Paper 74 Overview: Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia 37,848 years ago as biologic uplifters tasked with advancing human development and establishing a more sophisticated civilization. Upon their arrival, they were welcomed by Van and Amadon, and formally installed as rulers of the world in a ceremonial reception. Their early days were spent learning about the planet's troubled history following the Caligastia rebellion and organizing their administration to help guide Urantia's development.

Despite promising beginnings, they faced significant challenges in their mission, including an early attempt by Garden inhabitants to worship them and persistent interference from the fallen Prince Caligastia. Nevertheless, Adam and Eve established manufacturing centers, trade relations, and educational systems that significantly benefited humanity. They created a model of family life, government structure, and religious worship that influenced subsequent human development, leaving a lasting cultural and genetic legacy even though their original mission was not fully accomplished as planned.

Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia in the year A.D. 1934, exactly 37,848 years ago, during the peak blooming season of the Garden. They were transported by seraphic carriers from Jerusem, landing unannounced at midday near the temple of the Universal Father. During their first ten days on the planet, they underwent a process of rematerialization into human form within the precincts of this newly created shrine, after which they regained consciousness simultaneously.

The Material Sons and Daughters are designed to always serve together as partners, never functioning alone. This divine partnership is fundamental to their service across time and space. After their rematerialization, they were formally presented as the world's new rulers, beginning their critical mission to advance the evolutionary development of Urantia.

Adam and Eve were distinguished members of the senior corps of Material Sons on Jerusem, jointly holding the number 14,311 and belonging to the third physical series with heights exceeding eight feet. Prior to their selection for the Urantia mission, they had served for more than fifteen thousand years as directors of experimental energy applications and as teachers in the citizenship schools for new arrivals on Jerusem. These experiences prepared them well for the challenges they would face on Urantia.

When volunteers were sought for the Adamic mission to Urantia, the entire senior corps offered their services, with Adam and Eve ultimately being selected by the Melchizedek examiners with approval from higher authorities. Before departing, they received thorough instruction about Urantia's affairs and the Caligastia rebellion, taking solemn oaths of allegiance to the Most Highs of Edentia and to Michael of Salvington. They left behind one hundred offspring on Jerusem, who gathered at the dematerialization headquarters to bid farewell to their parents as they fell asleep in preparation for seraphic transport to their new assignment on a troubled world.

Adam and Eve awoke in the Father's temple on Urantia, where they were greeted by Van and Amadon, loyal survivors of the Caligastia secession. They had already mastered the Andonic dialect spoken by Amadon before leaving Jerusem, enabling immediate communication with the inhabitants of their new world. News of their arrival spread rapidly as messengers released carrier pigeons to announce that the promised Son had come, bringing believers from distant settlements to welcome the new rulers.

A formal reception ceremony was held on an elevated mound north of the temple, where Amadon chaired a welcoming committee representing all races of Urantia. The senior Melchizedek delivered the charge of planetary custody to Adam and Eve, who took an oath of allegiance to the universe authorities. Van then relinquished his titular authority, which he had held for over 150,000 years, and Adam and Eve were invested with royal robes. The archangels proclaimed the second judgment roll call of Urantia and the resurrection of sleeping survivors, marking the beginning of the Adamic dispensation – the third planetary epoch that would replace the age of the Prince.

During their first night on Urantia, Adam and Eve became painfully aware of their planetary isolation, lacking the familiar broadcasts and communication circuits they had known on Jerusem. Unlike other worlds where new Material Sons would find a well-established Planetary Prince and experienced staff to assist them, on Urantia the Prince was present but compromised by rebellion, making their task difficult and potentially hazardous. Their first night on earth was marked by loneliness as they walked and talked in the Garden under the full moon.

Over the following days, Adam and Eve systematically learned about their new home. On their second day, they met with the Melchizedek receivers and advisory council to learn the full details of the Caligastia rebellion and its devastating effects on world progress. The third day featured an aerial inspection of the Garden aboard large passenger birds called fandors, ending with a banquet. On the fourth day, they addressed the Garden assembly and outlined their rehabilitation plans, notably including women in their administrative council – an unprecedented innovation on Urantia. The fifth day focused on organizing temporary government, the sixth on examining the planet's animal life (where Adam displayed remarkable knowledge of biology), and the seventh on rest, during which they had to prevent Garden dwellers from worshipping them as gods.

On the night following the sixth day, while Adam and Eve slept, hundreds of enthusiastic Garden dwellers gathered near the Father's temple, stirred by impassioned pleas from their leaders. These well-intentioned people, overwhelmed by the events of the first six days, concluded that Adam and Eve were divine beings deserving of worship. They decided to bring the pair to the temple at noon for a ceremonial worship service.

Van strongly protested this plan but was dismissed, with some suggesting he too was worthy of worship. Using midwayer communication, Van sent an urgent message to Adam. Before dawn on the seventh day, as the crowd prepared to seize the sleeping pair, the midwayers transported Adam and Eve to the Father's temple. From the mount where they had been received, Adam clarified that only the Father and his designates should be worshipped. He then directed the people to bow down to the invisible presence of the Universal Father rather than to himself and Eve. This moment established the Sabbath-day tradition, where the seventh day was dedicated to self-culture, with mornings for physical improvement, noon for spiritual worship, afternoons for mind development, and evenings for social enjoyment.

For nearly seven years after Adam's arrival, the Melchizedek receivers continued their planetary supervision before formally transferring administration to Adam. Despite Adam's requests that they remain on Urantia, the receivers departed at midnight along with Van and Amadon, who were translated simultaneously as the twelve Melchizedeks left for Jerusem aboard seraphic transports.

Adam's leadership initially showed promise, particularly in developing manufacturing arts to foster trade relations with surrounding tribes. However, he faced significant challenges in establishing world government among diverse populations of savages, barbarians, and semi-civilized human beings. His efforts met stubborn resistance, particularly from Caligastia, who, though deposed as world ruler, remained on the planet and actively opposed Adam's plans. Even within Eden, Adam contended with confused minds influenced by Caligastia's teaching of unrestricted personal liberty. Eventually, Adam abandoned his program for immediate socialization, reverting to Van's organizational method of dividing people into companies of one hundred with captains and lieutenants. Unable to establish representative government, Adam succeeded in creating nearly one hundred outlying trade and social centers governed by strong individuals who ruled in his name, many previously organized by Van and Amadon.

The Adamic family grounds encompassed over five square miles, with facilities designed to eventually house more than three hundred thousand pure-line descendants. However, only the first unit of these planned buildings was completed before the Garden was vacated. Adamson was the first-born of the violet race on Urantia, followed by his sister and then Eveson, Adam's second son. Eve bore sixty-three children before the default, and when they left the Garden, their family consisted of four generations numbering 1,647 pure-line descendants.

Adamic children were raised with distinctive practices reflecting their advanced heritage. After nursing ended at one year, they consumed milk from nuts and juices from fruits instead of animal milk. The Adamic household did not cook food, as they consumed fruits, nuts, and cereals in their natural state. Adam and Eve's bodies emanated light, although they always wore clothing according to the customs of their associates. Their children received a balanced education, with activities changed frequently for younger children. At eighteen, youths entered a two-year preparation for marriage, becoming eligible to wed at twenty and immediately beginning their lifework or specialized training. The practice of royal inbreeding in later civilizations stems from the necessity of Adam's early descendants to marry among themselves.

The children of Adam lived and worked in "the east of Eden," except for their four years of attendance at western schools. Their intellectual education until age sixteen followed the methods of the Jerusem schools, after which they attended Urantia schools at the opposite end of the Garden, where they also served as teachers for younger students. The western school system emphasized socialization, with mornings devoted to horticulture and agriculture, afternoons to competitive play, and evenings to social interaction and friendship building.

The educational curriculum covered health and physical care, the golden rule as a standard for social relationships, individual rights balanced with group obligations, racial history and culture, world trade advancement, emotional management, and alternatives to physical conflict. Garden laws were based on the older codes of Dalamatia and organized under seven categories: health and sanitation, social regulations, trade and commerce, fair play and competition, home life, civil codes of the golden rule, and the supreme moral rules. Adam introduced progressive religious concepts, including discouraging set prayers and blood sacrifices in favor of fruit offerings. He also taught revolutionary ideas about gender equality, explaining that women contribute equally to procreation – contrary to previous beliefs that children came solely from the father.

The familiar story of Urantia's creation in six days originated from the tradition that Adam and Eve spent six days conducting their initial survey of the Garden. This circumstance gave special significance to the seven-day week, which had been introduced earlier by the Dalamatians. Adam's choosing of the seventh day for worship was coincidental, not preplanned, arising naturally from the events of those first days.

The creation legend as commonly understood was developed more than thirty thousand years after these events. The narrative about Eve being created from Adam's rib resulted from confused accounts of the Adamic arrival combined with much earlier events involving the Planetary Prince's staff over 450,000 years ago. The belief in humans being created from clay was widespread in the Eastern Hemisphere, contrasting with earlier evolutionary understandings. The Old Testament account was written long after Moses, who never taught such a distorted creation story. Moses actually presented a condensed narrative to encourage worship of the Creator. After the Babylonian captivity, Jewish priests finalized their creation narrative, which they attributed to Moses. When translated for Ptolemy's library in Alexandria, this account became part of the sacred scriptures of Hebrew and Christian religions, profoundly influencing Western philosophy with its concept of a golden age followed by humanity's fall.