The Urantia Book
PAPER 74
Narrated by Solonia, the seraphic "voice in
the Garden."
74:0.1 ADAM AND EVE arrived on Urantia, from
the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago. It was in midseason when
the Garden was in the height of bloom that they arrived. At high
noon and unannounced, the two seraphic transports, accompanied
by the Jerusem personnel intrusted with the transportation of
the biologic uplifters to Urantia, settled slowly to the surface
of the revolving planet in the vicinity of the temple of the
Universal Father. All the work of rematerializing the bodies of
Adam and Eve was carried on within the precincts of this newly
created shrine. And from the time of their arrival ten days
passed before they were re-created in dual human form for
presentation as the world's new rulers. They regained
consciousness simultaneously. The Material Sons and Daughters
always serve together. It is the essence of their service at all
times and in all places never to be separated. They are designed
to work in pairs; seldom do they function alone.
1. ADAM AND EVE ON JERUSEM
74:1.1 The Planetary Adam and Eve of Urantia
were members of the senior corps of Material Sons on Jerusem,
being jointly number 14,311. They belonged to the third physical
series and were a little more than eight feet in height.
74:1.2 At the time Adam was chosen to come to
Urantia, he was employed, with his mate, in the
trial-and-testing physical laboratories of Jerusem. For more
than fifteen thousand years they had been directors of the
division of experimental energy as applied to the modification
of living forms. Long before this they had been teachers in the
citizenship schools for new arrivals on Jerusem. And all this
should be borne in mind in connection with the narration of
their subsequent conduct on Urantia.
74:1.3 When the proclamation was issued
calling for volunteers for the mission of Adamic adventure on
Urantia, the entire senior corps of Material Sons and Daughters
volunteered. The Melchizedek examiners, with the approval of
Lanaforge and the Most Highs of Edentia, finally selected the
Adam and Eve who subsequently came to function as the biologic
uplifters of Urantia.
74:1.4 Adam and Eve had remained loyal to
Michael during the Lucifer rebellion; nevertheless, the pair
were called before the System Sovereign and his entire cabinet
for examination and instruction. The details of Urantia affairs
were fully presented; they were exhaustively instructed as to
the plans to be pursued in accepting the responsibilities of
rulership on such a strife-torn world. They were put under joint
oaths of allegiance to the Most Highs of Edentia and to Michael
of Salvington. And they were duly advised to regard themselves
as subject to the Urantia corps of Melchizedek receivers until
that governing body should see fit to relinquish rule on the
world of their assignment.
74:1.5 This Jerusem pair left behind them on
the capital of Satania and elsewhere, one hundred offspring --
fifty sons and fifty daughters -- magnificent creatures who had
escaped the pitfalls of progression, and who were all in
commission as faithful stewards of universe trust at the time of
their parents' departure for Urantia. And they were all present
in the beautiful temple of the Material Sons attendant upon the
farewell exercises associated with the last ceremonies of the
bestowal acceptance. These children accompanied their parents to
the dematerialization headquarters of their order and were the
last to bid them farewell and divine speed as they fell asleep
in the personality lapse of consciousness which precedes the
preparation for seraphic transport. The children spent some time
together at the family rendezvous rejoicing that their parents
were soon to become the visible heads, in reality the sole
rulers, of planet 606 in the system of Satania.
74:1.6 And thus did Adam and Eve leave Jerusem
amidst the acclaim and well-wishing of its citizens. They went
forth to their new responsibilities adequately equipped and
fully instructed concerning every duty and danger to be
encountered on Urantia.
2. ARRIVAL OF ADAM AND EVE
74:2.1 Adam and Eve fell asleep on Jerusem,
and when they awakened in the Father's temple on Urantia in the
presence of the mighty throng assembled to welcome them, they
were face to face with two beings of whom they had heard much,
Van and his faithful associate Amadon. These two heroes of the
Caligastia secession were the first to welcome them in their new
garden home.
74:2.2 The tongue of Eden was an Andonic
dialect as spoken by Amadon. Van and Amadon had markedly
improved this language by creating a new alphabet of twenty-four
letters, and they had hoped to see it become the tongue of
Urantia as the Edenic culture would spread throughout the world.
Adam and Eve had fully mastered this human dialect before they
departed from Jerusem so that this son of Andon heard the
exalted ruler of his world address him in his own tongue.
74:2.3 And on that day there was great
excitement and joy throughout Eden as the runners went in great
haste to the rendezvous of the carrier pigeons assembled from
near and far, shouting: "Let loose the birds; let them carry the
word that the promised Son has come." Hundreds of believer
settlements had faithfully, year after year, kept up the supply
of these home-reared pigeons for just such an occasion.
74:2.4 As the news of Adam's arrival spread
abroad, thousands of the near-by tribesmen accepted the
teachings of Van and Amadon, while for months and months
pilgrims continued to pour into Eden to welcome Adam and Eve and
to do homage to their unseen Father.
74:2.5 Soon after their awakening, Adam and
Eve were escorted to the formal reception on the great mound to
the north of the temple. This natural hill had been enlarged and
made ready for the installation of the world's new rulers. Here,
at noon, the Urantia reception committee welcomed this Son and
Daughter of the system of Satania. Amadon was chairman of this
committee, which consisted of twelve members embracing a
representative of each of the six Sangik races; the acting chief
of the midwayers; Annan, a loyal daughter and spokesman for the
Nodites; Noah, the son of the architect and builder of the
Garden and executive of his deceased father's plans; and the two
resident Life Carriers.
74:2.6 The next act was the delivery of the
charge of planetary custody to Adam and Eve by the senior
Melchizedek, chief of the council of receivership on Urantia.
The Material Son and Daughter took the oath of allegiance to the
Most Highs of Norlatiadek and to Michael of Nebadon and were
proclaimed rulers of Urantia by Van, who thereby relinquished
the titular authority which for over one hundred and fifty
thousand years he had held by virtue of the action of the
Melchizedek receivers.
74:2.7 And Adam and Eve were invested with
kingly robes on this occasion, the time of their formal
induction into world rulership. Not all of the arts of Dalamatia
had been lost to the world; weaving was still practiced in the
days of Eden.
74:2.8 Then was heard the archangels'
proclamation, and the broadcast voice of Gabriel decreed the
second judgment roll call of Urantia and the resurrection of the
sleeping survivors of the second dispensation of grace and mercy
on 606 of Satania. The dispensation of the Prince has passed,
the age of Adam, the third planetary epoch, opens amidst scenes
of simple grandeur; and the new rulers of Urantia start their
reign under seemingly favorable conditions, notwithstanding the
world-wide confusion occasioned by lack of the co-operation of
their predecessor in authority on the planet.
3. ADAM AND EVE LEARN ABOUT THE PLANET
74:3.1 And now, after their formal
installation, Adam and Eve became painfully aware of their
planetary isolation. Silent were the familiar broadcasts, and
absent were all the circuits of extraplanetary communication.
Their Jerusem fellows had gone to worlds running along smoothly
with a well-established Planetary Prince and an experienced
staff ready to receive them and competent to co-operate with
them during their early experience on such worlds. But on
Urantia rebellion had changed everything. Here the Planetary
Prince was very much present, and though shorn of most of his
power to work evil, he was still able to make the task of Adam
and Eve difficult and to some extent hazardous. It was a serious
and disillusioned Son and Daughter of Jerusem who walked that
night through the Garden under the shining of the full moon,
discussing plans for the next day.
74:3.2 Thus ended the first day of Adam and
Eve on isolated Urantia, the confused planet of the Caligastia
betrayal; and they walked and talked far into the night, their
first night on earth -- and it was so lonely.
74:3.3 Adam's second day on earth was spent in
session with the planetary receivers and the advisory council.
From the Melchizedeks, and their associates, Adam and Eve
learned more about the details of the Caligastia rebellion and
the result of that upheaval upon the world's progress. And it
was, on the whole, a disheartening story, this long recital of
the mismanagement of world affairs. They learned all the facts
regarding the utter collapse of the Caligastia scheme for
accelerating the process of social evolution. They also arrived
at a full realization of the folly of attempting to achieve
planetary advancement independently of the divine plan of
progression. And thus ended a sad but enlightening day -- their
second on Urantia.
74:3.4 The third day was devoted to an
inspection of the Garden. From the large passenger birds -- the
fandors -- Adam and Eve looked down upon the vast stretches of
the Garden while being carried through the air over this, the
most beautiful spot on earth. This day of inspection ended with
an enormous banquet in honor of all who had labored to create
this garden of Edenic beauty and grandeur. And again, late into
the night of their third day, the Son and his mate walked in the
Garden and talked about the immensity of their problems.
74:3.5 On the fourth day Adam and Eve
addressed the Garden assembly. From the inaugural mount they
spoke to the people concerning their plans for the
rehabilitation of the world and outlined the methods whereby
they would seek to redeem the social culture of Urantia from the
low levels to which it had fallen as a result of sin and
rebellion. This was a great day, and it closed with a feast for
the council of men and women who had been selected to assume
responsibilities in the new administration of world affairs.
Take note! women as well as men were in this group, and that was
the first time such a thing had occurred on earth since the days
of Dalamatia. It was an astounding innovation to behold Eve, a
woman, sharing the honors and responsibilities of world affairs
with a man. And thus ended the fourth day on earth.
74:3.6 The fifth day was occupied with the
organization of the temporary government, the administration
which was to function until the Melchizedek receivers should
leave Urantia.
74:3.7 The sixth day was devoted to an
inspection of the numerous types of men and animals. Along the
walls eastward in Eden, Adam and Eve were escorted all day,
viewing the animal life of the planet and arriving at a better
understanding as to what must be done to bring order out of the
confusion of a world inhabited by such a variety of living
creatures.
74:3.8 It greatly surprised those who
accompanied Adam on this trip to observe how fully he understood
the nature and function of the thousands upon thousands of
animals shown him. The instant he glanced at an animal, he would
indicate its nature and behavior. Adam could give names
descriptive of the origin, nature, and function of all material
creatures on sight. Those who conducted him on this tour of
inspection did not know that the world's new ruler was one of
the most expert anatomists of all Satania; and Eve was equally
proficient. Adam amazed his associates by describing hosts of
living things too small to be seen by human eyes.
74:3.9 When the sixth day of their sojourn on
earth was over, Adam and Eve rested for the first time in their
new home in "the east of Eden." The first six days of the
Urantia adventure had been very busy, and they looked forward
with great pleasure to an entire day of freedom from all
activities.
74:3.10 But circumstances dictated otherwise.
The experience of the day just past in which Adam had so
intelligently and so exhaustively discussed the animal life of
Urantia, together with his masterly inaugural address and his
charming manner, had so won the hearts and overcome the
intellects of the Garden dwellers that they were not only
wholeheartedly disposed to accept the newly arrived Son and
Daughter of Jerusem as rulers, but the majority were about ready
to fall down and worship them as gods.
4. THE FIRST UPHEAVAL
74:4.1 That night, the night following the
sixth day, while Adam and Eve slumbered, strange things were
transpiring in the vicinity of the Father's temple in the
central sector of Eden. There, under the rays of the mellow
moon, hundreds of enthusiastic and excited men and women
listened for hours to the impassioned pleas of their leaders.
They meant well, but they simply could not understand the
simplicity of the fraternal and democratic manner of their new
rulers. And long before daybreak the new and temporary
administrators of world affairs reached a virtually unanimous
conclusion that Adam and his mate were altogether too modest and
unassuming. They decided that Divinity had descended to earth in
bodily form, that Adam and Eve were in reality gods or else so
near such an estate as to be worthy of reverent worship.
74:4.2 The amazing events of the first six
days of Adam and Eve on earth were entirely too much for the
unprepared minds of even the world's best men; their heads were
in a whirl; they were swept along with the proposal to bring the
noble pair up to the Father's temple at high noon in order that
everyone might bow down in respectful worship and prostrate
themselves in humble submission. And the Garden dwellers were
really sincere in all of this.
74:4.3 Van protested. Amadon was absent, being
in charge of the guard of honor which had remained behind with
Adam and Eve overnight. But Van's protest was swept aside. He
was told that he was likewise too modest, too unassuming; that
he was not far from a god himself, else how had he lived so long
on earth, and how had he brought about such a great event as the
advent of Adam? And as the excited Edenites were about to seize
him and carry him up to the mount for adoration, Van made his
way out through the throng and, being able to communicate with
the midwayers, sent their leader in great haste to Adam.
74:4.4 It was near the dawn of their seventh
day on earth that Adam and Eve heard the startling news of the
proposal of these well-meaning but misguided mortals; and then,
even while the passenger birds were swiftly winging to bring
them to the temple, the midwayers, being able to do such things,
transported Adam and Eve to the Father's temple. It was early on
the morning of this seventh day and from the mount of their so
recent reception that Adam held forth in explanation of the
orders of divine sonship and made clear to these earth minds
that only the Father and those whom he designates may be
worshiped. Adam made it plain that he would accept any honor and
receive all respect, but worship never!
74:4.5 It was a momentous day, and just before
noon, about the time of the arrival of the seraphic messenger
bearing the Jerusem acknowledgment of the installation of the
world's rulers, Adam and Eve, moving apart from the throng,
pointed to the Father's temple and said: "Go you now to the
material emblem of the Father's invisible presence and bow down
in worship of him who made us all and who keeps us living. And
let this act be the sincere pledge that you never will again be
tempted to worship anyone but God." They all did as Adam
directed. The Material Son and Daughter stood alone on the mount
with bowed heads while the people prostrated themselves about
the temple.
74:4.6 And this was the origin of the
Sabbath-day tradition. Always in Eden the seventh day was
devoted to the noontide assembly at the temple; long it was the
custom to devote this day to self-culture. The forenoon was
devoted to physical improvement, the noontime to spiritual
worship, the afternoon to mind culture, while the evening was
spent in social rejoicing. This was never the law in Eden, but
it was the custom as long as the Adamic administration held sway
on earth.
5. ADAM'S ADMINISTRATION
74:5.1 For almost seven years after Adam's
arrival the Melchizedek receivers remained on duty, but the time
finally came when they turned the administration of world
affairs over to Adam and returned to Jerusem.
74:5.2 The farewell of the receivers occupied
the whole of a day, and during the evening the individual
Melchizedeks gave Adam and Eve their parting advice and best
wishes. Adam had several times requested his advisers to remain
on earth with him, but always were these petitions denied. The
time had come when the Material Sons must assume full
responsibility for the conduct of world affairs. And so, at
midnight, the seraphic transports of Satania left the planet
with fourteen beings for Jerusem, the translation of Van and
Amadon occurring simultaneously with the departure of the twelve
Melchizedeks.
74:5.3 All went fairly well for a time on
Urantia, and it appeared that Adam would, eventually, be able to
develop some plan for promoting the gradual extension of the
Edenic civilization. Pursuant to the advice of the Melchizedeks,
he began to foster the arts of manufacture with the idea of
developing trade relations with the outside world. When Eden was
disrupted, there were over one hundred primitive manufacturing
plants in operation, and extensive trade relations with the
near-by tribes had been established.
74:5.4 For ages Adam and Eve had been
instructed in the technique of improving a world in readiness
for their specialized contributions to the advancement of
evolutionary civilization; but now they were face to face with
pressing problems, such as the establishment of law and order in
a world of savages, barbarians, and semicivilized human beings.
Aside from the cream of the earth's population, assembled in the
Garden, only a few groups, here and there, were at all ready for
the reception of the Adamic culture.
74:5.5
Adam made a heroic and determined
effort to establish a world government, but he met with stubborn
resistance at every turn. Adam had already put in operation a
system of group control throughout Eden and had federated all of
these companies into the Edenic league. But trouble, serious
trouble, ensued when he went outside the Garden and sought to
apply these ideas to the outlying tribes. The moment Adam's
associates began to work outside the Garden, they met the direct
and well-planned resistance of Caligastia and Daligastia. The
fallen Prince had been deposed as world ruler, but he had not
been removed from the planet. He was still present on earth and
able, at least to some extent, to resist all of Adam's plans for
the rehabilitation of human society. Adam tried to warn the
races against Caligastia, but the task was made very difficult
because his archenemy was invisible to the eyes of mortals.
74:5.6 Even among the Edenites there were
those confused minds that leaned toward the Caligastia teaching
of unbridled personal liberty; and they caused Adam no end of
trouble; always were they upsetting the best-laid plans for
orderly progression and substantial development. He was finally
compelled to withdraw his program for immediate socialization;
he fell back on Van's method of organization, dividing the
Edenites into companies of one hundred with captains over each
and with lieutenants in charge of groups of ten.
74:5.7 Adam and Eve had come to institute
representative government in the place of monarchial, but they
found no government worthy of the name on the face of the whole
earth. For the time being Adam abandoned all effort to establish
representative government, and before the collapse of the Edenic
regime he succeeded in establishing almost one hundred outlying
trade and social centers where strong individuals ruled in his
name. Most of these centers had been organized aforetime by Van
and Amadon.
74:5.8 The sending of ambassadors from one
tribe to another dates from the times of Adam. This was a great
forward step in the evolution of government.
6. HOME LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE
74:6.1 The Adamic family grounds embraced a
little over five square miles. Immediately surrounding this
homesite, provision had been made for the care of more than
three hundred thousand of the pure-line offspring. But only the
first unit of the projected buildings was ever constructed.
Before the size of the Adamic family outgrew these early
provisions, the whole Edenic plan had been disrupted and the
Garden vacated.
74:6.2 Adamson was the first-born of the
violet race of Urantia, being followed by his sister and Eveson,
the second son of Adam and Eve. Eve was the mother of five
children before the Melchizedeks left -- three sons and two
daughters. The next two were twins. She bore sixty-three
children, thirty-two daughters and thirty-one sons, before the
default. When Adam and Eve left the Garden, their family
consisted of four generations numbering 1,647 pure-line
descendants. They had forty-two children after leaving the
Garden besides the two offspring of joint parentage with the
mortal stock of earth. And this does not include the Adamic
parentage to the Nodite and evolutionary races.
74:6.3 The Adamic children did not take milk
from animals when they ceased to nurse the mother's breast at
one year of age. Eve had access to the milk of a great variety
of nuts and to the juices of many fruits, and knowing full well
the chemistry and energy of these foods, she suitably combined
them for the nourishment of her children until the appearance of
teeth.
74:6.4 While cooking was universally employed
outside of the immediate Adamic sector of Eden, there was no
cooking in Adam's household. They found their foods -- fruits,
nuts, and cereals -- ready prepared as they ripened. They ate
once a day, shortly after noontime. Adam and Eve also imbibed
"light and energy" direct from certain space emanations in
conjunction with the ministry of the tree of life.
74:6.5 The bodies of Adam and Eve gave forth a
shimmer of light, but they always wore clothing in conformity
with the custom of their associates. Though wearing very little
during the day, at eventide they donned night wraps. The origin
of the traditional halo encircling the heads of supposed pious
and holy men dates back to the days of Adam and Eve. Since the
light emanations of their bodies were so largely obscured by
clothing, only the radiating glow from their heads was
discernible. The descendants of Adamson always thus portrayed
their concept of individuals believed to be extraordinary in
spiritual development.
74:6.6 Adam and Eve could communicate with
each other and with their immediate children over a distance of
about fifty miles. This thought exchange was effected by means
of the delicate gas chambers located in close proximity to their
brain structures. By this mechanism they could send and receive
thought oscillations. But this power was instantly suspended
upon the mind's surrender to the discord and disruption of evil.
74:6.7 The Adamic children attended their own
schools until they were sixteen, the younger being taught by the
elder. The little folks changed activities every thirty minutes,
the older every hour. And it was certainly a new sight on
Urantia to observe these children of Adam and Eve at play,
joyous and exhilarating activity just for the sheer fun of it.
The play and humor of the present-day races are largely derived
from the Adamic stock. The Adamites all had a great appreciation
of music as well as a keen sense of humor.
74:6.8 The average age of betrothal was
eighteen, and these youths then entered upon a two years' course
of instruction in preparation for the assumption of marital
responsibilities. At twenty they were eligible for marriage; and
after marriage they began their lifework or entered upon special
preparation therefor.
74:6.9 The practice of some subsequent nations
of permitting the royal families, supposedly descended from the
gods, to marry brother to sister, dates from the traditions of
the Adamic offspring -- mating, as they must needs, with one
another. The marriage ceremonies of the first and second
generations of the Garden were always performed by Adam and Eve.
7. LIFE IN THE GARDEN
74:7.1 The children of Adam, except for four
years' attendance at the western schools, lived and worked in
the "east of Eden." They were trained intellectually until they
were sixteen in accordance with the methods of the Jerusem
schools. From sixteen to twenty they were taught in the Urantia
schools at the other end of the Garden, serving there also as
teachers in the lower grades.
74:7.2 The entire purpose of the western
school system of the Garden was socialization. The
forenoon periods of recess were devoted to practical
horticulture and agriculture, the afternoon periods to
competitive play. The evenings were employed in social
intercourse and the cultivation of personal friendships.
Religious and sexual training were regarded as the province of
the home, the duty of parents.
74:7.3 The teaching in these schools included
instruction regarding:
1. Health and the care of the body.
2. The golden rule, the standard of
social intercourse.
3. The relation of individual rights
to group rights and community obligations.
4. History and culture of the
various earth races.
5. Methods of advancing and
improving world trade.
6. Co-ordination of conflicting
duties and emotions.
7. The cultivation of play, humor,
and competitive substitutes for physical fighting.
74:7.4 The schools, in fact every activity of
the Garden, were always open to visitors. Unarmed observers were
freely admitted to Eden for short visits. To sojourn in the
Garden a Urantian had to be "adopted." He received instructions
in the plan and purpose of the Adamic bestowal, signified his
intention to adhere to this mission, and then made declaration
of loyalty to the social rule of Adam and the spiritual
sovereignty of the Universal Father.
74:7.5 The laws of the Garden were based on
the older codes of Dalamatia and were promulgated under seven
heads:
1. The laws of health and
sanitation.
2. The social regulations of the
Garden.
3. The code of trade and commerce.
4. The laws of fair play and
competition.
5. The laws of home life.
6. The civil codes of the golden
rule.
7. The seven commands of supreme
moral rule.
74:7.6 The moral law of Eden was little
different from the seven commandments of Dalamatia. But the
Adamites taught many additional reasons for these commands; for
instance, regarding the injunction against murder, the
indwelling of the Thought Adjuster was presented as an
additional reason for not destroying human life. They taught
that "whoso sheds man's blood by man shall his blood be shed,
for in the image of God made he man."
74:7.7 The public worship hour of Eden was
noon; sunset was the hour of family worship. Adam did his best
to discourage the use of set prayers, teaching that effective
prayer must be wholly individual, that it must be the "desire of
the soul"; but the Edenites continued to use the prayers and
forms handed down from the times of Dalamatia. Adam also
endeavored to substitute the offerings of the fruit of the land
for the blood sacrifices in the religious ceremonies but had
made little progress before the disruption of the Garden.
74:7.8 Adam endeavored to teach the races sex
equality. The way Eve worked by the side of her husband made a
profound impression upon all dwellers in the Garden. Adam
definitely taught them that the woman, equally with the man,
contributes those life factors which unite to form a new being.
Theretofore, mankind had presumed that all procreation resided
in the "loins of the father." They had looked upon the mother as
being merely a provision for nurturing the unborn and nursing
the newborn.
74:7.9 Adam taught his contemporaries all they
could comprehend, but that was not very much, comparatively
speaking. Nevertheless, the more intelligent of the races of
earth looked forward eagerly to the time when they would be
permitted to intermarry with the superior children of the violet
race. And what a different world Urantia would have become if
this great plan of uplifting the races had been carried out!
Even as it was, tremendous gains resulted from the small amount
of the blood of this imported race which the evolutionary
peoples incidentally secured.
74:7.10 And thus did Adam work for the welfare
and uplift of the world of his sojourn. But it was a difficult
task to lead these mixed and mongrel peoples in the better way.
8. THE LEGEND OF CREATION
74:8.1 The story of the creation of Urantia in
six days was based on the tradition that Adam and Eve had spent
just six days in their initial survey of the Garden. This
circumstance lent almost sacred sanction to the time period of
the week, which had been originally introduced by the
Dalamatians. Adam's spending six days inspecting the Garden and
formulating preliminary plans for organization was not
prearranged; it was worked out from day to day. The choosing of
the seventh day for worship was wholly incidental to the facts
herewith narrated.
74:8.2 The legend of the making of the world
in six days was an afterthought, in fact, more than thirty
thousand years afterwards. One feature of the narrative, the
sudden appearance of the sun and moon, may have taken origin in
the traditions of the onetime sudden emergence of the world from
a dense space cloud of minute matter which had long obscured
both sun and moon.
74:8.3 The story of creating Eve out of Adam's
rib is a confused condensation of the Adamic arrival and the
celestial surgery connected with the interchange of living
substances associated with the coming of the corporeal staff of
the Planetary Prince more than four hundred and fifty thousand
years previously.
74:8.4 The majority of the world's peoples
have been influenced by the tradition that Adam and Eve had
physical forms created for them upon their arrival on Urantia.
The belief in man's having been created from clay was well-nigh
universal in the Eastern Hemisphere; this tradition can be
traced from the Philippine Islands around the world to Africa.
And many groups accepted this story of man's clay origin by some
form of special creation in the place of the earlier beliefs in
progressive creation -- evolution.
74:8.5 Away from the influences of Dalamatia
and Eden, mankind tended toward the belief in the gradual ascent
of the human race. The fact of evolution is not a modern
discovery; the ancients understood the slow and evolutionary
character of human progress. The early Greeks had clear ideas of
this despite their proximity to Mesopotamia. Although the
various races of earth became sadly mixed up in their notions of
evolution, nevertheless, many of the primitive tribes believed
and taught that they were the descendants of various animals.
Primitive peoples made a practice of selecting for their
"totems" the animals of their supposed ancestry. Certain North
American Indian tribes believed they originated from beavers and
coyotes. Certain African tribes teach that they are descended
from the hyena, a Malay tribe from the lemur, a New Guinea group
from the parrot.
74:8.6 The Babylonians, because of immediate
contact with the remnants of the civilization of the Adamites,
enlarged and embellished the story of man's creation; they
taught that he had descended directly from the gods. They held
to an aristocratic origin for the race which was incompatible
with even the doctrine of creation out of clay.
74:8.7 The Old Testament account of creation
dates from long after the time of Moses; he never taught the
Hebrews such a distorted story. But he did present a simple and
condensed narrative of creation to the Israelites, hoping
thereby to augment his appeal to worship the Creator, the
Universal Father, whom he called the Lord God of Israel.
74:8.8 In his early teachings, Moses very
wisely did not attempt to go back of Adam's time, and since
Moses was the supreme teacher of the Hebrews, the stories of
Adam became intimately associated with those of creation. That
the earlier traditions recognized pre-Adamic civilization is
clearly shown by the fact that later editors, intending to
eradicate all reference to human affairs before Adam's time,
neglected to remove the telltale reference to Cain's emigration
to the "land of Nod," where he took himself a wife.
74:8.9 The Hebrews had no written language in
general usage for a long time after they reached Palestine. They
learned the use of an alphabet from the neighboring Philistines,
who were political refugees from the higher civilization of
Crete. The Hebrews did little writing until about 900 B.C., and
having no written language until such a late date, they had
several different stories of creation in circulation, but after
the Babylonian captivity they inclined more toward accepting a
modified Mesopotamian version.
74:8.10 Jewish tradition became crystallized
about Moses, and because he endeavored to trace the lineage of
Abraham back to Adam, the Jews assumed that Adam was the first
of all mankind. Yahweh was the creator, and since Adam was
supposed to be the first man, he must have made the world just
prior to making Adam. And then the tradition of Adam's six days
got woven into the story, with the result that almost a thousand
years after Moses' sojourn on earth the tradition of creation in
six days was written out and subsequently credited to him.
74:8.11 When the Jewish priests returned to
Jerusalem, they had already completed the writing of their
narrative of the beginning of things. Soon they made claims that
this recital was a recently discovered story of creation written
by Moses. But the contemporary Hebrews of around 500 B.C. did
not consider these writings to be divine revelations; they
looked upon them much as later peoples regard mythological
narratives.
74:8.12 This spurious document, reputed to be
the teachings of Moses, was brought to the attention of Ptolemy,
the Greek king of Egypt, who had it translated into Greek by a
commission of seventy scholars for his new library at
Alexandria. And so this account found its place among those
writings which subsequently became a part of the later
collections of the "sacred scriptures" of the Hebrew and
Christian religions. And through identification with these
theological systems, such concepts for a long time profoundly
influenced the philosophy of many Occidental peoples.
74:8.13 The Christian teachers perpetuated the
belief in the fiat creation of the human race, and all this led
directly to the formation of the hypothesis of a onetime golden
age of utopian bliss and the theory of the fall of man or
superman which accounted for the nonutopian condition of
society. These outlooks on life and man's place in the universe
were at best discouraging since they were predicated upon a
belief in retrogression rather than progression, as well as
implying a vengeful Deity, who had vented wrath upon the human
race in retribution for the errors of certain onetime planetary
administrators.
74:8.14 The "golden age" is a myth, but Eden
was a fact, and the Garden civilization was actually overthrown.
Adam and Eve carried on in the Garden for one hundred and
seventeen years when, through the impatience of Eve and the
errors of judgment of Adam, they presumed to turn aside from the
ordained way, speedily bringing disaster upon themselves and
ruinous retardation upon the developmental progression of all
Urantia.
74:8.15
Narrated by Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden."
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