>The concordist position that 'Genesis complements the evolutionary
>record' actually conflates two complements. First, the Genesis text
>complements the context of the times. I think that places Genesis as
>legend (literary context) within Mesopotamian prehistory (social
>context). Dick Fischer pointed to the Ubaid as the social
>context for the stories of Adam and Eve. I agree.
In concise form, here is what I believe to be the most probable scenario
if the first eleven chapters of Genesis are to be taken as historical. If
Genesis 2-11 is something less than historical, then your guess is as good
as mine.
The first identifiable population group to establish themselves in southern
Mesopotamia were the Ubaidans. The oldest city in the region is Eridu,
established about 4800 BC. The Sumerian king list puts Eridu at the
beginning where “Alulim” was king. Pottery remains taken from the lowest
level at Eridu show two distinct cultures living side by side - one was
Ubaidan, the other was not Sumerian.
The confluence of the four rivers mentioned in Genesis would have been no
more than 75 miles from Eridu. Eridu is the likely site for the garden of
Eden. “Edin” is the Sumerian word for “plain,” “prairie,” or “desert.”
And Eridu survives as our word, “arid” pertaining to a desert.
Eridu was irrigated by canal from the Euphrates. Genesis states: “But
there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the
ground.” The Hebrew word for “earth” is the same word for “land.” The
Septuagint uses the word “fountain,” not “mist,” and this refers to
irrigation in Accadian and Sumerian lingo. “And a river went out of Eden
to water the garden.” Ezekial 1:1 mentions the “river” Chebar in Babylon
which has to be an irrigation canal. So we know the Hebrew word for
“river” also can mean “canal,” and that puts the entire Genesis narrative
into perspective.
It was here and at this time, I believe, that God placed his man Adam,
created in his image, to bring the indigenous Ubaidans into accountability.
Adam fell into sin, which must have hindered but did not prohibit his
mission. If the Trinity exists in fact, and is not just a theological
construct, then Adam knew three “Gods” and taught the Ubaidans accordingly.
Adamites, Cain for example, married and had children with the Ubaidans
resulting in the historical Accadians - a mixture of long-lived Adamites
and short-lived Ubaidans. The language was proto-semite, but there is no
evidence of handwriting until the Sumerians arrived.
About 4000 BC, or a little earlier, the Sumerians moved to southern
Mesopotamia, and were concentrated at Ur. As contact developed between the
two cultures, the Accadians learned how to write. The three Accadian Gods
became many as they gradually became polytheistic under Sumerian influence.
More cities were developed as new canals were opened to provide water for
irrigation. One was the city Cain named “Enoch” that the Sumerians called
“E-Anna(k), near Uruk, the biblical Erech located about 50 miles from Eridu.
According to the Sumerian king list, warriers from Bad Tabira attacked
Eridu, and kingship was transferred to the victorious city where it
remained for three generations of kings. This pattern of city warring upon
city with kingship going to the victors persisted for another 2,000 years.
The flood was brought about as judgement against the Accadians around 2900
BC. The Sumerians were likewise decimated but not eliminated. Noah and
his family restarted the Accadians, while those Sumerians living outside
the flood zone recovered on their own. This prompted their building
mudbrick platforms as a means of surviving future floods. Over the
centuries these platforms grew to become ziggurat temples devoted to pagan
gods. One group of Semite tower builders at Babylon got carried away and
confused in the process.
The Gutians and Elamites destroyed Sumer around 2000 BC. Some of the
survivors moved into the Indus valley, others were absorbed into the
amalgam of Babylonian culture.
Then there was Abraham and you know the rest.
Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
"The answer we should have known about 150 years ago."