RE: [asa] ORIGINS: (Adam or a group of Adams?) pseudogenes are overwhelming evidence for evolution...?

Hi Phil, you wrote:

Cain = "a smith," someone who forges things with his hands, by extension
someone who works with his hands in order to forge out his own
significance (e.g., farming, cities, sacrifices that God rejects). He
represents pre-historic mankind who "wanders" on the Earth without
permanent community.

Enoch = "Unuk," the first civilization that Cain forged. (Note how Cain
can't be a literal individual, because he can't be cursed to wander and
yet build a city at the same time.)

The idea that the line of Seth is literal where the line of Cain is
figurative breaks down here at the beginning. The Sumerian unug was a
literal city. After "the flood swept thereover," kingship was restored
at Kish. The city Cain built is the second city named in the Sumerian
king list as restored. The SKL lists it as E-Anna(k) (phonetically in
English) where Mes-kiag-gasher was high priest and king. Remember how
long the patriarchs lived in the days of Adam. If Cain also lived to
over 900 he could wander for hundreds of years before settling down and
building a city.

Dick Fischer

Dick Fischer, Genesis Proclaimed Association

Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History

 <http://www.genesisproclaimed.org/> www.genesisproclaimed.org

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of philtill@aol.com
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 7:22 AM
To: bernie.dehler@intel.com; asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: [asa] ORIGINS: (Adam or a group of Adams?) pseudogenes are
overwhelming evidence for evolution...?

Yes, I think the Biblical account is clear
that Adam was a unique person and that's why it was used in genealogies;
but I also think it is wrong

The idea that I've been exploring in recent years is this: that Adam in
the Seth geneology was a historical person, the actual father of Seth;
yet since his name happens to mean "mankind" and since he is the first
person in the Semitic geneology, the original composer of Genesis 2-4
took this as an opportunity to "reflect" him backwards to represent the
origin of mankind. Thus, the "Adam" of Genesis 2-4 is a literary
contruction based upon the name of a real person "Adam" found in the
geneology.

It all depends on how the genre of Genesis 2-4 was used at the time. We
need to be more careful not to treat the genre differently than the
original author treated it. It's not correct to say that the use of a
"mythological" genre for those chapters represents "error" in the Bible
if the biblical author intended it to be understood according to the
norms of that genre. It means what the original author meant it to
mean, nothing more, and hence it is not error.

I think there is internal evidence that the original author knew that
Genesis 2-4 was not literal. For example, the Cain geneology is
obviously a pure literary construction intended to parallel the Seth
geneology and teach a lesson about mankind. Taking the names of Cain's
geneolgy, they are all distorted versions of the names in Seth's
geneology, and it means this:

Cain = "a smith," someone who forges things with his hands, by extension
someone who works with his hands in order to forge out his own
significance (e.g., farming, cities, sacrifices that God rejects). He
represents pre-historic mankind who "wanders" on the Earth without
permanent community.

Enoch = "Unuk," the first civilization that Cain forged. (Note how Cain
can't be a literal individual, because he can't be cursed to wander and
yet build a city at the same time.)

Irad = "city of a fugitive," so that even though mankind now lives in
cities, rather than wandering like Cain, they are still fugitives from
God just as much as Cain was. They still run from God in their hearts
if not with their feet.

Mehujael = "cursed of God" because the curse on Cain still continues
into Cain's civilization. Man has forged cities but he has not
successfully forged his own salvation or significance in this world. He
has not escaped the curse.

Methushael = "man of Sheol" because death hangs over mankind. Man's
attempts to forge salvation are a failure and the flood is impending.

Lamech -- the meaning is unknown, but possible means nothing more than
to parallel the Lamech found in Seth's geneology. The Lamechs are the
ones who speak in each geneology, and their respective speeches amplify
the differences between the godly and ungodly responses to life in this
world. The godly Lamech speaks how they have been patiently waiting for
salvation from the curse, and how Noah will bring that salvation. The
ungoldy Lamech speaks how he has been violently taking revenge far more
so than God himself does, 70 times 7. He is continuing the murder
introduced by Cain, and boasting of his power because he is still trying
to forge out his own significance in this world. This is the violence
that God judges in the Flood.

Lamech's three sons (parallel to Noah's three sons) represent profound
cultural achievements (pastoral nomadism, music, and metallurgy), how
"Cain" continues to forge his own significance in this world by cultural
advancement.

The last of these three sons of Lamech is named Tubal-cain, which
literally means "World-smith". This pretty much summarizes it: Cain
has been forging his "world". The Cain geneology both begins and ends
with a person called "Cain" and this forms parentheses around the
account.

This "forging" of Cain ends in judgement, the flood. God rejects Cain's
civilization, just as God had had rejected Cain's sacrifice of grain.
In both cases, the works of mankind's hands are unable to bring
salvation. The "Cain" is unable to "cain" his own place in this world
and God rejects his efforts.

This is in contrast to the blood sacrifice of Abel, and the patient
waiting of Seth's line culminating in Noah (whose name means "rest").
Indeed, the entire story of Mesopotamia leading up to the flood is
selected by the author as a theological case-study to teach us that
mankind's works are unable to effect our own salvation. All Cain does
is contaminated with sin and fails to save. This is the point of the
story.

So you can see that the Cain geneology is a pure literary construction
based on distorting the names found in the Seth geneology. If so, then
this implies that what precedes the Cain geneology may also be a
literary construction: the Cain/Abel account, and the Garden of Eden
account. Both are intended to teach the existence of two curses: the
curse on man that separates us from God, and the curse on man that makes
our works unable to redeem us. Just as the Cain geneology is based on
the names found in Seth's geneology, so the Garden of Eden account may
also be based on a name found in Seth's geneology: Adam the literal man
--> Adam the universal progenitor who was cursed.

But the names in Seth's geneology (including Adam) are accompanied by
birth and death dates and the sequence of names does not form such a
"pat" message as does the sequence of distorted names in Cain's account.
So I take everything from Seth (and his actual father Adam) on down to
be historical based on oral or cuneiform accounts -- including the local
mesopotamian flood. When the Bible says that Adam knew his wife again
and she conceived Seth, this is where the symbolic language of the
mythological genre comes to an end, and the account begins relating what
the author had received as historical data.

I've been working on this hypothesis for several years now, and I have
great hope that this will lead to a consistent and high view of both
Scripture and Science without abusing either. There are a number of
other internal evidences that will take too much space to continue
listing here.

Phil

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Received on Mon Nov 5 21:21:12 2007