Lost Civilizations: Exploring the World Before Adam

In the opening lines of Genesis, the Torah recalls the creation of the heavens, the earth, and ultimately, humankind. Unless you count the darkness (חשך) and disorder (תהו), the prevailing assumption is that nothing existed before our arrival. But, is that all there is to the story?

If we look closely, we'll find hints in the poetic text of Genesis that reveal something existed¹. What if there is more?

In this article, we'll look at a fascinating tradition and its intersection with various cultures through time.

974 Generations

Through a careful reading of the texts, the Sages discovered hints that opened the doors to the past. As it turns out, there is an untold story here, suggesting that something or someone may have existed before humanity.

In one of these passages, Deuteronomy 7:9, G_D promised to keep the covenant “for a thousand generations.” Though when the Torah was given at Sinai, only twenty-six generations had passed since Adam. By this count, 974 generations are unaccounted for. In another Midrash, Rabbi Abahu tells us that the Creator "continuously created worlds and destroyed them," until he was pleased with the outcome. (Genesis Rabbah 3:7)

In Jewish thought, two primary camps emerge on these earlier generations: 1) those who maintain that these generations were never fully created in the physical sense, that they were a sort of thought experiment, and 2) those who believe these generations were created and were intentionally destroyed.

Though there might be some middle ground, for now, we'll track with the latter group.

Lost Civilizations

The short version of the story is that these earlier generations, for the most part, came and went. These generations are often referred to as civilizations or worlds.

In general, the idea of earlier civilizations is something many cultures have shared throughout time, such as the lost city of Atlantis.

It is difficult to comprehend the timeframe we're looking at, but it's plausible that it spans billions of years. It seems some of them may have run their course, while others became corrupt in one way or another and underwent a mass extinction event, much like the flood in the Torah.

Rabbi Abahu said... G_D continuously created worlds and destroyed them, until He created the current one, and said: ‘This one pleases Me, those did not please Me.’ - Genesis Rabbah 3

Where most of these earlier generations were annihilated, and some among them were not, as we will look at shortly. After these generations, humanity was created. It was our turn.