It seems to me that almost nothing in the Bible offers more opportunities for debate, argument, or downright dispute as the matter that took place upon the sixth day of creation: the Introduction of Man onto the earth.
I recently saw a television special that compared the account of creation that is found in Genesis with those found among the mythologies of other cultures . The program offered no conclusions, but did point out that it was unlikely that such a tale could have come from the mind of mankind. Just the fact that "light" was created before the sun or stars, indicates a leap of logic not possible to the mind of man at that time.
However, the program went on to berate the subject of the creation of mankind, insisting that the Bible contradicts itself, and even delving into pagan mythologies with a supposition that "male and female created he them" meant that Eve wasn't Adam's first wife! (Students of mythology will recognize the persistent Lilith theory).
Now, for some time, I have avoided getting into discussions of this subject, for the simple reason that my ideas are my own, and though they are based upon a very literal interpretation of the scriptures, they are still bound to be controversial. But, now, when modern society (or Satan, if you prefer) seems bent on using this debate to destroy belief in the Word of God, I suspect that I can be forgiven for sending them off to the publisher! So, read on, if you wish, and feel free to disagree with me. My wife does plenty of that, and it hasn't hurt me, yet!
Naturally, the basis of the problem is our unfamiliarity with the way the original Hebrew was translated into Jamesian English, and even those new, more recent translations that are taken directly from the old scrolls don't seem to catch up. Somewhere along the line, language has taken enough twists and turns to make it an indecipherable maze to most of us. But if we look carefully... it's amazing what we can learn.
So, to get on with it...
2. The Two Accounts of the Origin of Man!
Turn with me now to the Book of Genesis. The first Book of the Bible, this incredible, poetic epic has sparked more debates than almost anything else in history has, with arguments over who wrote it, its accuracy, and its meanings! Few Bible scholars can agree on more than a minute portion of its contents,
At the moment, however, we're not concerned with most of that, but with the Story of the Creation and the Origins of Mankind.
We know how God made the world, in fact, the universe, in only six days; how He caused the Light to appear by His spoken Word, and the land and the seas and the sun and the moon and the stars, We know how He brought the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and "every living creature that moveth" (Gen. 1:21, KJV), On the sixth day of His work, God made the animals that lived on the land, and then we get into the first account of the creation of mankind. Let's take a look:
3. The First Man
Gen. 1·26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Note that this passage indicates that God created "male and female" at the same time. Now, bearing in mind that God's plan had already called for a bi-polar nature... in other words, all the animals in God's creation came in two sexes… this idea makes a lot of sense. Is it reasonable to assume that God would make male and female of all the animals, then forget to make a female of his most complex creature?
Well, you may ask, doesn't that refer to Eve?
I don't think it does, nor do I think it refers to some mythical Lilith. Remember, Adam was a gardener (we'll get there in a moment), and Eve, his helper, whom God specifically designed to be appropriate for him. What does the Bible say about this first male and female pairing?
Gen. 1:28 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29: "And god said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat: and it was so."
Did you catch it? These people were given only what grew naturally upon the earth for their food. Does that sound like a gardener? In fact, doesn't that sound a lot more like the way scientists describe the earliest cave men, vegetarians who took their sustenance directly from the trees and bushes?
Then, was Adam in fact the first man? This seems to imply that he was not. Moreover, this passage would indicate that it was not one pair that God created, but an entire race of men and women who might have been little more than animals; intelligent, able to "subdue the earth", yes, but there might have been something missing...
4. The Man Adam
In the second chapter, God rested on the seventh day from all His work, and took the time to look it al over. Note that verses 4 and 5 point out that the plant of the field and the herb of the field had not yet grown, although God had created wild grasses, herbs and trees on the third day. Verse 5 goes on to explain that "God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. "
Now, wait a minute! We know that God made man on the sixth day. Here it is the seventh day, God is resting and considering all his work, and now it says there was not a man to till the ground. Isn't that a contradiction?
Again, I don't think it is. The first men God created were told to eat what grew wild upon the earth. They were not told to till the ground. Verse 7 gives us some further information:
Gen. 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
The Hebrew word that is translated "formed" here is the same word that is translated as "created" in chapter one. Why, do you suppose, those scholars who labored for years to translate the Holy Scriptures in the Sixteenth Century chose this particular meaning for the word in this verse? Could it be that they recognized a difference in the context of the passage, one that indicated that this "making" was not the first, and therefore not a "creation"? Creation is the making of something that has never existed before; yet, verse 7 specifically says, "formed"
It also adds one more piece to the puzzle: "...and man became a living soul." Nowhere in chapter one is the first man described in this way.
What about the lifestyle of this "new" man? Verse 8 finds him placed in a special garden, where God caused to grow all the kinds of plants that the man could eat from (and of course, those other two trees, as well.) Verse 15 tells us that this man was put in the garden " to dress it and to keep it", while verses 19 and 20 indicate the high degree of intelligence of this man, who could give names to all the animals. Could any man do that today?
As for the new female, she was not made at the same time, but was actually taken from a part of the man himself (that famous rib), to be special to and for him! This bears little resemblance to the creation of man that took place on the sixth day.
So, it is my conclusion from this information, that what we have are not two stories of one creation, but two entirely different origins of two entirely different races! First, we have the natural man, who ate wild vegetation and lived free throughout the earth, probably roaming wherever he chose; and, second, the Adamic race of mankind, which scripture tells us was probably intended to be immortal and might never have progressed beyond Adam and Eve if he hadn't eaten the forbidden fruit (yes, I said "he!" Eve was deceived, but Adam was just plain jealous and ate the fruit of his own free will!)
Two races, ah? some of you may ask. And just what other proof is there of this theory?
5. Giants in the Earth
I think we are all familiar enough with the story of the fruit and how Adam and Eve lost their happy home in the Garden of Eden, so let's skip ahead a bit. Chapter 4 brings us the story of Adam and Eve's first two sons, Cain and Abel. Of course, Cain, in a fit of jealousy, killed his brother Abel, and when God confronted him with the fact, he panicked. God punished him by cutting him off from all that he had known, and making him "a fugitive and a vagabond".
How did Cain respond?
Gen. 4:14 " Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one who findeth me shall slay me."
Now, think about this: if Adam and Eve were all of mankind that God had made in the beginning, who was he afraid of? It should have been simple for him to escape from the small piece of the world that they occupied. Even if they had more children by this time, it is unlikely that Cain could not have hidden himself away from what must have been a very small tribe or group. But he was afraid that someone out there would kill him!
Verse 16 "And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
17 "And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch."
Okay, this is where it gets interesting! Over the years, I can't tell you how many times I've heard the question, " If Adam and Eve were the first people, then who did their children marry?" I know of at least one case where a senior church official decreed that God didn't have any objection to incest, back then, so they married each other! However, my Bible tells me that God is "the same yesterday, today and forever!" In addition, we now know enough about genetics to know that such a small gene pool would result in only a few physical types, and probably would have caused the race to die out by negative reinforcement. Had they remained pure in the Garden, these things would probably not have mattered to Adam's line, but once they entered the world, all of this became pertinent.
6. The Race Defiled
So, Cain got a wife from somewhere, and apparently he found enough people there to populate a city. Remember, he was still Adam's son, and undoubtedly inherited a great deal of Adam's intellect; would it be difficult for a modern man to rule over savages? Cain would probably have been capable of taking over an entire nation of the first, natural mankind, and that seems to be what he did. Since the Bible says that he built the city, it is safe to speculate that he "built" it in the same way that Caesar built "Caesarea"; i.e., by ruling it as a king or emperor, and commanding that it be built.
Likewise, his wife must be from that other race, as well, so that Enoch was a sort of half-breed.
Oh-oh., I hear scoffers. Let's look in the Bible...
Gen. 6:1 "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."
If we accept that there were two different races at that time (and how hard is that? Look how many there are today!), then this passage would indicate that the "Sons of God" might be that race which sprang from the man into whom God breathed the breath of life, the man who "became a living soul". This would leave the "Daughters of men" as the descendants of the natural man. Two distinct races; One is intelligent, in contact with his creator; the other is ruled by the flesh in which he lives, subject to the hungers and needs of the body. What happened when they came together?
Verse 4 "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."
The progeny of these mixed marriages were something more than the natural man, yet not as great as the Adamic line. The combination of intellect with natural desires defiled the race of Adam, and its effects are felt in each and every one of us, even today. So great was the fall of this once pure race, that in the very next verse, God saw how evil it had become and set in motion a plan to destroy all that had turned away from Him.
Then comes the story of Noah and the flood. Of all that lived on the earth at that time, only the family of Noah still revered God and were found worthy of preservation.
Now, we know that God does not give up easily. So what does this tell us of the defiled race, the line of men that started with Adam? So defiled was it, that God, who knows all things, knew that none of them would ever come back to Him, and ended their lives, saving only those few who were still true to Him.
7. The Race Reconciled
So, can you see why I choose to believe my theories on creation? They explain:
1. The seemingly contradictory stories of the origin of man,
2. The fact that evidence proves the existence of a "primitive" caveman
3, Where Cain got his wife, and
4. Why we have a sinful nature.
I told you in the beginning of this article to feel free to disagree with me, and I stand by that statement, But whether you agree with my theories or not, there is one thing more I need to say to you:
It doesn't matter!
Where we came from is not important. I offer these theories only as a possible answer to the questions that plague some people.
What is important is that, however the race got defiled, it is now possible for it to be reconciled! Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all the sin, all the guilt, all the defilement can be washed away, drowned out of our lives by His Blood!
God loved us even when we were sinners, and He sent His Son, His only begotten Son, to be the final sacrifice, to shed His own Blood for our sins, so that we might escape the natural recompense of our lives, and live forever in Heaven with Him!
I urge you, no matter what you believe about creation, or about the flood, or about where you came from, take the time to learn of Jesus.
Give Him a place in your life.
And then, at least, you'll know for sure where you're going.
I agree with the statement "It does'nt matter" Reconciled man matters more. God loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice for sins 1 John 4:9,10. His love for us while we were yet sinners Romans 5:10 As our creator in spite of our sins, because of His mercy Titus 3:5 and undeserved grace Ephesians 2:4,5. The summary matters most.
