Comparison of the Sumerian myths with the biblical tale throws light on the nature of the Adamic problem. Eve did not eat some mythological apple; she copulated with a mortal man. She disrupted divine plans. She deranged a carefully prepared program and brought untold trouble to countless generations of mankind.
 

ate also, not out of ignorance but with full recognition that he would share in the consequences that would surely follow. And the world has suffered ever since, with continuing moral and religious degradation to the present desperate state of mankind.

It is natural to ask what other information exists in the ancient records, with all due regard for the distortions of time and the confusion of many generations. Have we fully plumbed the source-wells of information?
 

We are unable to grasp the true nature of our planetary history because we are so ignorant. We inherited fond imagination, much wishful thinking, and lack of specific details to appreciate the momentous events of long ago. When we collate and catalog information, elevate our views, and coordinate source material, we begin to see the past in a different light.
 

The Bible distinguishes between Adamic man and evolutionary man but this difference has been suppressed by scholars for more than two thousand years.
 

Two Hebrew words are used to denote man; the first is "adom;" the second is "eesh." Since both are translated as "man" in the English texts we cannot distinguish between them. But notice how the ancient texts use them. When Genesis quotes God as saying that he would create man in his image it does not use the word eesh; it uses adom.
 

"Let us make adom in our image . . ." It does not say, "Let us make eesh in our image."
 

". . . and there was no adom to till the ground." It does not say there was no eesh to till the ground.
 

"God formed adom out of the dust of the earth," not eesh.
 

In several places use of the two distinguishing word, adom and eesh, contrasts created man with evolutionary man. In giving commandments to Moses, Num 5:6, God distinguished between man (adom) and man (eesh).
 

"When eesh and eesha (woman) shall commit any sin that adom commits . . ."
 

In Jeremiah the contrast is pointed, emphasizing the difference:
 

"As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, said Yahweh, no eesh shall abide there, neither shall a son of adom (ben adom) dwell in it," Jer 50:40.
 

Adam's name offers other insight into our planetary past. Do you recall the Akkadian Adamatu? They were known as "red-skins." Adam had a red color; the Akkadian Adamatu were descended from him. The Israelites also were descended from an ancestor with a red color.
 

The name Adom derives from a verb denoting redness^SEC,BDB. Biblical scholars generally accept it to mean "red" or "ruddy." In their eyes it means "the flush of the white complexion." Unfortunately, in this imaginary interpretation, the real history is lost.
 

A list of words shows the meaning of this verb, and its many derivatives. For convenience I offer dictionary numbers from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, but equivalents can be found in Brown, Driver and Briggs.
 

119: adam -- To show blood, flush.
 

122: adom -- Rosy, red, ruddy.
 

124: odem -- Redness, ruby, garnet.
 

127: adamah -- Soil, for its redness.
 

131: adumim -- Red spots, a place in Palestine.
 

125: adamdam -- (A couplet) Reddish.
 

123: edom -- Red, compared to Assyrian adamatu, and for Edom, the son of Isaac^BDB.
 

Brown, Driver and Briggs show Assyrian adamu for "tawny." They also show the Akkadian adamatu in the same red name associations.
 

Literally, when we speak Adam's name we say "Red."

This is a lot more than mere flush of the white complexion.

According to the story in Gen 25:29-34 Isaac's eldest twin son Esau picked up the nickname Edom = Red because he was famished from hunting in the field and wanted the red (adom) stew his younger twin brother Jacob was making. For this favor Jacob (Israel) demanded his older brother's birthright. Jacob later became the father of the Hebrew tribes. Edom is really the name Adom with very slight change in vowel sound. He was descended from a forefather named Adom = Red, as was his brother Jacob, his father Isaac before him, his grandfather Abraham before that, and on back to that original parent named Red.
 

The story of Esau's nickname in Genesis is a folk tale devised by later scribes to offer a common explanation. Esau's descendants, the Edomites, were described literally by their name, Red Men.
 

If we accept the literal meaning of the Hebrew word then Adam was the Red One. Benai Adam are the sons of the Red One, the sons of Israel. As for Adam:
 

". . . there was no Red One to till the ground." God formed "Red out of the dust of the earth."
 

Further insight into the red color associated with Adam is provided by the Phoenicians, those cousins of the Hebrews who lived along the shores of the Mediterranean just north of the Holy Land in the cities of Tyre and Sidon. The Phoenicians had close ties with the Hebrews, trading extensively with them, providing lumber for the building of Solomon's temple, and intermarrying, I Kings 5 and 7:14, II Chron 2:14. The Phoenician language was essentially Hebrew, no more different in dialect than is found today among various regional groups in the United States.
 

The Phoenician name is Greek; the singular is Phoenix, the plural is Phoenike. Phoenix was the eponymous ancestor of the Phoenicians; the word meant purplish-red or crimson. Phoenix was the Red One.
 

Since early Christian times much debate has centered on the origin of the Phoenicians and the meaning of their name. In this tradition Van Der Broek suggested possible origins of the word^MOP. Part of the puzzle lies in the fact that the Phoenicians were noted across the Mediterranean for their manufacture of purplish-red dye from murex sea shells. This dye was used to color the robes of nobility. The nobility used the royal red and purple colors to denote their social status. The tradition is well recorded in the Bible. Moses was instructed to decorate the tabernacle with blue and purple and scarlet, Exod 26. The kings of Midian wore purple garments, Judges 8:26. Solomon requested workers from Hyram, king of Tyre, those who were skilled in purple, crimson and blue fabrics, II Chron 2:7,14. Lydia was a seller of purple, Acts 16:14. When Jesus was on trial the soldiers mocked him because he was accused of being King of the Jews; they put purple robes on him. In the Book of Revelation the great whore of the nations is clothed in purple and scarlet colors, Rev 17:4, 18:12.
 

Confusion exists on the exact nature of the colors. Our word purple comes from the Greek porphyra via Latin purpura, "in early use meaning crimson^OED. This confusion may be observed in the robes of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. They inherited the ancient tradition of royal crimson and purple colors from pagan Roman nobility; Bishops and Cardinals still retain those colors in both crimson and purple robes. These traditions all reflect a very ancient practice of denoting high social ancestry with royal colors, a distinguishing mark of royal inheritance and regal rights, all from the Red One, Adam.
 

Van Der Broek suggested that the Phoenician name was derived from an earlier Mycenaean word, ponike, applied to the red color, and traced from a word in Arabic and Hebrew. He did not show the exact connection^MOP.
 

We can trace it precisely.
 

Two other biblical names show connection to red colors and dye stuffs. These two names come from two sons of Issachar, forefather of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The first is Tola, Gen 46:13, Num 26:23, I Chron 7:1, Judges 10:1. Tola means crimson, from the crimson grub worm. The second is Pua, brother of Tola. Pua means madder, after the red dye obtained from the dried roots of the herbaceous climbing plant Rubis tinctorum. As Edom reflected the red or ruddy color of the Semites so Tola and Pua also reflected this skin color in their names.
 

But the connection to Pua is even more fascinating when we examine his name, its use in the Bible, and the origins of the Phoenicians.
 

Phoenicians. After the conquest of Canaan the tribes were allocated lands that included those known historically as Phoenicia, modern Lebanon. The tribe of Asher was spread along the coast from the city of Dor north beyond Tyre. The tribe of Issachar was less than twenty-five miles east, along the Jordan river. We should remember the tribes did not permanently settle in one section of the land. The tribe of Dan had trouble securing their settlements along the coast; some migrated northward to Laish near Asher and Naphtali. The tribe of Manasseh was split between two different territories. The Puni (ha-puni) could easily have settled along the coast in what later became identified as Phoenicia.
 

The Hebrew form Puni is striking because it is the same as the Roman name for the colonists of Carthage, the Poeni or Puni. Historically the Puni (Punics) are recognized as Phoenician people; the Punic colonies of Carthage and other cities of the Mediterranean were settled by the Phoenicians. Thus there is a direct connection between a Hebrew tribal family name and the Phoenician name, both denoting the purplish-red color. The close biblical proximity of the tribe of Issachar to Phoenicia, together with the Puni name, shows the two were of one blood. Phoenicians were actually members of the Hebrew people descended from Issachar, one of the tribes of Israel.

Other evidence shows this direct blood connection between the Phoenicians and the Hebrew tribes. Phoenician folk mythologies say they originally came from the region of the Red Sea, the location of the Hebrew tribes during their wandering in the wilderness of Sinai^AE.
 

The Puni (Phoenicians) probably lost their sentimental and religious connection with the Hebrew tribes because they became pagan; they chased after the Ashteroth, the pagan practices of the Canaanite people, Judges 2:11-13. They went after the gods of Tyre and Sidon, Judges 10:6. They forsook their allegiance to Yahweh. As a result they would have been ostracized by the remaining Hebrew tribes.
 

Many scholars believe Carthage was founded in the ninth century BC. But Tola and Pua, as sons of Issachar, would have lived around 1800 BC. Hence the Puni carried their name to the Phoenician coast nearly a millennium earlier. During this period they forgot their ancestry from among Hebrew tribes. But they continued to carry the tradition of naming their eponymous ancestor after a red color.
 

The Phoenician traditions of Phoenix as their red-colored ancestor may be a confusion between Pua and Adam. In both cases the ancestor is remembered for his red skin. As generations pass memories become confused; the name Puni (into Greek Phoenix) probably replaced Adam as the source of that original fatherhood. The tradition stated he was a god; it is unlikely one of the sons of Issachar would be remembered as a god.
 

We can trace the Greek word Phoenician from Puni through simple phonetics. First, the change from "P" to "Ph = F" is a common phonetic shift. Note the parallel with the Indo-European words "Pater" and "Father." Second, the "oe" in place of "u" is easily recognized. Third, the Greek inflectional habits created the hard "ks" ending on the word, Poenic = Phoenix. Only much later did English change the hard "k" to a soft "s" for "c." This change occurred in medieval times, when "k's" commonly went to "c = s" sounds. Note how Anglo-Saxon "kirk" went to "church."
 

The association of the Adamic name with a red or purple color came down to modern times by paths other than Hebrew or Phoenician traditions. It is remembered by many people in fruits and flowers. Damson is a purple plum of Asia Minor. Dame's (Dam's) violet is a flower of lilac or purple color native to Europe. The Damask rose is a fragrant flower of pink color. The rose was dedicated by the people of the Near East to the goddess of love, beauty and fruitfulness, remembered by the Greeks as Aphrodite. The red rose was also thought to be formed from the blood of Adonis, the Greek god who carried the Semitic title for Lord^AE,RHDEL,GB.
 

Other red-purple folk traditions add to this catalog of information.
 

According to Greek sources one Cinyras, an ancient king of Phoenicia, dedicated a sanctuary to Astarte (Ishtar = Ashteroth) on Mt. Lebanon at Aphaca, known today as Afka. It was at the head of a wooded gorge named after the Phoenician god Adon, whom the Greeks called Adonis. A river in the gorge rushes from a cavern at the base of towering cliffs down a series of cascades into the Mediterranean^GB.
 

It was believed that each year Adon was fatally wounded by a great bear. The face of nature was dyed by his blood when the anemone, his flower, bloomed along the banks of the river and among the cedars of Lebanon. The spring rains washed soil into the river, which flowed red to the sea, fringing the Mediterranean when the wind blew toward shore with a sinuous band of crimson. The red hue and the crimson stain were believed to be the blood of Adon^GB.
 

The name anemone comes from the Semitic na-aman, "the handsome," an epithet for Adon. In Arabia the flower is called Naaman's Wounds. This same tradition led to the red rose as the flower which carried the Adon blood stain. The blood tradition was transferred to Jesus, the second Adam. In England the flower blood-stained at the crucifixion is the orchis mascula; in Cheshire, England it is known as the Gethsemane. In Belgium the polygonum persicaris is called Roodselken; in Italy the flower is the sorrel.
 

Other evidence illustrates this profound Adamic legacy.
 

Adon was the title for Thammuz, the young spouse and lover of Ishtar, the Babylonian earth mother goddess. He was a god who died annually to be reborn each spring. He was mourned by the women of the Near East during the month of July when they would sit in the streets and wail for their beloved lost god, Ezek 8:14. The Hebrews named the mid-summer month of July after him. Adam, through the Babylonian Thammuz, is still remembered in the Jewish calendar.
 

the innovations of early Christian missionaries in Europe. For the Jew it was delivery from Egyptian slavery; for the Christian it was the resurrection of the crucified Jesus. The Passover celebration was carried over into Christianity in the Holy Supper, instituted by Jesus. Modern secular and godless scholars then tie the real resurrection of Jesus to the supposed resurrection of Adonis or Thammuz, deducing that Jesus was merely trying to imitate the old traditions.
 

These practices remembered Thammuz and Ishtar, Adonis and Aphrodite, in the spring time and at the height of summer; they were naturally associated with the seasons. Thammuz' connection with the great cycles of nature and his godhood over vegetation, cereals, and life is remembered throughout the Mediterranean by the custom of the planting of the Garden of Adonis^GB.
 

The Gardens were baskets or pots filled with earth in which wheat, barley, lettuce, fennel and various kinds of flowers were sown and tended, almost exclusively by women. When set in the sun the plants shot up quickly, but without root they rapidly withered away. At the end of eight days they were carried out with images of the dead Adonis and flung into the sea or some other local body of water.
 

The Gardens were planted in Sardinia at the celebration of the mid-summer festival, known in recent times as St. John's, a Roman Catholic substitute for the more ancient name. The practice also took place in Sicily.

Although the Gardens were planted by European women the practice was observed in other Indo-European regions. Similar Gardens are planted by the Hindu of India to secure the fertility of the soil. They are also used at marriage ceremonies of the Brahmans to secure the fertility of a newly married couple.
 

The symbolism of the Gardens of Adonis is easily associated with the Garden of Eden. The quick growth and the withering away are representative of the short life of the original Garden. Both the Garden and Adam were lost, or cast out.
 

These myths show how ancient people associated Adam and Eve with the periodic cycles of nature. When Adam fell he destroyed the Golden Age; he caused the great cycles of nature which removed the perpetual season of summer and brought on the death of winter. Many myths and pagan practices derived from the memory of that famous pair. This is indicated again in Hebrew from two words, admah and adami, both of which mean earthy; they are used as place names in Palestine. They refer to the soil and to animal husbandry, the cultivation of animal and plant life. Thammuz was the god of cereals, of vegetation, and of life. Adam was given responsibility for shepherding the earth. He taught evolutionary people methods of farming and animal husbandry.
 

The connection of the Hebrew Adon and Adam to the Greek Adonis is evident in these many myths and traditions. The Gardens of Adonis show how close this connection may be.
 

We know the Garden of Eden as the home of Adam. Eden is an identical word to Adon except for a minor vowel inflection. This inflection is used to distinguish between the title of the man, Adon, and the name for his home, Eden. The word underwent further evolution associated with the original Garden. Adan in Hebrew means "to be soft or pleasant," "to live voluptuously," or "to delight the self." Eden, as the name of Adam's home means pleasure. It is found yet today in Aden, Arabia. From the evidence it seems reasonable to postulate that at some time during the intervening millennia a shift in pronunciation took place in the Semitic words which made the Garden of Adon the Garden of Eden.
 

From the myths we are led to believe that Adam and Eve, the god of agriculture and the earth mother goddess, began a new system of culture on our world which was different from earlier cultures. They both symbolized fertility and life. When Adam died he was bitterly lamented. Each spring he was remembered because the earth was coming back to life, to new growth, to pleasantness and comfort.
 

Other myths help us gain further insight into the Adamic influence and the consequences of his default.
 

In Babylon all women, rich and poor, once in their lives submitted themselves to a stranger in the temple of Ishtar. The wages earned from this sacred harlotry were dedicated to the mother goddess.
 

The same practice took place among the Amorites, down to the second century AD. In Armenia the noblest families dedicated their daughters to the service of the goddess of fertility, the great Mother goddess. This same tradition, in diluted form, was observed by the Roman vestal virgins who tended the sacred fires on the hearth of Vesta (Greek Hestia), the goddess of hearth and home.
 

The sacred harlotry was also practiced among the Hebrews but severely condemned by their religious leaders. The people served Baal and the Ashterah, Judges 2. Solomon went after the Ashteroth, the goddess of the Phoenicians, I Kings 11:15. The practice was regarded as an abomination, II Kings 23:13.
 

Part of Adam's mission was to build a large body of direct-line children who would carry pure Adamic genes. A large group was necessary to avoid genetic dilution. They were to go out among evolutionary people to upstep the races only after they had sufficient genetic stock. (The practice of European noble families limiting their breeding among themselves reflects that genetic concern.) If Adam's children were to interbreed with the evolutionary races to provide spiritual, intellectual and artistic uplift, the genetic pool had to be large enough that it would not become diluted too quickly.
 

With Adam's default the program was cut short; the large body of children never formed. In an attempt to salvage something of the divine plan he selected outstanding evolutionary women to directly receive Adamic sperm. For the evolutionary minds of those days these chosen women then came into the god. With the passage of time and the generations, people attempted to carry on the practice. Since the practice originated in that unique person it would naturally take on a sacred aspect. With the god gone from the earth it would be continued in religious rites as a remembrance of that renowned person. The temple prostitutes served as substitutes to carry on the task of leaving children blessed by that creative act. The men coming into the prostitutes were substitutes for the god who could no longer perform this sacred obligation.