who dispersed widely in the ancient world. I doubt that Adam lived in Mesopotamia, however. He was the progenitor of Abraham's Proto-Saharan cattle-herding ancestors who dispersed into Mesopotamia. Abraham is a descendant of the rulers Ham and Shem whose lines intermarried (endogamy). Abraham's father, Terah, was a priest with two wives: one in Haran and one in Ur.

A genealogical relationship exists between the Nilotic, Dravidian, Elamite and Sumerian languages. African languages were used by Henry Rawlinson to decipher the cuneiform script. Dravidian, Elamite, and Sumerian share features retained during a process of divergence from a common linguistic ancestor. The wedge or cuneiform script was used by the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, the Elamites, the Assyrians, and the Horites, Hatti, and Hittites of Anatolia.

Scientific analysis of the Genesis king lists reveals a specific marriage and ascendancy pattern. This information is essential to recovery of the original cultural context of the material in Genesis.

Related reading: Adam Was A Red Man; The Genesis King Lists; Abraham's Ainu Ancestors; Decoding the Genesis King Lists; Adam and Eve: The Blood and the Birther; Abraham's Ancestors Came Out of Africa; Ignoring Anthropologically Significant Data; Eden: A Well-Watered Region; Noah's Flood: Where and When?; Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA); Was Noah Mesopotamian or Proto-Saharan?; Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About Adam and Eve; Answers to High Schoolers' Questions About Noah's Flood

Ignoring Anthropologically Significant Data

Alice C. Linsley

The website of the American Scientific Affiliation has papers from the ASA journal, or presentations given at ASA meetings, or works by individuals associated with the ASA that address Genesis 1-3. The authors generally agree that these chapters must be understood in the context of the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE), specifically Mesopotamia. None have explored the older Nilotic background of the material, which is indicated by the Genesis 10 designation of Abraham's ancestors as descendants of Kush. We find Abraham, the son of Terah (priest), in Mesopotamia because his ancestors were part of the Kushite dispersion that has been verified by DNA studies, anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. The marriage and ascendancy pattern of the Kushite rulers drove expansion out of the Nile Valley.

James Henry Breasted (1865–1935), director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, in his 1916 textbook, Ancient Times: A History of the Early World, included the Nile Valley as part of the "Fertile Crescent," a term he coined. The crescent was fertile because it included major water systems that were interconnected during the African Humid Period. However, a Nilotic context for Genesis 1-3 is not considered by any of these ASA writers:

James D. Bales
Richard H. Bube
John C. Collins
Dick Fischer
Terry M. Gray
Daniel C. Harlow
Armin Held
Charles E. Hummel
Conrad Hyers
Lee Irons
Thomas Key
Meredith Kline
Denis O. Lamoureux
Paul Seely
William F. Tanner
Edwin Walhout
John Walton
Davis A. Young
G. Douglas Young


All of these scholars would describe themselves as "Evangelicals" who take Scripture seriously, yet they ignore anthropologically significant data provided in Genesis.


Related reading: The Themes of Genesis 1-3; Rightly Reading Genesis 1-3; The Fertile Crescent and the Cradle of Civilization; Abraham's Ancestors Came Out of Africa; Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; The Genesis King Lists; Denis Lamoureaux's 2013 ASA Lectures; Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Alice C. Linsley's posts at ASA Website; Water Systems Connected Nile and Central Africa; Dick Fischer's ASA 2015 Presentation: Adam According to Mesopotamian Tradition

Support the American Scientific Affiliation

A Letter from Executive Director Hal Poe

As a theologian, I found out about the ASA through the back door. My previous experiences in church and Sunday school never suggested any connection between science and faith. However, at seminary I landed in a course on science and religion taught by a crusty old former Oxford physics professor who had entered the Baptist ministry during World War II. Eric Rust did not suffer fools gladly, and he opened my mind to the wondrous world of creation. He suggested the implications of the quantum world for the activity of God in the universe as well as the implications of the relativity of time and space for the knowledge of God. He explored the way our presuppositions and philosophical commitments affect our interpretations of the Bible and scientific data. I was hooked!

As a pastor, and later as a professor, my layman’s knowledge of science has informed my preaching and teaching. Once I began teaching, however, I began to realize the extent to which most mainline and evangelical theologians still live in Newton’s universe. My colleague Jimmy Davis, from the chemistry department, became my dialog partner on the intersection of science and faith. This relationship led to four co-authored books written to help Christians deal with science and the Bible seriously. When we won a Templeton course prize, I discovered the ASA.

The ASA has provided me with a forum to explore a wide range of issues with committed Christians. The ASA is a fellowship that focuses on the quality of relationships among its members. Many of us gather together every summer at an annual meeting or meet in local chapters. Exchanging ideas around a meal, we model the Christians in Acts 2. We are not simply a polemical organization, but one in which we minister to each other, encourage each other, and challenge each other in the fellowship of Christ. The ASA is rare in that it has a spiritual dimension that few academic organizations possess.

Like most not-for-profit organizations, the ASA relies upon the annual contributions of our members and friends to support our important mission. Our mission is to have a significant and continuing impact on churches and the body of Christ. We seek to impact how the average pastor and church member think about science and religion. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to enlist the assistance of those who share our mission and interests.

Future development efforts will depend upon utilizing our members to take a more active role in the organization beyond mere attendance at the annual meeting. As you prayerfully plan your year-end charitable giving, I ask that you consider a donation to ASA. Your tax-deductible gift will support our vital mission in a time of great spiritual and intellectual upheaval. Your personal invitation to colleagues, friends or relatives to become a member or attend an ASA meeting would be most effective.


All the best for a blessed Christmas,

Hal Poe
President, ASA Executive Council

Related reading:  The American Scientific Affiliation: A Personal Note