Is It Possible?: ISSUE 2 (Part 1): WHEN DID THE FIRST HUMAN LIVE?

Is it possible that the Old Testament and science can agree on when the first Human lived? This blog examines the ancient patriarchal history in the Old Testament, as well as recent scientific research, with the objective of finding possible interpretations that would result in agreement.

The Book of Genesis gives a history of man from the first man – Adam – to the arrival of Joseph and his brothers in the land of Egypt. The first eleven chapters provide a genealogy from Adam to Abram, and include the number of years between the births of each person named. Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham, was the first person to receive a covenant from God. The remaining chapters of Genesis continue the genealogy from Abraham to Joseph.

A Literal Interpretation of Genesis Patriarchal Genealogy

If the word “years” in the Genesis account is taken literally, it would mean that the first humans, Adam and Eve, lived around 4000 BC, or roughly 6,000 years ago. The table below shows approximate dates for the births and deaths of all the patriarchs from Adam to Abram. The dates are calculated around an assumption that Abram was born roughly 2000 BC. As there seems to be less controversy regarding the approximate dates of events in the Old Testament after the birth of Abram, the blogger is making a simplifying assumption that the actual date of Abram’s birth is close enough to 2000 BC for the purpose of this exercise.

Table 2-1: PATRIARCHAL GENEALOGY BASED ON LITERAL YEARS

PATRIARCH NAME	SEQUENTIAL YEAR OF BIRTH	CALENDAR YEAR OF BIRTH (BC)	YEARS TO BIRTH OF CHILD
Adam	0	3,948	130
Seth	130	3,818	105
Enosh	235	3,713	90
Kenan	325	3,623	70
Mahalalel	395	3,553	65
Jared	460	3,488	162
Enoch	622	3,326	65
Methuselah	687	3,261	187
Lamech	874	3,074	182
Noah	1,056	2,892	502
*Flood	*1,656	N/A	N/A
Shem	1,558	2,390	100
Arphaxad	1,658	2,290	35
Shelah	1,693	2,255	30
Eber	1,723	2,225	34
Peleg	1,757	2,191	30
Reu	1,787	2,161	32
Serug	1,819	2,129	30
Nahor	1,849	2,099	29
Terah	1,878	2,070	70
Abram	1,948	2,000
* The flood occurred during Noah's 600th year

Let’s explore what we can from this literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis.

For this timetable to be correct, men typically would have lived to between 800 and 1,000 years of age from the time of Adam until the Great Flood that occurred during the life of Noah. Men would be fathering their first sons at ages between 100 and 500 years. The Flood would have occurred roughly 4,300 years ago or around 2300 BC, when Noah was 600 years old. After that, life spans began to decline fairly rapidly over the next 10 generations or so until the average lifespan was around 150 to 200 years by the time Abram was born. This of course is still much longer than the typical lifespan of mankind today, when the ages of the oldest known people on earth rarely if ever exceed 120 years. These do not seem to be characteristics of modern humans.

There are other practical problems with this timeline. For example, the Great Flood would have happened around 2300 BC, or 4,300 years ago. There is little evidence of a major flood around that time, but some considerable evidence that there were major floods at various places around the world between 7,500 and 15,000 years ago.[1]

Recent Scientific Research

Is it possible that the Old Testament can be interpreted a different way that will be more in line with recent scientific research? This will be explored soon. But first, what does recent scientific research say about when the first human lived and what was happening during the early years of mankind?

Recent Genetic Research

The reading of a book published in 2002 by the Penguin Press, tracing the ancestry of man back to its roots through the study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), is one of the events that set the idea for this blog in motion. Written by Dr. Spencer Wells, a world expert in human genetics, The Journey of Man – A Genetic Odyssey summarized the last few decades of research into the genetic codes that we all have and reaching conclusions on when and where mankind began. Tracing mtDNA, the research was able to determine approximately when a specific woman, who’s DNA can be found in every living person today and in every human specimen found in archaeological exploration, lived and in which part of the world she lived. Similarly, by tracing Y-chromosomes, the research was also able to determine when and where a specific man lived whose Y-chromosome codes can be found in every man alive today or found in archaeology. Anyone finding this discussion of interest should get this book and study it.

Dr Wells’ findings are summarized in the figure below, which has been copied from his book.

Here are some of the conclusions reached by Dr. Wells:

1. “We all have an African great-great . . . grandmother who lived approximately 150,000 years ago.[2]”

2. “This man, from whom all men alive today ultimately derive their Y-chromosomes, lived 59,000 years ago.[3]”

3. There was an early migration from Africa into the Levant at least 110,000 years ago, with sites discovered in present-day Israel. Perhaps due to climate change, they left the Levant after 30,000 years or so, around 80,000 years ago. “Modern Humans had been in the Levant (the eastern region of the Mediterranean) since at least 110,000 years ago……Then during the period between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, modern Humans abruptly disappear……These early modern Humans are probably best viewed as a tentative stab at the world beyond Africa – one that simply did not make it any further.[4]”

4. “……there were no modern humans living outside Africa prior to …… at least 60,000 years ago.[5]”

5. Dr Wells also tells us a reasonable assumption for the average number of years per generation is 25 years. “If we assume that there are, on average, twenty-five years in each generation (the average age of parents when they have children……[6]"

6. Modern humans (Homo-sapiens) did not evolve from the earlier Homo erectus in Asia. “While some Chinese scientists argue for an evolutionary model known as ‘regional continuity,’ in which east Asian erectus evolved into a local variant of Homo sapiens independently of what was happening in Africa, there is absolutely no genetic evidence for this. Moreover, the genetic results show that there was not even any interbreeding between modern human immigrants to east Asia and erectus…...[7]”

7. Modern humans are a separate species from the earlier Neanderthals in Europe. “Neanderthals fall well outside the range of genetic variation found in the human species – and therefore they represent a separate species.[8]”

8. The genetic research is able to identify the migration of people out of Africa and into every corner of the world over the last 60,000 years. The major migration patterns are illustrated in the figure below.

While the year the Human race began cannot be determined from the genetic research, it has been estimated that modern Homo sapiens existed on Earth 150,000 years ago or more in Africa. A small group of Humans migrated to the Levant and settled in present day Israel perhaps around 110,000 years ago, but were destroyed or returned to Africa around 50,000-80,000 years ago. About 50,000 to 60,000 years ago the first permanent human migration out of Africa began, with people moving along the coastline from Northeast Africa northward to the Middle East, then eastward to India and on to Southeast Asia. It is possible that much of the land traversed during that time may be under water now as the water level has changed over the millennia. Over the next 10,000 to 20,000 years this migrating group continued south into Australasia and north into China. Sometime later a group migrated from China eastward into North America and then southward along the west coast into Central and South America.

A second major migration began around 45,000 years ago, with people traveling from Africa to the Levant and then in many directions, settling in Europe as well as North and Central Asia. This migration lasted for around 25,000 to 35,000 years. Then around 10,000 years ago there was a small migration of people into Europe from the Levant. About that same time (10,000 years ago), an extension of this second major migration crossed over the Bering Strait and settled in the Americas

There are other historic interpretations of the data, such as that found in http://essayweb.net/history/ancient/prehistory.shtml and http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/ in which a similar migration pattern is estimated to have occurred several millennia earlier.

Recent Paleoclimate and Geologic Research

There are many parallels between the migration patterns found in the genetic research and climatic patterns over the last 200,000 years. Studies of the climate over millions of years now show that the Earth has had many cycles of cooling and warming, and these cycles have caused many changes in climate worldwide as well as the locations and shapes of coastlines over the years.[9] [10] [11] (Some webpages even imply the current warming trend may be primarily due to the continuation of the natural cyclic pattern and that man’s actions have little to do with it, but that may be the subject of another blog someday.)

In a US Geological Survey (USGS) published paper dated 2002[12] is the following introductory statement:

· “At the end of the last interglacial period, over 100,000 yr ago, the Earth’s environments, similar to those of today, switched into a profoundly colder glacial mode. Glaciers grew, sea level dropped, and deserts expanded.”

· “At the very beginning of the interglacial, between about 130,000 and 127,000 yr ago, the temperature climbed as much as 3◦C higher than today. Then it slowly cooled in a manner similar to that of the Holocene. A relatively rapid decline began ca. 115,000–117,000 yr ago, and over the next 10 millennia the temperature fell about 7◦C.”

This paper seems to indicate that around 115,000-117,000 years ago the earth cooled, glaciers became much larger, and sea levels worldwide dropped. This was the beginning of the last glacial period, or the Ice Age.

In another USGS publication,[13] it states:

· “Paleoclimate research also investigates abrupt climate change. One example of abrupt climate transition occurred during the last deglaciation from 18,000 to 10,000 years ago when ice-sheet collapse caused rapid sea-level rise, changes in climate and altered ocean circulation.”

This information helps to support the conclusions of Dr. Wells regarding human migrations. For example, He states, “There may have been occasional forays into the Middle East prior to this, as suggested by 100,000-year-old human remains at sites such as Qafzeh and Skuhl in present-day Israel, but the Levant of 100,000-150,000 years ago was essentially an extension of north-eastern Africa, and was probably part of the original range of early Homo sapiens.” Dr Wells seems to imply that global temperature change during this time may have created a period of several millennia when the Sahara and Arabian Deserts cooled and became more hospitable to humans, allowing some to travel north to the Levant. Then hotter temperatures returned the deserts to a virtually uncrossable obstacle for early humans, effectively isolating the Levant from Africa. Based on the USGS documents, changing climate at the end of the last Ice Age around 100,000 years ago would have either isolated those in the Levant from the rest of humanity or forced them to travel back to Africa.

More recently there appears to be substantial evidence of major catastrophic floods around the world between 7,000 and 17,000 years ago at the end of the Great Ice Age which occurred around 10,000 to 18,000 years ago.[14] [15] Evidence of a major flood has been discovered in the mountains of the Altai region in Russia[16] [17]. This may have occurred around 11,000 to 14,000 years ago, and may have extended all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, passing from East Russia through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea and the Levant and into the Mediterranean Sea. Evidence exists of a massive flood of sea water from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea around 7,000 years ago, although there may be some uncertainty about these dates and the speed at which this flood spread. [18] [19]

There is also substantial evidence of one or more major floods of the Missoula River in Northwest United States around 13,000-15,000 years ago. The peak flow from these floods has been estimated to be 10 times the combined flow of all rivers on Earth today. [20] [21] Around this same time there is a theory that a massive amount of glacial freshwater, more than the combined volumes of the Great Lakes, flooded into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans around 12,900 years ago significantly raising sea levels and changing oceanic flows.[22]

Recent Archaeological Research

The oldest known human remains have been found near the Omo River in Ethiopia.[23] [24] They have been estimated to be 195,000 years old. Remains of sixteen humans have been found in a cave in modern-day Israel, estimated to be between 80,000 and 110,000 years old.[25] A partial human skull was found in Laos and is estimated to be between 46,000 and 63,000 years old.[26] An early human jawbone was found in a bear cave in Romania and estimated to be about 35,000 years old,[27] and other remains found in the Czech Republic are estimated to be the earliest remains from a European human settlement and are estimated to be 31,000 years old.[28] Remains of the earliest Humans in the Americas have been found inside an underwater cave in Mexico that are estimated to be 11,000-14,000 years old.[29]

Archaelogical research gives some results that contradict the literal timeline of the Patriarchs, and others that are consistent with that timeline. According to some web sites tents have been around since around 15,000-35,000 years ago.[30] [31] [32] This would be long before any ancestors of Adam could have been alive if Adam was ot created until around 4000 BC. Prehistoric flutes have been found and estimated to have been made 35,000 to 42,000 years ago in Europe.[33] [34]Again, it is difficult to explain how Adam’s descendants invented flutes this early in prehistory using the literal timeline. The creation of harps appears to be more recent, with some webpages citing evidence of harps pre-dating 3000 BC,[35] while others cite evidence as early as 15,000 years ago,[36] so it seems less certain whether early stringed instruments were used before or after the 4000 BC literal timeline. The Bronze Age and Iron Age generally fall within the literal timeline, with the Bronze Age generally agreed to start around 3300 BC.[37] [38]The Iron Age is generally thought to start around 550 BC, but the forging of iron weapons and tools may have begun as early as 1400 BC.[39]

Archaeological research has led to a theory that the earliest examples of agricultural cultivation are in the Levant, with crops such as wheat, barley, legumes, grapes, and others being farmed beginning around 10,000 years ago[40] [41] following the end of the Great Ice Age. Farming may also have begun to occur in other places such as Asia around the same time.

Continued in Part 2 . . . . .