| Main Article | Theories about Adam and Eve |
Main Discussion |
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The names
- In the Bible, Adam was created from dust. In the Jahwist and Priestly sources for the first five books of Genesis we are told that the Hebrew word for dust (or red earth) is "adamah". (Gen. 2), from which the translation "Adam" comes. The Hebrew word is spelled alef, daled, mem. The words here are a metaphor in themselves for the connection between man and his origins "adam(ah)". Further, it suggests the concept of a cycle - man comes from dust and (as the funeral service notes) returns to dust. This is also written of in Hasidic literature, that Adam was the first to walk the earth and he returned to it. This is a pointer to the fact that time on the Island can be thought of as a cycle, and fits into the comment that Adam and Eve are linked to the Island's "timeline". "Adam" in the Old Testament is actually said not to be a name, but rather the Hebrew word for mankind. "Eve" (Hebrew "Hevah") is also the word for "womb".
- In the Bible, Eve was created from one of Adam's ribs. The human body has 24 ribs, so the real Adam would have 23 ribs.
The stones
The stones found on the bodies.
- The stones could be a reference to Urim and Thummim, stones used as a scrying medium or in a divination process by ancient Hebrews.
- High priests of Israel (Kohen HaGadol) are documented to have used different valuable gems with various inscriptions on them (called Urim and Thummim) to decide God's will and help in decision making. The Urim and Thummim (which translates to Lights and Illuminations), were a black stone and a white stone which the words Urim u'Thummim on them, one word on each stone. The stones were used for revelation in conjunction with the Breastpiece of The High Priest, Hoshen HaMishpat in Hebrew, the Breastpiece of Judgement. The Hoshen was an embroidered work with gemstones, enlayed in gold, affixed to the piece. The piece itself functioned like a pouch. The gemstones numbered 12, one for each tribe of Israel. The names of the tribes were engraved on the stone, and on the three of the stones, the names Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) were engraved. Together, the names on all of these gemstones of the breastpiece covered all twenty-one letters of the Hebrew alphabet (some repeated obviously). Inside of the Holy of Holies, the Kadosh Kadoshim, was an eternal flame, Aysh Tamid. When the High Priest would enter the Kadosh Kadoshim the Aysh Tamid would reflect off of the gemstones in a certain manner, illuminating individual letters engraved on the gemstones, thus divining the revelation. The Urim and Thummim were then used for judgment of yes or no answers, removed from the pouch after the illumination of the letters.
- The Breastpiece of the High Priest was first worn by Aaron, Israel's first high priest. The stones were positioned directly over Aaron's heart to enable him to make the right decision.
- In Mormon tradition, the Urim and Thummim were used by Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon. They were said to be buried in the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, NY.
- These stones play an important role in the book The Alchemist by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, which is entirely about destiny, fate, and finding your place in the universe. In the book the main character is given two stones, one white and one black, by a religious being known as "The King". Their names are Urim and Thummim. In the story, the two stones are used to help guide our character to his treasure. When he is in a bind, he asks a yes or no question, and then he pulls out the stones. The stones glow according to the answer. White will glow if the answer is no, and black will glow if the answer is yes.
- You can read the book here. There's also a reference to an alchemist in the whispers in "The Beginning of the End".
- The black and white stones could also be a reference to yin and yang. This ties into the online theories of "twinness" that Rousseau proposed. This also relates to Boone's t-shirt (84), and the original status of Adam and Eve as created from a whole (if Eve was created from Adam's rib, then together they constitute a whole. Apart, like yin and yang, two complementary parts of one). The yin and yang symbol can also be seen in the Hanso Foundation logo.
- Locke introduces Backgammon as a game where "there are two players; one light, and one dark."
- The two people died in a suicide pact, and used the stones to determine who would kill the other first, like drawing straws. They commited suicide to avoid some horrible fate (perhaps the Sickness). Jack recognized this and that's why he removed the stones - he didn't want the survivors speculating on what might be so horrible on this island that it would drive a couple to suicide.
- Jack would not have been able to determine a cause of death- he's a doctor, not a pathologist.
- You may need to be a pathologist to deduce sickness as cause of death in a 50 year old skeleton, but you wouldn't necessarily need any qualifications to presume a suicide pact when two skeletons are lying side by side in a cave.
- Jack would not have been able to determine a cause of death- he's a doctor, not a pathologist.
Identities
"Adam" and "Eve" identity theories must be based on evidence. So far, we know that the clothing deterioration of these characters and their corpses as described by Jack implies that they died at least 40 - 50 years ago. Predictions of their identities should be supported by (1) evidence of who was on the island at that time AND (2) who died during this period. Thus, people who are still alive when the bodies are discovered are not viable "Adam" or "Eve" identity candidates - at least until canon evidence of a mechanism that explains this possibility is presented).
- I think this rule is no longer valid. I think there is plenty of time travel issues on the show to make certain other possibilities likely. Someone who was alive when the bodie were discovered could later go back to the past and then die. Jack very well, could be examining his own body.
| Character(s) | Reasoning |
|---|---|
| A native group (pre-DHARMA). | The skeletons could be part of a native group that was on the Island before the DHARMA Initiative. They could have also built the Four-Toed statue, or descended from these people. |
| Descendants from the Black Rock. | Descendants from the Black Rock who died on island. |
| Jacob and an unknown female. | In the last chapter of Genesis, Jacob is buried in a cave with Leah. Since Adam and Eve are created in the first chapter of Genesis, the survivors use of them as a nickname could be a hint. The Room 23 video also alludes to Jacob as a godlike being which suggests that his presence may not be physical, consistent with his death. |
| World War 2 service people. | Based on the 40-50 year estimate of their clothing deterioration made by Jack. The white and black stones may symbolize they were on different sides, perhaps similarly to the movie Hell in the Pacific. |
| Mikhail Bakunin and Bea Klugh. | Mikhail and Bea seem profoundly committed to the Island and have a strong relationship to one another. Bea asked Mikhail to kill her (arguably unnecessarily) rather than compromise with the Losties. Mikhail appears to have sustained life threatening - if not lethal - injuries on multiple occasions (thrown into the sonic fence by Locke, shot with a spear gun by Desmond, blowing himself up with a grenade). After shooting Bea, Mikhail begged the Sayid to kill him, and thanked Locke for attempting to do so. Their common, astonishing lack of concern for their own mortality, as well as at least Mikhail's reappearance after these injuries, may suggest that they are in fact already dead and that they are both merely apparitions. Just as Yemi's corpse sat in the crashed plane while the image of Yemi was somehow appropriated by a force on the island, Mikhail and Bea may be similarly manifestations of this force. Thus they are not concerned with their own mortality. The black and white stones may be a reference to this power, or perhaps more obviously, sentimental tokens representative of their surface difference in race, as well as their similarity (two roughly identical stones in all other ways besides color). |
| Are a man and woman who are undead apparitions "living" on the island | We have seen that (at least unburied) individuals whose dead bodies are on the island can exist as apparitions, somehow separate from those bodies in their prior form (i.e Hurley and Locke see Christian). This makes it possible that "adam" and "eve" are characters who are known to us. Clues to their identity might be that: 1) They would have no desire to leave the island since it apparently allows them to continue their existence - a clue that they are probably among the Others and (2) they are not afraid of death since they are ostensibly immortal. |
| Are Jack and Kate | Jack and Kate never return to the Island in their own time. They arrive there before the Dharma Initiative and perhaps even The Hostiles. We have seen time travel in the final episode of season four. Jack and Kate live out the rest of their lives on The Island living in the caves and are laid to rest there by The Hostiles when they arrive. Watch "House of the Rising Sun" again and pay attention to the dialog between Kate and Jack when they find the skeletons. Also, note the wonderful "time loop" of Jack finding the stones with the bodies, and of course the bodies have the stones because Jack brought them back with him when he and Kate returned, to later die in the caves, to be discovered by Jack, who takes the stones... |
| Are Rose and Bernard | We know they are planning to stay on the island. The beads: One Black, One White. |
| Are Sawyer and Juliet | Sawyer and Juliet are now trapped on the island. For reasons yet unknown they will not be a part of the The Hostiles group and live in the caves where they will die. |
A4993-E3
- Possibly A and E are references to Adam and Eve with 4993 a year of significance.
Miscellaneous
- Given the reference to an anagram in the episode "Not in Portland", it is interesting that one can rearrange the letters of the backwards message on the Room 23 video, "only fools are enslaved by time and space", into a sentence that will include "Adam and Eve".
- The anagram can include "lost on isle".
- Here is a complete anagram, though a bit clumsy: "Fans: Adam (Ebony), Eve (Pearl) end Lost cosily". This anagram refers to the notion that Adam and Eve may actually be the last two inhabitants of the Island, and references the two stones. Cosily is an alternate, old spelling of cozily: if they were the last inhabitants, then at least one of them had to lay down in that exact position to die.
- Possibly the "last" people ever to be on the island, considering A4993-E3, could mean in 4993.
- "Alas, Penny is by Desmond; O, a cave foretell" also works, I believe. It's a little weak, but I think I'm onto something. Desmond swore he'd never leave her side, and they all "have to go back."
- Interestingly, there is an apocryphal book of the New Testament, written in Syria in the 4th cent., called "The Cave of Treasures." The book chronicles the "first 5,500 years" of human history and describes how, upon banishment from Eden, Adam and Eve settled in a cave. It is in this cave that they begin to sire the "good people" that make up the human race. Meanwhile, the exiled Cain, is starting his own extended family in the valley below. These are the "bad people," who engage in all sorts of wickedness. The conflict between these two groups comprises most of the first "2,000" years.
- Two islands are famous in the Tongan mythos : 'Ata and 'Eua. They are told to be children of the primal being (Tonga) and the first places where Melanese people from the west came and settled. They are also parabolized as the first oceanian couple. Oceania is populated by two major ethnic groups : Polynesians (white) and Melanesians (black). [1]