Yes... I associate the first appearance of physically modern humans In Africa around 200,000 years ago with the Genesis 1:26-27 account of God creating mankind in his image.RickD wrote:And if I remember correctly, you're thinking that all these people were created as humans, not evolved from something else?DBowling wrote:This is a position that I have been seriously considering for a couple of years now. Even though Heiser does not hold the position that the "sons of God" in Genesis 6 are a reference to the lineage of Adam, the following Heiser quote from his Genesis 1-3 blog is consistent with this position.RickD wrote:Something to think about...
It just came to mind now, so I haven't actually studied the possibility. But after reading the links by Heiser in this post, could sons of God be the descendants of Adam? And the sons of man, be the descendants of the other humans that came from the line that existed outside of Adam's line?From this quote we see that in Scripture, God's chosen/elect people were referred to as sons/children of God all the way back to Adam.Adam is therefore the son of God (cp. Luke 3:38) — just like Israel will be called the son of God (Exod 4:23) — just like the king of Israel is called the the son of God (Psalm 2:7) — just like Jesus, the messianic king/servant, is the son of God, so that those who believe in him can be called the sons/children of God (John 1:12; Rom 8:14, 19; Gal 3:26; 1 John 3:1-3). It isn’t until God’s covenant with Abraham, a later descendant of Adam and Eve, that readers are told that it would be through Abraham, a descendant of Adam (Luke 3:34-38), that the humans outside the elect lineage (which began with Adam) would be redeemed through the descendant(s) of Abraham (and so, the descendants of Adam).
Another interesting data point is that the longevity of the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" is reduced to 120 years (Genesis 6:3) from the 900 years we see in Genesis 5 for the descendants of Adam in Genesis 5. This is consistent with the premise that the "sons of God" were the long lived descendants of Adam, while the "daughters of men" were the non-Adamic 'normal lived' indigenous inhabitants of Mesopotamia.
The theme of God's people intermarrying with and being corrupted by the sinful indigenous population of 'the land' and the judgement that followed (Genesis 6-9) is also consistent with the pattern we see later in Scripture when God's covenant people (Israel) enter the land of Canaan.
My .02...
I associate the appearance of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 with the Neolithic Mesopotamian culture that Scripture describes in Genesis 2-4, and that is consistent with the 6,000 BC timeframe that both Scripture and Mesopotamian history point to.
Now of course the outstanding question is... How did God create mankind in Genesis 1:26-27?
Scripture just doesn't answer that question.
In Christ