The Only True Adam of Genesis 1:26-27 & 2:7, Part #1
It’s simply amazing how within the Israel Identity movement there exists a conglomeration of confused dogmas seemingly without an end. It appears like everyone wants to start his own personal pretzel factory! Whoever dreamed up the 6th & 8th day creation theory should win a blue-ribbon at some kind of prevarication fraternity, for it simply is not true. For those not familiar with the 6th & 8th day creation theory, its proponents claim that the non-white races were created on the 6th day and that the White Adam-kind was “formed” on the 8th day. Yet, search the entire Bible and nowhere does it speak of an 8th day creation! As a matter of fact, Scripture points out in no uncertain terms that the creation ended at the end of the 6th day! We will start this paper by referring to Josephus on the creation.
JOSEPHUS’ ANTIQUITIES 1:1:1-2
“1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; but when the earth did not come into sight, but was covered with thick darkness, and a wind moved upon its surface, God commanded that there should be light; and when that was made, he considered the whole mass, and separated the light and the darkness; and the name he gave to one was Night, and the other he called Day; and he named the beginning of light and the time of rest, the Evening and the Morning; and this was indeed the first day: but Moses said it was one day, – the cause of which I am able to give even now; but because I have promised to give such reasons for all things in a treatise by itself, I shall put off its exposition till that time. After this, on the second day, he placed the heaven over the whole world, and separated it from the other parts; and he determined it should stand by itself. He also placed a crystalline [firmament] round it, and put it together in a manner agreeable to the earth, and fitted it for giving moisture and rain, and for affording the advantage of dews. On the third day he appointed the dry land to appear, with the sea itself round about it; and on the very same day he made the plants and the seeds to spring out of the earth. On the fourth day he adorned the heaven with the sun, the moon, and the other stars; and appointed them their motions and courses, that the vicissitudes of the seasons might be clearly signified. And on the fifth day he produced the living creatures, both those that swim and those that fly; the former in the sea, the latter in the air: he also sorted them as to society and mixture, for procreation, and that their kinds might increase and multiply. On the sixth day he created the four-footed beasts, and made them male and female: on the same day he also formed man. Accordingly Moses says, That in just six days the world and all that is therein was made; and that the seventh day was a rest, and a release from the labor of such operations; – whence it is that we celebrate a rest from our labors on that day, and call it the Sabbath; which word denotes rest in the Hebrew tongue.
“2. Moreover, Moses, after the seventh day was over, begins to talk philosophically; and concerning the formation of man, says thus: That God took dust from the ground, and formed man, and inserted in him a spirit and a soul. This man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that is red, because he was formed out of red earth, compounded together; for of that kind is virgin and true earth.* God also presented the living creatures, when he had made them, according to their kinds, both male and female, to Adam, who gave them those names by which they are still called. But when he saw that Adam had no female companion, no society, for there was no such created, and that he wondered at the other animals which were male and female, he laid him asleep, and took away one of his ribs, and out of it formed the woman; whereupon Adam knew her when she was brought to him, and acknowledged that she was made out of himself ...” *[Instead of “red earth”, Josephus should have rendered it “blood red” (red sort) as DAM is “blood.”]
Probably the most significant item we should consider is the fact that the creation of the earth with all of its creatures including the creation of Adam and Eve is not in chronological order! Just stop and think for a moment! Adam-man was created approximately 7,500 years ago, while some of the more distant stars are billions of light-years away, and how many more billions of light-years ago these distant stars came into existence we do not know! When one observes these distant stars, one is looking billions of light-years into the past. All one need do is check Genesis 1:14-19 and one will discover that the sun and the moon were not created until the “fourth day.” How then could the grass, herb yielding seed and fruit grow which is recorded to have been created on the third day without the aid of the sun? Whatever kind of day Genesis is talking about, it’s surely not the twenty-four hour day that we are familiar with! In spite of all this evidence, Eli James still insists that Genesis is written in chronological order. The answer is, neither Genesis in the Bible nor Josephus’ account of creation is in chronological order. Once this fact is firmly established, we can begin to make some order out of the creation story!
The 6th & 8th day creationists make a big thing out of Genesis 1:27 saying “male and female created he them”, claiming it is speaking of the creation of the other races. They then point out that at Genesis 2:7 it mentions the formation of “the man” insisting that it is a separate and a second act of the Almighty at such an endeavor. They declare that the one was “created” while the other was “formed.” Thus, they try to show a contrast between the two accounts at Genesis 1:26-27 and that of Genesis 2:7, but if one will notice, Josephus says, “on the same [sixth] day he also formed man.” And he uses the term “formation” for “Adam” on the sixth day and additionally speaks of the “four-footed beast” being created “male and female” on that same day. We don’t know what kind of manuscripts Josephus might have had at hand, but from Josephus’ own words, we can determine that he definitely understood it to be a single account!
A footnote in the Kregel edition, which is standard in any complete edition of Josephus by Whiston, makes the following comment on the creation story on page 25: “Since Josephus, in his Preface, sect. 4, says that Moses wrote some things enigmatically, some allegorically, and the rest in plain words, since in his account of the first chapter of Genesis, and the first three verses of the second, he gives us no hints of any mystery at all; but when he here comes to ver. 4, &c., he says that Moses, after the seventh day was over, began to talk philosophically, it is not very improbable that he understood the rest of the second and the third chapters in some enigmatical, or allegorical, or philosophical sense. The change of the name of God, just at this place, from Elohim to Jehovah Elohim, from God to Lord God in the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint, does also not a little favour some such change in the narration or construction.”
We see several things worth observing from this footnote. It is noteworthy to observe that Josephus recognizes that in chapter 2 of Genesis, that Moses is using philosophical reasoning concerning the creation of Adam-man. The definition of philosophy is “critical study of fundamental beliefs.” We’re not talking about Greek philosophy here, which leads into “sophism.” So if Moses is using philosophical reasoning at this point concerning the creation of man, he is not recording the creation of a second kind of Adam as the 6th and 8th day creationists so loudly proclaim! And when the creation story is not given in a chronological order, how much more “enigmatical” or “allegorical” can it get? Eli James is exceedingly incorrect in proclaiming that Genesis is written in chronological order!
Eli James also contends that the creation of Genesis chapter 1 was by the “elohim”, whom he designates as “fallen angels”, and that “Yahweh” formed Adam at Genesis 2:7. Thus, his flawed premise is that the fallen angels created the non-Adamic races along with the earth, sun, moon, stars, animals, birds and fishes. He then points to the AKJV and shows that the Tetragrammaton doesn’t appear until chapter 2, especially verse 7 which says “And the Lord [Yahweh] God formed man of the dust of the ground ...” Had Eli James ever checked the Septuagint he would have found that the term “Lord”, which should be “Yahweh”, is not in verse 7, only “God” (or elohim), “then God formed the man, dust from the earth ...” So neither Josephus nor the Septuagint supports Eli James’ 6th & 8th day creation theory! Further, checking Strong’s Concordance under “God”, we see that elohim, #430, the same word appearing at Genesis 1:26 to 28 is the predominant word used to refer to Yahweh all through the Bible – used far more often than the singular el, #410. With this, Eli James’ theory collapses entirely!
Actually, the idea that the world was created by angels, which is what Eli James is teaching here, is a Gnostic doctrine according to the Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, chapter 11: “But according to Marcion, and those like him, neither was the world made by Him; nor did He come to His own things, but to those of another. And, according to certain of the Gnostics, this world was made by angels, and not by the Word of God. But according to the followers of Valentinus, the world was not made by Him, but by the Demiurge.” However, Eli James designates “fallen angels”, and Eli credits them also with the creation of the non-Adamic races!
Now there may be some who think that Josephus was a “bad fig Jew”, and that we shouldn’t use him as a reference, but I would have anyone of this opinion know that Josephus was a pureblooded Levite on both sides of his family, Josephus’ Life, 1:
“The family from which I am derived is not an ignoble one, but hath descended all along from the priests; and as nobility among several people is of a different origin, so with us to be of the sacerdotal dignity, is an indication of the splendor of a family. Now, I am not only sprung from a sacerdotal family in general, but from the first of the twenty-four courses; and as among us there is not only a considerable difference between one family of each course and another, I am of the chief family of that first course also; nay, further, by my mother I am of the royal blood; for the children of Asamoneus, from whom that family was derived, had both the office of the high priesthood, and the dignity of a king, for a long time together. I will accordingly set down my progenitors in order. My grandfather’s father was named Simon, with the addition of Psellus; he lived at the same time with that son of Simon the high priest, who first of all the high priests was named Hyrcanus. This Simon Psellus had nine sons, one of whom was Matthias, called Ephlias; he married the daughter of Jonathan the high priest; which Jonathan was the first of the sons of Asamoneus, who was high priest, and was the brother of Simon the high priest also.”
Not only was Josephus of pure blood, but growing up he was a child prodigy. We see this at Josephus’ Life, 2 as follows: “I was myself brought up with my brother, whose name was Matthias, for he was my own brother, by both father and mother; and I made mighty proficiency in the improvements of my learning, and appeared to have both a great memory and understanding. Moreover, when I was a child, and about fourteen years of age, I was commended by all for the love I had to learning; on which account the high priests and principal men of the city came then frequently to me together, in order to know my opinion about the accurate understanding of points of the law ...”
It is important, then, to understand that Josephus understood there was but a single Adam, and that Adam was formed on the 6th day of creation! It is also significant to comprehend that Josephus recognized philosophic allegory when he saw it, and he followed suit with Moses from Genesis 2:3 to chapter 4. When people are spoken of as “trees”, it can’t get much more allegorical than that! In other words, the trees were not trees and the serpent was not a snake, and what Eve “did eat” wasn’t consumed through her mouth! So it is safe to acknowledge Josephus’ accountability.
THE ALL IMPORTANT IMAGE
It is a very serious assertion by the proponents of the 6th and 8th day creation theory to claim that the non-white races were created on the 6th day at Genesis 1:26-27! It is serious because according to 1 Cor. 11:7, 2 Cor. 4:4 and Col. 1:15 Yahshua is in the image of God! Are we to believe that the non-white races are in that image? Does that make our Redeemer also non-white? How absurd the thought!
1 Cor. 11:7-9: “7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.”
2 Cor. 4:4: “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
Col. 1:13-15: “13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.”
The term “man” at 1 Cor. 11:7 can only be speaking of Adam-man, which would be the same “image” of Yahshua born of Mary. 1 Cor. 11:8-9 surely is not speaking of the non-white races! 2 Cor. 4:4 then enforces the same idea as 1 Cor. 11:7. Ditto for Col. 1:15! Where do the 6th & 8th day creation advocates come up with all of those preposterous ideas? This subject is much too important to be passed over lightly, and will be continued in The Only True Adam Of Genesis 1:26-27 & 2:7, (Part Two).
