Without you all, there is no future to Judaism the ethno-religion in this archaeology informed world, beyond a few hundred families living the past (in a rather modern way) in the present.
When I say “you all,” I mean every Orthodox to Humanistic Jew – theistic to non-theistic – that embraces the whole of Jewish history, literature (includes some aspect of liturgy), and language (includes shared beliefs, whether religious or secular).
The purpose of origin myths in “biblical”-type literature (beyond revealing the nature of people) is to justify the national (continued) existence of a people. In this case, that of Judea-Israel in its grandeur theistic-to-non-theistic forms. And, of course, this nation’s indigenous right to YHWH god’s portion of the land – in ancient times (to modern), portrayed as a living vassal property that is governed by a divine vassal treaty with said divine owner of the land, ancient Judea-Israel in the Levant.
Why is it portrayed by modern religious and secular folk as a “mystery” that people existed outside of Adam and Eve’s land? Meaning, why is it a mystery that mythical Cain was able to find other people outside of YHWH’s portion of the land? Let’s explore, shall we?:
The Six Day myth of creation is deliberately kept separate from the Gan Eyden myth of creation for a reason – to allow for this. First the land and humans (in general), male and female together, is created out of already existent chaotic formless matter (1st creation story). Then, YHWH takes a Shabbat from “his” labor. Then, in parallel to the first creation story, a human is created to work the garden that is planted in YHWH’s land (2nd creation story), a mythical human that would be split into the Adam and Eve progenitors of the Levant peoples. Thus, when Cain murders his brother and is marked for exile and separation from his god’s land, he very prosperously creates both a family lineage and city through intermarriage with non-Levantine people.
The concept that all humans are descended from mythical Adam and Eve only becomes mythical reality *after* the great Flood myth. Remember, Torah is meant to be read one story after another. The first two are sequencial (in parallel), describing two different creation events. The rest of the myths are interwoven blendings of different versions of the same myth (hence, the repetitious length and contradictions).
According to our Jewish take on this myth, all peoples after the flood are descended from Adam and Eve through *Noah’s family*, not Adam and Eve directly. Why do modern people add to the text what is not there? Read it as intended!
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