Last time I was on this list, I caused a huge stir. I don't want that kind
of stir, but I do want a stirring up of ideas.
Over many years, my friend, Dick Fischer and I have been beating each other
over the head and shoulders over the cultural setting of Adam. Dick argues
that he was a recent person from the bronze age. I have argued that Adam had
to be much longer ago based upon the archaeological evidence. I hope to make
a breakthrough here in our long running debate upon this issue by presenting
something entirely new.
For those who might not know, my cancer has come back and I don't know if it
is curable or not.(this is not the point of my post and I am not turning
this into a friggin pity party-life is to be lived not worried over). But
that made me decide that maybe this next decade is my last chance to tell
y'all how it really ought to be, so I am indulging myself in my favorite
pastime of telling y'all how it ought to be and this has spurred me to write
again.
I have been writing a series of pamphlets called the Pathway Papers.
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/path.htm> http://home.entouch.net/dmd/path.htm.
The one I am currently working on concerns Adam and who he was. It is no
secret that I have argued long and hard for an ancient Adam, an Adam 5
million years ago. One of the main problems my views have had is the
assumption made by Biblical scholars that Adam lived within the past 6000
years because of the supposed iron-age setting of some of the Biblical
verses. I am thinking in particular of Genesis 4:22 which says
And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructor of every artificer in
brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
Now, clearly If Tubalcain was the inventor of metalcraft, it is less likely
that Adam could have lived hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago.
Frankly, the answer I have given in the past has not been entirely
satisfactory. Today, I have an entirely new answer that works much better.
Dick uses this verse and similar verses to pound me. IN his excellent book
he writes:
"Genesis 4:22. One of Cain's descendants, Tubal-Cain, was 'an instructor of
every worker in brass and iron.'
"This is the proverbial smoking gun! Adam belongs after the old Stone
Ages, at the end of the Neolithic, at the threshold of a period called the
Chalcolithic when traditional stone tools were augmented by crude copper
implements. Adam's descendants saw the dawning of the Bronze Age." ~ Dick
Fischer, The Origins Solution, (Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, 1996), p. 239
This verse is interpreted by everyone as clear evidence of an
iron/bronze-age setting, and by YECs as the rapid development of technology
before the flood, and then by inference, a similar rapid technological
advance after the flood.
Because of this, many literalists are forced to reject any and all evidence
of human-like activity long before the iron age. Hugh Ross and Fuz Rana
reject any sign of humanity prior to 100 kyr and in doing so are simply
being YEC-like in their denial of what is obviously there in the
archaeological recort. This supposed setting is viewed by atheists and
accommodationalists as evidence that the Bible is factually wrong and thus
to be rejected or as an accommodation by God to the science of the day.
My reflections on this verse this week have shown me something entirely new.
Is this verse, as Dick suggests, the smoking gun? No, not even close. But I
first must preface things. I want to note that in any theory building, one
must put ALL the facts together, not just part of the facts. Thus I must at
least point the readers to the archaeological data which contradicts a
bronze age setting.
There are several items which are Biblically marks of Adam. Language,
religion, sweat, clothing and pain in childbirth. I have web pages showing
that these items go hundreds of thousands of years back in time and thus, if
they are part of Adam and Eve's curse, Adam must have lived prior to their
appearance on earth. My web pages on these marks of Adam can be found at the
following sites
Language evidence for it goes back 2 million years or more
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/mankind.htm>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/mankind.htm and
<http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2002/PSCF9-02Morton.pdf>
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2002/PSCF9-02Morton.pdf
religion--half a million years ago there is good evidence for religion
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/religion.htm>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/religion.htm
Evidence for sweating like we do goes back probably 1.6 million years ago
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/sweat.htm>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/sweat.htm
For the last 2 million years, hominids have been living in very cold places
like Georgia (the asiatic Georgia) where winter temperatures get to -23 C.
requiring clothing. Even the Neanderthals seem to have had capes of leopard
skin. <http://home.entouch.net/dmd/cape.htm>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/cape.htm
Pain in childbirth goes back at least to 2.6 million years and I make a case
that it is there in the Australopiths.
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/birth.htm>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/birth.htm
I point out now, and will below, that for God to tell a Neolithic Eve that
she is going to have pain in childbirth, when all the women of that age
already HAVE pain in childbirth is quite silly. It is like telling us that
God is going to curse us with hair on our heads-something we already have.
YOU HAVE SINNED, THEREFORE HERE AFTER YOU WILL HAVE HAIR ON YOUR HEAD! Big
deal on such a curse. If you already have the curse, why is it such a big
deal for god to tell you that here is something new (which you already are
experiencing) which is a new curse.
All these evidences for these Biblical items go way back into the past, and
tells us that nothing said of a neolithic Adam's descendants actually is
true. They didn't invent music, they didn't invent tools, they weren't the
first to sweat, they weren't the first to speak, they weren't the first to
wear clothing etc etc.
Lets look at the Genesis 4 passage of interest.
Genesis 4:
19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the
name of the other Zillah.
20And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of
such as have cattle.
21And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle
the harp and organ.
22And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructor of every artificer in
brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
23And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives
of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding,
and a young man to my hurt.
24If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
Young-earthers of both varieties (the typical YEC and those who believe in a
recent Adam even if the earth is old), claim that verse 20 indicates that
Jabal was the inventor of herding and living in tents. The problem is that
tents go back in time to at least 425 thousand years ago at Bilzingsleben,
Germany (and there is little reason to think that was the first tent.)
Claims go back to 1.6 million years ago for the first structure.
"At Bilzingsleben each hut opened to the south had a hearth in front of the
door See Figure 5 " D. Mania and U. Mania, "Latest Finds of Skull Remains of
Homo erectus from Bilzingsleben (Thuringia)" Naturwissenschaften,
81(1994):123-127, p. 127
Now, the word translated as cattle is tson and may mean sheep, goats or
cattle. (it also could mean possessions). Now, herders get most of their
calories from the flocks and herds they keep. That is why they keep them.
But what are we to do when Neanderthals did the same thing in the Caucasus
mountains where they obtained 85% of their calories from sheep!
(see Daniel S. Adler, Guy Bar-Oz, Anna Belfer-Cohen, and Ofer Bar-Yosef,
Ahead of the Game : Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Hunting Behaviors in the
Southern Caucasus ," Current Anthropology Volume 47, Number 1, February
2006, p. 91)
At another cave they obtained 60% from sheep and goats (L. V. Golovanova, et
al, "Mezmaiskaya Cave: A Neanderthal Occupation in the Northern Caucasus,"
Current Anthropology, 40(1999):1:77-86, p. 85)
"Outside the Caucasus, high frequencies of mountain goat in Middle
Palaeolithic contexts have been observed in Uzbekistan at Teshik-Tash (Capra
sibirica: 1 80% NISP [Gromova 1949]) and Obi-Rakhmat (Capra sibirica:
47.4-66.7% [Wrinn n.d.]), at the Spanish sites of Gabasa 1 (Capra pyrenaica:
33.7-52.2% NISP per layer [Blasco Sancho 1995]) and Axlor (Capra ibex: 25.6%
combined ungulate sample [Altuna 1989, 1992]), and at Hortus in southern
France (Capra ibex: 75.4% NISP combined sample [de Lumley 1972])." Daniel S.
Adler, Guy Bar-Oz, Anna Belfer-Cohen, and Ofer Bar-Yosef, Ahead of the Game
: Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Hunting Behaviors in the Southern Caucasus
," Current Anthropology Volume 47, Number 1, February 2006, p. 96
It seems that Neanderthals had some system which had a similar effect
calorically as herders.
Jubal is said to be the father of the harp and organ (otherwise known as a
flute). But this didn't happen in Neolithic. The Neanderthals had a flute (
<http://www.uvi.si/eng/slovenia/background-information/neanderthal-flute/>
http://www.uvi.si/eng/slovenia/background-information/neanderthal-flute/)
See also
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/NeanderthalFLUTE.jpg>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/NeanderthalFLUTE.jpg
Compare the picture he has and the one I took of a flute made by humans at
the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall, Orkney Islands.
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/orkneyflute.jpg>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/orkneyflute.jpg
Musical instruments go way back in time as I document on my page
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/music.htm>
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/music.htm
These verses do not require a Neolithic Adam. But 4:22 seems to and if it is
to be read as it always is, then the Bible would be horribly inconsistent,
something many on this list beleive. But I don't think this verse can be
used to indicate inconsistency. So, I took a long hard look at the verse.
I will use this Strongs with the Hebrew word numbers
22And ZillahH6741, she alsoH1571 bareH3205 TubalcainH8423, an
instructorH3913 of everyH3605 artificerH2794 in brassH5178 and ironH1270:
and the sisterH269 of TubalcainH8423 was NaamahH5279.
23And LamechH3929 saidH559 unto his wivesH802, AdahH5711 and ZillahH6741,
HearH8085 my voiceH6963; ye wivesH802 of LamechH3929, hearkenH238 unto my
speechH565: for I have slainH2026 a manH376 to my woundingH6482, and a
youngH3206 man to my hurtH2250.
24IfH3588 CainH7014 shall be avengedH5358 sevenfoldH7659, truly LamechH3929
seventyH7657 and sevenfoldH7659.
Lets start with Tubalcain's name, H8423. It means-offspring of Cain or thou
will be brought of Cain. Cain means spear. This name seems to imply someone
who followed in the path of Cain.
The RSV and ASV versions say that Tubalcain was the "forger of all
instruments" The King James says "instructor of every artificer" and the New
Century version says "Tubal-Cain, who made tools out of bronze and iron."
The NIV says "Tubal-Cain who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and
iron."
The word translated forged (H3913) is latash and means according to
Brown-Driver-Briggs "to sharpen, hammer, whet" Strong's says "A primitive
root; properly to hammer out (an edge), that is, to sharpen:-instructer,
sharp (-en), whet."
Nowhere does the word 'forged' appear in these two dictionaries. Looking at
the other uses, the word is translated 3 times as sharp or sharpen and once
as whet and once as instructor (in the KJV). Sharpen seems to be a proper
definition.
So far this looks like an iron foundry. But what is Tubal-cain sharpening?
Instruments? Not hardly. What he is sharpening is the word H2794 choresh,
which is a PERSON. Strong's says 'fabricator, mechanic or artificer"
Brown-Driver-Briggs says "metal craftsman" But I am going to argue that that
doesn't fit because ONE DOESN"T SHARPEN OR FORGE PEOPLE. One sharpens or
forges INSTRUMENTS.
It is interesting that the Bible doesn't use the words for instruments which
can be sharpened. These words were a chariyts (a cutting instrument) or a
keliy (utensil) or magzerah (axe). If these words were used, it would
unquestionably be about working metal. But here we have Tubal-cain
sharpening a person. This is why the King James calls him an instructor
because that is what teachers do. Like iron sharpening iron that so one man
sharpens another.
So Tubal-cain is an instructor as KJV says. So what is he instructing? This
word choresh is an active participle of a word that has nothing to do with
metal craftsmen. Choresh h2794 comes from charash h2790 which has the
following meanings, none of which have anything to do with metal working
except in the most glancing fashion:
) to cut in, plough, engrave, devise
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to cut in, engrave
1a2) to plough
1a3) to devise
1b) (Niphal) to be ploughed
1c) (Hiphil) to plot evil
2) to be silent, be dumb, be speechless, be deaf
2a) (Qal)
2a1) to be silent
2a2) to be deaf
2b) (Hiphil)
2b1) to be silent, keep quiet
2b2) to make silent
2b3) to be deaf, show deafness
2c) (Hithpael) to remain silent
Nowhere in BDBs list is metal or craftsmen allowed. I would contend that
their definition was determined by what they viewed as the context of the
verse. But there is a different possible context. Let's take the 1(c)
meaning-to plot evil. If we were to chose this meaning instead of the one
normally chosen, we would have:
Tubalcain is the instructor of every plotter of evil. (in brass and iron).
But still there is that phrase brass and iron. What I learned this week is
that 'brass and iron' is a euphemism for corruption. The only other place
where this phrase appears is Jer 6:28 which says
"They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass
and iron: they all of them deal corruptly."
Note the use of brass and iron as a description of their behavior-a
euphemism. So now we can translate this verse as :
Tubalcain is the instructor of every plotter of evil corruption.
Several things argue that this is the real meaning of this verse. First,
this is the last generation before the flood. The reason for the flood was
corruption. Genesis 6:11, 12 says about why the world was about to be
destroyed:
"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for
all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."
In this reading, Tubal-cain would be the great corruptor.
The second thing which supports this view is the irony of contrast between
Tubalcain's name and that of his sister. To use the meanings, when it says
Tubalcain's sister was Naamah, it is saying "offspring of Cain's sister was
pleasantness". If Tubalcain was a corrupt murdering person after the path of
Cain, then to have a sister named pleasantness is hugely funny.
The third thing supporting this view is the strange claim by Lamech in the
verses immediately following. To refresh memories.
23And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives
of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a manH376 to my
woundingH6482, and a youngH3206 man to my hurtH2250.
Lamech killed his own son and the translations don't make that clear. H376
is eesh, which just means man. But the word H3206 has the meaning from
Brown's Driver Briggs of "child, son, boy, offspring, youth" The adding that
he killed a son to my hurt, means that Lamech killed his son to his sorrow.
That would make perfect sense if Tubalcain was the instructor of every
plotter of evil corruption. Rebellious children often bring grief and cause
family problems that get way out of hand.
To conclude, this verse does not require that Adam be iron age. Which means
that Biblical critics who claim this verse as proof of its error, are
themselves in error because of a bad translation. But then so are the
Young-earth creationists and people like Hugh Ross and Fuz Rana who believe
that this verse requires A recent Adam. As shown above in the referenced
links, all of the technology cited in the bible is hundreds of thousands if
not millions of years old.
And my dear friend Dick, should have looked a little deeper into the verse
before declaring it a smoking gun.
Secondly, to have a recent Adam and Eve receive the curses that they do is
utterly silly. Pain in childbirth is demonstrably present as far back as 2.4
million years ago with Homo rudolfensis, whose infantile head size was
barely small enough to go through the birth canal (see Wenda Trevathan's
book Human Birth, and then Steven M. Stanley, Children of the Ice Age, (New
York: W. H. Freeman, 1998), p. 161-162)
When God said to Eve, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing"
Why would that be a curse, if she already has it? That would be like telling
a modern suburbanite, I will greatly increase the weeds in your lawn and you
will have to spend each Saturday pulling them out of your grass". Big deal.
We already do that! A curse is not a curse if you already have the impact of
that curse.
For anyone to think that the descendant of a Neolithic Adam invented music,
or tents or even living off of one species as herders do, is silly.
I do want to go back to an earlier verse because I can hear the complaint.
"Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil" Gen 4:2 NIV
"And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground." KJV
This verse is interpreted equally as requiring an agricultural setting. But
that might be nothing more than an agricultural society reading these verses
eisegetically. As I pointed out earlier Neanderthals were living off of
sheep almost exclusively more than 40,000 years ago. Were they 'keepers' of
sheep? The word can me, an 'associator' with sheep. The Neanderthals might
have thought they were 'keeping the sheep; the sheep probably didn't. Even
today, I would say that the sheep don't know that they are owned.
The word translated as 'keepers' doesn't necessarily imply ownership. Here
are the possible choices:
1) to pasture, tend, graze, feed
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to tend, pasture
1a1a) to shepherd
1a1b) of ruler, teacher (figuratively)
1a1c) of people as flock (figuratively)
1a1d) shepherd, herdsman (substantive)
1a2) to feed, graze
1a2a) of cows, sheep etc (literal)
1a2b) of idolater, Israel as flock (figuratively)
1b) (Hiphil) shepherd, shepherdess
2) to associate with, be a friend of (meaning probable)
2a) (Qal) to associate with
2b) (Hithpael) to be companions
3) (Piel) to be a special friend
Meaning 2, to associate with, would fit quite well what the Neanderthals
were doing. They were clearly associating with sheep, cause they were living
off of them. They were also using meaning 1a1-tending sheep. They may not
have been pasturing them, in the modern sense, but they were tending to
them. When one reads that article above, Ahead of the Game, one realizes
that the Neanderthals had to follow the sheep from season to season, just as
a shepherd does.
Secondly, we have Cain a 'tiller' of the ground. The word translated at
tiller is abad and it merely means work. Cain worked the ground. So do
modern non-farming hunter-gatherers. The women go out and work the ground
and actually spread seed to ensure some plants for next year.
Studies of modern hunter-gatherers show that there is a correlation between
population density and the specialised use of particular foods. Examples
include the systematic exploitation (in some cases even involving the
sowing) of wild grasses and other herbaceous plants for their seeds, and the
replanting of wild yams and other tubers to ensure continuity of supply."D.
R. Harris, "Human Diet and Subsistence," in S. Jones et al, editors, The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), p. 72-73
These people also 'work the ground' in the same sense that the Bible
actually says.
Thus I would conclude, that if one translates the Bible carefully in a
fashion consistent with modern data, one can come to a historically accurate
translation which maintains historicity in the Scripture but doesn't force
the Christian into the unenviable position of denying everything we have
learned about GOD'S creation through science!
Furthermore, I would conclude that nothing in Scripture prevents us from
having Adam live anytime within the past 5 million years that the data would
indicate.
And for those who think the small brained hominids are not smart enough to
be human, do a google on Homo floresiensis. Regardless of what they are,
whether they are microencephalics, descendants of H. erectus or H. habilis,
or modern human pygmies, their brain sizes are those of a chimpanzee and
they made stone tools and used fire showing that a small brain is not an
absolute hindrance to being human. So, small brained hominids of 5 million
years ago could have been Adam. This would be at a time PRIOR to when they
had pain in childbirth and that would mean that the curse, was really a
curse, not simply the deity glomming onto something we already had and
proclaiming it a curse (you, suburbanite will have weeds in your yard!).
Thus, Adam could be 5 million years ago. A consistent reading of scripture
doesn't require ANY particular time frame for Adam.
Your turn, Dick. You need to explain why Jeremiah 6:28 has no bearing on the
interpretation of Genesis 4:22.
glenn
They're Here: The Pathway Papers
Foundation, Fall, and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
<http://home.entouch.net/dmd/dmd.htm> http://home.entouch.net/dmd/dmd.htm
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