According to The Book of Light, Adam and Eve were not the first human beings to inhabit the Earth. They were the first members of a second and distinct order of humanity, created after the establishment of the Sabean population in Genesis Chapter 1. Whereas the Sabeans (man or mankind) were created collectively on the sixth day and distributed throughout the world, Adam (the man) appears separately in Genesis Chapter 2 as a single man, formed from the dust and then placed within a specially prepared Garden.
“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” (Genesis 2:7-8)
This particular creation is also described as the act of a singular Deity—a distinction that forms one of the foundational principles of The Book of Light’s reconstructed chronology. Where Genesis Chapter 1 employs the plural “Us” and “Our,” the creation of Adam is framed in the singular, a contrast the book regards as theologically significant. The Quran affirms the same point, preserving the creation of Adam as a direct act of the Lord God alone.
“Your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am going to create a human being from sounding clay molded from black mud. So, when I have fashioned him and had a spirit of My Own creation breathed into him, fall down in prostration to him.’” (The Quran 15:28-29)
Genesis Chapter 1 describes mankind being created male and female, commanded to multiply, replenish the Earth, and exercise dominion over it (Genesis 1:26-28). Then in Chapter 2, the creation narrative turns to a single man—formed individually, placed within the protected confines of the Garden of Eden, and initially existing without a human companion (Genesis 2:7-18). Eve is subsequently formed from Adam (Genesis 2:21-24), establishing not another global population but a single ancestral pair from whom a family, not a people, would emerge (Genesis 5:1-5; Jeremiah 31:1; Amos 3:1-2).
Within the book’s framework, Adam and Eve therefore represent something very different from the multitudinous Sabeans. The Sabeans were created as a population; Adam and Eve began as a family. One represented humanity dispersed throughout the Earth; the other represented a genealogical line that would unfold one generation at a time. This distinction becomes increasingly important throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, which carefully preserve Adam’s genealogy through successive generations rather than presenting his descendants as the entirety of humanity. From Adam came Seth, from Seth a continuing lineage, and eventually Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 5:1-32; 11:10-32).
The Book of Light identifies Adam and Eve as the progenitors of the Hebrews—a distinct lineage set apart within the Most High’s Divine Government. Their separation from the Sabeanic world was initially geographical as well as genealogical: Adam and Eve inhabited the Paradise of Eden until their transgression resulted in their expulsion from the Garden (Genesis 3:22-24). Only after their expulsion did they cross over from the protected realm they had known into the broader world already inhabited beyond Eden.
Within this framework, that crossing carries profound significance. The Book of Light associates the designation Hebrew with the concept of “crossing over” or “coming from beyond.” Adam and Eve thus became the first Hebrew sojourners—strangers entering a world that was not originally their own (Hebrews 11:13). Their sojourning established a pattern repeatedly echoed throughout the history of their descendants, from Abraham leaving Mesopotamia for Canaan to Israel wandering through the wilderness toward the Promised Land (Genesis 15:13-14; 23:4; 1 Chronicles 29:15).
The distinction between Adam and the preexisting Sabean population also changes how The Book of Light approaches some of the oldest questions surrounding Genesis. Where did Cain’s wife come from? Whom did Cain fear after killing Abel? Who inhabited the land of Nod? Why does the biblical narrative move so quickly from a single family to settlements and cities? Within the book’s reconstructed chronology, these questions arise largely from the assumption that Adam and Eve were alone upon the Earth. Once the Sabeanic population of Genesis Chapter 1 is restored to the narrative, the world beyond Eden is no longer an empty world awaiting Adam’s descendants.
Adam and Eve therefore occupy a pivotal position within The Book of Light: not as the beginning of all humanity, but as the beginning of the Hebrew lineage. From one man and one woman would emerge a family of sojourners that would eventually become a covenant people, a nation, a Kingdom, and ultimately the lineage through which the Messiah would enter the world.
