Dick writes:
When the Ubaidans moved gradually into the area of Southern Mesopotamia they
found rich soil but insufficient rainfall. Irrigation solved that and they
could build small cities.
[PTM] But the point is that they were already there. Unlike the igigi,
Yahweh didn't need to make new human beings in order to have labor for irrigation
during the neolithic. Humans already existed! The text says that no
cultivated plants grew because there was no man to do the irrigation. That's in the
Bible! Then the next verse says that God made Adam, which clearly implies that
this is how God solved the problem. And the parallelism with rain makes this
an air-tight argument.
In your interpretation this passage is a big disconnect because God skipped
over the fact that there really were men to do the irrigation and then he made
Adam. It would not be an error to say there were no men that God **liked**
enough to give them the job of irrigation; but to say there was nobody at all
available, and then to make Adam (implying this solved the problem), well --
that is an error (or else your interpretation isn't correct).
Please understand there is no verb tense in Hebrew. The Bible author couldn’
t have said “it had not rained” even if he wanted to.
He certainly could, except that it would take more words to say it. Consider
how he said it here:
Wakol siyach hasaadeh Terem yihayeh baa'aarets wakaal-'eeseb hasaadeh Terem
yitsmaach kiy lo' him Tiyr Yahweh 'Elohiym 'al-haa'aarets wa'aadaam 'ayin
la'abod 'et-haa'adaamaah.
or,
"Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field
had yet sprouted, for the LORD God [NO SEND] rain upon the earth; and there was
no man to cultivate the ground." (NASB but brackets mine)
Even after removing the verb "had not sent" the idea is clear.
The Now look at the ancient city of Eridu and all those things were true in
every detail, and low and behold, it’s located near the junction of the Tigris
and Euphrates just like the Bible says. Imagine that!
Dick, no doubt there is a lot that is correct about your interpretation, and
I'm not questioning everything.
God bless!
Phil
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Received on Mon Jun 19 18:15:42 2006
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