FYI - Ancient Jewish writings stated that there were exactly 22 kinds, and listed them. Back in my "How many kinds are there?" thread (http://
EvC Forum: How many Kinds are there? -->
EvC Forum: How many Kinds are there?)I wrote:
I found this in a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, from 4Q216 Col. 4-7 (pg. 321 in Wise & Abegg “The Dead Sea Scrolls”), which has:
In all there were 22 kinds. He finished all his works on the 6th day, everything that was in the heavens, on the earth, in the seas, in the depths, in the light, and in the darkness, in every place.
Wow, 22 kinds! Now we know.
Here is the list, which contains both living and non-living things:
OK, here is the breakdown given in the Dead Sea Scrolls - if you read Gen 1:1-31, you’ll see that it matches the Genesis account very closely.
Day # # Kinds made that day List of the Kinds made on given day
1 7? Several kinds of Heavenly spirits that make rain, snow, etc. ?
2 1? The Firmament?
3 4 1. Plants that make seeds, 2. sprouting plants, 3. fruiting plants, 4. forests
4 3 1. Sun, 2. Moon, and 3. Stars
5 3 1. Sea monsters, 2. Fish and swarming ocean life?, 3. Birds
6 4 1. Humans, 2. Land animals?, 3. Things that creep on the land?, 4. Cattle
Total 22 DSS are clear that the total is 22
There are several places where the text is unclear or simply missing. I’ve indicated this with question marks.
My summary of the effects of this list is:
The reason I asked is because an examination of the kinds can provide evidence as to whether this is of divine origin or of human origin. If it is of human origin, one would expect that the groups to fit a bronze age worldview, with only very general similarities being used, without knowledge of the detailed scientific findings since the Enlightenment. Categories could be expected to overlap because of this lack of knowledge. By this, one would expect the kinds to be very biased toward what a bronze age warrior can see.
On the other hand, if this is divinely inspired, one could expect that the classification will be far in advance of what a bronze age warrior would otherwise guess. For instance, it might be pointed out that There is more than one kind of worm (entire phyla), while all vertebrates are a single kind (phylum level).
I hope everyone knows better than to use the “people back then could only understand dumbed down science” approach. People back then had the same brains we do, and were just as smart. They were ignorant, but that’s easy to fix with knowledge. Hindus for instance had already postulated a universe billions of years old, and the intricacies of language show that ancient Jewish people weren’t stupid. Because of this, simply telling them the correct answer would have worked well.
The upshot is that the list found in the DSS, just like the Genesis account itself which it closely matches, shows all the hallmarks of a bronze age human account, and is filled with scientific errors. For instance, nearly all phyla are hardly mentioned - such as sponges, nematodes, all prokaryotes and archaea, etc. All animal phyla but one (chordates) are lumped into “things that swarm in the water” and “land creepers”. Plants are very crudely classified apparently by reproductive method (except “forests”), with many plants falling into most of the categories simultaneously (many make forests, make fruit, have seeds, and sprouts). Where would all the mosses, ferns and the whole fungi kingdom go? Vertebrates, on the other hand, which bronze age warriors would be most familiar with, are spread over a half-dozen kinds (5.5 of the 7 animal kinds are vertebrates). Lastly, mythical creatures are included, such as sea monsters (or do they mean whales?) and weather spirits - as well as including non-living things, and not knowing that the sun is an ordinary star (just closer).
All this shows that this creation account (Gen+DSS) has a human origin, and that attributing it to God is simple blasphemy.
Have a good day everyone-
Equinox