In 1912, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener[i] advanced the “continental drift” theory, a concept based on the proposition that the land masses on earth were at one time held together in one supercontinent called Pangea, from the Greek word pangaia, which means “all the earth.” According to Wegener, approximately 299 to 272 million years ago, ALL of terra firma was a solid mass, surrounded by one uninterrupted ocean called Panthalassa.
Wegener postulated that the supercontinent began to break apart during the early Jurassic Period, some two hundred million years ago. Over time, the shifting hunks of land masses formed the continents and the oceans that we know today. Modern geology identifies this shifting of the earth’s crust, or lithosphere, as plate tectonics, the theory that explains how the continents of the earth continually grind against each other in subduction zones or fault lines.
If you cut out the continents from a map, each of the pieces seem to pull together into one large land mass. The results are astonishing. With some exceptions, due to erosion and damage, the individual pieces fit together in a single puzzle—Pangea.
Assembling the puzzle pieces of the dismembered supercontinent should cause us to ask questions. What kind of violence was visited upon the earth to separate the supercontinent in this way? And, although Wegener proposed the shifting occurred over millions of years, what if this violence was sudden and complete? Could the time frame accepted by modern science as to the breaking up of Pangea be incorrect simply because modern science does not take into account a pre-Adamic, cataclysmic, destruction of planet earth? If so, does the Bible give us clues to such a cataclysm and when it might have occurred?
Like the Berean, if one looks deeper into the meaning of the original language, the picture becomes clearer.
A Word of Caution
In the modern age, twenty-first-century mankind has amassed vast amounts of knowledge and gained substantial understanding about the world in which we live. The liability of such intelligence is our tendency to compartmentalize or pigeonhole our experiences into familiar perspectives, particularly when trying to make sense out of the sometimes intellectually unexplainable truths. We call this “the human condition.” Unfortunately, this exercise often leads us to categorize an understanding or experience in an inaccurate place simply because the premise from whence we started is erroneous.
As an example, when faced with the possibility of super-human beings coming down to earth and exhibiting characteristics beyond those of a post-Adamic creation (such as superior strength, intelligence, technology, and other abilities), ancient Homo sapiens could only have attributed these abilities of olam to the fact that these beings were “gods.” As such, their own earthly prejudices colored their understanding of “beings that came down from heaven.” It is here that we see the development of mythos, or even religious dogma, to describe those things that the people of the day, and even centuries later, did not understand.
An effective solution to this experiential interpretation hazard is to work backwards and dissect these thoughts, opinions, and experiences individually. Only then will we be able to piece together an understanding of what really occurred during and at the end of the pre-Adamic Age.
Before the Deluge
We begin working backwards with a look at Genesis 6:5–7:
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
Oh yeah, and there were GIANTS in the land and they had corrupted all flesh (Genesis 6:12)! While this is a larger subject for a different time, the point is that ALL flesh had been corrupted. The Hebrew for the word “corrupted” out of Genesis 6:12 is (שָׁחַת), shachath, Strong’s #7843. It can also mean “blemished,” “spoiled,” “ravaged,” “ruined,” and “perverted.”
We are talking all flesh here. That means more than just mankind. This also begs the question: How can one pervert the animals? Or trees?
How can scientists pervert animals now?
Through the genome! Through their DNA. With the use of science, modern man has the ability to corrupt God’s creation in the laboratory—and he does!
So just how long had this corruption been going on before God got fed up and decided to lay waste to the planet? The answer has to be a very long time, because it would have taken thousands, or maybe millions, of years to ruin everything and everyone on earth. Most biblical scholars put the Adamic creation event at no earlier than six thousand years ago and no later than ten thousand years ago.[ii] Given the fact that man was young, would a time period of one thousand to four thousand years be long enough to corrupt all flesh? Logic would say “no” simply because of what man had to do to survive after the Fall in the Garden. He was too busy trying to find food to eat rather than to worry about corrupting the genome.
However, one portion of Scripture gives a solution. Genesis 6:4 tells us:
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that.
The Bible does not say that God made the giants when He created man. The Genesis account simply says that God made man in His own image (Genesis 1:26–30, 2:4–7). So where did the giants come from?
We find a piece of that puzzle in with the introduction of the serpent, also known as Satan, the adversary, and the devil. He was in the Garden and appears to have predated the creation of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:1 says he was already “shrewd,” possibly indicating that he had been around for quite sometime.
Later in the Word, we find that the devil is in fact a fallen angel. Isaiah 14:12 refers to him as Helel, a Hebrew name meaning “Shining One” or “Morning Star,” and often translated as “Lucifer.” Ezekiel 28:12–13 says he was a glorious created being who was in the Garden of God. We will have more to say on him later. The important point for now is that God created other beings before He created mankind. If He created different beings before He created man, then is it not a stretch to suppose that He created places for those beings to dwell? For our purposes, it is reasonable to suppose that God created the earth much earlier than the six thousand to ten thousand years of a limited Antediluvian (pre-Flood) view.
God is eternal. While our knowledge of what He has done and will do in that eternity can be elusive, it is not without clues. In this case, the presence of a fallen angel in the Garden intimates a much larger pre-Adamic period than is usually supposed.
The Time before Time
The place to start ferreting out the secrets of earth’s past and future histories comes with Genesis 1:1–2. Although only two sentences long, these verses cover a huge stretch of time, a period that could very well have spanned millions, or even billions, of years. They lay down an important clue that helps us understand what the pre-Adamic Age must have been like.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Clue #1: This word “created” in verse 1 comes from the Hebrew word bara (בָּרָ֣א), Strong’s #1254a, which means “to create,” or, interestingly, “to shape.”
Yet the transliteration is not so straightforward when compared to the next verse.
Clue #2: Verse 2 says that the earth was “without form” or formless, from the Hebrew word ( תֹ֙הוּ֙) tohu, Strong’s #8414. It can mean “empty,” but more aptly means “formlessness,” or, interestingly, “confusion.”
Wait, what?
If verse 1 says that God shaped the earth, how could verse 2 say that it was without form, or shapeless?
Since the Bible is not contradictory to itself and God is not a God of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33; Isaiah 45:18–19), it must be our understanding, or lack thereof, that is the problem.
Therefore, you have a choice: Sweep this piece of a missing anthropomorphic puzzle to the Lord’s creation under the rug and forget about it, or deal with it head on.
Could this short section of Scripture point to a long time period between the shaping of the earth described in verse 1 and the confusion of the earth in verse 2? In theological circles, this is known as the pre-Adamic, or pre-Adamite, period, a subject that has been debated for a long time. The essence of the case is the idea that God created heaven and earth prior to His creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden, but then He destroyed the earth because, as it says in Genesis, fallen angels had corrupted all flesh.
Could the earth have been so defiled genetically that the Creator chose to erase His creation and start over in Genesis 1:2? If so, is there archaeological or other evidence to support this hypothesis?
The answers will surprise you.
Solomon’s Hints of a Pre-Adamic Age
Another Bible passage gives a hint of what pre-Adamic times could have been like. Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes 1:9–11 often receive only a superficial reading. Most readers fail to see the full ramifications of what the passage says. But if one reads it with the assumption that there was a previous age before the creation of Adam, then it starts to make more sense:
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. (Ecclesiastes 1:9–11)
“There is nothing new under the sun” suggests that “new” inventions, technology, and so forth have been previously discovered in the “old time” of the pre-Adamic Age.
Remember that Solomon is regarded as the wisest man to have lived in terms of his understanding of the heart of man as well as all things spiritual. His words appear in a book that Christians believe is the inspired Word of God. Solomon’s words are not the ravings of a crackpot, but rather they express the deep contemplations of a great sage, and are filled with meaning on multiple levels.
Therefore, think about those words: “There is nothing new under the sun.” Does that suggest that “new” inventions, technology, and so forth were previously discovered in the “old time” of the pre-Adamic Age? If Solomon is right, then nothing can be considered new on our post-Adamic period because in the pre-Adamic Age such things had already been done and created by the earth’s inhabitants. Who were these inhabitants? Most likely they were angels, or perhaps the man-like creatures we see in the fossil record of our planet.
We can therefore assume that this past age was technologically advanced, perhaps even more advanced in many ways than in the present time. This provides a possible explanation for out-of-place artifacts (OOPArts) that turn up from time to time among fossils or in ancient ruins where technology would not be expected. (More on OOPArts later.)
The original Hebrew in the passage by Solomon reveals more about the pre-Adamic Age. The phrase “of old time” comes from is (עוֹלָם), olam, Strong’s #5769. It means an “ancient time” or “long time (of past),” but it can also denote something that is eternal or changeless. This latter reading fits well with the notion that the world is simply reformed in Genesis 1 at the beginning of the Adamic Age, thereby connecting a previous age to our own.
The phrase “nothing new” contains the word (חָדָשׁ), chadash, Strong’s #2319, and literally means “a new thing.” Solomon is saying that there are no “new” things! If we are to take him literally, everything from technology to architecture to human thought is not new at all. It must have come from an age about which we are unaware.
It therefore seems plausible that the pre-Adamic Age had a thriving civilization whose technology rivaled, if not exceeded, that of our own modern times in many ways, and that its technology was so advanced that nothing that occurs today could be considered “new” by comparison.
ARTICLE CONTINES BELOW VIDEO:
EVIDENCE OF NEPHILIM GIANTS & REPTILIANS FOUND AROUND THE WORLD?
Which Beginning?
When did history begin? Here is the crux of the problem. When we look at and correctly interpret Solomon’s use of the word olam, we begin to understand that significant civilizations must have been developed before the Flood. And, as God promised, He wiped it all away with the washing of the deluge.
But was the Antediluvian world the only advanced civilization God destroyed in ages past? Do clues remain as to what life might have been like during those pre-Flood days and the pre-Adamic Age that may have preceded them? Dr. William Shea of the Biblical Research Institute points out:
Genesis 3–6 tells of the experiences of some of the earliest members of the human race—those who lived during the interval between creation (as recorded in Genesis 1–2) and the flood (as recorded in Genesis 7–9). From an evolutionary approach to biology, geology, or biblical studies, the “Antediluvians” cannot be historical figures. A more direct reading of the biblical text, on the other hand, indicates that the author of these narratives and lists understood them to be historical individuals.[iii] (emphasis added)
Dr. Shea gives a substantial argument that there is an absolute comparison between early Mesopotamian texts and biblical texts with regard to this period. However, he cautions that the former tended to infuse mythology into the texts because of cultural and religious biases.
Today’s readers have biases of their own. The tendency of the average modern person is to take what they don’t understand in the Bible or in historical documentation and reduce them to allegory, hyperbole, epics, or the poetic. To glean information accurately from these sources and come away with a clearer picture of the pre-Flood past, we must take what is written at face value and weigh it in light of other historical evidence. Only after evaluating the totality of the evidence can we separate truth from fiction.
To that end, literary archaeology can help us pull together the puzzle of the Pre-Flood world.
The Table of the Kings
Sumerian is one of the oldest written languages known to man. Its use spanned from c. 3300 to 3000 B.C. when thriving Sumerian cities spread across green, fertile plains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the area that is now arid, modern-day Iraq. This area is an archaeological treasure trove.
Perhaps the most significant of these treasures is the Kings List, or Table of the Kings, a four thousand-year-old Sumerian cuneiform tablet found in 1906 by German-American scholar Hermann Hilprecht. This amazing record documents the kings of Sumer and adjoining kingdoms, including the length of their reigns and the locations of their kingships. Documentation from the Table of the Kings and subsequent archaeological discoveries reveals that the reigns and life spans of these kings and their kingdoms covered not decades or centuries, but millennia!
So mind-boggling are these time spans, and so superhuman these king’s deeds, that scholars familiar with the texts chalk up the accounts to simple myth or religion. But why not take the same approach to this list as is done with Solomon’s words? Look at the original language and consider that the writers said exactly what they meant: that the men, or creatures, listed within the Table of the Kings lived as long as the document says. Perhaps the list records an ancient celestial history waiting to be uncovered. The possibilities not only challenge our own mythos and fables, but point to the plausibility of a pre-Adamic angelic civilization.
Mythos or Fact
The Table of the Kings opens with the very beginning of kingship and lists eight kings before the Flood. The antiquity of the accounts and the long life spans of the kings cause the stories to be reduced to mere myths. How could such a life even be possible?
Yet this one line out of the Table of the Kings sums up the “how” question:
After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu. In Eridu, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28,800 years. Alaljar ruled for 36,000 years. 2 kings; they ruled for 64,800 years. [iv] (emphasis added)
It is true that ancient biblical texts attribute much longer life spans to humans than we see today. Yet, no one in the Bible lived even close to thirty-six thousand years—not even Methuselah, and he was 969 years old when he died.
But what if these kings weren’t human? What if “descended from heaven” meant exactly that, and they were of angelic origin? Now compare this potentially outlandish thought to what we read in Genesis 6:4:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the Sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
Let’s recap: The Bible gives straightforward information that angels did, in fact:
1) Descend from heaven
2) Come to earth
3) Interact with mankind
An average person reading the text would probably assume, if he or she accepts the verse at all, that this happened over a relatively short time—but what if it didn’t?
What if angels came to earth millennia before the Flood? What if the Table of the Kings specifically outlines their interactions with a world that God created previously?
Defining “Ancient”
Genesis 6:4 intimates that an unfettered angelic presence on earth was not only possible, but likely. Remember that the word “old,” olam, in the latter part of the verse, means “of long duration” or “antiquity.” But this is Genesis 6, a passage that tells of the pre-Flood period. What antiquity could olam be referring to?
The Genesis account provides genealogies that cover the time spans of generations from the Adamic creation, but they do not account for antiquity as defined by olam. However, there is a different way to think about this.
Take the verse at face value. Consider that these “men of old” were ancient—even to Noah and his contemporaries! Allow yourself for the moment to accept that the Table of the Kings recorded those very men, or beings, and their kingdoms. How much older, the beginning of kings, could there be? And if you accept this premise, why would you then disregard the phrase at the beginning of the list that pointedly says “the kingship descended from heaven”?
While not conclusive, these ancient texts suggest that angels came down from heaven to rule on earth.
UP NEXT: Reshaping the Historical Biblical Paradigm
[i] “Pangea Supercontinent,” Encyclopedia Britannica—School and Library Subscribers, https://www.britannica.com/place/Pangea (June 10, 2016).
[ii] Lita Cosner, “How does the Bible teach 6,000 years?” Creation.com, http://creation.com/6000-years (December 2012).
[iii] William H. Shea, “The Antediluvians” (Geoscience Research Institute: 1991) http://www.grisda.org/origins/18010.htm.
[iv] April Holloway, “Sumerian King List Still Puzzles Historians After More Than a Century of Research” (Epoch Times: June 24, 2014),http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/773358-sumerian-king-list-still-puzzles-historians-after-more-than-a-century-of-research/.
Category: Featured, Featured Articles
