BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
First generation: Hebrew years 1 to 120 (3760-3640 BCE)
Before Adam
We have learned from the previous document that the Hebrew years are counted from Adam, the man made by God and to whom he put a “living soul” (Genesis 2:7)). But this doesn’t mean that mankind started with Adam. In fact, to the contrary. The Biblical text gives us two narratives about the start of man: in Genesis 1, it is stated that God “created” both male and female at the same time on the 6th day, before Shabbat (the 7th day), and in Genesis 2 it is stated that God “made” a man out of the ground, thus not created ex-nihilo, and then placed him in the Garden of Eden. Only then, God formed Eve, a female companion for Adam, from one side of Adam (the usual translation of the Bible talks about a rib, but the Biblical text just mentions one side).
We can therefore conclude that mankind was created before God introduced the Shabbat, but this mankind was not the Adam that God would task to work His creation. This early mankind that populated the earth were, we can assume, the so-called prehistorical men. They were hunters-gatherers who lived in nomadic hunting encampments, following the herds of animals they needed to kill and eat to survive, but they were not able to do much about living from agriculture. The Biblical text even tells us so:
There was not a man to work the ground. (Genesis 2:7)
If Science tells us that prehistorical men appeared on earth around 200,000 years ago, then so be it. Note however that Science hasn’t fully found yet a sure link between Homo Sapiens and modern man. But these proto-men, or humanoids, were not the Adam mentioned to be formed in Genesis 2: this biblical Adam can be considered as the “modern-day man”.
Adam
After the creation of the universe and of the world, and of all living creatures on earth, including the prehistorical men, the man Adam was “made” (נעשה), from the earth, not “created” ex-nihilo. From this event, the Hebrew Calendar is started as year 1, month 1 (Hebrew month of Tishri), day 1 of that month. The Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah thus reminds us of the making of Adam. At this stage of His creation, it was time for God to complete it with a creature who will work the ground. This task fell upon Adam, our ancestor. He was placed in the Garden of Eden. hy put him in a special place? Probably as a mean to protect him from surrounding unworthy hunting mankind. Every food or substance was provided for him in this ideal place. Some time later, Eve was also “made”, from Adam.
But, as it also happened with other events in the Creation, free-will prevailed, and led to results that were not always seemingly, according, to the divine plan. Equally, from the very first generation, man erred. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and lost their divine protection. From then on, they were on their own to sustain themselves in life. One could think that it was the divine plan that Adam would be expelled from the Garden of Eden because he was formed to ultimately work the ground. We can say that the appearance of Adam was the trigger for mankind to start turning away from hunting.
The access to the Garden of Eden was forbidden and hidden from mankind. But, according to Jewish tradition, its secret entrance may be from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron:
God also decreed that he [Adam] should die. Taking pity on him, however, God allowed him when he died to be buried near the Garden of Eden. For Adam had made a cave near the Garden and had hidden himself there with his wife. He knew it was near the Garden because he saw a faint ray of light enter it from there, and therefore he desired to be buried in it; and there he was buried, close to the gate of the Garden of Eden. (Zohar, Genesis 57b)
So, the beginning of humanity, as we know it and as we count the Hebrew years, started with the making of Adam. It corresponds to the archaeological period called the Chalcolithic, after the Stone Age of early prehistorical men. In this new era, mankind started to work the ground and thus made the first tools out of copper. In the Chalcolithic period, mankind started to settle down and built first rudimentary habitations. They also made tools to use in agriculture as a mean to provide food to themselves, as mentioned in the Bible:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life. Also, it shall bring forth thorns and thistles to you; and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it were you taken; for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)
The scientific community reckons this Chalcolithic period to have ended around 3600 BCE when the next period, the Bronze Age, started.
Abel and Cain
Sedentarism also meant that mankind would stop being hunters. Instead, they domesticated smaller animals that could be farmed. Adam and his family lived at the time of such transition.
They had two first sons: Cain and Abel. But the two were quite different in character and this raised a suspicion among Jewish sages about the origin of Cain. For example, in the early work called Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer (dating from around the 1st or 2nd century CE, before the Talmud), it is mentioned that Adam did not father Cain, but a "fallen angel" did. And this would explain why Cain was particularly evil and so different from Abel and Seth, the two worthy sons of Adam:
Samael (an archangel linked to evil), perched on the serpent, came to her [Eve] and she conceived Cain. After which Adam came to her and she conceived Abel, as it is said: "Adam knew Eve his wife (Genesis 4:1).” What did he know? That she had been impregnated. (Pirke of Rabbi Eliezer, 21)
The reason for this thinking is in the Biblical text when Eve conceived Cain first:
And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain and said: “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:1)
Why would Eve say with the help of God if it wasn’t meant to say she conceived with the help of a divine messenger? After Cain she gave birth to Abel, and the Biblical text mentions the latter first, probably hinting to his true parenthood:
And again, she bore his brother, Abel. And Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a tiller of the grounds. (Genesis 4:2)
In the early sedentary settlements of the Chalcolithic period, mankind indeed used both activities to provide food to themselves: agriculture and breeding of small animals such as goats, lamb, cows, poultry and so on.
And at the end of some days, Cain brought from the fruits of the earth an offering to God. And Abel brought, he as well, from the firstlings of his flock, and from their best choice. And God turned to Abel and his offering. And, as for Cain and his offering, He didn’t. This annoyed Cain very much and his countenance fell. (Genesis 4:3-5)
Cain became jealous of Abel and killed him:
Cain said to his brother Abel. And it happened when they were in the field, Cain rose against his brother Abel and killed him. (Genesis 4:8)
The Biblical text doesn’t mention what Cain said to Abel: the text cuts short. Cain had nothing to say and just got rid of his brother by evil instinct. Cain coud not interpret correctly that the reason that God’s preference was not towards Abel, as a person, but towards Abel’s offering. In his mind, it was surely unfair because he, Cain, had done what God prescribed Adam to do, to till the ground and produce their mean of subsistence, while Abel was raising animals to procure skins for clothing and warming (Adam was not allowed to eat meat in these times, and this will be allowed to Noah after the Flood). In other words, Abel’s offering was not appropriate in the eyes of Cain, so God must have preferred Abel to him, and that why He chose Abel’s seemly inadequate offering. When he killed Abel, Cain had indeed nothing to say to him: his anger was in fact towards God.
As mentioned before, these events happened at a time of change in humanity, as they became sedentary, cultivating crops like Cain chose to do and raising small animals like Abel did.
The interesting part of this story is the use of produce for cultic purposes. Both brothers wanted to do an offering to God. When did mankind start to offer anything to an almighty? This was also a human revolution as the awareness of somebody “above”.
Archaeological digs in the Jordan Valley in Israel have found that the region was the seat of such human revolution (to read an article from 2017 on this topic, click here.). The findings are dated to be the Late Chalcolithic, which is assumed to have ended around 3500 BCE, in a time window when Abel and Cain lived. So, the text of the Bible fits with the timing of this human evolution, the use of produce from labour for cultic purpose. And the text mentions at the end of some days (Genesis 4:3), which infers that the time of the murder of Abel was around the passage of a milestone, most likely a change in human evolution. Indeed, the Late Chalcolithic era coincided with both the start of cultic practice, and a change into the Bronze Age as we will see it next.
So, Abel was murdered by his own brother. And after the murder came the lie:
God said to Cain: "Where is your brother Abel?" And he said: "I don’t know. Am I the keeper of my brother?" (Genesis 4:9)
Cain is then cursed to become a wanderer on earth, but nobody was allowed to kill him. He had to carry his guilt for the rest of his existence. To ensure all mankind would know this, God put a mark on Cain (Genesis 4:15).
The Biblical text tells us that he established himself further east from Eden, in a land called Nod (נוֹד). This Hebrew name means both drifter and exclusion, reflecting his “moral separation” from human society. Presumably he established himself in what was to become Mesopotamia, where he came across the first two large rivers that created a “physical separation" from the land he came from.
After the murder of Abel, Eve did not want to procreate any more. So, this first generation was largely left for Cain to populate the earth, and the Biblical text first mentions Cain’s descendants (Genesis 4:17-24).
The conflict between Cain and Abel has been deeply anchored in early civilizations. It is echoed as a morale story, quite popular around 2000 BCE (read a more complete article by clicking here), in Sumerian clay tablets which were appropriately titled the “Debate between sheep and grain” (check it on Wikipedia by clicking here.):
The people of those days did not know about eating bread. They did not know about wearing clothes; they went about with naked limbs in the land. Like sheep they ate grass with their mouths and drank water from the ditches. (Barton, George A., "Miscellaneous Babylonian inscriptions", Yale University Press, 1918, No.8 “A new Creation myth”, pp.54)
With the first murder recorded in the Bible, we reached the end of an era of hunters-gatherers and started a new era of sedentary settlements. We also enter a new period of timeline: the Bronze. In next chapter we will see how human societies developed from there.
To return to the list of Seder Olam Revisited articles, per "generation", click here.
Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Adar 5785 - March 2025