Reply #25: Not always. There is precedent for the Eve part. [View All]

While the "Adam" city would have grown organically ("from the Earth"...heh), there is evidence of the deliberate foundation of cities in early human societies. Once cities were established and food sources stabilized, populations had a tendency to grow. In the early world there was a LOT of empty space, and a number of human kingdoms dealt with this issue by recruiting settlers from the original city to leave and colonize a new city. In other words, city X has 5000 people and its resources can only support 5000, so we have 2000 (either by choice or order) travel to a new site and found a new city. This permitted population expansion, improved trade, and increased the wealth of everyone involved with both cities. Since increased wealth meant more taxes for the ruling class, it was beneficial for leaders to do this.

There's evidence for this type of expansionism in Sumeria, so it's entirely reasonable to postulate that it also occurred in the proto-semitic race that gave rise to everyone from the Arabs to the Sumerians and Jewish peoples. Interestingly, there is evidence that the proto-semitic homeland was on the Arabian peninsula, which dovetails nicely with the theory that "Eden" actually refers to a now lost river valley that once existed under the Persian Gulf. That wide and well-watered valley would have been the ideal place to found a new civilization, with fertile flat soil in the valley bottom surrounded by the shepherd paradise in the grasslands of the Arabian peninsula. The sea levels rose, "Eden" was lost beneath the sea, and the grasslands dried to the desert we see today.

The people of Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden :)

It's a theory that cannot be proven, but is entirely plausible given the history of the area and the known geological and climate conditions at the time these cultures first arose. The fact that the story of both Adam and Eve AND the great flood myth exist in numerous cultures around the region also indicates some kind of common history, and hints at a possible past event.