BIBLICAL RESEARCHHarvest SheafBIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Adam and offspring as Farmers,
a Key to Understanding Genesis !

Biblical Adam and Eve were put "into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" as farmers and they and their descendents were farmers after they were removed from the Garden, they were not hunter/gatherers, as indicated by Biblical Research and Biblical Archaeology.
"2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden;
and there he put the man ...
2:9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree
that is pleasant to the sight,
and good for food; ...
3:17 ... cursed is the ground for thy sake;
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ...
3:18 ... and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, ...
3:23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden,
to till the ground ...
4:2 And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground."

"The great majority of the cultivated plants of the world trace their origin to Asia. Out of 640 important cultivated plants, about 500 originated in Southern Asia. In Asia alone we have established five of the principle regions of cultivated plants.... The fifth region of origin in Asia is the Southwestern Asiatic centre and includes Asia Minor, Trans-Caucasia, Iran and Western Turkmenistan. This region is remarkable, first of all, for its richness in numbers of species of wheat resistant to different diseases...There is no doubt that Armenia is the chief home of cultivated wheat. Asia Minor and Trans-Caucasia gave origin to rye which is represented here by a great number of varieties and species....

Our studies show definitely that Asia is not only the home of the majority of modern cultivated plants, but also of our chief domesticated animals such as the cow, the yak, the buffalo, sheep, goat, horse, and pig...The chief home of the cow and other cattle, the Oriental type of horse, the goat and the sheep is specifically Iran....

As the result of a brilliant work of Dr. Sinskaya, the discovery was recently made that the home of alfalfa, the world's most important forage crop, is located in Trans-Caucasia and Iran....

From all these definitely established facts the importance of Asia as the primary home of the greatest majority of cultivated plants and domesticated animals is quite clear."

(Vavilov, N. , "Asia: Source of Species" in Asia, February 1937, p. 113. )

5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying,
This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands,
because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
8:21 ... I will not again curse the ground for man's sake: ...
... neither will I again smite any more every thing living, ...
8:22 ... While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, ... shall not cease.
9:20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east,
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

More recent studies conducted by Melinda A Zeder and Brian Hesse (Science 287 (2000) 2254-57) place the initial domestication of goats to the Zargos Mountains at about 10,000 years ago. And Manfred Heun's (Science 278 (1997) 1312-14) studies indicate that large scale wheat cultivation began from 8,000 to 9,000 years ago near the Karacadag Mountains. Both areas are very near where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers come close together.

"The cradle of agriculture generally has been placed in the Jordan Valley of the southern Levant (today's Israel and Jordan). But work by Simcha Lev-Yadun of Israel's Agricultural Research Organization and colleagues suggest the first farms may have been farther north, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today northeastern Turkey and northern Syria.

Wild progenitors of the main Neolithic founder crops (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax) are found together only in this small core area of the Fertile Crescent.

Lev-Yadun reports that wild chickpea especially is extremely rare, yet it was a staple crop of Neolithic life 10,000 years ago. Agriculture, therefore, probably began in an area where chickpea is native. Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest known farming settlements of the Fertile Crescent were in this core area. Also, the limited genetic variability of these crops implies that they were domesticated only once — rather than by several different cultures at roughly the same time. Evidence of domesticated crops in the core area dates to about 10,000 years ago, while the earliest signs of farming elsewhere are about 9,300 years ago.

Neolithic sites discovered in the core area indicate that a society with plenty of food thrived there. In sites such as Cayonu, Novali Cori, and Gobekli Tepe, impressive architecture, images, and artifacts have been found. Settlement sites are also larger in this area than many others of the same time in other parts of the Fertile Crescent. ..." (From "The Cradle of Agriculture? New Evidence Moves the World's First Farmers into Turkey" by Reagan Duplisea, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/ articles/ 060100-turkeyfarm.shtml)

"A family tree of Indo-European languages suggests they began to spread and split about 9,000 years ago. The finding hints that farmers in what is now Turkey drove the language boom - and not later Siberian horsemen, as some linguists reckon. ... Around this time, farming techniques began to spread out of Anatolia - now Turkey - across Europe and Asia, archaeological evidence shows." (From "Language tree rooted in Turkey" by John Whitfield, http://www.nature.com/ nsu/nsu_pf/ 031124/ 031124-6.html) (more)

"It is known that agriculture spread from the Middle East to Europe during the Neolithic period about 12,000 years ago, but for many years archeologists have debated how this occurred. Was it due to the movement of people or to the movement of ideas? Previous genetic analysis of people living today suggests a migration - that the people moved - but critics have questioned this view. The latest study reinforces evidence of a migration in which people brought their ideas and lifestyle with them."(from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases /2002/09/ 020911072622.htm)

Urartu

CONCLUSION:

2:5 "and there was not a man to till the ground." (KJV)
and a paraphrase
"and there were no farmers."

Biblical Adam and Eve were put "into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" as farmers and they and their descendents were farmers after they were removed from the Garden, they were not hunter/gatherers!

P.S. Where would one look to find the closest relatives to the people of Israel in full accord with the Genesis record ? "In the article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of Israel wrote that this new study revealed that Jews have a closer genetic relationship to populations in the northern Mediterranean (Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations in the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins)." (from http://www.barzan.com/ kevin_brook.htm)


Appendix A

And the tradition continues!

"Since Israel attained its independence (May 14, 1948), the total area under cultivation has increased from 408,000 acres (165,000 ha.) to some 1.07 million acres (435,000 ha.), and the number of agricultural communities has grown from 400 to 725. During the same period, agricultural production has expanded 16-fold, more than three times the population growth."

"Israel's Agricultural Exports: Total: $590 million"

"Agricultural projects and research collaboration constitute about half of all Israel's international co-operation programs. Emphasis is placed on training courses in agricultural subjects, with some 1,400 participants from over 80 countries attending specialised farming courses in Israel every year. In 1994 alone over 3,000 trainees received on-the-spot training in their own countries. Since 1958, thousands of Israeli agricultural experts have been sent abroad on long- and short-term assignments." (from http://www.israel-embassy.org.uk/ web/pages/ agrisrel.htm, "Agriculture in Israel")

As the prophet Amos wrote about 750 B.C.

"And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them:
and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof;
They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And I will plant them upon their land, ..."

Amos 9:14-15 (KJV)


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Biblical Adam and Eve in and after the Garden of Eden were farmers, not hunter/gatherers as indicated by Biblical Research and Biblical Archaeology.
Biblical archaeology and Biblical research indicates Farming is a key to understanding the Genesis of the Human Species, Adam and Eve and their offspring as farmers. Biblical Archaeology Biblical research farming farmers agriculture Adam and Eve as farmers
Biblical Archaeology Biblical research farmers farming agriculture Adam and Eve as farmers
Biblical archaeology and Biblical research indicates Farming is a key to understanding the Genesis of the Human Species, Adam and Eve and their offspring as farmers. Biblical Archaeology Biblical research farming farmers agriculture Adam and Eve as farmers
Biblical Archaeology Biblical research farmers farming agriculture Adam and Eve as farmers
Biblical archaeology and Biblical research indicates Farming is a key to understanding the Genesis of the Human Species, Adam and Eve and their offspring as farmers. Biblical Archaeology Biblical research farming farmers agriculture Adam and Eve as farmers
Biblical Archaeology Biblical research farmers farming agriculture Adam and Eve as farmers