I read this today, can anyone tell me their thoughts on this?
From Adam and Eve to you and me–links in a 6,000-year-old chain…
This past August, a French archaeologist named Francois Desset from the University of Tehran Department of Archaeology claimed that the Iranian plateau was the true birthplace of writing, “predating Mesopotamia."
According to a report in Sciences et Avenir, Desset’s proof came from “a 4400-YEAR-OLD cuneiform bas-relief.”
The Tehran Times reported that it took the French archaeologist a decade to decipher “the mysteries of the cuneiform inscription,” which was found on hand-carved clay tablets in the ancient city of Susa in southwest Iran.
Linear Elamite is the name given to the language represented in the tablets. The Elamites were the first people to settle in the region of Susa, an ancient city whose ruins are being excavated, and where the writing fragments were found.
Elam, the father of the Elamites, is a known name in many ancient texts, including the Old Testament. (Linear Elamite: 𒁹𒄬𒆷𒁶𒋾 ḫalatamti; Sumerian: 𒉏𒈠 elam; Akkadian: 𒉏𒈠𒆠 elamtu; Hebrew: עֵילָם ʿēlām; Old Persian: 𐎢𐎺𐎩 hūja) Elam was also known as Susiana. (Ancient Greek: Σουσιανή Sousiānḗ), a name derived from the Elamite principal city of Susa.
The debate over which language came first is not really that important. However, the history of Elam and his descendants is fascinating and provides us with several links in a genealogical and historically accurate chain that presents clear evidence that we are part of a 6,000-year-old human story.
*Link 1…Elam was one of Noah’s grandsons…
“This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood…Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber. The sons of Shem: ELAM, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.” (Genesis 10:1; 21-22)
Shortly after the global flood 4,000+ years ago, in the days of Noah, the whole family migrated eastward from Ararat to a plain called Shinar. There on that plain, everyone spoke a common language and they attempted to build a city, with a great tower ascending to heaven.
“But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:5-9)
Thereafter, Elam’s people migrated from Shinar to the region of modern Iran, making Susa their capital, speaking Elamite with one another, and very early on, developing a writing system…Linear Elamite.
(Noteworthy: Francois Desset claims that the Linear Elamite samples from his study are 4,400 years old…right in the time-frame of the flood.)
*Link 2…Abraham and Kedorlaomer, the king of Elam…
Ten generations after the flood, the nations were scattered over the face of the earth. Just to the west of Susa, where the Elamites lived, was a city named Ur of the Chaldeans (near modern Nasiriyah, Iraq). In that city, another descendant of Shem was born, through the line of Arphaxad who was Elam’s younger brother. His name was Abram (later called Abraham). His genealogy is found in Genesis 11.
Two years after the flood, Noah’s son Shem was 100 years old and became the father of Arphaxad. When Arphaxad was 35, he became the father of Shelah. When Shelah was 30, he became the father of Eber. When Eber was 34, he became the father of Peleg. When Peleg was 30, he became the father of Reu. When Reu was 32, he became the father of Serug. When Serug was 30, he became the father of Nahor. When Nahor was 29, he became the father of Terah. When Terah was 70, he became the father of Abraham, (born 292 years after the flood.) More links in the chain of history.
(Noteworthy: "After the flood, Noah lived 350 years” [Genesis 9:28]. That means Noah and Abraham existed together on this planet for 58 years!!!)
During the time of Abraham, the Elamites, under their king Kedorlaomer, were expanding their territory into Canaan, where God was also leading Abraham. You can read that whole story in Genesis 14, where circumstances led Abraham to get into a battle with the king of the Elamites, defeating him, and pursuing his army all the way up into the region of Syria.
After that battle, Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem and the high priest of “El Elyon” (the Most High God). “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
(Noteworthy: At this time in history when Abraham and Kedorlaomer, king of the Elamites crossed paths, Shem was still alive. “And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.” [Genesis 11:11] According to the genealogies in Genesis, this would mean that Shem actually outlived Abraham by 35 years or so! There are Jewish scholars who have even suggested that Melchizedek, king of Salem and high priest of the Most High God, WAS Shem. That is hotly debated, though.)
*Link 3…The prophets and Elam…
The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all prophesy against Elam with very dire outcomes, like this one from Jeremiah 49:36…“And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.”
(Noteworthy: In my research, I discovered that Elamite “is an extinct language that was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record after Alexander the Great entered Iran.” This is perhaps a fulfillment of prophecy.)
*Link #4…Queen Esther in Susa…
Whatever happened to the Elamites during the days of Queen Esther is uncertain, but the two stories seem to converge right at the time of the Jewish Captivity. The marvelous story of Esther is told in the book bearing her same name in the Bible, and is set in the city of Susa, where Elamite was once spoken and the Elamite culture once flourished. But now, the city was ruled by Xerxes, son of Darius the Great, and Persian was the new language, both spoken and written. Xerxes’ queen was Esther, the heroic Jew, who bravely walked uninvited, up to the king’s throne, pleading for mercy to be granted to her people. This is a precisely dated link in the chain of history known to both Jews and Christians, and is celebrated during the Jewish holiday of Purim.)
(Noteworthy: “Excavations at the palace in Susa have revealed the very spot where these events took place. The Palace had three courtyards: the large outer courtyard, a middle courtyard, and the inner courtyard. South of the inner courtyard were the king’s quarters and his throne room. To approach the king, one had to pass from the outer courtyard, though a double guardhouse into the middle courtyard, and then into the inner courtyard. Here, one makes a left-hand turn, and proceeds through the doors into the throne room of the king. This is the journey that Esther herself would have taken.”…From Bible Archeology Report, August 23, 2019)
*Putting the links together…Jesus Christ…the bridge of history.
Thanks to doctor Luke, we know when Jesus was born. It was in the time when “Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)” That accurately pinpoints Jesus birth in Bethlehem. Moving forward in time around 2,000 years connects Jesus to you and me.
There are also two genealogies in the gospels of Luke and Matthew. Luke’s genealogy reveals the chain of human history from Adam to the time of Noah (the flood) to Abraham to King David to the Jewish exile to Jesus. Thanks to the precision of Jewish genealogical records, together with historical written records, archeological discoveries, and now, genetic research, that time period is approximately 4,000 years.
Old Earth advocates believe our planet is 4.55 billion years old and humans came onto the scene 300,000 years ago, and we evolved from primates in Africa. Real historical and archaeological evidence thoroughly contradicts such a preposterous claim.
Conclusion: Give the primates living among us today another 4.55 billion years, and they would still not be able to develop a written language like Linear Elamite, much less decipher it’s meaning.
Solid evidence bears witness that our human story is only around 6,000 years old.
