Palinurus
The Living Force
From: _http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/4561/Wetenschap/article/detail/3655676/2014/05/15/Nederlanders-ontdekken-oudste-Adam-en-Eva-verhaal.dhtml
microsoft translator said:Dutch Discover oldest Adam and Eve-story
By: Jan Kas
May 15, 2014, 15: 38
Apple is missing in 'myth of Adam' from 13th century BC
The fall on a painting by Lucas Cranach the elder (1533) © Kos
Two Dutch theologians claim to have discovered the oldest story about the first humans, Adam and Eve, on clay tablets from Syria. The find sheds a new light on the creation story of the Bible, according to the Protestant theological University in Kampen and Groningen. An important difference between the two versions is the role of the snake, which in the Bible offers Eve an apple, but on the clay tablets bites Adam and robs him of his immortality.
Old testamentical scolar Marjo Korpel of the Protestant theological University and emeritus professor Johannes de Moor are sure to have discovered the 'myth of Adam' on so-called Ugaritic clay tablets, dating back to the 13th century BC. Korpel and De Moor will present their world premier tomorrow in Kampen.
Bible researchers have always assumed that there must have existed a 'myth of Adam' on which passages in the Bible about Adam and Eve are based. And now for the first time there also are tangible traces.
Vineyard of the great gods
In the Ugaritic myth of the great gods the biblical paradise is 'the vineyard'. Adam and his wife are among the gods who have access to the tree of life. An evil deity, Horon, wants to usurp the place of Creator God El, the highest god in the Canaanite gods world. El punishes him for this by throwing him off the mountain of the gods. In revenge Horon transforms himself into a giant snake who poisons the tree of life, which makes that all life on Earth is threatened.
The gods fear to lose their immortality and therefore give to someone from their midst, Adam, the power over the whole earth, with the intention of defeating Horon. Adam fails miserably, the snake buries his fangs in his flesh and Adam becomes a mortal being. The sun goddess offers humanity a consolation prize, though: via reproduction will man as a species yet remain eternal. To achieve this, she provides Adam with a 'benign female consort'.