How long has man been created.

[Blue sapphire]

In English, "Man" is not "a man". And "Woman" is not any particular woman. Right?

In Hebrew 'ha-adam' (the word used all through Genesis 1-3) means "the man" and can have at least three different meanings:
1. a particular designated man "the man standing there"
2. Man (= Humanity) "Man is mortal"
3. a personification in which an individual (meaning 1) represents all humanity (meaning 2) e.g. the Everyman character in medieval dramas.

When meaning 3 is intended, it has some of the qualities of the two other meanings. Because 'ha-adam' is a character represented as an individual, he is presented as doing things individuals do--caring for a garden, naming animals, taking a wife, eating forbidden fruit, having children. But the character does all these things as a representative of all humanity--since these are all patterns of human behaviour in all times. So what the 'ha-adam' does as an individual character is intended to tell us not about a person who lived a long time ago, but about our humanity here and now and through all time.


The literal interpretation of Genesis 2 says that only the first meaning above applies and 'ha-adam' refers only to a particular person who lived many thousands of years ago.

But scripture does not tell us which way to interpret 'ha-adam'. That is up to the reader to decide.

In Genesis 5.....the meaning seems clear enough.

"This is the history of the descendants of Adam......when Adam was 130 years old....his son Seth was born...and Adam died at 930......"

 

[mpok1519]

so if Adam was nearly a thousand years old, and people have been around for 6000, we probably would've found Adam's bones.

We find OLDER bones from people all the time.

If Adam REALLY existed, we would have found him, and there'd be people still around claiming lingeage to him, Jesus, Peter Paul and Mary.


---------

120-170,000 years homo sapiens have been around.

 

[davec375]

so if Adam was nearly a thousand years old, and people have been around for 6000, we probably would've found Adam's bones.

We find OLDER bones from people all the time.

If Adam REALLY existed, we would have found him, and there'd be people still around claiming lingeage to him, Jesus, Peter Paul and Mary.


---------

120-170,000 years homo sapiens have been around.

There is a ten generation gap between Adam and to the birth of Noah, 1100 years passed from between Adam and Noah according to popular calculations.



Age Son # Year of Death # Birth # Son # Death
________________________________________________________
Adam # 130 # 930 # 0 # 130 # 930
Seth #105 # 912 #130 # 235 # 1,042
Enosh # 90 # 905 # 235 # 325 # 1,140
Kenan #70 # 910 # 325 # 395 # 1,235
Mahalalel #65 # 895 # 395 # 460 # 1,290
Jared # 162 # 962 # 460 # 622 # 1,422
Enoch # 65 # 365 # 622 # 687 # 987
Methuselah #187 # 969 # 687 # 874 # 1,656
Lamech # 182 # 777 # 874 # 1,056 # 1,651
Noah # 500 # 950 # 1,056 # 1,556 # 2,006

The Flood 1,656

 

[Assyrian]

In Genesis 5.....the meaning seems clear enough.
"This is the history of the descendants of Adam......when Adam was 130 years old....his son Seth was born...and Adam died at 930......"

Then again read verse 2. Gen 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God's likeness.
2 He created them male and female, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. Adam is not described as God's name for an individual but his name for people (them/their) both male and female

 

[mpok1519]

There is a ten generation gap between Adam and to the birth of Noah, 1100 years passed from between Adam and Noah according to popular calculations.



Age Son # Year of Death # Birth # Son # Death
________________________________________________________
Adam # 130 # 930 # 0 # 130 # 930
Seth #105 # 912 #130 # 235 # 1,042
Enosh # 90 # 905 # 235 # 325 # 1,140
Kenan #70 # 910 # 325 # 395 # 1,235
Mahalalel #65 # 895 # 395 # 460 # 1,290
Jared # 162 # 962 # 460 # 622 # 1,422
Enoch # 65 # 365 # 622 # 687 # 987
Methuselah #187 # 969 # 687 # 874 # 1,656
Lamech # 182 # 777 # 874 # 1,056 # 1,651
Noah # 500 # 950 # 1,056 # 1,556 # 2,006

The Flood 1,656

but PEOPLE have been around for longer. 120-150K years or so.

 

[Assyrian]

In English, "Man" is not "a man". And "Woman" is not any particular woman. Right?

In Hebrew 'ha-adam' (the word used all through Genesis 1-3) means "the man" and can have at least three different meanings:
1. a particular designated man "the man standing there"
2. Man (= Humanity) "Man is mortal"
3. a personification in which an individual (meaning 1) represents all humanity (meaning 2) e.g. the Everyman character in medieval dramas.

When meaning 3 is intended, it has some of the qualities of the two other meanings. Because 'ha-adam' is a character represented as an individual, he is presented as doing things individuals do--caring for a garden, naming animals, taking a wife, eating forbidden fruit, having children. But the character does all these things as a representative of all humanity--since these are all patterns of human behaviour in all times. So what the 'ha-adam' does as an individual character is intended to tell us not about a person who lived a long time ago, but about our humanity here and now and through all time.

The literal interpretation of Genesis 2 says that only the first meaning above applies and 'ha-adam' refers only to a particular person who lived many thousands of years ago.

But scripture does not tell us which way to interpret 'ha-adam'. That is up to the reader to decide.

There is a ten generation gap between Adam and to the birth of Noah, 1100 years passed from between Adam and Noah according to popular calculations.

Age Son # Year of Death # Birth # Son # Death
________________________________________________________
Adam # 130 # 930 # 0 # 130 # 930
Seth #105 # 912 #130 # 235 # 1,042
Enosh # 90 # 905 # 235 # 325 # 1,140
Kenan #70 # 910 # 325 # 395 # 1,235
Mahalalel #65 # 895 # 395 # 460 # 1,290
Jared # 162 # 962 # 460 # 622 # 1,422
Enoch # 65 # 365 # 622 # 687 # 987
Methuselah #187 # 969 # 687 # 874 # 1,656
Lamech # 182 # 777 # 874 # 1,056 # 1,651
Noah # 500 # 950 # 1,056 # 1,556 # 2,006

The Flood 1,656

We find the ha-adam coming up again in the introduction to the flood in Genesis 6. Not only is it the word used in Gen 1-3, but it repeat the language of creation describing how God created ha-adam.
Gen 6:6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made man (ha-adam) on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
7 So the LORD said, "I will blot out man (ha-adam) whom I have created from the face of the land, man (ha-adam) and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them."
This is the language of creation from Genesis, God is talking about how he formed (asah) and created (bara) ha-adam. The problem is, the language of the creation of Adam is being used to describe how God would blot ha-adam out from the face of the land in the flood. But as you have pointed out, if we take the genealogies literally, ha-adam God created in Genesis 1&2 died before Noah was born.

What I find very interesting is the way the writer of Genesis 6 takes the creation of Adam in Genesis 2&3 and uses as a figurative picture of God creating the human race.