Board index ‹ Creation and Evolution

[Socks]

What is the biblical explanation for neanderthals?

They existed alongside early humans, and I even have 4% neanderthal DNA (98% of humans only have 2% or less).

But in the story of the Bible where did Neanderthals come into things?

The Neanderthals were explicitly different than Homo-sapiens, they had wider shoulders, larger eyes, thicker bonemass, longer limbs, larger hands/feet, and their genitalia was even shaped differently.

Assuming Adam & Eve were not Neanderthals, where did they come from? Did they come after the fall?

[jimwalton]

I think they're regarded as pre-human, or at least a separate branch of development from homo sapiens. If I have my facts right, their population thrived during the Middle Paleolithic period (200,000-45,000 years ago) in coexistence with homo sapiens. I read an article (2014) claiming that Israel is one of the only places in the world where skeletons of Neanderthals and homo sapiens are found in adjacent sites in several caves on Mt. Carmel and in the region of Galilee.

It's my perspective that the Bible picks up the story of humanity with a particular couple ("Adam and Eve") in about 6000 BC, give or take.

> where did they come from?

I believe in evolution, so they're part of the human evolutionary chain pre-dating Adam & Eve.

[Socks]

You believe in Evolution? Isn't that contradictory with the Bible?

[jimwalton]

Not at all. The Bible tells us THAT God created, but not how long it took or what processes He used.

By my analysis, Genesis 1 is about how God order the cosmos and the Earth to function, not about its material manufacture. There is no contradiction with science or evolution. Let me (briefly) explain.

The first "day," we learn that a period of light functions to give us day, and a period of darkness functions to give us night. The two in alternating sequence function to give us time. It's about function, not material manufacture.

Day 3: the Earth functions to bring forth vegetation for our survival and the survival of many life forms.

Day 4: The sun, moon, and stars function to give us seasons and times.

Day 5: The animals function to reproduce after their kind, to fill the Earth, to create balance and life.

Day 6: Humans function to rule the Earth and subdue it.

Day 7: God functions by resting (coming to live) in His temple (creation) and interact with the humans He has made.

There is no conflict with science, and no conflict with evolution. Certainly God is the creator (as we learn from other texts), but that's not what Genesis 1-2 is about. They are about order and function, not manufacture.

[Socks]

It took way longer than 7 days for that stuff to happen though.

And the moon & stars came about long before vegetation.

[jimwalton]

Of course it took longer than 7 days. I think the current scientific assessment is 4.5 billion years.

Genesis 1 is a temple text. In the ancient world, people would build a temple for their god, and then have a 7-day dedication ceremony where they would rehearse the greatness of their god, and on the 7th day, the deity would come to "rest" in the temple, and there live with his people and engage them in their daily lives.

So also in Genesis 1. No man-made temple was suitable for the real God, so God made his own temple—the cosmos, as a reflection of His true greatness. In the 7 days in Genesis 1, the author is writing/enacting a 7-day dedication ceremony rehearsing the greatness of the true God. He is showing how God in His power and greatness ordered the cosmos to function as His temple, and how humanity was given the function—not of slaves, as was common in the ancient Near East, but rather of God's image to be co-regents on Earth, ruling and subduing as God's representatives and "fellow-rulers," so to speak.

So the account is not a chronological narrative of material manufacture (moon & stars before vegetation), but an explanation of God's mighty ordering of all things to function well ("and it was good").

It makes no comment about how long it took or what processes God used, other than His powerful word.

[Cool Beans]

Do you believe that god imbued people with a soul, starting with Adam and Eve? Did neaderthals have souls? Or would they have been interbreeding with homo erectus before the souls came into play? Or would it have mattered? Just curious on your thoughts - I realize you may not have answers.

[jimwalton]

Genesis 2. 7 says that God breathed into the humans the breath of life, and that the humans *became* living souls. Presumably we can take that as a statement that at that point in time and evolution humans had evolved to the point where God regarded them as spiritually capable and morally culpable, and He ensouled them. If that is the case, then the neanderthals preceding Adam and Eve (A&E) would not have had souls, i.e., they would have been considered along with the animals.

The interbreeding between Neanderthals, Denisovans, and homo sapiens would have occurred long before A&E.

[Cool Beans]

Thanks!