The Human Story Beginning with Adam

 

Mary Leakey and her husband Louis Leakey

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Mary Leakey’s 1979 discoveries in Tanzania added to the evidence that humans walked the earth 3 million years ago. At Laetoli, about 25 miles south of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Leakey discovered footprints of a man, woman and child created about 3.6 million years ago and preserved under falling ash from the nearby Sadiman volcano. The raised arch and rounded heel of the footprints showed that whoever left these footprints walked as humans today. Unfortunately, Donald C. Johanson had already announced to the world that the finds were apes, though Mary Leakey would have classified her Laetoli finds as Homo/human. She expressed her regret that “the Laetoli fellow is now doomed to be called Australopithecus afarensis.”

Footprints left by archaic humans at site S in Laetoli.

Johanson and Mary Leakey were scheduled to speak at a Nobel Symposium in Sweden in May 1978. The conference honored Mary Leakey, who received a medal from the King of Sweden for her scientific investigations. Mary Leakey received the Golden Linnaean Medal but was embarrassed when Johanson announced the new name - Australopithecus afarensis - for his Afar Triangle finds and included Mary Leakey's 4-million-year-old Laetoli specimen (jawbone LH4) from Tanzania as an exhibit. 

Johanson, who was scheduled to speak before Mary Leakey, scooped Mary's speech. She was miffed that Johanson had given her discoveries a designation that did not align with what she believed to be the evidence. However, Johanson's label stuck. Today, based on more recent discoveries, he has reconsidered the ape designation. He admits in a paper published in February 2011, that the discovery of a complete fourth metatarsal of A. afarensis at Hadar shows the deep, flat base and tarsal facets that "imply that its midfoot had no ape-like midtarsal break. These features show that the A. afarensis foot was functionally like that of modern humans." (See the report: Carol Ward, William H. Kimbel, Donald C. Johanson) 

Evolutionary nomenclature often causes confusion. Humans labeled "Neanderthal" fit the morphology of the human fossils found in the Neander Valley in Germany. In August 1856, the area became famous for the discovery of Neanderthal 1, one of the first specimens of Homo neanderthalensis to be found. Classification of human fossils must be based on morphology, not ideology or an individual's ego. Human fossils can be classified into two groups: archaic and modern. Most paleoanthropologists agree that the term "modern" pertains to fossils dating to c. 300,000 and later.

Christians should try to understand what the data indicates about humans. To simply criticize anything that may be considered "evolution" exposes us to criticism by even fair-minded scientists. Consider this statement by Sabine Hossenfelder: "...scientists who claim, as Stephen Hawking did, that 'there is no possibility of a creator,' or as Victor Stenger has, that God is a 'falsified hypothesis,' demonstrate that they don’t understand the limits of their knowledge. When prominent scientists make such overconfident proclamations, they make me cringe." (An excerpt from Hossenfelder's Existential Physics, page 218.)

Further, ignorant statements about evolution reinforce the notion that the sciences and the Bible are in conflict. The sciences have a story to tell. The Messianic Faith expressed in Scripture also has a story to tell. Some are listening to the harmony and others are deaf.

A commonly circulated lie especially needs to be exposed. Cranial capacity is not an indicator of complexity of thought. The bicameral brain is designed to explore complex patterns. The binary feature triggers complexity of thought and innovation, just as the immense complexity of computers is based on binary language. Further, the binary reasoning of the early Hebrew is evident throughout the Hebrew Bible.

It is evident that the historical Adam and Eve did not live among archaic humans 3 million years ago. 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. Some, like Kind David, came to rule in Israel. Esau is specifically described as being red in Genesis 26. David is described in the Bible as red/ruddy. Samuel, the son of a Horite Hebrew priest from Ramah, anointed him ruler. It is likely that Sameul also had a reddish skin tone.

And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are these all the children?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep." Then Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he." Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. (1 Samuel 16:11- 13)

The words edom, adam, and odum (Hausa) refer to red, the color of blood. The root of these words is DM because there were no vowels in the early Semitic languages. The word dam refers to blood. The name Adam suggests that he was a red man. The red skin tone was characteristic of populations of the Lower Nile Valley such as the Horite and Sethite Hebrew.

Jeff A. Benner, who teaches the Hebrew, language, 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". much later writers). In Genesis Adam and Eve are presented as the first of Abraham's royal ancestors. If we miss this, we will fail to understand what Genesis is telling us.

 

Adam is one of the founding fathers of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. His wife Eve apparently expected her firstborn son to rule after Adam. This explains why Eve declares "Kaniti (Qaniti); I have gotten a man, as has YHWH" (Gen. 4:1). This is not Hebrew. Hebrew did not yet exist. This is ancient Akkadian, the language known to Nimrod, a son of Kush (Gen. 10).

Kaniti refers to king which suggests that Eve's words are a Messianic reference. The Akkadian itti, as in itti šarrim, means "with the king" or "for the king." It is attached to the names of royalty. Even today, the Oromo and the Luo of East Africa attach itti to names: Onditi, Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and Dimashqitti. 

That itti is associated with Nilotic rulers is evident in the name of the great Egyptian queen Nefertitti. This is the second time in the Bible that a woman of Abraham's ancestral bloodline is connected to the Messiah. The first is Genesis 3:15, which refers to the Seed of the "Woman" - not Eve, as Eve is not named until Genesis 3:20.

The name Kain/Cain has many linguistic equivalents: Qayan, Cain, and Kahn, as in Genghis Kahn, and the female variant Candace or Kandake, meaning queen. All these words refer to a ruler. The first rulers named in the Genesis king lists are Adam, Kain and Seth. They were rulers at the dawn of important technological advances (c. 6000–3150 BC) as indicated by the technologies mentioned in Genesis 4-6. They were not the first humans on earth. However, they are among the early Hebrew who leave the world a great legacy of innovation, inspiration, and religious practices that endure to this day.

Related reading: Adam was a Red Man; The Hebrew were a Caste; Horite and Sethite Hebrew Mounds; Orthodoxy Requires Binary Reasoning; Three Portraits of Adam; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The Edomites and the Color Red; What Paleoanthropologists Want to Discover; Facts About Evolution

The Dispersion of the Early Hebrew

 

       Map produced by Daniel Todd

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The Hebrew were widely dispersed before Abraham's time (c.2000 BC). They were in the region of Lake Chad, the Nile Valley, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Eurasia, and the Indus Valley.

Nekhen on the Nile is the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship. It is marked on the map by a star. Nekhen's sister city, Nekheb, sat on the opposite side to the Nile River. Both were shrine cities with Hebrew priests. A great deal is known about the Horite and Sethite mounds from texts dating to as early as 4200 years ago.

The historical Adam and Eve lived around 5000-4800 BC in a vast well-watered region called Eden. Genesis 2 describes Eden as a lush riverine region that extended from the sources of the Nile in Ethiopia and Uganda to the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia (C on the map). The early Hebrew lived throughout Eden.

The firstborn son of Adam and Eve was Cain (Gen. 4). He was sent away and established a settlement "east of Eden" (Gen. 4:16). He named that settlement for his son Enoch, a royal title. Cain's descendants, the Kenites, are found in the land of Kenan which is the land of Canaan כנען, pronounced kena'an.

Noah was one of the descendants of Adam and Eve. Different accounts of Noah are given in Genesis chapter 6-8. He probably ruled in the region of Lake Chad (A on the map). This is the only place on earth that the natives call Noah's homeland - Bornu (Borno/Benue), meaning "land of Noah." The local Kanuri people call Lake Chad Buhar Nuhu, meaning "Sea of Noah." When Noah lived the Sahara was wet and green. The Lake Chad Basin was prone to flooding. The oldest known canoe, the "Dufuna boat," was found in this region. This is a photograph of that 8000-year mahogany dugout.

One of Noah's descendants was Nimrod (Gen. 10), a son of Kush. Nimrod left Kush (modern day Sudan) and established his territory on the Euphrates River around 3500 BC (Gen. 10). He married a Sumerian princess, the daughter of King Asshur.

The practice of marrying high-status women to form political alliances and to become established in a new territory is illustrated by Nimrod’s marriage to a Sumerian princess. Nimrod was a Kushite kingdom builder and his marriage to Asshur’s daughter is evidence of the close connection between the rulers of the Nile Valley and the rulers of Mesopotamia, two early riverine civilizations.

Another of Noah's descendants was Heth (Gen. 10). The Hittites of Canaan and Anatolia (C on the map) are Heth's Hebrew descendants.

Abraham was one of Nimrod’s descendants. Around 2000 BC, Abraham controlled the water systems at Hebron and Beersheba and the wells that he dug in Gerar. His proper heir was Isaac and Isaac's proper heir was Esau. Jacob was sent to serve his maternal uncle, a common practice among the early Hebrew. The sending away of non-ascendant sons drove the Hebrew dispersion into many regions.

The clans of Joktan and Sheba were also Hebrew. They settled in southern Arabia. This map shows the Joktanite clans of Arabia.

The widely dispersed Hebrew ruler-priests controlled commerce on sections of the major water systems. They traded as far as Pakistan and the Indus River Civilization. By the time Nimrod married a daughter of Asshur, long-distance trade had become a source of wealth for the Mesopotamian lords and ladies. Ships coming from Bahrain (Sumerian "Dilmun") brought wool, gold, copper, lapis lazuli, and carnelian to the Sumerian cities of Ur, Nippur, and Uruk (Erech). Archaeologists discovered a 4,000-year-old boat at Uruk. The boat was constructed of organic materials, probably marsh reeds, and covered in bitumen, a tar-like substance used for waterproofing. This technique was used in the construction of Noah’s ark (Gen. 6:14).

As early as 7000 BC, the island of Bahrain (F on the map) served as a major trade depot with its own commercial seal. Ancient documents speak of Dilmun's trade in gold, silver, ivory, sesame oil, wool, carnelian beads, lapis lazuli, and copper. One document details a cargo of eighteen tons of refined copper purchased in Dilmun. Dilmun was a maritime connection between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

Sumerian ships brought cargo to Dilmun and to port cities in the Indus Valley (G on the map). Ships sailed southeast on the Tigris or Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, making stops at the port of Dilmun, passing the Oman Peninsula, and entering the Arabian Sea. From there the ships sailed northeast on the Indus River to Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Trade in lapis lazuli and carnelian beads ran between Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Afghanistan as early as 4000 B.C. Indus seals with Harappan inscriptions have been found in Mesopotamia. Indus pottery and seals have been found along the maritime routes between the Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamia. Note the close resemblance of Indus Valley and Nilotic inscriptions found on pottery.

The early Hebrew rulers sent their merchants along ancient trade routes that ran from the Nile to Arabia and Canaan, and from Mesopotamia to modern Bahrain. Routes extended into the Indus Valley and as far north as China. There is considerable evidence that the religious beliefs of the early Hebrew influenced the populations among whom they lived. This explains the common religious practices and solar symbolism among the diverse populations of the Fertile Crescent and the Ancient Near East.

The term "Hebrew" is derived from the ancient Akkadian word for priest - abru. They were a ruler-priest caste that married only within their caste (caste endogamy). The caste structure of the early Hebrew meant that wherever they lived they were identifiable as Hebrew. It is possible to speak of Egyptian Hebrew, Canaanite Hebrew, Kushite Hebrew, and Mesopotamian Hebrew. The Hebrew living in the Nile Valley were kin to the Hebrew living in Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia.

The Hebrew priests were in the service of the early kingdom builder which are described in Genesis as the "mighty men of old" and "heroes of renown." As new territories were established and as older territories expanded, the Hebrew went where they were appointed to serve at royal temples and river shrines. Many Hebrew women ministered to women at the river shrines which were places of healing, purification, and prayer, especially for women struggling with infertility.

All this movement happened long before Judaism emerged as a world religion after about 580 BC. None of the people mentioned above were Jews. They were Hebrew, and there were many Hebrew clans.

Related reading: The Ministry of Hebrew Woman at the Sun Cities; Temple Women; Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Hebrew Rulers of Genesis; The Roots of the Gospel are in Africa

Cutting Through the Textual Layers

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

A reader has asked: If there are several "layers" of "Adam", would there also be several layers of Eve, Eden, Tree, and Serpent?

The term "layers" is helpful if we imagine the growth rings of a tree. The oldest rings are near the center of the tree. The layers are visible when we cut through the tree. That is what the discipline of Biblical Anthropology does using the canonical Scriptures. It seeks to identify the oldest layers and to use that data to gain a clearer picture of the social structure of the early Hebrew.

Biblical anthropology asks about antecedents. It explores what comes before what is described in the text. What events preceded the events recounted? It seeks to understand the cultural context of the earliest persons named in Genesis: Adam, Eve, Cain and Seth, etc. It is concerned with ancestors and received traditions. From what earlier context did certain practices develop? What traces of ancient memory can be uncovered?

The biblical text always speaks of something older, some prior action that solicits a response from later generations. The later generations are enjoined to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is a thick cultural web surrounding the God of the early biblical Hebrew. 

That context is not apparent to the casual reader because it is hidden behind layers of Jewish midrash, denominational interpretations, and theological typologies. The tree in the midst of the garden is taken as a type of the Cross or as the Tree of Life. The serpent is taken as the usurper of God's authority, the Devil, or God's adversary, Satan. 

The tree of life and the serpent are ancient mythological motifs and are found in many of the world's religions. They are clues as to the riverine contexts of the early Hebrew, devotees of God Father and God's son. The early Hebrew believed that a woman of their ruler-priest caste would bring forth the Son/Seed of God who would crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). The enemy of God bruises the foot of the Woman’s Son, but the Son crushes his head. That expectation that was expressed around 4000 years ago: "Horus has shattered (crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot" (The Pyramid Texts, Utterance 388). Horus is the Greek for the ancient Egyptian HR, meaning "Most High One".

Biblical anthropology insists that the texts be read empirically. The reader identifies data that makes the earlier contexts clearer. The mythological Adam and Eve are posed as the first parents (apical ancestors). This is consistent with many African origin stories. Among the Gikuyu, the first man and women were called Gikuyu and Mumbi. However, these are not the first humans on earth, but the founders of the Gikuyu people. Likewise, Adam and Eve are the founders of the clans that come to be identified as Horite and Sethite Hebrew. These are Abraham's ancestors. 

Abraham is the father of many peoples, an icon of faith, and a sent away son to whom God delivered a territory in ancient Edom. The sending away of non-ascendant sons is a feature of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the biblical Hebrew. That feature drove their dispersion out of Africa. 

The Bible designates Abraham a Hebrew, but he was not the first Hebrew. The Hebrew ruler-priest caste existed before Abraham's time (c.2100 B.C.). The term "Hebrew" comes from the ancient Akkadian word for priest, Abru. Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language and the language of Nimrod's territory. Genesis 10 designates Nimrod as a Kushite kingdom builder. Here we have evidence for the movement of the early Hebrew out of Africa into Mesopotamia. 

The early Hebrew named in the Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11 lists were rulers over territories in Eden. The term Eden derives from the Akkadian term edinu, which refers to a fertile plain or a flood plain. In Genesis 2:11-14, Eden is described as a vast well-watered region that extended from the sources of the Nile River in Ethiopia and Uganda to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Some of the world's oldest cultures are found in this Fertile Crescent. However, the biblical description of Eden comes long after the time of Adam and Eve. It is a kindling of ancient memory.

In Genesis, Adam's wife is called Hava (חוה) which is descriptive of her role as the birther (Gen. 3:20). Adam describes Eve as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, suggesting that she and he have the same father, as did Sarah and Abraham.

As Adam's half-sister, Eve would have produced Adam's heir, which is Cain, the firstborn son. This may explain the royal affix -itti- in Genesis 4:1, 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 word qaniti (Gen. 4:1) is in assonance with "Cain" (Qayin). However, the word that appears in Genesis 4:1 is Akkadian, not Hebrew. Iti or itti is an Akkadian 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.

Eve apparently recognized her firstborn son as a ruler. Yet Cain was banished or sent away from his parents' homeland. Genesis 4:15 states that he moved "east of Eden". If his homeland was in the Nile Valley, that means Cain moved into Arabia. His descendants are found in the land of Kenan/Kenites, which is the land of Canaan, or כנען, pronounced kena'an.

His brother Seth ruled over a territory in the Nile Valley which was called the Land of Seti. Cain and Seth built cities, had musical instruments, worked stone and metal, and worshiped the High God. Their descendants intermarried (as shown in the diagram) and dispersed widely as early kingdom builders.

Lamech the Elder with his two wives (Gen. 4) and Lamech the Younger, his grandson (Gen. 5).

The biblical data identifies the historical Adam and Eve as founding parents of the early Hebrew lines descending from Cain and Seth. Because the descendants of Cain and Seth intermarried (caste endogamy), all their Hebrew descendants could claim them and their unnamed wives as their common ancestors (cognatic descent). 

The ascendant rulers took half-sisters as their first wives and later in life took patrilineal cousins as their second wives. Sarah was Abraham's half-sister wife (Gen.  Sarah enjoyed the life of a wealthy, highborn woman. Her name is derived from the Akkadian word for queen: šarratum. In Genesis 20:12, Abraha explains that he and Sarah had the same father but different mothers. Their father Terah had two wives, as did many Hebrew rulers.

Keturah was Abraham's cousin bride. She bore him six sons and an unknown number of daughters. The two wives lived in separate settlements and those settlements were instrumental in maintaining territorial boundaries. However, the birth of two firstborn sons raises the question: “Which is the ruler’s proper heir?” Among the early Hebrew the proper heir was the firstborn son of the first wife, usually a half-sister. That is why Isaac was Abraham's proper heir, and like his father, Isaac was a man of great wealth. He ruled over his father's territory in Edom (Idumea), the land of red people.

Analysis of the early Hebrew kinship pattern provides verification that these were historical persons. Their kinship pattern is authentic. If it were not so, it could not be diagrammed, and that kinship pattern would not be consistent through the biblical texts. Some have offered the proofless argument that the structure of the king lists of Genesis 4 and 5 reflects a literary device. Biblical anthropology has demonstrated that the kinship of Genesis 4 and 5 "begets" is the same pattern found with Ham and Shem, Abraham and Nahor, and many other Hebrew rulers named in the Bible.

Kinship patterns are highly resistant to change, especially among castes. The early Hebrew were a ruler-priest caste with a distinctive marriage and ascendancy pattern. That pattern can be discerned by cutting through the layers, using an empirical method.

Related reading: Genesis in Anthropological Perspective; Three Portraits of Adam; Horite and Sethite Mounds; The Father of Adam and Eve; The First Lords of the Earth: An Anthropological Study; Contextual Incongruities in Genesis

The Adam and Eve of History

 

Sethite Hebrew priest of Nekheb on the Nile with authority over the palace.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Taken together, the biblical data indicates that Adam and Eve were historical persons. Their descendants listed in Genesis chapters 4, 5, 10, 11, 25, and 36 are the early Hebrew organized into two ritual groups (moieties): the Horites and the Sethites. The biblical data, and existing texts written by the early Hebrew, provide a great deal of information about the Hebrew ruler-priest caste.

As Adam is the founding father of the early Hebrew, so Eve is their founding mother. The term “Hebrew” comes from the ancient Akkadian word for priest – Abru. (Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language.) The Hebrew ruler-priest caste was called Abrutu in Akkadian.

Adam is the father of Cain and Seth. Cain is described as an early “city” builder, and Seth is the founding father of the Sethite Hebrew who are mentioned in texts from as early as 2600 B.C. This means that the historical Adam lived before 4500 B.C.

 
The historicity of Adam is demonstrated by analysis of the kinship data found in the king lists of Genesis chapters 4 and 5. Adam’s sons Cain and Seth married their cousins, the daughters of Enoch, a contemporary of Adam. Enoch/Enosh/Enos is a royal title derived from the ancient Akkadian first-person pronoun: anāku. Likely, this is a reference to the royal first person.

Among the Igbo of Nigeria, anochie means “a replacer” or “to replace”, and among the Ashante of Ghana ano kyi means "Ano Junior." Here 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 among the early Hebrew. This may explain why the words enoch and adam are paralleled 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 diagram below shows the practice of “bride exchange” between the clans of Cain and Seth. The diagram shows Cain’s line on the left. This data is found in Genesis 4. Seth’s line is found in Genesis 5. Circles represent females. Triangles represent males. This symbol = represents the marriage bond.

Chapters 4 and 5 should be studied together to understand the marriage and ascendancy pattern of these early Hebrew rulers. Analysis of the king lists reveals that the early Hebrew practiced endogamy, that is, they married exclusively within their ruler-priest caste.

The wives of Cain and Seth were the daughters of Enoch. They named their first-born sons after their father. This custom is called the “cousin bride’s naming prerogative” and the pattern is consistent throughout the diagram. Kenan is named after Kain. Jared is named after Irad, and Lamech the Younger is named after his maternal grandfather Lamech the Elder.

The first-born sons of the early Hebrew ruled over territories in the region of Lake Chad, the Nile Valley, Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Southern Turkey. Eve’s first-born son was called Cain/Kain which refers to a ruler. Variants of the word include king, khan, kenan, and qayin. 

Cain’s brother was Seth (Genesis 5) who ruled in the “Land of Seti” in the Nile Valley. Genesis 4 states that Cain was banished from his homeland and that he went east of the Nile. We find his descendants the Kenites living in the land of Canaan. The word “Canaan” is related to the word Cain. The Kenites were itinerant metal workers. In Genesis 4, metal work is mentioned in association with Tubal-Cain.

Eve’s status among the early Hebrew is evident in her exclamation upon giving birth to her first-born son, Cain. In Genesis 4:1, she claims to have acquired a man, or more accurately a ruler with God's help. She declares “qanitti”. Note the royal affix -itti that appears in rulers’ names and in reference to kings. For example, the Akkadian itti šarrim means "with the king." Itti appears in royal names such as Nefertitti. Even today among the Oromo of East 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.


The Virgin Mary and Jesus Among Eve's Descendants

One of Eve’s descendants is the Virgin Mary, who according to Tradition, had been dedicated to the Temple. Her father was Joachim, a priest. Mary is among the Hebrew wives and daughters of social influence, prestige, and wealth. Some of their names are preserved in the Hebrew matronymics.

A matronymic (or matronym) is a personal name based on the given name of one's mother, grandmother, or a female ancestor. Female ancestors of especially high social standing were remembered through matronymics. Matronyms are not as common among the Hebrew as patronyms, but they do appear in the cases of high-status Hebrew women.

The Virgin Mary’s full name was "Miriam Daughter of Joachim, Son of Pntjr". Pntjr or Pa-Netjer refers to Joachim’s mother. She must have been of high social status for a matronymic to be employed. That Panetjer is a matronymic is evident from a limestone stela (1539-1291 B.C.) at the Brooklyn Museum bearing the names of Governor Pekhty-nisu and his wife Panetjer. It is certain that Mary’s ancestors were high ranking ruler-priests because even those who hated her admit this in the Talmud which claims: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” (Sanhedrin 106a)

Some editions of the Jerusalem Talmud specifically name Jesus as the son of Pandera/Panther. In this case "son" would mean descendant.

Long before Judaism emerged, the Hebrew believed in God Father, God Son, and the Spirit of God that generates life. They expected a woman of their ruler-priest caste to conceive the Son of God by divine overshadowing (cf. Luke 1). Hathor, the mother of Horus, is the archetype. Ancient images show her overshadowed by the Sun.

This expectation of the incarnation of the Son of God was fulfilled when the Virgin Mary brought forth Jesus, a direct descendant through his mother of the early Hebrew ruler-priests. In Christian iconography Mary is often shown overshadowed by a dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Related reading: The Hebrew Were a Caste; The Hebrew at the Ancient Sun Cities; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Cousin Brides; Horite and Sethite Mounds, Early Resurrection Texts; The Culpability of Adam and Eve; Hebrew Names and Titles

The Culpability of Adam and Eve

The Risen Christ raises Adam and Eve from the tombs.

Alice C. Linsley

The Bible presents Adam and Eve in at least three ways: mythical, historical, and analogical. The mythical Adam and Eve present a theological understanding of estrangement from God. We first encounter figures called “Adam” and "Eve" in Genesis chapters 2, 3 and 4. The Adam and Eve of Genesis chapters2 and 3 are associated with the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Serpent who tempted Eve. Adam and Eve are blamed for humanity’s “Fall” from the state of grace enjoyed in the Garden.

Genesis chapters 4 and 5 indicate that Adam and Eve were the historical parents of Cain and Seth and the progenitors of the early Hebrew ruler-priests. The early Hebrew believed in God Father and God Son, and this belief is still found among African populations in connection with the theme of estrangement.

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 these stories the female ancestor is responsible for the estrangement. However, in the Book of Romans, Paul holds Adam responsible for the Fall.

“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).


Genesis presents both Adam and Eve as culpable. This binary balance between male and female ancestors is characteristic of African stories. Likewise, many biblical narratives involving male heroes have female counterparts.

Though Eve is the serpent’s primary target, both Adam and Eve are held responsible. This binary balance between male and female is characteristic of the social structure of the early Hebrew and is reflected in biblical narratives.

There are many examples: the distinct duties/responsibilities of the mother's house versus the father's house; male prophets-female prophets; male rulers-female rulers; inheritance by male heirs-inheritance by female heirs, patrilocal residence-matrilocal residence; Hebrew patronymics-Hebrew matronymics; and in the Hebrew double unilineal descent pattern, both the patrilineage and the matrilineage are recognized and honored, but in different ways.

The blood symbolism of the Passover associated with Moses has a parallel in the blood symbolism of the scarlet cord associated with Rahab.

The abusive behavior of drunken Noah toward his sons has a parallel in the abusive behavior of drunken Lot toward his daughters.

This male-female binary balance is found in New Testament narratives also. Jesus restored the widow of Nain's deceased son to his mother (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus restored Jairus' deceased daughter to her father (Mark 5:21-43).

Adam and Eve serve as examples of estrangement from God. The estrangement results from disobedience and listening to appealing lies. Such “sinful” behaviors are found among all humans, so this narrative reflects a universal truth. Similar ideas of estrangement from the Creator are found in the myths of many cultures. However, it can be fairly argued that the Messianic Faith we call “Christianity” provides a unique answer to the problem of sin and death.

The theme of estrangement has deep roots among the early Hebrew whose point of origin was Africa. Prayers and songs written by the Hebrew priests of the Nile Valley are available to read in the Ancient Pyramid Texts. Some of these texts date to 2600 B.C. and speak of the bodily resurrection of a priest-king who would lead his people to immortality. Paul’s statement in Ephesians 4:8 reflects this early belief: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." The same belief is expressed in Psalm 68:18: “When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train…”


If you wish to comment on this post, please respond to these questions.

In what ways do we as Christians overcome estrangement from God?


In what ways do we celebrate God’s answer to sin and death?


Related reading: Adam and Estrangement from God; Male and Female are Primary in the Hebrew Scriptures; The Hebrew Were a Caste; Horite and Sethite Mounds; An Anthropologist Look at Genesis 4; An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis 5; Ancient Edom

An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis 2

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

God created the first parents.

Stories about first parents abound in Africa. 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.

 

The historical Adam and Eve are the first parents of the early Hebrew. Some of their descendants appear to have inherited Adam’s red skin tone. It is noted that Esau a Horite ruler in Edom had a red or ruddy skin tone (as did David, the son of Jesse). 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 root אדם 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.

 

Adam's name refers to blood (dam) and the color red. His descendants are remembered as red people. One of those descendants is Abraham who ruled in the territory of Edom. The Greeks called Edom Idumea, which means "land of red people." Some of the red peoples are listed in Genesis 10. They are identified by the DD biradical, which refers to the color red. In ancient Egyptian didi refers to red fruit. In Yoruba, red is diden, a variant of the biblical word Dedan (Gen. 10).

A common belief among many pre-literate peoples is that skin tone comes from the soil where their first parents were created. This is called “autochthonous origin” and the belief is expressed in the Shilluk creation story. The Shilluk of Sudan call the Creator Jouk. Jouk made white people out of white sand and the Shilluk out of black soil. When the Creator came to Egypt, he made the people there out of the red silt of the Nile.

 

God places the first parents in Eden.

The term Eden is not originally Hebrew. "Eden" derives from the Akkadian term edinu, which refers to a fertile plain or a well-watered territory. Akkadian is the oldest known Semitic language and predates Hebrew by nearly 2000 years.

Eden was a vast well-watered region that extended from the sources of the Nile in Uganda and Ethiopia to the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia (Gen. 2:10-14). The Pishon flowed through Ha-vila (place of waters parting). The Gihon flowed around the whole land of Kush. The southern region of Eden was rich in gold, onyx, and bdellium. Bdellium is a semi-transparent oleo-gum resin extracted from Commiphora wightii and from Commiphora africana. These trees grow in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Humans become estranged from God.

After their disobedience Adam and Eve experienced fear and they hide from the Creator. Their distance from the Divine Presence grew greater when they were driven from Paradise. 

Many African narratives explain the distance between God and humans. Some speak of a time at the beginning when the sky was low. It was necessary for people to be careful while cultivating or pounding grain to avoid striking God's resting place with their hoes or pestles. The Akan of Ghana tell the story of how God once lived on earth, but an old woman kept striking Him with her pestle. Then one day, God withdrew to the sky.

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 that 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).

Consider the following story related to anthropologist Charles Kraft while he was studying tribal peoples in northern Nigeria. Kraft asked, "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)

Related reading: An Anthropologist Looks at Genesis One; The Father of Adam and Eve; Three Portraits of Adam

The Father of Adam and Eve

 

"Kenan was the son of Enosh. Enosh was the son of Seth. Seth was the son of Adam. 

Adam was the son of God." (Luke 3:38)

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

C. L. Crouch has made an fascinating observation about the relationship of humans to our Creator. He wrote, "The linguistic and cultural background of the words םלצ and תומד supports a reading of Gen. 1:26–7 as a statement of humanity’s divine parentage. As such it is intended to evoke the responsibilities of child to parent and of parent to child in the minds of its readers. Such an interpretation accommodates both the semantic range of the key terms םלצ and תומד and the sense that the statement is meant to be theologically significant." (From here.)

In Genesis, Adam's wife is called Hava (חוה) which is descriptive of her role as the birther (Gen. 3:20). Adam describes Eve as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, suggesting that she and he have the same father, as did Sarah and Abraham. 

As Adam's half-sister, Eve would have produced Adam's heir, which is Cain, 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 in Genesis 4:1 is Akkadian, not Hebrew. Iti or itti is an Akkadian 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.

Abraham left his father's house, and as a sent-away son he was to establish a kingdom for himself away from Terah's proper heir Nahor. Abraham needed an heir and according to the early Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern the proper heir was the first-born son of the half-sister wife. That would be Isaac. 

The pattern of being sent away from the father is seen with Adam and his first-born Cain. 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 Hebrew ruler-priests, Ammonites, Canaanites, Edomites, Hittites, Kushites, Midianites, and Moabites.

Cain left his father's house and established a settlement which he named after his son Enoch. the words "Cain" and "Enoch" refer to rulers. Throughout the Bible Cain is the archetype of the earthly ruler. The name Enoch is related to 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. 

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, Cain, Seth and all their descendants listed in Genesis 4 and 5 are rulers, like their father God. If Adam and Eve were half-siblings and the first parents of the Hebrew clans, then God is their father. The idea of the Creator being Father to the first parents is found in the stories of many pre-literate societies.

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 and consistent with the early Hebrew beliefs.

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."

Understanding the Hebrew perception of God as their Great Ancestor sheds light on the interaction of Jesus with the Jews who claimed both Abraham and God as father. They said to Jesus, "Abraham is our father." Jesus replied that if they were Abraham's children, they would do the works of Abraham. "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father." Then said they to him, "We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." Jesus replied, 'If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” (Jn. 8:39-42, KJV)

Related reading: The Truth of Human Exceptionalism; Three Portraits of Adam; Adam Was a Red Man; The Historical Adam; When is the Evidence Sufficient?; The Science of Biblical Anthropology

Adam and Eve: "The Blood" and "The Birther"

Alice C. Linsley


I find it ironic that people insist on reading Genesis 1-3 as history and and yet ignore the historicity of Genesis 4-11. In this 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.

Genesis is first and foremost about Christ and the Edenic Promise (Gen. 3:15). The rulers listed in the Genesis king lists are Christ's historical ancestors, the people to whom God gave the promise that the Woman's Seed would crush the head of the serpent and restore paradise.

The first created people appeared on earth suddenly and unheralded about 3.6 million years ago in Africa. This is where the oldest human fossils have been found and this is the point of origin of the genetic types and of modern languages.

Genesis tells us that Abraham's ancestors came from Kush and that Eden spanned from two rivers in East Africa to the Tigris-Euphrates in Mesopotamia. So the biblical account of Adam and Eve as first parents must come from Africa. In fact, the remembrance of ancestral first parents has many parallels in African folklore.

Adam is derived from Ha-dam - the Blood, and is a very early term for human being. Eve is from Ha-Va - the Birther. Among archaic peoples blood was the primal element that represents humans, and the V represents a woman giving birth. The V is a variant of the solar symbol Y, indicating one who has been overshadowed by the Creator for a special purpose. The Angel Gabriel explained to Mary that she would be overshadowed and conceive. All these words are related: hay = “living being”(Hebrew); iya = mother (Hebrew); ka ayi = mother (Dravidian); aye = life (Hausa/Hahm), and eyi = gave birth (Hausa/Hahm).

The Biblical account of first parents was preserved by Abraham's ancestors, the founders of the Horite ruler-priest lines. They are the ancestral rulers from whom Jesus descended through his mother Mary. This explains why Eve gave birth and declared "Kaniti" - ruler!

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have gotten/gained (qa-nithi) a man with the help of the Lord." Genesis 4:1, The Hebrew Study Bible

The human knew Havva his wife, she became pregnant and bore Kayin. She said: Kaniti (Qanithi)/ I have gotten a man, as has YHWH. Genesis 4:1, The Schocken Bible, Vol. 1

Qany(ty) or Qan-itti comes from Nilo-Saharan languages like Oromo and ancient Egyptian. These languages share many phonemes with ancient Akkadian, the language of Nimrod's kingdom. The Akkadian itti, as in itti šarrim, means "with the king" or "for the king." It is attached to the names of royalty. Even today the Oromo of Ethiopia and Somalia attach itti to names: Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and Dimashqitti. That itti is associated with Nilotic rulers is evident in the name of the great Egyptian queen Nefertitti.

The Church Fathers read the Adam and Eve story as historical because Adam and Eve in biblical parlance are the original first parents. Now the question is "first parents" of all humans or of the people who gave us Genesis? (Likewise, universal flood or extensive regional flood?) This story belongs to those who gave us Genesis, and to understand it we must understand their cultural context, which was Nilo-Saharan.

Analysis of the king lists of Genesis 4 and 5 shows that Kain and Seth married the daughters of a ruler named Enoch (Anoch/Hanock), so the Bible itself makes it clear that there were other people. Enoch is an African word that means "one who ascends" or "one who is royal heir." This indicates that at the time of Kain and Seth there were already ruling houses or dynasties. They lived during the time of the 4th Dynasty, when Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu were building the Great Pyramids (c. 2601 – c. 2515 BC). This fits the chronology of the Genesis Kings.

Related reading:  Questions Students Ask About Genesis; Answers to Questions about Adam and Eve; Are Adam and Eve Real?; The Biblical Meaning of Eve; St. John Chrysostom on Eve's Sin; Elder Joseph on Adam and Eve

Evangelicals Surrender Too Much Ground to Darwin

As the battle between Darwinism and the Bible rages, some evangelicals have backed away from maintaining that Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals created in the way Genesis 2 relates:

“… the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. … So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”

In a just-published article from the Westminster Theological Journal, Westminster Theological Seminary professor Vern Poythress brilliantly explains why such a surrender is wrong biblically and scientifically. Poythress, with both a Th.D. and a Harvard Ph.D. in mathematics, is well-positioned to write about both theology and evolutionary theory. He has published 13 books, including Redeeming Science and Redeeming Sociology, and numerous scholarly articles. We post this new one with the author’s and WTJ’s permission.— Marvin Olasky, World Magazine (May, 2013)

Read Vern Poythress's article here.


Related reading: Between Biblical Literalism and Biblical Illiteracy; YEC Dogma is NOT Biblical; Facts About Human Origins; DNA Research Confirms Kushite Migration of Genesis 10; Contradicting Evolutionary Theory; Is Genesis Really About Human Origins?

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