was adam a neanderthal?

Question

if the judao-christian idea that the first man, adam, gave names to all animals, what type of animals, prehistoric or modern, could he have named.

Answer 1

Only if you think God was. It says in the bible: "Then God said 'Let Us(meaning Him and His Son Jesus) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" Genisis 1:26 We are made in God's image. I believe that Adam named all the genaric animals like "dog" and "cat" and "bird". Later on the names were difined into scientific classes by researchers.

Answer 2

The word "ADAM" is Hebrew for "man." I'm not sure the original transcribers of Genesis intended for the persona of Adam in the creation mythology to be a representation of a specific historical or prehistorical person. His very name seems designed to suggest that Adam is an archtypical man.



As to Neanderthals, they almost certainly would have named animals. Their modern-style Hyoid bone suggests they almost certainly had language. In fact, from their larger-than-ours brain size and broca's brain area, speech would have come much sooner than with neanderthals. Some rudimentary language probably goes back as far as Erectus - their boatmaking skills would almost surely have required language of some sort.

Answer 3

"Adam" is a character in two Hebrew creation myths. The traditional Abrahamic view, i.e., Jewish, Christian and Muslim, is that Adam and Eve were created by God in our current form. Evolutionary science, however, has revealed the various stages preceding homo sapiens (us). Neanderthals (the word "Neanderthal" comes from the Neander region in what is now Germany; "thal" meaning "valley") are considered by many scientists to be a separate hominid species having briefly co-existed with homo sapiens.* The debate rages on.