Was Adam Historical?

If it can be argued that the Bible record allows for the earth to be 4.56 billion years old, the next question is how Adam fits into the picture. Some have argued that ‘Adam’, which literally means, ‘from ground’, could be a general name for humanity. However, Adam, as a person, is frequently referred to in the Bible. Could the word be used both as a general term and as the name for a specific later person? In the quest to find a unity between the Bible and science, this question needs to be investigated.

Who was Adam? i

There is a problem reconciling the findings of anthropology with the Biblical record about Adam. There are fossils of hominids (with similarities to both apes and humans) that have been dated to have lived between 7 and 2 million years old. The earliest hominid bones were the australopithecines, a wide group of hominids all about 4 feet tall, long arms and shorter legs and believed to be forms of ape. It is thought that they walked like great apes today, balancing with their knuckles. A characteristic that is used to put a species within the Homo group is that they walked upright on two feet.

The next creatures more resembling humans were grouped together as Homo habilis and these lived between 2.4 and 1.5 million years ago. They had a larger brain size than the australopithecines but still had many apelike characteristics. They used simple tools, but most anthropologists still reckon that they were more ape than human and should really be classified with the australopithecines, that were similar to, but differ from chimpanzees. These did not have the characteristics of humanity in that there was little evidence of planning for the future, of aesthetic values, such as paintings, jewelry and music. There has been a vogue to say that these species were, in some way, evolutionary intermediaries between apes and humans but others claim they were just another species of apes that died out, just as 99 per cent of known species have.

Other forms of skeleton appearing between 1.8 and 100,000 years ago have more humanoid features and have been called Homo erectus in the East or Homo ergaster in Africa, for the obvious reason that they all walked erect. There is considerable debate about their relationship. They both made shaped knives and axes from flint, characterised as Acheulean technology. They appear to have died out about 100,000 years ago.

A recent dental survey has revealed that australopithecines, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo ergaster all developed in a way similar to chimpanzees today in that they grew and matured rapidly, very unlike modern humans. Another study has shown that the brains of modern humans develop far more slowly than the other hominids and apes. Human newborns have a brain size just 25 per cent that of the adult and at one year is only 50 per cent of the adult. In contrast the apes and probably the other hominids develop much more quickly, with the brain size at birth being 40 per cent that of the adult and at a year 80 per cent. Such differences link Homo erectus and ergaster much closer with the apes than with humans.

There have been some discoveries of bones that are similar to humans that have been dated as being up to 500,000 years old but most paleoanthropologists recognise that these all have the features of a group called Archaic Homo sapiens and have not been classified as Homo sapiens sapiens. The earliest bones that appear similar to modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens, have all been dated to be less than 100,000 years old.

Genetic differences between apes and humans

DNA is a double helix of coded units, called nucleotides. The order of these units in the DNA controls the formation of tailored proteins in the cells cytoplasm. Recent genetic studies confirm that modern man is a relatively recent newcomer to earth but that he shares both designs and genetic material with apes and other organisms. Mice share 90 per cent of human DNA, dogs share 84 per cent, slugs 70 per cent and chickens 65 per cent. Even bananas share nearly 60 per cent and daffodils 35 per cent of genetic material with humans. When the DNA of a chimp is compared with that of a human, there is only a 1.23 per cent difference in substitutions of one nucleotide with another. This amounts to 35 million changes in base pairs. However there are additional insertions or deletions of nucleotides that have not been replaced, which amounts to a further 1.5 per cent difference. In all there is a 3 per cent difference between the genome of the chimp and a human. This would mean that approximately 50 million beneficial genetic changes would have to be made over 6 million years, the time some scientists have suggested it has taken for man to form from apes, so if each generation was 15 years it would require there to be 125 beneficial mutations every generation, without any harmful ones.

A significant difference between apes and humans is that apes have 48 chromosomes and humans 46. The human chromosome 2 is longer than others and has similar bandings as chromosomes 2A and 2B in the ape and it does appear that a fusion has occurred. There is evidence that Neanderthal man also had a fused chromosome 2. The difficulty is that when chromosomes fuse naturally it inevitably results in death or severe deformity. The suggestion that this fusion occurred naturally in both a male and female at the same time and in the same geographical location without any disadvantage and for them to breed is so improbable as to be impossible.

It is asking a lot for all these beneficial changes to have occurred without a brilliant mind behind them. No living person could design such changes.

Genetic Dating

The structure of DNA is altered by mutations over the generations. Neutral mutations accumulate over the years. Significantly there is much less variation in the DNA of humans than in any other species, suggesting that humans have not been around that long.

Some of a cell’s DNA is not in the nucleus but in the mitochondria of the cytoplasm (mtDNA). This mtDNA is passed on unchanged from mother to mother, in the cytoplasm of the egg, over the generations. The only variation should be the result of mutations as the cells divide so can be used as a type of molecular clock. If these neutral mutations occur at approximately regular rates, the number of mutations can be used to calculate how long it has been since the original genetic material was set. One large study analysed all the mtDNA of 53 individuals from different places and races. They concluded that the first woman lived relatively recently, being only 171,500 ± 50,000 years old. However it is very difficult to be sure about mutation rates.

There is also DNA in the Y chromosome, the chromosome that determines the sex of a being. This chromosome is passed from father to son, and can also be used to look at mutations. There is much more DNA available to analyse, than is found in mtDNA. Recent studies have given dates for the first man as being between 35,000 and 47,000 years ago. However the accuracy of this technique has also been criticised.

Many other genetic studies have come to similar conclusions that the first humans lived approximately 100,000 years ago.

It is on the basis of such studies that it has been suggested that genetically all people stem from a mitochondrial Eve and a Y-chromosome Adam and that these appear to come from Africa. Such studies suggest that Homo sapiens sapiens began as a new line relatively recently and are difficult to understand if man evolved from other species by a Darwinian process. However another explanation could be that other ancient humans died out leaving a single genetic pair from which the human race is derived – a genetic Noah and his wife!

Anthropology

Several caves have now been discovered in Europe and Africa that have primitive artwork on their walls. These have mostly been dated from 25-40,000 years old. Surprisingly hardly any human bones have been found that have been dated between 40,000 to 80,000 years old, suggesting that there was a cataclysmic annihilation of the first humans. This could explain the genetic findings that also suggest a relatively recent origin for human beings. The fossil record shows a sudden explosion in the number of human remains from around 40,000 years ago.

Agriculture

The evidence of early farming has been found in Israel at the Ohalo II archaeological site. Grasses with larger seeds, including wheat and barley, were grown and used to make flour. Multiple measurements using carbon dating have consistently dated the site as being 23,500 years old.ii Further evidence suggests that cereal farming is even older than this, possibly 45,000 years ago.iii Agriculture became widespread less than 12,000 years ago and this appears to have begun in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia.

Abel, Adam’s second son, was a shepherd. His older brother Cain, ‘worked the soil’. It would therefore appear that both plant and animal farming were known when Cain and Abel lived, unless they were the first to practice both.

Cities

Cain travelled to the ‘Land of Nod’ where he was building a city when his wife had his first son Enoch. Who was he scared of and for whom was he building this city and where did he get the idea of a city from? The city of Urukin, Mesopotamia, is so far the oldest known city, being 4,500 years old.

Cain, after his expulsion from Adam’s family following the murder of Abel, travelled east. He was terrified that,

“I will be a restless wanderer, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Genesis 4:14

This would suggest a later date for Adam and his family and that there were others living at the time.

Genealogies

Genealogies are lists of names that indicate the ancestors or descendants of an individual. In the ancient world, genealogies were very important, in order to substantiate a royal line or a claim to land. Assyrians in the first millennium BC created lists of their kings and added the number of years that they reigned right back to a line of seventeen kings who lived in tents. The reliability of these genealogies has been supported by the finding in Ebla of a treaty, dated in the third millennium BC, which also named these earliest kings. Earlier still is a list of Sumerian kings that was made about 1800BC and goes back to the survivors of the great flood.

The genealogies in the Bible are similar to these royal genealogies, but are often interspersed with personal notes, which add to their veracity. Not all Biblical genealogies mention every generation, they are usually limited to ten or occasionally multiples of seven.iv The term ‘son of’, can simply mean a direct descendent, with one or more generations being omitted. The point of the genealogy is to authenticate a person’s standing because of their proven background. The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1 is broken down into three sections of 14 names. To achieve this systematic approach the author has omitted some names that are listed in 1 Chronicles chapters 1-9. Similarly the genealogies in Genesis 1 and 5 were written down to emphasise that God’s image was passed on through the generations and their authors frequently omitted less important names.v Both display a pattern that uses two sets of 10 names.

The genealogy in Genesis chapter 5 begins with God. It says that he created Adam ‘in the likeness of God’ (v. 1). Then we read,

“When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.” Genesis 5:3

The subsequent ten descendants are likewise all given specific numbers of years that they had lived. This certainly suggests that this genealogy was meant to be read as an accurate historical document but it must be emphasised that the word ‘ben,’ often translated ‘son’ can also mean ‘descendent’ and ‘ab’, often translated ‘father’ can also mean ancestor.

A series of ancient cuneiform tablets has been found in Nippur, a city in Sumer, Southern Mesopotamia, and dated well before the time of Abraham. These talk about the creation and the flood as well as the ‘ten rulers who reigned before the flood’. Could these be the ten Patriarchs mentioned in the genealogy of Genesis 5?

According to Jewish sources, Ezra wrote the book of Chronicles about 440 BC. Ezra was the reforming priest and one of the early leaders of Israel when some of the exiles returned to Israel, following their captivity in Babylon. The author quotes from Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah. Zechariah’s final prophecy was made only 50 years before Ezra. The book of Chronicles was written to encourage the returning exiles that they were still God’s chosen people and that the old covenants still stood. This book, (which was only divided into two sections, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, when the Septuagint translation was made, in 200 BC) begins with a fascinating genealogy of the patriarchs. Starting with Adam, it gives the line of descent to Noah. Then the descendants of each of Noah’s sons are listed and the author picks out Abraham’s family. After listing the descendants of Abraham’s sons, he concentrates on the family of Isaac. After listing the descendants of Isaac’s son, Esau, the writer shifts to concentrate on the family of the other son, Jacob. Over the next twelve chapters, there is a large number of genealogies, originating from Jacob, that go down to the line of kings who were in Babylonian exile. The writer clearly recognises that God’s Messiah, or Saviour, would be a direct descendant of king David. The evident intention is to base the reassurance of the Jewish nation on the historicity of the people with whom God had made his covenants. Clearly if the people mentioned were not real people this argument would be totally invalid. Again a real Adam is therefore essential.

Similarly at the beginning of Matthew’s record of the gospel, he gives the genealogy of the royal line back to Abraham, the first leader of the God’s people. This genealogy is given in three sections each with 14 generations. This number clearly has a symbolic significance. What could it be? David’s name is at the end of the first section and at the beginning of the second section. The break between the second and third sections is the going into exile in Babylon. The Jews in the time of Jesus knew from the prophecies in the Bible that the Messiah would be the ‘Son of David’.

All Greek and Hebrew letters and some Latin letters are used as numbers, as well as letters. For example, in Greek, alpha (α) represents 1, beta (β) 2, theta (θ) 9, iota (ι) 10, kappa (κ) 20, mu (μ) 40 and nu (ν) 50. By adding up the numeric value of each of the letters in a word, each word has a total numeric value. Sometimes these numbers have special significance. It is interesting that the numeric value of the Hebrew written-word for David (dalet (ד) is 4, vav (ו) is 6 and dalet (ד) is 4) add up to 14. Prior to the introduction of the Massoretic text around 900AD there were no vowel symbols.

In Luke chapter 3, we are given the reverse genealogy of Jesus, back through Judah and Abraham to Seth, who was “the son of Adam, the son of God”. If there was no Adam, the value of this genealogy to authenticate Jesus is totally undermined.

In Genesis, man is presented as the final climactic act in a series of creations. Man is presented as the pinnacle of God’s creation. It was to man that he spoke and gave his orders. He wanted to bless man and have a close relationship with him. After man’s creation, the Bible says,

“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you . . . .” Genesis 1:28-29

The historicity of Eden

The Genesis record gives a geographical position for the Garden of Eden. Moses, when editing the early chapters of Genesis positioned Eden as being east of where he was writing from, which was probably in the wilderness south of the promised land.

“Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden.” Genesis 2:8

When Cain was expelled ‘to the land of Nod’, this is located as being ‘East of Eden’ (Genesis 4:16). Four rivers came together in Eden.

“A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from where it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” Genesis 2:10-14

This description specifies a real geographical site, it was where the four rivers join. The Garden of Eden was rich in plant life which would also suggest a low-lying area near a river. The Tigris and Euphrates are still recognised but where are the Pishon and the Gihon?

The Pishon came through the land of Havilah which is rich in gold, and onyx, a black gemstone, and aromatic resins such as amber, which is used to make myrrh. The only area in the region that is known to have gold is now called the Mountains of Hejaz in the west and central of Saudi Arabia. The land of Cush has traditionally been the name for the horn of Africa around Ethiopia that was later occupied by Cush, the grandson of Noah. This gives rise to a problem, as there is no way for a river to flow from Africa to southern Iraq and why would Cush settle in the west of Africa! However before the end of the last ice age, that ended around 15,000 years ago, the horn of Africa and South-west Arabia were joined and it is now understood that both these joined areas were the ‘land of Cush’.

Satellite photographs have recently revealed two dried up rivers that flow from the mountains in the west and south west of Arabia towards the east and these could well be the lost rivers. It is known that as recently as 5,500 years ago the west and southwest of Arabia were well watered areas.

It is therefore likely that the Garden of Eden was located under what is now the southern Persian Gulf. More than sixty archaeological sites around the Persian Gulf have revealed there was a thriving civilsation in this area 7,500 years ago, and that was before the end of the last Ice Age. Jeffrey Rose, the archaeologist has described these,

“These settlements boast well built, permanent stone houses, long distance trade networks, elaborately decorated pottery, domesticated animals, and even evidence for one of the oldest boats in the world.”vi

There were freshwater springs in the area and so it is likely that this was full of luscious vegetation such as was found in the Eden of Genesis 2.

Around 75,000 years ago a volcano, called Toba, erupted on Sumatra. This supervolcano discharged approximately 2,800 cubic kilometres of molten rock. That compares with approximately 3km3 for mount Vesuvius that erupted in AD 79 and 1km3 for Mount St. Helens. It resulted in six centimetres of ash all over the south East Asia and would have had devastating effects on human and animal populations. When Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia in 1815, and this ejected 80km3, there was a summer-less year throughout the northern hemisphere the following year. Ash from its eruption has been found in ice cores in the arctic. The eruption on Toba was far bigger and may well have contributed to the ice age 75,000 years ago. Whether this was the cause or not, we do know that at that time there was a massive reduction in the number of many animal species.

The Historicity of Adam

Anthropological studies suggest that modern Homo sapiens sapiens first appeared between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago. He made tools and jewellery. The earliest cave paintings have been dated as being around 45,000 years old. On this basis some have placed Adam at the beginning of this era – the first homo sapiens sapiens and Noah’s flood would then be dated around 40,000 years ago. This would give ample time for the episode of the tower of Babel and the development of languages. There are however the difficulties that cities and structures such as the Tower of Babel were unknown at that time. There is also the difficulty reconciling this view with the genealogies in Genesis. A few generations may be omitted to obtain numerical symmetry but to lose 90,000 years is unlikely.

One of the difficulties is that the same Hebrew word is used both for mankind and for Adam, the father of Cain, Abel and Seth. In Genesis chapter 1 the Hebrew word adam clearly refers to mankind,

“So God created man (adam) in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

Genesis chapter 5 begins with the toledoth (translated ‘generations’) of Adam’s line and there is little doubt that here Adam is the name of a real person.

“When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named his Seth.” Genesis 5:3

Chapter 4 begins with the story of Eve becoming pregnant by Adam and giving birth to Cain and later Abel. This also seems to refer to a specific couple of people.

Chapter 2 and 3 are written in a manner that reads more like a mixture of history, geography and parable than straight historical reporting. The snake speaks to Eve in the garden, they are prohibited to eat from a tree called ‘the knowledge of good and evil’ yet are allowed to eat of all other trees including a tree called ‘the tree of life’ both of which were central in the garden. After eating of the forbidden fruit they felt guilty, were ashamed of their nakedness and hid from God who made some clothes for them. The use of parable is powerful as a story is being told that is timeless. All people can relate to this account, we have all decided to make up rules about what is right and wrong for us and we do feel guilt when we do wrong.

We can conclude that the word Adam was originally a generic name for early man. The word used for ‘mankind’ in early Genesis is adam, which is similar to adamah meaning ‘ground’ or ‘earth’. It is the context that has determined whether translators make the word mean the person ‘Adam’ or mankind in general.

The subsequent Biblical record with its genealogies and the detailed ages of the patriarchs do teach that Adam was a real person who was created and chosen by God, and who lived in southern Mesopotamia.

Adam was a primitive farmer. Mesopotamia is widely considered to be the cradle of civilization and is thought to be the site where farming was first developed.vii DNA fingerprinting studies, comparing wild wheat with cultivated wheat, have concluded that large scale farming probably began around 9000 BC in the mountains of east Turkey where the Tigris and Euphrates run.viii The next generation, according to the Biblical record reared domestic animals. Another study indicated that the domestication of goats began around 8000 BC in the same area. Cain built a city called ‘Enoch’.ix Archaeology suggests that cities were first created in Mesopotamia. Genesis tells us that one of Cain’s descendants, Tubal-Cain, forged “all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.”x Something remarkable happened in Mesopotamia at this time in the fertile area that would have included the Garden of Eden. These coincidences should not be overlooked.

John Stott, in his classic commentary on the book of Romans, discusses the problem of the historicity of Adam.xi He accepts the fossil evidence that Homo sapiens sapiens has been around for about 100,000 years and Homo erectus for about 1.8 million years but he questions whether they were endowed with “rational, moral and spiritual faculties that enabled them to know and love their Creator”. He says about Adam and Eve,

“Scripture clearly intends us to accept their historicity as the original human pair.”

With regard to the human fossils that must have preceded Adam he concludes,

“The likelihood is that they were all pre-Adamic hominids, still homo sapiens and not yet homo divinus, if we may so style Adam.”

He emphasises the Bible’s teaching that Adam was a special creation of God and that “though our bodies are related to the primates, we ourselves in our fundamental identity are related to God.” Yet this is no mere historical question, as the Bible goes on to apply the significance of man being specially created by God.

There is some evidence in the Genesis record that supports this view that there were other humans around at the time of Adam.

1. The mention of good gold and onyx stones for jewellery in the land of Havilah (Genesis 2:11) suggests that there were other people about who would value these items.

2. Cain, Adam’s son built a city. Who was this city for if only Adam’s family were around?

3. There has been much debate about who Cain married. It is possible it was an unknown sister became his wife, but if there were other people around then they would be more likely candidates. ß

4. Lamech killed a young man who wounded him (Genesis 4:23). Who was this person as there is no mention of him as a member of Adam’s family?

5. Who were the Nephilim? Genesis 6:1-4 says,

“When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men (Hebrew ‘Adam’) were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”

The Hebrew word ‘Nephilim’ literally means ‘fallen ones’, they were considered an evil people. After the flood a group still existed among the Canaanites and Philistines who were opposed to the Children of Israel. They are also called the Rephaim and the Anakites. The ‘Sons of God’ was a term used for ruling people in the ancient world. This seems to suggest that the ‘Sons of Adam’ were a discrete people living amongst others at this time.

All this Biblical evidence does suggest that there were other people around at the time of Adam’s family.

BVP

i This chapter is heavily reliant on the information given in the book by Fazale Rana with Hugh Ross, ‘Who was Adam?’ 2nd Edition, Reasons to Believe 2015

iiDolores R. Piperno et al., “Processing of Wild Cereal Grains in the Upper Paleolithic Revealed by Starch Grain Analysis” Nature 430 (2004) p. 670-673

iii Fazale Rana with Hugh Ross, ‘Who was Adam?’ 2nd Edition, Reasons to Believe 2015 p. 359

iv www.godandscience.org/youngearth/genesis_genealogies.html

v William Henry Green, ‘Primeval Chronology,’ Bibliotheca Sacra 1890 p 285-303

vi Quoted in Hugh Ross, ’Navigating Genesis’ Reasons to Believe 2014 p.99 from Jeffrey I. Rose, ‘New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis,’ Current Anthropology 51 (Dec 2010) p. 849-83 seen at http://www.livescience.com/history

vii Javid Diamond, ‘Location, Location, Location, The First Farmers,’ Science 278, Novemeber 14, 1997 p. 1243-1244

viii Manfred Heun et al. ‘Site of Einkorn Wheat Domestication Identified by DNA Fingerprinting,’ Science 278 November 14, 1997 p 1312-1314

ix Genesis 4:17

x Genesis 4:22

xi John Stott, “The Message of Romans”, Inter Varsity Press, 1994 p. 162