What can we make of the huge gap in time after Adam and Eve

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AltarSoldier

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I was pondering this and I think it can be a topic of good discussion because the vastness and huge size of the world after the first 2 humans. There must have been a tremendous incomprehensible gap since the world had to have been populated for several thousand years after Adam and eves death before the Bible continues onto the story and life and Noah. Meaning wherever the garden of Eden was and wherever our first parents were settled we must take into account the slow growth of humans that spread across the middle east, Asia and even the migration into the Americas.
 
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The Adam & Eve in Genesis probably references some very early monotheists in ancient Mesopotamia that eventually gave birth to Judaism.

The actual original humans, or the original Adam & Eve who were tempted by Satan would have been a couple hundred thousand years earlier, and they wouldn’t have been homosapien. Neanderthals, for example, are made in the image of God and are 100% human and could breed with homosapien humans.

And then we entered the last leg of humanity’s journey, or the end times, 2000 years ago.
 
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AltarSoldier said:
There must have been a tremendous incomprehensible gap since the world had to have been populated for several thousand years after Adam and eves death before the Bible continues onto the story and life and Noah. Meaning wherever the garden of Eden was and wherever our first parents were settled we must take into account the slow growth of humans that spread across the middle east, Asia and even the migration into the Americas.
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This presumes that the Adam and Eve narrative is meant to be taken literally as scientific history. I would argue that this isn’t the case that the Church makes. (At the very least, it doesn’t require this understanding.) The Adam and Eve narrative teaches theology, not necessarily science.

So… no: it’s not necessary to presume a “tremendous incomprehensible gap”, unless one presumes a literalistic (i.e., fundamentalist) reading of the Bible.
 
TK421 said:
Neanderthals, for example, are made in the image of God and are 100% human and could breed with homosapien humans.
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I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting at here.

Adam and Eve, and their descendants, would be made in the image and likeness of God. Anyone not descended from them could not be.

It opens up a big can of worms if you are proposing that our present population of “humans” includes people who are not descended from Adam and Eve.
 
Adam & Eve were not homosapiens. They would have been another variant of human. That doesn’t mean modern humanity (“modern” as in within the past 12,000 years or so… the birth of mass agriculture) didn’t descend from them.

It’s relevant because the spread of humanity across the globe goes back a long time before mass agriculture and included groups of people who weren’t homosapien or not wholly homosapien. Most of these other people were annihilated, but a small percentage of our current DNA is derived from neanderthal DNA.
 
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TK421 said:
Adam & Eve were not homosapiens. They would have been another variant of human.
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Umm… pardon? Says who?
TK421 said:
It’s relevant because the spread of humanity across the globe goes back a long time before mass agriculture and included groups of people who weren’t homosapien or not wholly homosapien.
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You’re making a biological presumption on the back of the theological teaching, it seems. I’m not sure that it holds up, and I’m certain that this isn’t the teaching of the Church!
 
@Gorgias

Homosapiens and neanderthals shared a common ancestor around half a million years ago. Early homosapiens continued to evolve in Africa whereas neanderthals evolved in Eurasia. When humans in Africa eventually branched out to the rest of the world, they intermingled and had sex with the human neanderthal groups and had children. The fact that they had children is relevant. Neanderthals and homosapiens are both biologically human beings.

The common origin of these groups of humans - of course - wouldn’t have been quite the same as the modern human.
 
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TK421 said:
The common origin of these groups of humans - of course - wouldn’t have been quite the same as the modern human.
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The point, nevertheless, is that we don’t know to which of these groups our first truly human (i.e., ‘ensouled’) ancestors belonged. We can’t point to a particular instant in time and say “here it is! ensoulment happened here !!!”

So, regardless how evolution of hominins played out, we can’t say that Adam and Eve were necessarily this type of hominin or that type. Rather, we can simply assert that they had hominin ancestors and human progeny.
 
But we do know that homosapiens and neanderthals interbred in the distant past, and presumably they would have all had rational souls. The alternative is that some did and some did not, which would have meant rational creatures created in the image of God and animals having relations and having progeny together. With everything we know about how sacred the marital act is and how infinitely valuable children are, this doesn’t seem like it would be the case.

And if we were to zoom forward a lot more recent in history, we wouldn’t be able to make a case that all humans from every corner of the globe had a certain common ancestor. We have to go back further in history.
 
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Weather Adam & Eve were homo-sapiens and/or neanderthals, would any of it matter, weren’t they all killed in the flood from Noah’s time. Weren’t Noah’s family the one’s that repopulated the earth.

Besides didn’t angels fall from heaven to mate with the women of earth… if they had children would they have been decedents of Adam and Eve?

I always thought homo-sapiens and or neanderthals were created because of the inner family births because we all came from Adam and Eve or because of the angels who mated with women.
littlebird said:
Does anyone know what language that Adam & Eve spoke ?
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Never thought about it… what language did they speak?
 
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Lets not forget the sister Cane took with him when he left, he went to the land of Nod or lands that became the land of Nod… how does he and his sister fit into the time between Adam and Eve and the flood of Noah.
 
littlebird said:
Does anyone know what language that Adam & Eve spoke ?
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Jewish tradition claims it was Hebrew but no one really knows. Even though we now know what regions certain families of languages came from, no one knows exactly where Eden is located and how long ago they lived.
 
So that we’re clear…

According to Catholic Teaching - Genesis is never “myth”…

The Church uses Figurative language within portions of Genesis

The only so-called wiggle room concerns the length of time of “day”

Adam and Eve are real Persons - according to the Teachings of the Catholic Church.

The Fall occurred and yes incurred Original Sin

Church Teachings…

On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation,205 permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God."206

The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original “state of holiness and justice”.

God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine “work”, concluded by the “rest” of the seventh day.204

Original sin - an essential truth of the faith

The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the “reverse side” of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ,263 knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ.

How to read the account of the fall

The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man .264 Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.265

414 Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God.
 
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Theo520 said:
The order of creation is completely different, that’s not just ‘how long is a day’
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So … What about the rest of what I’d posted re: Church Teachings? 🙂

Many know what I mean re: Day.

What are you trying to say?

Examples // Specifics please?
 
EndTimes said:
So … What about the rest of what I’d posted re: Church Teachings? 🙂

Many know what I mean re: Day.

What are you trying to say?

Examples // Specifics please?
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I was responding to the OP, that he shouldn’t get too hung up on counting days. The Old Testament can be accurate without being literal.

The purpose of the Book is a spiritual guide, not to be a manual on biology or astro-physics.
 
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