More on Proto-Semitic

It should be noted that Proto-Semitic is part of a huge language group, Afro-Asiatic. Semitic language and peoples probably came out of Africa. (This statement has been edited per language hat's suggestion.) But that's not surprising, right, since it's believed that life homo sapiens began first appeared in Africa.

Another implicit theological question: Where is Eden? What was Eden? The answer is: I don't know. I'm inclined to believe that homo sapiens did indeed come out of Africa. What did the author(s) of Genesis intend? I'm inclined to believe Eden was in Mesopotamia, in the East, in the author's mind. Was there a literal Eden? Don't know.

What about Adam and Eve? Don't know. Do Adam and Eve refer to the first home sapiens? Maybe. I had a professor one time who believed God might have taken home erectus and 'ensouled' them. That makes sense to me. Could be. But I wouldn't necessarily pin them down as Adam and Eve with no remainder. Because there seem to be other humans around pretty shortly after Eden in Genesis (at least on my reading). I haven't looked at it in an academic way, but I don't get the impression that you have to read from Genesis that there were no people who were not descended from Adam and Eve.

(Note: I don't believe evolution across species has been proven. I believe God worked that part of evolution. But I could totally be wrong.)

Could it have all been literally like the Bible can be literally read? Yep. God could have done it that way. It wouldn't fit my concept of God, but He's bigger than my concept. None of this specualtion is mission critical for me.