Was There A Version Of Earth Prior To Adam And Eve?

This planet is estimated to be around 4.54 billion years old and humans are said to be only 6 million years on this planet. Early homo sapiens or modern humans appeared in Africa around 20,000 years ago. These estimates are based on radiometric measurements and fossils. Most creationists believe the earth is only 6000 years old. That’s quite a difference! I think where creationists go wrong is they are looking at the genealogy of Adam which can be traced back 6000 years but what if this planet was inhabited by other beings prior to Adam? I mean after all there are civilizations as old as 50,000 years old.

Radiocarbon tests of carbonized plant remains where artifacts were unearthed along the Savannah River in Allendale County by University of South Carolina archaeologist Dr. Albert Goodyear indicate that the sediments containing these artifacts are at least 50,000 years old, meaning that humans inhabited North American long before the last ice age more than 20,000 years ago. (New Evidence Puts Man In North America 50,000 Years Ago. Date: November 18, 2004. Source: University Of South Carolina). A rock shelter recently discovered in the interior of Australia may be the oldest evidence of a human civilization. Dubbed the Warratyi site this rock shelter sits above a landscape criss-crossed with deep gorges that would have flowed with water when Paleolithic humans lived here. From extensive excavations conducted in 2015, the archaeologists estimate that people occupied Warratyi on and off for 40,000 years, finally abandoning the site just 10,000 years ago. By analyzing layers of earth in the shelter, the scientists were able to construct a timeline of settlement in the space. They used carbon dating on nuggets of hearth charcoal and eggshells to discover that the shelter was first occupied about 50,000 years ago. They also used a dating technique called optically simulated luminescence (OSL) on buried grains of quartz. This technique determines when those quartz grains last saw sunlight and heat. Both techniques returned similar dates, adding to the researchers’ confidence in their findings.

This makes Warratyi the oldest evidence of human occupation in the arid Australian interior, long believed too hostile for ancient people who had few tools. But these findings make it clear that the ancestors of Australia’s indigenous people were, in fact, seasoned explorers who could survive in difficult conditions.

(Source: ARS Tecnica. ANNALEE NEWITZ – 11/2/2016,

In the annals of human evolution, few discoveries have been as startling as the one made in Greece’s Apidima Cave. A 210,000-year-old human skull, now known as Apidima 1, has recently been identified as the oldest evidence of Homo sapiens outside Africa. This finding, published in Nature, pushes back the timeline of our species’ migration from Africa by over 50,000 years.

Here are some more older civilizations to consider:

San People
Located in Southern Africa in countries such as Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and South Africa
c.140,000 to 100,000 years ago – present. Yes, they are still around. Which could very well make them the oldest civilization in the world. Known for some of the oldest rock paintings and ritual ceremonies.

Çatalhöyük
(c. 7,500 BCE – 5,700 BCE)
Location: Southern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey)
They were one of the earliest urban settlements that settled in one place and practiced agriculture as well as disposing of waste outside their settlement, a sign of civilized people.

Ain Ghazal
(c. 7,200 BCE – 5,000 BCE)
Location: Ayn Ghazal (modern-day Amman, Jordan) Known archaeologically for their statues of plaster ‘Ain Ghazal statues. In addition to creating the statues, the people of ‘Ain Ghazal were farmers who domesticated wheat, barley, peas, lentils, and chickpeas. They also hunted wild animals such as gazelle, deer, pigs, foxes, and hares.

Jiahu
(c. 7,000 BCE – 5,700 BCE)
Location: Henan, China
Jiahu symbols are one of the earliest examples of writing and some of the oldest playable instruments. Jiahu was a settlement located in the central plain of ancient China and the people who lived there developed some of the earliest aspects of Chinese culture and Chinese civilization. The Jiahu culture is often mentioned with the Peiligang culture.

(SOURCE: Oldest.org. 10 Oldest Civilizations in the World. Updated 2024)

Throughout the world, ancient cities are being discovered; not on mountaintops or in forests, but under the ocean. These include:

Some scientists believe they have found evidence of the inhabitants of some of these civilizations. A flash frozen civilization in Antarctica is of particular interest. The skeletons looked vaguely human except for the elongated skulls. Who were they? What were they? Scientists speculate an ancient race that has long since died out.

Does the Bible support these claims? Consider Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

God is perfect and everything He does is perfect, so a newly created Earth from the hand of God should not have been without form and void and shrouded in darkness. As is confirmed by scriptures like:

Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”

Isaiah 45:18 “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.”

1 John 1:5 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

Something happened between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2! A perfect earth was cursed with some cataclysmic event likely a flood, and I’m not speaking of the flood of Noah, that was much later in Adam’s earth. Consider 2 Peter 3:5-6

“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” These verses seem to confirm the possibility of an earth and possibly civilizations long before Adam that were cursed for some reason into a world “without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

Does 1 Corinthians 15:45 confirm that Adam was the first human? “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” Or is it possible that this scripture is specifically speaking of Adam and does not discount the fact that there may have been other humans created prior to Adam? The Bible actually says God created humans on day six of the creation account in Genesis chapter 1. The story of Adam’s creation comes after that. It’s nothing more than an assumption that these are two tellings of the same event. It would certainly explain the account where Cain is forced to leave the Garden of Eden after killing his brother and it says he travelled to the land of Nod and found a wife there (Genesis 4:16-17). How could he have found a wife if there were not other humans besides those accounted for in the Garden of Eden? Could there have been someone living on this planet before humans? Could there have even been a form of protohuman prior to Adam and Eve? The angels were the first created beings. Isaiah 14 tells us the story of what was then the chief angel named Lucifer and the story of Lucifer’s fall. Is this evidence of a civilization prior to Adam? Lucifer was perfect when created. He chose to do wrong. Lucifer was cast down and these scriptures speak of he weakened the nations. What nations? It even says they had commerce and trading going on which suggests a pretty sophisticated civilization long before Adam and Eve. Who did he trade with? Were there humans, or something else? Let’s read this account:

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

And also in Jeremiah 4 speaks of beholding earth without form and void. No light. Mountains trembled and NO MAN. Birds of heaven. References ALL OF ITS CITIES. This would be a civilization before people.

23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.

Ezekiel 28 speaks of Lucifer’s heart was lifted up laid before kings. That is a reference to kingdoms prior to people.

Angels were created long before man as confirmed in Isaiah 14:12-18. Angels were created to worship God and to minister to those who would inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). We know that God created the angels before He created the physical universe because the book of Job describes the angels worshiping God as He was creating the world: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone – while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7).

Lucifer was a special angel, a leader, a cherub. But angels were not created in God’s image. Our purpose is to be like God. Angels were not. We will judge angels that got out of line one day (1 Corinthians 6:3)

God is light. He created the sun. Day 2 he divided the waters that were already there. So there must have been an earth before the 6 days of creation. Seeds were already here. The wording implies let the seed that was already here come forth and yield fruit. There was apparently a sophisticated civilization on this planet that was inhabited by the angels is the most plausible assumption but one cannot but allow for the possibility that there may have been some form of human also living alongside these angels. When Lucifer rebelled against God he also persuaded a third of all the angels in heaven to rebel with him (Revelation 12:3-4). Jesus even speaks that he was a witness to Lucifer’s fall from heaven (Luke 10:18). Following Lucifer’s expulsion from heaven there apparently was a flood that God sent upon the earth which was followed by God recreating the earth and also creating the sun and the moon and the dry land. Previous to God creating the sun he was the light of the universe.

Consider this:

“Until about 20 years ago, it was believed that the oldest “civilization” was the Sumerians about 7000 years ago. Then Göbekli Tepe and nearby settlements were discovered on the border between Syria and Turkey. Everything has changed since then.

“The oldest remains of Göbekli Tepe date back at least 12,000 years ago. But some of the monoliths found in the ruins show people dressed only in a perizome. However, 12,000 years ago we were in the middle of the Younger Dryas (a mini-ice age). Therefore, it is impossible for people to be walking around wearing only perizomes. To be able to walk around dressed like this, the temperatures had to be mild. But the last “mild” period before the Young Dryas ended around 110,000 B.C., when the last ice age began. It is true that there could have been more milder local climates. The fact remains is that this is the only sculpture dating back over 12,000 years ago depicting human beings in perizomes. Therefore, at least some parts of Göbekli Tepe could date back before the Younger Dryas.

”In Göbekli Tepe ideographs have been engraved, that is sculptures that represent neither animals nor things, but abstract concepts. They may be the oldest example of human writing, at least 5,000 years older than Sumerian writing. The buildings in Göbekli Tepe are not made of wood or straw, but limestone. Some pillars weigh almost 20 tons. The inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were able to build houses and villages in stone thousands of years before Sumerians.

“On a slab of stone called the ‘Star of Gru’, the wise men of Göbekli Tepe recount a comet that crossed the sky. Also, the engraved narrative refers to a period when, approximately 12,000 years ago a comet bombing caused tremendous destruction on Earth. This bombing was recently confirmed by astrophysicists. Around 12,000 years ago one or more comets exploded near our atmosphere, and their fragments “carpetbombed” us.” (Source: Svago web. Archaeology & Civilizations

So, there seems to be plenty of evidence of civilization being older than we originally thought and possibly a pre-Adamite earth, as it is often called, scripturally and archaeologically. Some have surmised that this is also possibly when the dinosaurs lived. There are structures like the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge that to this day cannot be explained how they were built considering people started out using stone and bone tools. Stones for many ancient structures are so precisely cut and stacked to this day with such precision that a hair cannot even be squeezed in.

Titus 1:2 says “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;” Promised before time began means time had a beginning and there was a time before time. God created time. God lived in ageless past. God has always been and will always be. Our finite human minds cannot comprehend that which is infinite. The scriptures give us only a tiny snapshot of time upon this planet but in that snapshot they also confirm that there were civilizations before what we know of historically.

Expanded from the chapter in my book titled the same from my book entitled ‘God BC’.