David Gould

Adimo seems to be the name of the first man in Hindu legend.

<a href="http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volezour.htm" target="_blank">http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volezour.htm</a>

David Gould

Heva - "Name for the first woman found in a book by Ramutsariar, a source that reportedly predates the Hebrew scriptures by about two thousand years."

<a href="http://209.238.146.143/i.htm" target="_blank">http://209.238.146.143/i.htm</a>

not too sure what this site is but at least it gives a reference for the claim

edited to add: this seems to be crap as well. Maybe the first one is the only one that fits. Ah, well. Nice theory....

[ May 27, 2002: Message edited by: David Gould ]</p>

David Gould

As I am not too sure of the legends surrounding Ham et cetera I will not go any further than this for the moment.

However, the two names by themselves of the first man and the first woman appear too similar to be coincidence.

Either the Hindu texts are based on the Jewish or the Jewish are based on the Hindu. These seem to be the only two conclusions possible.

(unless of course the names themselve mean 'first man' and 'first woman', in Hindu and in Hebrew, the only link being the common development of language.)

In that case, it would be necessary to go further.

David Gould

<a href="http://www.indiadivine.com/bhavishya-purana1-y.htm" target="_blank">http://www.indiadivine.com/bhavishya-purana1-y.htm</a>

Again, not too sure about the credibility or otherwise of this site but is even has a Nyuha who's middle son is named Hama.

Of course, it could just be trying to match the Hindu stuff with the Bible by making names up.

Edited to add: it looks like a load of crap but that's just me.

[ May 27, 2002: Message edited by: David Gould ]</p>

Ierrellus

The Encyclopedia Judaica contains quite a few creation stories now considered by Bible scholars to be pseudepigraphic. Did Adam have a first wife named Lilith? Was Adam hermaphroditic?

The tales of Enoch relate the nasties between the sons of heaven and daughters of earth and the Faustian concept of the Fall. In the late 80's, I read a translation of the book of Enoch--much fun; but the edition was put out by Claire Prophet, who is a modern day cultist.


Ierrellus

Toto

Maybe Hinduwoman can help here?

The Hindu legends would have been written in Sanskrit, an Indo-European language. Hebrew is a Semitic language, and any relation is too remote for linguists to trace.

But one thing I do know about Indian legends - there is a definite tendency to absorb legends and knowledge from other sources, and then dress them up as ancient lore. Jesus has been absorbed into Indian history, so why not Adam, Eve, Noah, and his sons?

Bruce Wildish

This is pretty basic biblical scholarship. Any good commentary on Genesis should contain something on the problems regarding the text of Genesi 6:1-4. A good text on the book of Jubilees will also discuss the relationship between Jubilees and Genesis-Exodus. Essentially Jubilees represents a parallel telling of the "history" in Genesis 1 through Exodus 14 and contains many story elements not found in the biblical version. Also, books like Sirach (a writer in Jerualaem around 180 BCE) make it clear that his version of Genesis was different from our own in numerous respects (e.g. the Enoch material was much more extensive, the chronologies were different, and his Adam was a hero figure, not the source of the fall of man).

Jayhawker Soule

I'm still at the level of asking pretty basic questions. Hope that's OK ...

Atticus_Finch

Maybe the Hindu and Hebrew traditions are similar because they are each remembering people who actually lived by those names. Wouldn't that make sense?

Regards,

Finch