Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker - PDF document

Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ?A talk toSpringfield Park Baptist ChurchOn Tuesday 7thJuly 2009byGary Auker Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 2 Adam & Eve by 16thCentury German painter Lucas CranachWhich Adam, Which Eden ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ? Adam & Eve story in Genesis reached its finalform without further editing about 450 BCWritten form of the Adam & Eve story took shapeshape between 1000 to 500 BCAdam & Eve story had an oral tradition probablya few thousand years before it was written down Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ?Ways of reading the 1stfew chapters of Genesis Literalistic view: Early Church Leaders like Origen(185-254 AD) & St. Augustine(354 -430 AD) did not accept a literalistic readingof scripturebut an allegorical one, that is one with a deeper meaning to scripture than just a direct unimaginative reading would convey.Literalism is a relatively recent idea in the church. It gained in popularity after the 16thcentury Reformation led by Martin Luther(1483 –1546) & Jean Calvin(1509 –64). James Ussher(1581-1656) most notably useda literalist interpretation in 1650 to work out the date of creation to 4004 BC.Literalistic readings of Genesis appear to makeour understanding ofGod’s Word contradict God’s World which cannot be true.Most theologians do not take a Literalistic reading of Genesis too seriously. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ?Ways of reading the 1stfew chapters of Genesis •Literalistic view: not a serious optionMythical view:This view rejects any historical content to the Adam & Eve account in Genesisand views the text as purely a religious picture which conveys important truth’sabout man & his moral condition. It is not about the origin of sin but the natureof sin –being cut off from God. The Mythical view which rejects any historicalcontent undermines the concept of redemption(bought back at a price) and theforgiveness of sins through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The Mythical view is not thought to be compatible with Biblical Christianityand is therefore not a serious Christian Theological view Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ?Ways of reading the 1stfew chapters of Genesis •Literalistic view: makes knowledge of God’s Creation disagreewith God’s Word, not a serious option.•Mythical view:undermines Christian redemption, not a serious option. Historical view:This view says that not every point in Genesis 2 –4 is to be taken literally (e.g God making Eve from Adam’s rib) but allegory is interwoven with realhistorical events in time & space e.g Gen 2:10 –14 for the location of Eden . This view preserves our need for redemption after rejectingGod in the Gardenwithout leading to a too rigid reading that leads to conflictswith what is knownabout God’s Creation from human reason a concern raised by St. Augustine in his 408 AD work “The Literal Meaning of Genesis” Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ? This talk will use the Historical Interpretation of Genesis 2-4 that combinesboth allegory & historical information as a guide to see when& were Adam, that is Man came from.The talk will also use the latest information from science to help illuminate our understanding of Humanity’s Ancestral homeland . Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ?What’s in a name ?Name Eveis derived from the Hebrew word
(chavah)"to breathe“or the related word
(chayah)"to live".•Adam is Hebrew for “Man”so the story of Adam is the story of Mankind •According to Genesis 2:7 Adam or Man was created from the earthby God (there is a word play in Hebrew
 ('adamah)meaning "earth") Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker Which Adam, Which Eden ? Where was Eden ? •The Bible gives information on the location of Eden Gen 2: 10 -14 •Scholars have attempedto use Genesis 2:10-14 to try and identify the location of Eden.We will now look at 2 possible locations in the Middle East consistentwith the account in Genesis 2: 10 -14 Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 10 Which Adam, Which Eden ?Was Eden near Mount Araratin Eastern Turkey ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 11The Bible repeatedly implies that Adam and his immediate offspring were farmers Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into thegarden of Eden to dress it and too keep it." Genesis 3:23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken." Genesis 4:2 And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground."It is known that agriculture spreadfrom the Middle Eastto Europe during the Neolithic period starting about 10,000 years ago, but for many years archeologists have debated how this occurred.Evidence of domesticated crops in the core area dates to about 10,000 years ago , while the earliest signs of farming elsewhere are about 9,300 years ago.When did farming 1storiginate (Adam’s tribe)Which Adam, Which Eden ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 12 Perathis simply the Hebrew version of ArabicFiratand Greek EuphratesFour Great Rivers in Genesis :Hiddekelis Hebrew for SumerianIdiglat from which the Greek Tigrisderives."Which Adam, Which Eden ?Gihon; "... the RiverAras, was oncecalled theGaihun"Pishon-"Hebrew (West Semitic) name derived from the old IranianUizhunIranian vowel 'U' had been converted into theSemitic consonant 'P‘. Thus we haveUizhuntoPizhuntoPishon. The riverUizhun(the modernQezel Uzun) -thus identified as the biblicalPishon Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 13Which Adam, Which Eden ? Eden means Paradise in Hebrew. In Persian Paradise means walledGarden. The mountains surrounding the valley’s in this part of the world act like walls. ZagrosMountains in Iran Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 14 Spread and Evolution of Languages Which Adam, Which Eden ?A family tree of Indo-European languages suggests they began to spread and split about 9,000 yearsago. The finding hints that farmers in what is now Turkey drove the language boom. After The Flood Genesis talks about people being dispersed with different languages Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 15 Which Adam, Which Eden ?Is Eden now at the bottom of the Persian Gulf ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 16 Which Adam, Which Eden ? Strait of Hormuz Iraqoutflow ofTigris & EuphratesriversIranSaudi ArabiaKuwait •Persian Gulf stretches from Iraq to theStrait of Hormuz.•Persian Gulf quiet shallow. Average depth ~ 50m ; Max ~ 90 m•Persian Gulf was a dry land oasis until15,000 BC when sea level roseas Ice Age began to thaw •Persian Gulf flooded ~ 9,000BC when sea level roseas Ice Age ended Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 17Which Adam, Which Eden ? Persian Gulf dry basin 15,000 BC when sea level 115 m below today’s value Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 18 Which Adam, Which Eden ?Dr.Zarinsclaims that the Garden of Eden was situated at the head of the Persian Gulf Land of HavilahGenesis 2:11-12Gold, OnyxfoundLand of Cush Eden inGulf ? Riverbed dried upbefore 5,000 years agon In ancient times the "source" or "head" of the river is what we would call the "mouth" of the river today. (Hess & Tsumura, 1994, 178-9). nssnEden ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 19Which Adam, Which Eden ? Persian Gulf 17,000 years ago would have been similar to DhofarMountains, in Oman today, a Green Lush Paradise surrounded by Desert. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 20 Which Adam, Which Eden ?Scientific evidence on were thefirst people walked the Earth Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 21Which Adam, Which Eden ?Human Fossil evidence Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 22Which Adam, Which Eden ? •Modern human fossils in Qafzeh, Israel found to be 87 -97,000 years oldusingThermoluminescence(TL) dating of burnt flints used to make fire alongside the bones TL dating in 1988 of flints used to make fire found among bones Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 23 Early Modern Man (HomoSapien Idulta) 154 -160,000 yrs oldHerto, Ethiopia, AFRICA uncovered in 1997, Published 2003 Which Adam, Which Eden ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 24 Which Adam, Which Eden ? Oldest human remains found in the Worldin 1967 in this valley near the OmoRiver, Southern Ethiopia, Africa Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 25Which Adam, Which Eden ? OmoI fossilsDated in 2005 with modern & accurate40Ar / 39Ar technique to between190,000 to 200,000 years oldOmoI & II The high domed skull cap is a defining feature of Modern Humans Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 26Which Adam, Which Eden ? Oldest HumanFossils found in AFRICA~ 200,000 years old TraditionalBiblicalEden region Oldest Human fossils found to date are from AFRICA. Genesis puts Eden in Middle East. Can we find another way of checking were the first people came from ? Yes we can ! Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 27DNA evidenceOnHuman OriginsWhich Adam, Which Eden ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 28Sir Alec JeffreysF.R.S.Invented DNA “Fingerprinting”Which Adam, Which Eden ? •Jeffreyshad a "eureka moment"in his Univ. Leicesterlab at 9:05 am on Monday 10 September 1984,which unexpectedly showed both similarities and differences in his technician's family's DNA.•The DNA profiling method has become important in forensic scienceto assist police detective workand it has also proved useful in resolving paternityand immigration disputesDNA analysishas now been used to trace howdifferent people groups are related to oneanother & to track when & how they migrated around the world. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 29 DNA evidence can the analysed down both:Which Adam, Which Eden ?Female line MitochondrialDNA inherited exclusively from your Mother’s egg that was fertilized to make you. Male line DNA on a man’s Y chromosome, only directly available to men. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 30 DNA evidence Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA)Male Y chromosomal 60-90 kyrsMRCA Female mitochondrial(mt) DNA 140 kyrsDifference in Male & Female MRCA possibly due tothe Male MRCA (60-90,000 yrs ago) had more than one wife pushing the MRCA in female line backeven further in time.stHuman’s appeared ~ 200,000 year agoin agreement with OmoI & II fossil age in Ethiopia, AfricaWhich Adam, Which Eden ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 31 Which Adam, Which Eden ? •The human population with the greatestgenetic variation due to mutations(i.e DNA copying error down the generations)must be the oldest Human populationwhere people have been settled the longest.Tracing our Human Origin through our DNA•If a member of the oldest populationthen moves to another part of the worldthey will not carry all the variety of mutationsin those that stay in the homeland only asub-set hence the genetic variation of the new population will have less variation withinits members.•The African population has the most varied genetics in the world. Hence people must have come from Africa. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 32 San bushmen -Africa was the cradle of ALLHumanityDNA evidence shows we are all descended from the San peoples distant ancestorsWhich Adam, Which Eden ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 33 Which Adam, Which Eden ?The DNA evidence clearly shows Men & Women came from East Africaand is in agreement with the Human Fossil evidence Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 34Which Adam, Which Eden ?Humanity’s TimelineThousands of years before presentClimate (based on VostokIce Core data)Significant Human Events 101002001101201301401501601701801902030405060708090 210220 Man on the Moon Crucifixion Great Pyramidsbuilt Black SeaFlood Agriculture Persian GulfFloods Super Volcano TobaeruptsHuman’s driven close to extinction QafzehcaveHuman fossilsIsrael Writing Human fossilsHerto, Ethiopia Oldest Human fossilsOmo, Ethiopia Reading Genesisindicates farmingused by Adam &Cain, hence datesto New Stone Age~ 10,000 years ago 101002001101201301401501601701801902030405060708090 210220 Ice Age Glacial EpochIce Age Glacial Epoch WarmPeriodWarmPeriodWarmPeriod Human’s finally leave Africa for rest of World If we accept St. Paul’s view1 Cor15:45 –Adam was 1stman would put him living in Middle Stone Age~ 65 -200,000 years ago. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 35Which Adam, Which Eden ?How do we resolve the Genesis Story that points to Adam in Eden in Middle Eastwith the overwhelming fossil & DNA evidence showing Africa is the Ancestral Homeland of ALL People alive today ? Based on the Historical view of Genesis the geography puts Eden in Middle Eastbut the Adam that lived there was not the first Human being. The Bible itself hints of other people around , Cain’s wife (Gen 4:17) and who wasCain afraid of (Gen 4:14 ) when he was sent away after killing Abel.Adam not being the 1stMan appears to contradict St. Paul 1 Corinthian 15:45were it states Adam the 1stman in the context of Jesus being the 1stnew manbringing in the Kingdom of God.Can only reconcile if view St. Paul’s comments as a theological statement ofthe 1stman (Adam means Man) rejecting God but not necessarily the Adamin the Middle East. The Historical view of Genesis allows both Allegory & History interwoven together. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 36Which Adam, Which Eden ?Getting a feel for how long ago the first Modern people walked the Earth Regional Floods Space Age Warm periods Ice Age Human existence scaled into a single Human lifetime, say80yearsEventActual YearsBefore Present Scaled YearsPre- 80yrsUnitAge of Individualin YearsOldest known Human fossils - Omo river , Ethiopia AFRICA195,00078yrs2Herto Human fossils , Ethiopia AFRICA156,00062yrs18Sahara Desert shrinks allowing Modern Man's 1st attempt to leave AFRICA125,00050yrs30Human fossils Qafzeh cave, Israel - World drys & cools, Desert returns, 1st attempt out of AFRICA fails92,00037yrs43Toba super volcano, Sumatra - Human population reduced 76,00030yrs502nd attempt to leave Africa via Arabia when sea level 82m (~270 ft) below today's level. Stone tools Oman 60,000yrs old65,00026yrs54Man sails 90 miles to Australia when sea level 87 m ( ~285 ft) below today's level. Mungo Man fossil 40,000 yrs old42,00017yrs63Man walks into Europe & Central Asia - sewing needle allows better clothing , aids survial in cold North40,00016yrs64 Man 1st walks into North America: Cactus Hill site, Virginia, USA ( 14 C Cal yrs ~ 18 - 22,000 yrs) 24,000 10 yrs 70 Man 1st walks into South America (Monte Verde, Chile dated 14,000 yrs old)14,0006yrs74Persian Gulf Floods - Ice starts to melt12,0005yrs75End of most recent Glaciation in Ice Age11,4005yrs75Agriculture found 1st time in archaeological record in Middle East10,0004yrs76Black Sea Flood7,6003yrs771st Writing, Sumeria (Iraq), Kish Tablet5,5002yrs78Sumerian Flood4,9002yrs78Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt built4,50022mo78Man 1st sails to New Zealand2,00010mo79Crucifixion of Jesus ~ 32 AD ( based on Total Lunar Eclipse 14 April 32 AD ) 1,9779mo79Man 1st walks on Antartica (Sealer John Davis 1821 AD)1881mo80Man 1st walks on the Moon (Astronaut Neil Armstrong 1969 AD)406 days 80 Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 37 Which Adam, Which Eden ?Thankyoufor listening.Any Questions ? Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 38 Which Adam, Which Eden ? BACK UP SLIDES Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 39 Which Adam, Which Eden ?Who were the Nephilim ?in Genesis 6:4 Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 40 Which Adam, Which Eden ?NephilimGenesis 6:4 states "TheNephilimwere on the earth in those days…”•Nephilimwere possibly a hybrid race between two distinct but sexually compatible beings.Is it possible that Neanderthal Man could be the Nephilim of Genesis ?Neanderthal’s & Modern Human’s are known, from the fossil record, to haveco-existed for thousands of years before the Neanderthal’s died out.•Nephilimmay simply mean "giant,"champion, or “strong man”. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 41Which Adam, Which Eden ? The DNA evidence suggests that there was little if any inter-breeding between Neanderthal’s & Modern Humans.However one skull found in Gibralter & another in Israelexhibit hybrid features of Neanderthal’s & Modern HumansGenesis 6:4 talks of a group called the Nephilim (possibly Giants or Strong Men) Base on Neanderthal DNA we know some had redhair & light coloured skinMost recentNeanderthal’sfossils found to date areabout 30,000 yrs old. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 42Which Adam, Which Eden ? •Neanderthal Man confined to Europe,& parts of Middle East & Asia Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 43Which Adam, Which Eden ?Neanderthal’s were meat eaters, and based on their bone structure are thought to havebeen stronger than Modern Humans Neanderthal manModern man Neanderthal hunterModern hunter Neanderthal’s bones show more fracturesthan Modern Human’s possibly showing theyfought large game in close combatrather thanModern Human’s hunting strategythat seeksto weaken or killlarger game from a distanceby using a sling shot or bow & arrow. Tuesday 7thJuly 2009Which Adam, which Eden ? by GaryAuker 44Which Adam, Which Eden ? Modern humans Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms(SNP’s) variation 0.1 %SNP variation between Neanderthals & Modern humans ~ 0.5 %so Neanderthal’s were different to Modern Human’s. Draft Neanderthal genome released 12 Feb 2009, Max Planck Inst. Germany. Neanderthal genome 3.7 Gbpc.f Modern human 3.04 Gbp