Table of Contents
In Pre-Adamite Man (1863), Paschal Beverly Randolph argues that humans lived long before Adam. To support this he quotes “first a fragment of Manetho, and second, the conclusions of Baron Bunsen”, Christian Charles Josias, Baron von Bunsen, on the earliest history of Egypt (pp. 27 to 29). Manetho’s list of rulers is the subject of Manetho’s king lists.
Manetho on the first man
Manetho names Hephæstus, later the god Phtha, as the first man.
“The first [man], in the opinion of the Egyptians, was Hephæstus, (afterwards the god Phtha,) who is also celebrated among them as the inventor of fire.
Paschal Beverly Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man (1863), p. 27, quoting Manetho
Randolph’s Phtha is Ptah. The Wikipedia article on Ptah notes that the Turin King List also makes Ptah the first ruler of Egypt, followed by Ra, Sosis, Geb, Osiris, Set and Horus.
After him came a line of gods, ending with Horus.
From him proceeded Helius (Ra, another god); afterwards Agathodæmon; then, Kronos, (Seb, another god); then Osiris; then came Typhon, the brother of Osiris; then came Horus, the son of Osiris by Isis, his wife.
Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man (1863), pp. 27 to 28, quoting Manetho
For the gods in this line, see Osiris, Typhon and Horus.
The gods reigned for 13,900 years.
These were the first who reigned amongst the Egyptians. Down to Bydis the royal authority was transmitted successively in uninterrupted series during 13,900 years.
Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man (1863), p. 28, quoting Manetho
Manetho then lists heroes for 1,255 years, other kings for 1,817 years, thirty Memphite kings for 1,790 years, ten Thinite kings for 350 years, and a dynasty of ghosts and heroes for 5,813 years. Randolph adds these up to 24,925 years of Egyptian history.
Randolph holds that Egypt was young next to other nations.
and yet Egypt was but a baby nation compared to others, and its civilization quite imperfect contrasted with civilizations that were cotangent and contemporaneous with it.
Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man (1863), p. 28
Bunsen’s deductions
Randolph then gives “Bunsen’s deductions, in brief”. Bunsen’s First Age of the World, the Historical Primeval World, runs from Creation to the Flood, B.C. 20,000 to 10,000, in three periods.
The First Period, B.C. 20,000 to 15,000, is the “Formation and Deposit of Sinism”.
Bunsen describes the first language as spoken and pictured, one syllable to a word.
“Primitive language, spoken with rising or falling cadence; elucidated by gesture; accompanied by pure pictorial writing; every syllable a word, every word a full substantive one, representable by a picture.
Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man (1863), p. 28, quoting Bunsen
Bunsen places this language in Northern China (Shensi), where the Hoango rises. He also dates to this period “the earliest polarization of religious consciousness”: worship of the firmament on one side, and of the souls of parents, “the Manifestation of the Divine in the Family”, on the other.
The Second Period, B.C. 15,000 to 14,000, is the “Formation and Deposit of Primitive Turanism”, the Eastern Polarization of Sinism. It brings “pure agglutinative language”, words of several syllables held together by one accent, and particles that show “the mutual relation of persons and things”. Bunsen places it in Thibet, in the Botiya language, and sees there the “germ of mythology”.
The Third Period, B.C. 14,000 to 11,000, is the “Formation and Deposit of Khamism and the Flood”, the Western Polarization of Sinism.
In the Third Period word stems become roots.
“Formation of stems into roots, producing derivative words: complete parts of speech, beyond the distinction between full words (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) and formative words…
Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man (1863), p. 28, quoting Bunsen
Bunsen dates this to B.C. 14,000, and dates declension and conjugation, the stage of the Egyptian language, to B.C. 13,000, and symbolic hieroglyphics without sound signs to B.C. 12,000. He ties this stage in Egypt to “the earliest immigration of West Asiatic Primitive Semites”, and dates the first syllable signs to B.C. 11,000. Then comes the Flood, a “Convulsion in Northern Asia”. Bunsen dates it to B.C. 11,000 to 10,000 and has the Arians leave the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes, and the Semites leave the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris.
His Second Age of the World, from the Flood to Abraham, then runs from B.C. 10,000 to 2878 (p. 29).
