Short answer:
Man was created at least twice based on the first two chapters of the Bible. Genesis 1:27 tells of the first creation of man in general, while Genesis 2:7 talks about the second creation of man as Adam. In the first chapter, the Creator was “God”; but in the second chapter He was called “the LORD God.”
In
Genesis ch. 1, “God” created man last; however, in Genesis ch. 2, the “LORD
God” formed Adam first. In the first chapter, plants were the first living
things God created. In the second chapter, though, the LORD God grew plants only
after first creating Adam.
Medieval
Jewish sages and the ancient Talmud mentioned pre-Adamic animals with human
forms but without the neshamah
(“breath of life”) or spirit from God. According to them it is the God-given spirit
which uniquely sets us apart as moral beings from amoral animals.
So what happened to the earlier men? They must have died off in mass extinctions. Paleontologists have identified at least 17 mass extinctions since life began on Earth. More than 99% of all organisms that have ever lived are now extinct. During the last ice age, which ended 10,000 years ago, many other species went extinct. Then, about 4,000 years later, or some 6,000 years ago, God created Adam.
Man
was created in the “image” and “likeness” of God. Where do the various
sub-humans before Adam come in the Creation story? The Bible account tends to
skip over some details to simplify the narrative. For example, on Day 6
amphibians, reptiles, and insects are all lumped together under just one term:
“creeping things.” Likewise birds, the bat (a mammal), and flying insects are
bunched in just one label, “fowl.” Similarly grouped together in one word –
“man” – are the different species of sub-humans or hominids, various versions
and “likenesses” of the same creature which eventually culminated in Adam, the ultimate
perfection of God’s Creation.
After many thousands of years of sub-humans
on earth, it was only after God created Adam around 6,000 years ago (4004 B.C.) that
major inventions and discoveries were made, ushering in great advances in human
civilization. The wheel was invented around 5,500 years ago (3500 B.C.). Writing,
in the form of pictographs, first appeared also about 3500 B.C., followed by
hieroglyphics around 3300-3200 B.C. The Bronze Age began some 5,000 years ago
(3000 B.C.) with the discovery of metals. The Iron Age flourished around
3,500-3,000 years ago (1500-1000 B.C.).
Detailed explanation:
If Adam was the first man, how can the fossils of much earlier “men” being found today be harmonized with the Bible’s account of man’s creation?
Two creations of “man”?
There
is a little-known theory that the first two chapters of Genesis tell the
creation of man twice.
First:“So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen 1:27);
Second:“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul.” (Gen 2:7).
David
T. Tsumura, a professor of the Old Testament at the Japan Bible Seminary,
Tokyo, mentions two incisive studies (Kikawada 1983, and Kikawada and Quinn
1985), which conclude that Genesis 1:27 refers to "the first creation of
man" in general; while Genesis 2:7 talks about "the second creation
of man," namely, Adam.
Two terms for the
Creator. In
Genesis ch. 1, the Creator was referred to as “God” (Elohim). Starting Genesis 2:4, however, He is called differently as
“the LORD God” (YHWH Elohim). This
seems to point to two distinct stories, not one.
The
angels are likewise called elohim (plural,
“gods”; el or eloah, singular) – “Confounded
be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship
him, all ye gods (elohim)” (Ps
97:7). (The ancient Hebrew alphabet did not have upper-case or capital letters.
English translators capitalized elohim
as “God” or “the LORD” as a title of magnitude and respect for the Creator.)
Was
“God” (elohim) in Genesis ch. 1 the
angels? Note that “And God said, Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Gen 1:26a). And was “the LORD God” (YHWH Elohim) in Genesis ch. 2 the Creator
Himself, who stepped forward to do a second, presumably better, creation of
man?
Pre-Adamic man-like
animals. Ancient
Jewish commentaries mention pre-Adamic animals with human forms but without the
neshamah (“breath of life”) or
God-given spirit.
Author
Gerald Schroeder (The Science of God,
1997) wrote: “Nahmanides, seven hundred years ago, Maimonides over eight
hundred years ago, and the Talmud, dating back some sixteen hundred years,
discuss the existence of beings living before and alongside (sic) Adam. They were described as human
in shape and intelligence but lacking the soul, the neshama, to make them human.” Schroeder explains: “It is our neshama, the spirit of the Eternal
placed within us, not our physical attributes, that uniquely sets us apart from
all other life, making us moral beings rather than amoral animals.”
Maimonides
said that the pre-Adamic man-like creatures “were not human in the true sense
of the word. They had not the spirit of God… It is acknowledged that a being
who does not possess this spirit is not human but a mere animal in human shape and form… For those gifts of intelligence and judgment with which he
has been endowed for the purpose of acquiring perfection… are used by him for
wicked and mischievous ends.”
Rick
Aharon Chaimberlin, editor-publisher of Petah
Tikvah (“Door of Hope”) magazine, notes that “according to many rabbis,
there was more than one earlier creation (of human beings), and that the
current Creation is actually the 6th or 7th creation”
(April-June 2010, p. 45).
Reversed order of
creation. In
Genesis ch. 1, “God” created man last; but in Genesis ch. 2, the “LORD God”
formed man first.
Plants. In the first chapter, plants were
the first living things created. “And God
said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:
and it was so” (Gen 1:11-12).
In
the second chapter, the LORD God grew plants after forming man. “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward
in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground
made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good
for food…” (Gen 2:8-9a).
Animals. In the first chapter, God created
man last, almost like an afterthought. “And
God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle,
and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And
God (elohim) said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Gen 1:24-26).
Man. In the second chapter, the LORD
God created man first. “And the LORD God (YHWH
Elohim) formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath (neshamah) of life; and
man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). The LORD God formed the land animals
later: “And out of the ground the LORD
God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought
them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every
living creature, that was the name thereof” (Gen 2:18-19). It becomes clear
that Adam, who was created by the LORD God in the second chapter of Genesis,
was a special, latter creation.
That
raises a question. What happened to the earlier men and animals so that new
ones had to be created again?
Mass extinctions? They must have died off in mass extinctions. Paleontologists have identified at least 17 mass extinctions since life began on Earth. Eight are major, all of which took place in the last 500 million years. According to the National Geographic, “More than 99 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct.”
In an article titled “Extinction Over Time,” the Smithsonian Institution explains that after “the last ice age ended 10,000 years ago, many… animals went extinct, including mammoths, mastodons, and glyptodonts.” (About 4,000 years later, Adam was created in 4004 B.C. – approximately 6,000 years ago.)
Anthropologists
call man-like creatures mistakenly thought to be the ancestors of man
“hominids.” They call living apes “hominoids,” because they are only similar to
humans, but neither are they man’s purported ancestors.
Image of God.
Man
was created in God’s image. “And God (elohim)
said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Gen 1:26a).
However, “No man hath seen God at any
time” (1 John 4:12a; cf. John 1:18). “Ye
have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape” (John 5:37b).
Form of angels? God and the angels are spirits,
for what reason did God create the physical universe? “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created”
(Rev 4:11).
Did God create the material world for His own and the angels’ enjoyment? If that is the case, the Spirit of God, and the spirits of His angels, needed physical bodies to experience and enjoy the delights of the physical universe. God planted a garden in Eden, but it was not for Adam, whom He made only to be its gardener. “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen 2:15). Indeed, we read about “the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen 3:8).
Physical bodies. The Bible hints angels can
assume and change forms. In Psalm 68:17 (“The
chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels [shin’an]…”), the Hebrew word used for angels is
shin’an, the root meaning of which is
“to change or alter.” This strongly suggests angels can
change or alter their forms at will.
Some
angels (“sons of God”) even came down from heaven to earth and cohabited with
mortal women: “…the sons of God saw the
daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which
they chose” (Gen 6:2).
Hence,
God and the angels at times come down to earth in human form. Of all organic
structures, the human figure appears to be the most suitable and most efficient
design for the terrestrial setting.
One kind, several
forms. If man was
created in the “image” and “likeness” of God (Elohim), where do the appearance of various sub-humans or man-like
creatures come in the Scriptures?
The
Bible account tends to skip over some details to simplify the narrative. For
example, on Day 6 amphibians, reptiles, and insects are lumped together under
just one term: “creeping things” (Gen 1:24-25). Likewise, in Leviticus
11:13-23, birds, the bat, and flying insects are all bunched in just one label,
“fowl.”
Similarly,
it looks like Genesis 1:26 has grouped together in one word – “man” – all the
different species of sub-humans, different versions and “likenesses” of the
same type of creature which eventually culminated in Adam, the ultimate
perfection of God’s Creation.
Man-like creatures. Around the time that dinosaurs
became extinct, primates – animals that resemble modern lemurs, monkeys, and
apes – came onto the scene some 65 million years ago. These were later followed
by man-like mammals. Anthropologists call man-like creatures that came before man
“hominids”; living apes are called “hominoids” because they are similar to
humans. Adam, the first true man, was created by the LORD God.
Below
is a short list of a dozen best-known hominid fossils unearthed and classified
by scientists before the appearance of Adam.
Ramapithecus, 14-8 million years ago? Found in
northern India (now part of Pakistan); named after Rama, a mythical prince of
India, and pithekos, Greek for “ape”
(“Rama's ape”); more complete fossils in China and Pakistan affirm it was not a
hominid, but a true ape.
Sahelanthropus
tchadensis, 7-6
million years ago? Unearthed in the African nation of Chad; dubbed “Sahel man” for
the semi-arid region and Greek anthropos
(“human”); has an apelike skull.
Orrorin tugenensis, circa 6 million years ago? Dug up in the Tugen Hills of central Kenya;
received name which means “original man in the Tugen region”; the skeleton has
simian features.
Ardipithecus, about 4.4-million years ago?
Discovered in Ethiopia: named from words in the Afar and Greek languages
meaning “ground ape”; has apelike teeth and skeleton.
Australopithecus, 4-2 million years ago? Found in Taung, South Africa; name means
“southern ape”; thought to be man’s ancestor; 3½ to 5 feet tall; brain (390-550
cc) about 1/3 of modern humans’; inner ear bones for maintaining balance
similar to chimpanzees’ and gorillas’ but different from humans’; resembles
monkeys and apes.
(As
their family name pithecus [“ape”]
denotes, these prehistoric pithecoid creatures were just apes.)
Kenyanthropus
platyops, around
3.5 million years ago? Excavated in northern Kenya; Greek anthropos means “human being”; platyops,
“flat look or appearance” – thus, “flat-faced human from Kenya”.
Homo habilis, about 2.6 million years ago? Name means “handy man”, from
Latin words meaning “human” (homo)
and “able or skillful” (habilis), for
primitive stone tools found with fossils; first to be classified under the
genus Homo; has a bigger braincase
about 600 cc; taller, but had apelike proportions.
Homo rudolfensis, around 1.9 million
years ago? Discovered in eastern Kenya; named after Lake Rudolf (now Turkana); may have been close to the
‘knuckle-walker’ condition, not unlike African apes.
Homo erectus, circa 1.5
million years ago? Found in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia); name means
“erect man”; dubbed “Java man”; had a larger brain (about 850 cc). In China, at
Chou K’ou Tien (Dragon-Bone Hill), 25 miles from Peking, similar fossils were
called Sinanthropus pekinensis (“Peking Man”). Finder of “Java
man” later said: “not a man, but a gigantic genus allied to the Gibbons.”
(The
World Book states: “Modern humans
could not have evolved from these late populations of H. erectus, a much more primitive type of human.”)
Homo heidelbergensis, 600-300 thousand years ago? Discovered southeast of Heidelberg, Germany; brain nearly as large as that of modern humans; other specimens found in Africa (Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania), Europe (Greece, France), and Asia (China).
Homo Neanderthalensis, circa 300 thousand years ago? Found in a cave in the Neander valley (thal) near Dusseldorf, Germany, thus “Neanderthal man”; braincase about 1,600 cc; stood about 5’5”; more robust build than modern humans, but shorter limbs; in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago before going extinct.
Homo sapiens, 200-100 thousand years ago? Name from Latin homo (“human being”) and sapiens (“wise, sensible, judicious”), thus “wise human being”; first discovered in the Cro-Magnon cave in southwestern France; hence also called “Cro-Magnon man”; robustly built; about 5’6” tall; forehead straight; first human with a prominent chin; brain capacity about 1,600 cc, slightly larger than average for modern humans; scientifically the only extant human species, all of whose members belong to the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens;
Homo sapiens sapiens, 40-10 thousand years ago? Found all over Europe; slightly smaller than Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, but proportional with a less massive muscular build; braincase ranges at about 1,000-2,000 cc, averaging around
1,350 cc.
Adam, circa 6,000 years ago (4004 B.C.).
Recorded in the Bible: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul” (Gen 2:7); first specimen of subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens; with neshamah
(“breath of life”). “And Adam called his
wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20). All
people in the world today are descendants of the first true man and woman.
(Astrophysicist
Hugh Ross commented on the Internet: “Starting about 2-4 million years ago, God
began creating man-like mammals or ‘hominids.’ These creatures stood on two
feet, had large brains, and used tools. Some even buried their dead and painted
on cave walls… God replaced them with Adam and Eve.”)
No relation. Cro-Magnons and the older
Neanderthals overlap in the fossil record, showing the two species lived
alongside each other for no less than 70,000 years. This excludes any notion
that Cro-Magnons evolved from Neanderthals. Neither did modern man.
Researchers
have extracted DNA samples from a 40,000-year-old human skeleton (from the
Cro-Magnon era) found at Lake Mungo in Australia. The DNA differs from that of
living people.
The
World Book reports that, after
scientifically comparing DNA samples of modern men with those of Neanderthals
and other extinct hominids, many scientists conclude that the results indicate
all people today form a separate species distinct from prehistoric humans.
The
findings reinforce the belief that the earlier species were not ancestors of
modern humans.
Inventions and
discoveries.
Further proof that Adam was God’s first true “man”: After many thousands of
years of hominids on earth, it was only after God created Adam around 6,000
years ago that major inventions and discoveries were made, ushering in great
advances in human civilization.
Wheel. This invention was first used
around 5,500 years ago (3500 B.C.) in Sumer, Mesopotamia, considered the “cradle of
civilization” (Encyclopaedia Britannica
2009).
Writing. An early system in the form of
pictographs appeared at also about 3500 B.C., followed by Egyptian
hieroglyphics around 3300-3200 B.C. (Encarta
Encyclopedia 2004).
Bronze Age. This era began some 5,000 years
ago (3000 B.C.) in Greece and China, with the discovery of metals such as
copper, tin, and zinc (Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2009).
Iron Age. This historical period flourished
around 3,500-3,000 years ago (1500-1000 B.C.), characterized by the widespread
use of iron for tools and weaponry (World
Book 2005).
Excerpted from the book The Deep
Things of God and the booklets Cryptic
Creatures and More Bible Secrets by
M.M. Tauson. Printed copies available at Amazon.com – For free pdf copies of
our e-booklets, click the Booklets and/or Google Drive tabs on the menu bar.
Bible quotations are from the King James Version (KJV) unless
otherwise indicated.
