Was Adam the first man..?

#1

This is a spinoff to another topic we had here about Cain and Abel...With new members about us, nothing is like a little bit of rehashing... /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> I'll wait for DeEje and trash to drop their one line responses, and then go in depth with raum and d-dub... /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" />

My theory on this is no, I don't...Going from that discussion we had about Cain and Abel, along with the way the bible is worded, and my own little theory about the origin of lfe, bases on the life I see now...One point at a time, I think the point that God and Cain made a pact after Cain slew Abel, is quite strong in that favor...According strictly to the bible, Cain and Abel are among Adam and Eve's first children...How could Cain leave Eden, and people not know who he is..?

#2

I would rather say, The Jews and Judeo Christians and Muslims call the first man "Adam" (the Hebrew word for "man, indefinite" and use his existence as an allegory for mankind, and commemorate his tale in the first and second chapters of the torah in a embellished tale that situates man as only subordinate to god.

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raum

But the whole story of Adam and Eve is according the Yahwist text, and has nothing to do with the Elohist text. Furthermore, the Priestly synthesis and embellishment of these texts by the Aaronic Priests added the entire first chapter of Berashith (Genesis) which has nothing to do with ancient Yahwism. This first chapter has the indications of being a Intitiation ritual that was enacted in the Priesthood, in the First Temple; though it is likely it was used in the Tablernacle as well. It is certainly impossible that Moses wrote this one book (or any of them actually) as it exists, even in the proto-hebrew oldest extanct versions, for the complex word structures do not appear in ancient Hebrew, which is an offshoot of the caananite language Eshmoon.

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raum

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raum

#3

You also have to remember that the ancient Hebrews passed the Torah down verbally for hundreds of years before the text was ever written down. That sort of verbal history was very common among the ancient peoples and allowed for mixing of stories from one culture to another.

I believe the point of the Torah, and specifically Genesis and Exodus, was to show God's interaction with the world and "His chosen people", the Hebrews. The creation story is meant to first give a rough synopsis of how the world came into being, but more importantly, to show that God was in control of that creation. As Raum points out, "adam" is the Hebrew word for "man" or "mankind". Adam and Eve were a construct to show how God created "mankind" and placed us in a world that was for our control, good or bad.

I don't believe that "Adam" and "Eve" were actual, singular people, but representations of the beginnings of mankind.

#4

Then, fellow seekers, we need to open up a can of worms..! I need not even mention it, I just want to know if it's possible...

#5

I maybe stepping my bounds by replying to this thread.

I just became curious, and I felt compelled to ask the question.

The true question isn't if Adam was the first man? Rather, where did the first man and woman appear on Earth?

In terms of ethnicity and location. The usual description that we all get from Adam and Eve is of a white or tanned skin color. Where did all the other ethnicities come from? We plenty of different skin colors within many races like Africans, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, and so forth. Yet the original man originated in the Middle East (I could be mistaken).

#6

Deepdiver,

I actually am more inclined to believe that TWO (or more) oral traditions were passed down, and then they were written, INDIVIDUALLY. These individual two were then interposed to form the first version of the Torah.
Then, priests came in and added to the book to give it a structure to follow and a people in charge (of course, themselves), and then a final redaction was done to make the whole thing flow, likely by Ezra, of whom God says "You shall bring the Law (Torah) to Man (Adam) and make the Law (Torah) and Man (Adam) whole." in the midrashes.

You can literally be reading the hebrew, and see two different languages, based on their devleopment, and can pull them apart. And in all but three cases (all in later Aaronic priest adjustments), they differ in their name of God; one uses YHVH exclusively. One uses Elohim, and only Moses (and a select few like Solomon) use YHVH.

And as far as Deuteronomy, that book was more likely to have been written yesterday than before the Triumph over the Philistines.

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raum

#7

You're absolutely right there... I was just simplifying the process.

#8

QUOTE(cosmicpious)The usual description that we all get from Adam and Eve is of a white or tanned skin color.

Not quite ready to tackle the rest of your post yet, but...What scripture is that again..?

#9

That depiction of Adam and Eve is basically from artists who used models available to them (white Europeans). Thus, most of the artwork showing Adam and Eve (Jesus as well) show them to be white and European in appearance. I've said elsewhere that Jesus was of Palestinian appearance so would have looked more like Yassar Arafat than Jerry Falwell. That usually doesn't go too well with the religious right folks around here.

Anthropologist have postulated that mankind originated in sub-Saharan Africa and migrated North through the Middle East. So Adam and Eve would have been Black (or very dark brown if you want to color-correct).

#10

no one knows what color they were, and i don't really care... but they were not african... all the "continents" were connected back then. there were no continents.