The earliest book of the Bible is probably the Book of Job, dating from the time of Abraham, circa 2000 BC. The first four books of the Bible, Genesis through Numbers, known as Books of Moses, date from about 1440 BC when God revealed many things to Moses when he was alone with Him on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:15-18). Deuteronomy, the fifth book of Moses, dates from the end of Moses' life. His secretary, Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, was responsible for writing out the words on scrolls and storing them in the Ark of the Covenant (Numbers 25:11; Deuteronomy 31:24-26).
Moses knew nothing of archaeology and primitive anthropology or of science and cosmology. There were no eye witnesses of the Creation, so he could only have known about it by divine revelation, or by sheer romantic imagination.
The Bible as we have it was and is a divine revelation first to Israel and then to the Church. It does not tell us about God's dealings with palaeolithic man. For whatever reasons, palaeolithic man died out, probably in the last Ice Age. God made a new start with Adam, who as we shall see was the first farmer of the Neolithic or New Stone Age. He was made by God (27), like God (26), and for God (28). His generic name 'Adham (not a personal name) indicates his earthy origin "from the ground" Min ha'Adhamah. He had a world-wide spread (28); and lived by hunting and gathering (28-29). He was NOT a farmer. Therefore, he was evidently a Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age Man, whose remains have been discovered in Tanganyika, Peking, Java, Neanderthal, Cromagnon, Lascaux and elsewhere. The Lascaux cave paintings of 15,000 BC and ancient burial mounds (tumuli) show that he was very religious. Yet he died out, probably in the Ice Age which ended around 10,000 BC. Neolithic Man (Genesis 2:7-25)
This time Adam is a personal name of an individual. He was a living soul (7, AV); he had a specific geographical location - the Anatolian plateau around Lake Van in Turkey (8-14); he had a specific occupation - farming (15). Wheat and barley, sheep and dogs originated there, and spread with their owners in all directions along the rivers Halys, Araxes, Tigris, Euphrates, and the Mediterranean coast. Adam and his sons lived by agriculture and stockbreeding (Genesis 4). Therefore, he was evidently no hunter-gatherer, but the first farmer of the Neolithic or New Stone Age, who, anthropologists tell us, appeared after the end of the last Ice Age, sometime between 10,000 and 8,000 BC in Anatolia, Turkey. He was a farmer.
THE FIRST FAMILY Genesis 2:18-end Two out of One The Farmer wants a Wife! It was not good for the Man to be alone. His first four-legged friend was his dog; his first livestock his sheep: but among all the animals there was no help-mate compatible with him. So God caused an anaesthetic sleep to come over the Man ('Ish), took out one of his ribs (Tsela', a Sumerian word meaning "cell"), and made a Woman ('Ishshah) from it. He cut out the male Y chromosome, copied an extra X, and cloned the Woman from the Man. The cell was taken from Adam's side˜ not from his head, to be his mistress; not from his feet, to be his servant; but from his side, to be his equal, and from nearest his heart, to love each other. One out of Two Adam woke, God introduced Eve to him. What did Adam say? "Zot! Happa'am!" or "Wow! At last!" He liked her! God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply. To do this they had to come together and become "one flesh". So the first marriage on earth was promoted from heaven, and the standard was laid down that "a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they two shall become one flesh". Thus Marriage is the most intimate human relationship possible˜ a Duality on earth as intimate and tender as the Trinity in heaven. "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled" (Hebrews 13:4). May it be kept that way among us!
The Big Momma Adam called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20). Scientists have discovered that every cell needs its own fuel supply to keep it going. This fuel is manufactured in the part of the cell known as the Mitochondrion. The cell cannot operate without the mitochondrion; yet the mitochondrion is made of protein which can only be assembled by the cell using its mitochondrion˜ a "chicken and egg" situation. This is solved by the mitochondrion having its own independent set of instructions called the Mitochondrial DNA (Deoxyribo-Nucleic-Acid). This only comes from the mother, and is "female copyright". The tadpole-like male sperm wriggles up the Fallopian tube until it meets and fertilises an egg. At that moment its tail, which houses the mitochondrion, falls off and dies. The egg can only divide and develop using the mitochondrial DNA from the female egg. So science has proved that all human beings are descended from one original mother! Scientists have dubbed her "the Big Momma": they won't use the Biblical word Eve! Why not? Wise Men Homo Sapiens is Latin for 'Wise Man'. After the birth of Jesus Christ, "wise men" (magi) came from the east to worship him, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold is for royalty; frankincense for deity; myrrh for anointing the dead. Today "wise men" have even clearer reasons for believing the Bible, and coming to Jesus as the Wise Men did of old. He is our King, our God, and our Sacrifice our Second Adam.
HOMO SAPIENS
Our understanding of the early chapters of Genesis is falsely conditioned by the Documentary Analysis theory of Graf and Wellhausen, which applied evolutionism to the critical study of the Bible. Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis are falsely claimed to be duplicate rival accounts (JE and P) of the same divine acts of creation culminating in the appearance on earth of Homo Sapiens. It is crucially important to realise that Genesis 1 and 2 are successive chapters describing two different chains of events.
THE FIRST MEN
Palaeolithic Man (Genesis 1:26-30)