Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 74
ADAM AND EVE
1. Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia, from the year .A..D. 1934, 37,848 years ago...And from the time of their arrival ten days passed before they were re‑created in dual human form for presentation as the world's new rulers. They regained consciousness simultaneously ...It is the essence of their service at all times and in all places never to be separated. They are designed to work in pairs.
2. The Planetary Adam and Eve of Urantia were members of the senior corps of Material Sons on Jerusem...They belonged to the third physical series and were a little more than eight feet in height. At the time Adam was chosen to come to Urantia, he was employed, with his mate, in the trial‑and‑testing physical laboratories of Jerusem...Long before this they had been teachers in the citizenship schools for new arrivals on Jerusem.
3. The details of Urantia affairs were fully presented; they were exhaustively instructed as to the plans to be pursued in accepting the responsibilities of rulership on such a strife‑torn world.
4. This Jerusem pair left behind them on the capital of Satania and elsewhere, one hundred offspring ...And they were all present in the beautiful temple of the Material Sons attendant upon the farewell exercises associated with the last ceremonies of the bestowal acceptance...The children spent some time together at the family rendezvous rejoicing that their parents were soon to become the visible heads, in reality the sole rulers, of planet 606 in the system of Satania.
5. Soon after their awakening, Adam and Eve were escorted to the formal reception on the great mound to the north of the temple ...Here, at noon, the Urantia reception committee welcomed this Son and Daughter of the system of Satania. Amadon was chairman of this committee, which consisted of twelve members embracing a representative of each of the six Sangik races; the acting chief of the midwayers; Annan, a loyal daughter and spokesman for the Nodites; Noah, the son of the architect and builder of the Garden and executive for his deceased father's plans; and the two resident Life Carriers.
6. The next act was the delivery of the charge of planetary custody to Adam and Eve by the senior Melchizedek, chief of the council of receivership on Urantia... Then was heard the archangels' proclamation, and the broadcast voice of Gabriel decreed the second judgment roll call of Urantia...the third planetary epoch, opens amidst scenes of simple grandeur.
7. And now, after their formal installation, Adam and Eve became painfully aware of their planetary isolation. Silent were the familiar broadcasts, and absent were all the circuits of extraplanetary communication…It was a serious and disillusioned Son and Daughter of Jerusem who walked that night through the Garden under the shining of' the full moon, discussing plans for the next day.
8. Adam's second day on earth was spent in session with the planetary receivers and the advisory council ...The third day was devoted to an inspection of the Garden ... On the fourth day Adam and Eve addressed the Garden assembly... It was an astounding innovation to behold Eve, a woman, sharing the honors and responsibilities of world affairs with a man ...The fifth day was occupied with the organization of the temporary government...The sixth day was devoted to an inspection of the numerous types of men and animals... It greatly surprised those who accompanied Adam on this trip to observe how fully he understood the nature and function of the thousands upon thousands of animals shown him…Those who conducted him on this tour of inspection did not know that the new ruler was one of the most expert anatomists of all Satania;...Adam amazed his associates by describing hosts of things too small to be seen by human eyes.
9. That night, the night fol1owflig the sixth day... strange things were transpiring in the vicinity of the Father's temple…There, under the rays of the mellow moon, hundreds of enthusiastic and excited men and women listened for hours to the impassioned pleas of their leaders ...The amazing events of the first six days of Adam and Eve on earth were entirely too much for the unprepared minds of even the world's best men; their heads were in a whirl; they were swept along with the proposal to bring the noble pair up to the Father's temple at high noon in order that everyone might bow down in respectful worship and prostrate themselves in humble submission.
10. Van protested ...But Van's protest was swept aside. He was told that he was likewise too modest, too unassuming... It was near the dawn of their seventh day on earth that Adam and Eve heard the startling news of the proposal of these well‑meaning but misguided mortals ...the midwayers...transported Adam and Eve to the Father's temple... Adam held forth in explanation of the orders of divine sonship and made clear to these earth minds that only the Father and those whom he designates may be worshipped. Adam made it plain that he would accept any honor and receive all respect, but worship never
11. It was a momentous day, and just before noon ...Adam and Eve...pointed to the Father's temple and said: "Go you now to the material emblem of the Father's invisible presence and bow down in worship of him who made us all and who keeps us living. And let this act be the sincere pledge that you never will again be tempted to worship anyone but God."...And this was the origin of the Sabbath‑day tradition…long it was the custom to devote this day to self‑culture.. The forenoon was devoted to physical improvement, the noontime to spiritual worship, the afternoon to mind culture, while the evening was spent in social rejoicing.
12. For almost seven years after Adam's arrival the Melchizedek receivers remained on duty, but the time finally came when they turned the administration of world affairs over to Adam and returned to Jerusem...the translation of Van and Amadon occurring simultaneously with the departure of the twelve Melchizedeks.
13. Adam made a heroic and determined effort to establish a world government but he met with stubborn resistance at every turn. Adam had already put in operation a system of group control throughout Eden and had federated all of these companies into the Edenic league...Even among the Edenites there were those confused minds that leaned toward the Caligastia teaching of unbridled personal liberty; and they caused Adam no end of trouble...He was finally compelled to withdraw his program for immediate socialization; he fell back on Van's method of organization, dividing the Edenites into companies of one hundred with captains over each and with lieutenants in charge of groups of ten.
14. Adamson was the first‑born of the violet race of Urantia...Eve...bore sixty‑three children, thirty‑two daughters and thirty‑one sons, before the default. When Adam and Eve left the Garden, their family consisted of four generations numbering 1,647 pure‑line descendants. They had forty‑two children after leaving the Garden besides the two offspring of joint parentage with the mortal stock of earth. And this does not include the Adamic parentage to the Nodite and evolutionary races.
15. The Adamic children did not take milk from animals when they ceased to nurse the mother's breast at one year of age. Eve had access to the milk of a great variety of nuts and to the juices of many fruits, and knowing full well the chemistry and energy of these foods, she suitably combined them for the nourishment of her children until the appearance of teeth.
16. While cooking was universally employed outside of the immediate Adamic sector of Eden, there was no cooking in Adam's household. They found their foods—fruits, nuts, and cereals—ready prepared as they ripened. They ate once a day, shortly after noontime.
17. The bodies of Adam and Eve gave forth a shimmer of light…The origin of the traditional halo encircling the heads of supposed pious and holy men dates back to the days of Adam and Eve. Since the light emanations of their bodies were so largely obscured by clothing, only the radiating glow from their heads was discernible. The descendents of Adamson always thus portrayed their concept of individuals believed to be extraordinary in spiritual development.
18. Adam and Eve could communicate with each other and with their immediate children over a distance of about fifty miles...But this power was instantly suspended upon the mind's surrender to the discord and disruption of evil.
19. The Adamic children attended their own schools until they were sixteen .... The little folks changed activities every thirty minutes, the older every hour... The play and humor of the present‑day races are largely derived from the Adamic stock. The Adamites all had a great appreciation of music as well as a keen sense of humor.
20. The average age of betrothal was eighteen...at twenty they were eligible for marriage; and after marriage they began their lifework or entered upon special preparation therefor.
21. The chi1dren of Adam ...were trained intellectually until they were sixteen in accordance with the methods of the Jerusem schools. From sixteen to twenty they were taught in the Urantia schools at the other end of the Garden, serving there also as teachers in the lower grades. The entire purpose of the western school system of the Garden was socialization.
22. The moral law of Eden was little different from the seven commandments of Dalamatia... The public worship hour of Eden was noon; sunset was the hour of family worship. Adam did his best to discourage the use of set prayers, teaching that effective prayer must be wholly individual. ..Adam also endeavored to substitute the offerings of the fruit of the land for the blood sacrifices in the religious ceremonies but had made little progress before the disruption of the Garden. Adam endeavored to teach the races sex equality. The way Eve worked by the side of her husband made a profound impression upon all dwellers in the Garden.
23. The story of the creation of Urantia in six days was based on the tradition that Adam and Eve had spent six days in their initial survey of the Garden... The story of creating Eve out of Adam's rib is a confused condensation of the Adamic arrival and the celestial surgery connected with the interchange of living substances associated with the coming of the corporeal staff of the Planetary Prince more than four hundred and fifty thousand years previously.
24. Away from the influences of Dalamatia and Eden, mankind tended toward the belief in the gradual ascent of the human race. The fact of evolution is not a modern discovery... The Babylonians, because of immediate contact with the remnants of the civilization of the Adamites, enlarged and embellished the story of man's creation.
25. The Old Testament account of creation dates from long after the time of Moses; he never taught the Hebrews such a distorted story...In his early teachings, .Moses very wisely did not attempt to go back of Adam's time, and since Moses was the supreme teacher of the Hebrews, the stories of Adam became intimately associated with those of creation.
26. The Hebrews... learned the use of an alphabet from the neighboring Philistines, who were political refugees from the higher civilization of Crete. Tile Hebrews did little writing until about 900 B.C.
27. When the Jewish priests returned to Jerusalem, they had already completed the writing of their narrative of the beginning of things. Soon they made claims that this recital was a recnt1y discovered story of creation written by Moses. But the contemporary Hebrews or around 500 B.C. did not consider these writings to be divine revelations; they looked upon them much as later peoples regard mytho1ogical narratives.
28. The Christian teachers perpetuated the belief in the fiat creation of the human race, and all this led directly to the formation of the hypothesis of a one‑time golden age of utopian bliss and the theory of the fall of man or superman which accounted for the nonutopian condition of society.
29. The "golden age" is a myth, but Eden was a fact, and the Garden civilization was actually overthrown. Adam and Eve carried on in the Garden for one hundred and seventeen years when, through the impatience of Eve and the errors of judgment of Adam, they presumed to turn aside from the ordained way speedily bringing disaster upon themselves and ruinous retardation upon the developmental progression of all Urantia.
Discussion Questions
1. Why were Adam and Eve re-created over eight feet in height?
2. How did Amadon communicate with his reception committee which contained a midwayer and two Life Carriers?
3. How does one explain that fandors could carry eight foot human beings?
4. How did Adam know the origin, nature, and behavior of thousands of animals?
5. Is the Sabbath-day tradition helpful in our observance of the Sabbath?
6. Why were Caligastia and Daligastia left on our planet to cause trouble?
7.Why do theologians call the Genesis story of the origin of man a myth?
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