In Josh McDowell’s book, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, he sites some reactions of scientists to biblical truths, at least until the archaeological truth was found to substantiate the Bible writings. The following quote shows the finding of the five Cities of the Plain that were mentioned in Genesis 14.
“The proponents of the ‘Documentary Hypothesis have taught in the past that the period described in the Mosaic narrative (1400 B.C., a thousand years before Moses, laws, customs, and events were recorded in writing in the same area of the world in which Moses and the patriarchs lived. An additional example of the contribution of the Elba discovery is in relation to Genesis 14, which for years has been considered to be historically unreliable. The victory of Abraham over Cheldolaomer and the Mesopotamian kings has been described as fictitious and the five Cities of the Plain (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zobiim, and Zoar) as legendary.
Yet the Elba archives refer to all five Cities of the Plain and on one tablet, the Cities are listed in the exact same sequence as Genesis 14. The milieu of the tablets reflect the culture of the patriarchal period and depict that, before the catastrophe recorded in Genesis 14, the area was a flourishing region experiencing prosperity and success, as recorded in Genesis” (15)
The archaeological discovery made in northern Syria of the Elba tablets by the University of Rome’s Dr. Paolo Matthiae, and Dr. Giovanni Petinato, dispelled the biblical criticism of the account in Genesis.
Julius Wellhausen, a well-known biblical critic of the 19th Century, held that the record of the laver made of brass mirrors was not an original entry into the Priestly Code. By stating so, he puts the record of the tabernacle much too late for the time of Moses. However, there is no valid reason for employing the late dating (500 B.C.) of Wellhausen. There is specific archaeological evidence of such bronze mirrors in what is known as the Empire Period of Egypt’s history (1500 - 1400 B.C.)
“Archaeologist William Albright affirms that we may rest assured that the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible, … has been preserved with an accuracy perhaps unparalleled in any other Near-Eastern literature.” (16) He also states, “Aside from a few die-hards among older scholars, there is scarcely a single biblical historian who has not been impressed by the rapid accumulation of data supporting the substantial historicity of patriarchal tradition. According to the traditions of Genesis, the ancestors of Israel were closely related to the semi-nomadic peoples of Trans-Jordan, Syria, the Euphrates basin and North Arabia in the last centuries of the second millennium.” (17)
Archaeology, rather than working against God, has actually succeeded in working for God. Their findings have helped to recreate the creation that occurred in the first two books of Genesis. It has scientifically been discovered that there was a time of pre-agricultural settlements around the area designated by God as the Garden of Eden. The male and female of Genesis 1, made in the image of God, falls logically and scientifically into place, as do the findings of the skeletal remains of men in other geographical areas other than the Near-Eastern plains. God inhabited the entire earth with men and women whom he told to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Although man did not exactly achieve the success in this area that might have been expected or wanted by God is evident, until the arrival of a tiller of the ground (Adam) appears on the scene. When Adam found no help meet satisfactory to him from the female species God had previously created, God made Eve from Adam’s rib.
Genesis 2 shows us the creation of the man who would form the hub of civilization, and begin the line of descendants to the ultimate savior of mankind, Jesus. That mankind flourishes from the point of creation of Adam is evident. That Adam was the intended savior of mankind from a spiritual standpoint is untrue, as the Bible clearly states that Adam sinned, and later Christ appears as the last Adam and true savior.
Further archaeological finds such as pictures found on cave walls and carved into tusks of animals or painted on pottery; bones unearthed indicating man lived hundreds of thousands of years ago; footprints of men walking erect dating 200,000 years ago begins the interesting phenomenon associated with man and no other species. Man has always been inquisitive and knowledgeable of himself and his surroundings. Unlike what anthropologists would have us believe, man did not begin as an ape.
Imprints of hands in the picture taken from Man in Search of His Ancestors shows a series of perfect human hand prints. There is no mistaking this for anything other than a human hand.
The fossilized human footprints of Nicaragua and El Salvador date back to at least 50,000 years ago.
Human footprints found in the United States preserved in sandstone and limestone. (Carson, Nevada)
In the figure, (Leaving for a hunt?), it appears more like a pregnant woman in the drawing, and that the drawing might have been done from religious or superstitious motives, but it must still be noted that the figure is quite erect and is human.
Likewise, in all the forms of cave art, the figures depicting human involvement show the human as an erect, capable entity; not hunched or rounded at the shoulders, nor hanging from trees.
Accordingly, researchers have placed the hand prints at 30,000 to 40,000 years old. In the picture of the man hunting a wild boar, notice the gracefulness of the man in the picture. Although it is more of a stick-figure than a dimensional one, the picture indicates erectness of body, as well as the solid use of the arm for throwing the spear, indicating dexterity and deftness. In all the drawings found, and the ones not shown herein, there is definition of shape and erectness of form.
There is no indication from any of these drawings that man ever associated himself with apes, or considered himself to be one. Much has been written concerning the possible progression of ape to man, however, there is no conclusive proof that an ape-man ever existed. There is conclusive proof, however, that man walked upright as man does and should. There is conclusive proof that apes are and always have been apes, just as the finches on the Galapagos Islands were always finches. They never turned into parrots, or storks, or donkeys! All the evidence clearly points to God’s creation explanation as correct, from the difference between the flesh of animals and the flesh of birds, to the difference between the blood of animals and the blood of humans. Giants are mentioned in chapter 6 of Genesis. There is an indication that giants lived in China and Java sometime between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago.
Science says of Cro-Magnon man that he corresponds with the white peoples, but also point out that in Western Europe in the Reindeer Age, that there were three principal types of race: the white, black and yellow races. The blacks were commonly known as Grimalde Negroids, and the yellow race was known as Chancelade type. In Andre Senet’s book, Man in Search of His Ancestors, he also says, “In no case, however, do they allow us to write that man is descended from ape.” (18)
If a person were to look closely at the beginning stages of the human fetus and compare that with the fetus of a white mouse, he might be shockingly surprised to see that they are practically identical in shape, the most significant difference being the elongated tail of the mouse.
A platypus is similar to a lot of things but is he a beaver, a duck, or a kangaroo, or an otter? Imprints of hands on cave walls, pictures of the hunt showing agility and swiftness; footprints indicating man walked upright 200,000 years ago, and the rest of what science has unearthed shows that man held to cultist rituals, and indicates that man may have streamlined himself from his ancestral beginnings, but it has not changed the fact that he was and still is – MAN!
Man’s creative ability seems to have been a natural ability infused into his psyche from the beginning. His desire to create, explore, and question are aspects of the freedom and uniqueness bestowed upon him by God from the creation. It is quite certain that God did not direct baboons or gorillas to go forth and multiply and replenish the earth, and to subdue it and have dominion over it.
What the theories and research and discoveries of anthropologists and archaeologists have done is to supply us with the pieces to the puzzle created in Genesis. Adam is the result of an eighth day creation. God did not re-create mankind in or through Adam. It appears that Adam is an enhancement of what had already been created. It further appears that God supplied mankind with an easier means for him to follow through with God’s original instructions. Through the advent of Adam, civilization was introduced to the earth. A civilization through the cultivation of crops and the settling of man into a given area.
It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that the Bible is the history of the Jew ONLY. It starts with the first Jewish descendant, Adam, and works through to the coming of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The Bible is not the history of the Seminole Indian, or of the Chinese dynasties, or of the Incas of Peru. It is the history solely and exclusively of the Jewish people. That God makes mention of those outside the Jewish race is a matter of necessity in explaining to the world how and why the Christ is to be accepted for who He is, and that he came to save the entire world, not just the Jew.
It is further impossible to describe the history of a people without interface with those around them. In this history, God substantiates the finding of science with startling accuracy; puts together the puzzle pieces unearthed by archaeologists and anthropologists; and the Bible, God’s word, stands alone on its own merit as the most accurate book of its kind in history today.
Clearly it shows what man may not want to see; what he may be unwilling to see; and what he has groped to see: that in seeing he may deny, and that in seeing he may be unwilling to focus on. God designed man to be man, as he designed apes to be apes, and finches to be finches, and Coelacanths to be Coelacanths. Mankind has his brotherhood through the image of the invisible God, for God created man in his own image and likeness, and we are totally unique of his creation because man alone clearly chooses his own destiny. He can reason, think, speak, and act on his own behalf.
It appears quite evident from the findings of science and from the slow, step-by-step scrutiny of the scripture that the two walk hand-in-hand. God still remains the Creator and science continues to enhance and prove the spoken word of God. All of mankind is a separate, created entity from the animal kingdom. Animal in his nature, but not animal in blood, man is distinctive in his capacity to think and reason; singular in his artistic and inventive creativity; unique in his ability to speak and communicate on a level far superior to all other forms of creation.
The hunter was the first of mankind created by God. Adam was created much later as an enrichment to assist the propagation of mankind, and to point men to the only true God. In The Story of Man by Carlton S. Coon, he says, “During the first phase of human history man became a hunter, and during the second he carried this skill to perfection, acquiring surpluses of food, a rudimentary division of labor, and some degree of settled life.” (19) Adam was the first man “in Christ”. Christ was the last “Adam”, the “all in all”, and mankind, each and every one of us from the first men and women placed on this earth, to the eighth day creation wherein Adam, a tiller of the ground was formed by God, to the Neolithic men and women found in digs today: all mankind has come from God.
