Over the years I have heard many different stories about how some people believe the creation of man occurred and how we came to have all of the races and even how Noah’s flood occurred. My current understanding of all of these things comes mostly from scripture taking into account the Hebrew text. This post is going to be a bit different for me as I am going to step out in print and give you my ideas. Normally I avoid this as it is just another opinion. Well, see what you think.
Let’s start with Genesis chapter one. God creates or restores the earth and places living creatures on the land, in the water and in the air. Some of the words in the King James Version are a bit misleading. Here is an example from Genesis 1:24.
And God (H430) said, (H559) Let the earth (H776) bring forth (H3318) the living (H2416) creature (H5315) after his kind, (H4327) cattle, (H929) and creeping thing, (H7431) and beast (H2416) of the earth (H776) after his kind: (H4327) and it was (H1961) so. (H3651)
I left the Strong’s numbering in so that you could see something interesting. Notice that the word “living” found right after the phrase “bring forth” is from H2416 chay, which means alive or living thing. Now notice the number right after the word beast. Chay can include an aspect of strength, but a literal translation could have just said, “and living things of the earth” perhaps rather than “beast of the earth”. As you can see this would have a much broader meaning and as I prefer would allow the context to determine just what was intended by the writer. I always want to know what the writer intended and not what some one thought they meant. It is here that I believe God’s creation included more than just animals.
It is currently my belief that God created the races that archeology shows have existed many more thousands of years on the earth than what many churches teach. It was later on day six then when God said that he created Adam. This did not include but one racial type and, as the word Adam is more of a description than a name here, this racial type could show color, blood or redness, in the face. This man could blush. I know it is politically incorrect to talk about white men unless it is in a derogatory manner, but this, I believe, was the beginning of white men upon the face of the earth. I also believe that just like God did not create one bird or one fish or one elephant that God created many of these Adamic type of men and women.
After God rested on the seventh day he made one very special Adam on day eight. I am told that the Hebrew refers to this Adam as “The Adam” which would set him apart as a special creation. It was this creation found in chapter two of Genesis that is later called a son of God in Luke 3:38. So when Eve was formed by the taking of a rib from The Adam she did become the mother of all of the living of this special line of man. This also takes care of one very important problem that most have to deal with in Genesis.
I believe that something that is sin today was sin the day Adam was placed in the garden. I also believe that anything that was sin that same day is still sin today. God can not change. God’s morals can not change. God can not sin. His very nature, his morals, his law, forbids it. So most have to conclude that God forced men to commit incest in order to propagate the race of Adam. In the time line I am suggesting no such sin need be committed as there were for The Adam’s children men and women ready and available.
I think you can then see that we also do not have to do like the creation science folks and resort to evolution after the flood of Noah. All of the races of men were already in existence and did not need to magically evolve from the children of Noah. This is especially a problem for the creation science crowd as scripture goes out of it’s way in Genesis chapter six to show that Noah was pure in his lineage. I do not believe that the flood of Noah was world wide, but even if you do then the other races could have been included on the ark. The fact that they might have been on board and not specifically mentioned is not unusual in scripture. After all the book is about The Adam and his descendants with out apology.
Well I hope this makes sense and perhaps even might clear up some of the confusion as to a part of our beginning. I get a little perturbed at some beliefs that make no sense based on the fossil record. I find that the ideas I have presented here fit nicely into what I know of this record and also seem to fit into the scriptural record. They should support each other after all. There is more to this and probably a whole lot more that we still do not know. I hope the speculation on my part is understood as just that. I do not claim that this is the only way to see these events.
Tim