What Went On Way Before the Days of Abraham? A Look At Our Earth

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

4,543 billion years ago, earth was created, so scientists figure.  The Bible never declares an age for the Earth, but evidence derived from the text fits most comfortably with a date far older than a few thousand years. RTB (Reasons to Believe-a Christian with science group) holds the position that the six days of creation represent long time periods and that the creation accounts reconcile well with the scientific date for Earth’s formation 4.6 billion years ago.  

Almost no rabbis believe that God completed the creation of the world close to 6,000 years ago, though our Jewish calendar says that this year of 2021 is 5,721.   This age is reflected in the chronology developed in a midrash, Seder Olam, but a literalist reading of the Book of Genesis is rare in Judaism. This age is attributed to the tanna Jose ben Halafta, and covers history from the creation of the universe to the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Nachmanides from the 1200s calculated an age of earth which is similar to modern scientific estimates.

Most modern rabbis believe that the world is older than 6,000 years. They believe such a view is needed to accept scientific theories, such as the theory of evolution. Rabbis who have this view base their conclusions on verses in the Talmud or in the midrash. For example:

• The Midrash says: God created many worlds but was not satisfied, and left the world he was satisfied with.
• Nachmanides (Moses ben Nahman) (1194–1270) writes: In the first day God created the energy (כח) "matter" (חומר) of all things, and then he was finished with the main creation. After that God created all other things from that energy.
• Some midrashim state that the "first week" of Creation lasted for extremely long periods of time.

Homo erectus were the first of the hominins to emigrate from Africa, and, from 1.8 to 1.3 million years ago, this species spread through Africa, Asia, and Europe. One population of H. erectus, also sometimes classified as a separate species Homo ergaster, remained in Africa and evolved into Homo sapiens.

I will figure that about 5,781 years ago was when Adam and Eve were on the planet, Homo sapiens that had the ability to speak, something Neanderthals may not have been able to do when they were alive.  That would take us back to the year 3,760 BCE.   This also happens to be the 5,781 year on the Jewish Calendar.  Abraham was born in the 2nd millennium BCE which was most likely the year of 1948 BCE.  

"Six million years ago as many as 18 different hominid species lived in East Africa. Now only one is left. How did it evolve and survive?  What drove the first migration of our forebears from Africa some 50,000 years ago and what that tells us about our continued evolution as a species of problem solvers.

The Neanderthals had a good run on this planet, Earth for 300,000 years before they were replaced by a better model about 50,000 years ago by the  Homo Sapiens, us.  Neanderthals went extinct about 42,000 years ago, but left their mark by intermixing with the Homo Sapiens to some extent in that most of us carry genes from them.  I myself have about 2.9% of genes from Neanderthals.  23% Me is one DNA company that tests for that.

Both Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens could make fire, flaked stone tools, and clothing from animal skins. We know they lived side by side for more than 10,000 years. What became of them? Did they mate with Homo sapiens? Genome sequencing indicates they may live on in some of us, discovered through DNA testing.  One website said that Neanderthals never wore jewelry.  Others say they did.  

“We think the Neanderthals had very low population numbers when modern humans arrived,” says Higham, perhaps in part because Europe was in the throes of an Ice Age at the time, so they were struggling against harsh conditions that couldn’t support large numbers of individuals. Modern humans, Higham observes, had been living in Africa, which was much more benign. “Modern humans also seemed to have more modern technology,” he says, “which wouldn’t have been a huge advantage, but over the long duration might have given them an edge.”

Manot Cave is a cave in Western Galilee, Israel, discovered in 2008. It is notable for the discovery of a skull that belongs to a modern human, called Manot 1, which is estimated to be 54,700 years old. The partial skull was discovered at the beginning of the cave's exploration in 2008.

                                                           

The Tabun Cave is an excavated site located at Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve, Israel and is one of Human Evolution sites at Mount Carmel, which were proclaimed as having universal value by UNESCO in 2012. The cave was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic (500,000 to around 40,000 years ago). In the course of this period, deposits of sand, silt and clay of up to 25 m (82 ft) accumulated in the cave. Excavations suggest that it features one of the longest sequences of human occupation in the Levant.

                                                         

from New York Times

In a Cave in Israel, Scientists Find a Jawbone Fossil From the Oldest Modern Human Out of Africa.   Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery of a fossilized human jawbone in a collapsed cave in Israel that they said is between 177,000 and 194,000 years old.Jan 25, 2018.  Researchers on Thursday announced the discovery of the fossil estimated as 177,000 to 194,000 years old, and said the teeth bore telltale traits of Homo sapiens not present in close human relatives alive at the time including Neanderthals.

The Cave of Elijah is a grotto that appears in the Hebrew Bible, where the prophet Elijah took shelter during a journey into the wilderness (1 Kings 19:8).

The exact location of the cave is unknown. There is a "Cave of Elijah" on Mount Carmel approximately 40 m above sea level in Haifa. For centuries it has been a pilgrimage destination for Jewish, Christian and Muslim people. Another cave associated with Elijah is located nearby, under the altar of the main church of the Stella Maris Monastery, also on Mount Carmel.

It all makes us realize the work involved in making our model-what we are today and how we have evolved, no easy thing.  It includes information we could not understand or comprehend until this day.  Our brains had to evolve.  Life is precious.  Do not waste it.  Appreciate what our ancestors did and thought to bring us to such a time.  We have the capability to make life even better.  We've gone to the moon and are exploring more in outer space.  There's not much we can't do except to make peace with each other and follow rules of law that help our civilization to work in harmony.  We're getting there while taking 2 steps forward and 1 step backwards.  The industrial age lasted from 1760 to 1840,  a total of 80 years.  Making peace is taking from the time Homo sapiens walked the earth till now, and we still haven't achieved peace on earth and good will towards all.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_views_on_evolution

https://reasons.org/explore/publications/rtb-101/Biblical-evidence-old-earth?kw=how%20old%20is%20the%20earth&mt=e&loc=9032849&n=g&d=c&adp=&cid=9970814571&adgid=100954190775&tid=kwd-311303312295&gclid=CjwKCAiAgc-ABhA7

https://humanjourney.us/discovering-our-distant-ancestors-section/?gclid=CjwKCAiAgc-ABhA7EiwAjev-j7GxVwEme3h8-tQxUzu2UrUe3KrDcaz8VeIAwenvIVm7Dj14iKGzhRoCfygQAvD_BwE

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-humans/oldest-human-remains-outside-africa-found-in-israeli-cave-idUSKBN1FE2SY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Elijah