Genesis 9:8-11 - The Recipients of God’s Covenant with Noah (Part 2) - Who else was there?
As described in Genesis 9:8-11 - The Recipients of God’s Covenant with Noah, the recipients of God’s promise to never wipe out all people from a land are Noah and his descendants. This was not the first time God excluded most of the world from a covenant (Adamic covenant was only with Adam and his descendants, not the rest of the world). It would not be the last (The Mosaic covenant would only be with the descendants of Isaac). That said, God reserves the right to graft non-recipients into a covenant, hence making them recipients if He so chooses. Consider this passage from Romans 11…
17If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
This was spoken by Paul to the individuals within the church, each of who is grafted into the Olive Tree of Isaac and his descendants for their faith. Though it only speaks of the covenant of Moses, that covenant inherits all the preceding ones, the covenants of Adam, Noah, and Abraham. Therefore, God can does graft people who are not descendants of Adam, Noah, or Abraham into those covenants, if they are righteous, if they believe God and obey Him, in their heart.
Which people might these be? Let’s check out Wikipedia (not authoritative, but usually a good start for researching this kind of stuff), and see what it has to say. Keep in mind that Adam tilled the land, which places him somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago…
China
Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest hominids in China date from 250,000 to 2.24 million years ago. A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) has fossils dated at somewhere between 300,000 to 780,000 years. The fossils are of Peking Man, an example of Homo erectus who used fire.The earliest evidence of a fully modern human in China comes from Liujiang County, Guangxi, where a cranium has been found and dated at approximately 67,000 years old. Although much controversy persists over the dating of the Liujiang remains, a partial skeleton from Minatogawa in Okinawa, Japan has been dated to 16,600 to 18,250 years old, so modern humans probably reached China before that time. — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China
India
The Bhimbetka rock shelters (Devanagari: भीमबेटका पाषाण आश्रय) are an archaeological World Heritage site located in Raisen District in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The Bhimbetka shelters exhibit the earliest traces of human life in India; a number of analyses suggest that at least some of these shelters were inhabited by man for in excess of 100,000 years. Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old. — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhimbetka_rock_sheltersAfrica
According to the out-of-africa hypothesis, Adam’s ancestors would have migrated out of Africa. So, obviously they were around.Native Americans
Archaeologists contend that Paleo-Indians migration out of Beringia, ranges from 40,000 to around 16,500 years ago. This time range is a hot source of debate and will be for years to come. The few agreements achieved to date are the origin from Central Asia, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the last glacial period, or more specifically what is known as the late glacial maximum, around 16,000 — 13,000 years before present. — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_AmericasAustralia
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of the roughly 250 language groups. — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AustrliaMiddle East and Africa
According to some genetic and fossil evidence, archaic Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans solely in Africa, between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago, with members of one branch leaving Africa by 60,000 years ago and over time replacing earlier human populations such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus. The recent single origin of modern humans in East Africa is the near-consensus position held within the scientific community. However, recent sequencing of the full Neanderthal Genome suggests Neanderthals and some modern humans share some ancient genetic lineages. The authors of the study suggest that their findings are consistent with Neanderthal admixture of up to 4% in some populations. But the study also suggests that there may be other reasons why humans and Neanderthals share ancient genetic lineages. — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Africa_theory
And so it would seem that modern man, in his most recent form, came out of Africa and populated the world about 60,000 years ago, clearly before Adam. This means that as long as these peoples remained pure, without intermarrying with Adam’s, now Noah’s descendants, they were not technically recipients of either covenant. It sounds odd, and like something an exclusivist racist might say, but it means they were not intially created in God’s image through Adam*. This isn’t something to worry about however. Remember Romans 11? That passage is a reflection of God’s unchanging heart, not something new that He just thought of after Jesus died and rose. Therefore, I do not believe post-Christ Gentiles were the first people to be grafted into God’s promises!
*See first comment below for clarification
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:11 am
>> It sounds odd, and like something an exclusivist racist might say, but it means they were not initially created in God’s image. This isn’t something to worry about however.
I have to clarify this. Genesis 1 makes it clear that everyone above was created in God’s image. However, I had Genesis 2:7 in mind, which people generally think of as being when God created man in His image. My statement was meant to show the logical conclusion of conflating Genesis 2:7 with Genesis 1:27. However, I as I write about in http://www.geocreationism.com/2010/09/02/genesis-98-11-the-recipients-of-god%e2%80%99s-covenant-with-noah-part-3-the-others-were-in-gods-image-too/, these were two different events. First, the populations above were created in God’s image, then Adam from them.