The role of Ego-pronouns in

the Creation Legend

jwr47

Common creation legends

The points of resemblance between Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and hence also between the former
and Christianity, are many and striking. Both religions obviously share the creation in six days and
the deluge history.
Some other studies revealed these events may have influenced etymology. Especially the egopronouns (the personal pronoun of the first person singular) had been linked to the creation legend
by using ego-pronouns such as adam, man, mn and even Dji or ieu as a scattered parts
of the Provencal deity Dieu. In some remote countrysides the correlations between ego-pronouns
such as Sardinian DU and Dyaus-derivations such as Sardinian DU seemed to be approaching
98-100%. And of course even the Provencal ego-pronoun ieu matched the divine name Dieu to
75%.
In a strange manner the creation legend had modified the ego-pronouns on a global scale (from the
British isles up to Persia and probably even covering the complete Indo-European territory...
I investigated the Jewish encyclopedia (1907) for the resemblance between Zoroastrianism and
Judaism and found some resonances in their creation legends, which also resonated in the egopronouns.
Man it seems considered himself in the ego-pronouns as an image of God and had chosen
various ways of expressing this divine image in his ego-pronouns. In Persia the ego-pronoun had
been named Adam or Man, in western Europe the ego-pronoun ultimately was to be chosen a part of
the divine name, be it Dji, De, ieu, iau or iou or the deteriorated versions of the smaller
scattered je, ja, io or even singular vowels i, a, u, e, , which all accidentally had
been chosen to perform as images of the Creator1.
This as an amazing result of etymological evolution also implied that the Creation itself had not
been a local process, but a planned concept to design the Indo-European linguistic base. It had not
been a linguistic concept, but also a philosophical base, including the creation legend of a common
Adam and Eve (life)2.
This I thought might need some more background to check the theses for approbation. Some of the
evidence might be found in the Jewish encyclopedia3.
Adam is the Hebrew word for "man". Adam Kadmon, the first creature Man might have been
androgynous and the describing vowels in the ego-pronoun ( yau in Dyaus, or yeu in Proto-IndoEuropean *Dyeus - alternatively spelled dyws, Germanic Twaz, Gaulish Duos) might symbolize
three elements such as male (i), female (u) and another third element (a or e). This enigma still
remains to be solved.
Dyas means "sky, heaven". Philo's Adam Kadmon, the original man, is an ,
heavenly man. And the heavenly man seems to have been symbolized in the common egopronoun, in which even 4 had been representing the core of the sky-god DYUS.
1 An I, Which had been Copied from the Word
2 Notes to the Cuneiform Old-Persian Scripture
3 This website contains the complete contents of the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, which was originally published
between 1901-1906. The Jewish Encyclopedia, which recently became part of the public domain, contains over
15,000 articles and illustrations.
4 In many western, northern, and southwestern Norwegian dialects, and in the western Danish dialects of Thy and

Adam and Man in Swadesh Lists

To analyze these effects I analyzed the Swadesh Word List of Indo-European languages in a huge
spreadsheet of Swadesh words, which seemed to be the completest of all lists. I copied the
document to my Google Docs storage and started a search for the word adam and found the
following entries:
Language

Ego-pronoun (I) Man (as a male Thouperson)

pronoun

Woman

Old Persian

mm, adam,

martiya-, *nar-

tuvam,
uvm,

----- 5

mard, adam

to/tu

zan

nafar
fard
shakh
ensn
kas

nara
purush

Tvam,
bhavant
(hon. )

str

manav
jana
manu

(Romanized)

Persian (Iranian) man

(Romanized)

Sanskrit

Aham

(Romanized)

Man
(human being)

Table 1 Swadesh list, copied from various Swadesh Word Lists

Flood myth is a widespread myth, in Indo-European as in other cultures (for example, Noah
and Utnapishtim myths). In Hindu mythology, there is a story of a great flood, wherein the
Matsya Avatar of Vishnu warns the first man, Manu. In Greek mythology, Deucalion is the
survivor of the flood, and his sons Aeolus, Ion and Dorus are the founders of the three main
lines of modern Greeks.
The list revealed the correlation between the ego-pronoun and the first man Adam as well as the
word for the first human being man.

adam = the ego pronoun (I) in old-Persian and a man (male person) in Persian
aham = the ego pronoun (I) in Sanskrit.
man = the ego pronoun (I) in Iranian (Persian) language.

A study of the Jewish Encyclopedia may explain some of these strange correlations between the
words for man and the ego-pronouns in Persian and old-Persian.

Magnus = Mannus (?)

I understood that in Sardinian Mannu in Babbu Mannu and Mere Mannu had to be interpreted
as magnus (great), but Allemagne had to be understood as "all-men":
A Roman text (dated CE 98) tells that Mannus, the son of Tuisto, was the ancestor of the
Germanic people, according to Tacitus, writing in Latin, in Germania 2. We never see
this being again, but the name Allemagne is interpreted (perhaps by folk etymology) as
"all-men" the name for themselves6.
And in this sense Babbu Mannu and Mere Mannu may also be translated as Father of Man
respectively Mother of Man.
Southern Jutland, has a significant meaning: the first person singular pronoun I, and it is thus a normal spoken
word;
5 Probably up to today never found in the discovered libraries of cuneiform clay tablets
6 Proto-Indo-European religion

Adam and Eve

Mankind, according to each religion, is descended from a single couple, and Mashya (man) and
Mashyana are the Iranian Adam (man) and Eve.
In the Bible a deluge destroys all people except a single righteous individual and his family; in the
Avesta a winter depopulates the earth except in the Vara ("enclosure") of the blessed Yima. In each
case the earth is peopled anew with the best two of every kind, and is afterward divided into three
realms.
The three sons of Yima's successor Thraetaona, named Erij (Avesta, "Airya"), Selm (Avesta,
"Sairima"), and Tur (Avesta, "Tura"), are the inheritors in the Persian account; Shem, Ham, and
Japheth, in the Semitic story.
In Germanic mythology the name Tuisto, Mannus and the three children are well-known from
Tacitus.
In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering or recording the past, they
celebrate an earth-born god, Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their race, as
their founders. To Mannus they assign three sons, from whose names, they say, the coast
tribes are called Ingaevones; those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istaevones.
We may list these names in a table:
Semitic version Persian
version
First creature

Avesta
version

Adam
(Kadmon ?)

1st male

Adam

Mashya

may

Ask

1st female

Eve

Mashyana

mayn

Embla

Saved

Noah

Yima,
Thraetaona

Saved triad

Shem,
Ham,
Japeth

Erij,
Selm,
Tur

Airya,
Sairima,
Tura

Germanic

Vedic

Tuisto

Tvastar 7

Mannus

Yama and Yami

Ingaevones
Herminones
Istaevones

Table 2: Few extracts of the variety of creation legends

7 Tvastar is said to have made the three worlds with pieces of the Sun god Surya.

Extracts from the Jewish Encyclopedia (1907)

Zoroastrianism8
Resemblances between Zoroastrianism and Judaism.9
The points of resemblance between Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and hence also between the former
and Christianity, are many and striking.
Ahuramazda, the supreme lord of Iran, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal, endowed with creative
power, which he exercises especially through the medium of his Spenta Mainyu ("Holy Spirit"), and
governing the universe through the instrumentality of angels and archangels, presents the nearest
parallel to Yhwh that is found in antiquity.
But Ormuzd's power is hampered by his adversary, Ahriman, whose dominion, however, like
Satan's, shall be destroyed at the end of the world. Zoroastrianism and Judaism present a number of
resemblances to each other in their general systems of angelology and demonology, points of
similarity which have been especially emphasized by the Jewish rabbinical scholars Schorr and
Kohut and the Christian theologian Stave.
There are striking parallels between the two faiths and Christianity in their eschatological teachings
the doctrines of a regenerate world, a perfect kingdom, the coming of a Messiah, the resurrection
of the dead, and the life everlasting.
Both Zoroastrianism and Judaism are revealed religions: in the one Ahuramazda imparts his
revelation and pronounces his commandments to Zarathustra on "the Mountain of the Two Holy
Communing Ones"; in the other Yhwh holds a similar communion with Moses on Sinai.
The Magian laws of purification, moreover, more particularly those practised to remove pollution
incurred through contact with dead or unclean matter, are given in the Avestan Venddd quite as
elaborately as in the Levitical code, with which the Zoroastrian book has been compared (see
Avesta).
The two religions agree in certain respects with regard to their cosmological ideas. The six days of
Creation in Genesis find a parallel in the six periods of Creation described in the Zoroastrian
scriptures.
Mankind, according to each religion, is descended from a single couple, and Mashya (man) and
Mashyana are the Iranian Adam (man) and Eve.
In the Bible a deluge destroys all people except a single righteous individual and his family; in the
Avesta a winter depopulates the earth except in the Vara ("enclosure") of the blessed Yima.
In each case the earth is peopled anew with the best two of every kind, and is afterward divided into
three realms.
The three sons of Yima's successor Thraetaona, named Erij (Avesta, "Airya"), Selm (Avesta,
"Sairima"), and Tur (Avesta, "Tura"), are the inheritors in the Persian account; Shem, Ham, and
Japheth, in the Semitic story.
Likenesses in minor matters, in certain details of ceremony and ritual, ideas of uncleanness, and the
like, are to be noted, as well as parallels between Zoroaster and Moses as sacred lawgivers; and
many of these resemblances are treated in the works referred to at the end of this article.

8 Zoroastrianism
9 Resemblances Between Zoroastrianism and Judaism

Judo-Persian10
Punctuation11
For the vowels, the following may be noted: Long "" is usually left undesignated, though it is often
indicated by the vowel-letter or by ame; short "" ("") is often designated by shewa,
sometimes by ;final "h" ("h") here and there by . Short "" is designated by the vowel-letter ;
short "" by the vowel-letter ( comp. "Z. D. M. G." liii. 412).

Vowels12
A marked characteristic of Judo-Persian is the very frequent use of the vowel "u", it often being
substituted for other vowels, for "a" ("e") or "i." The fact that in the Samuel commentary "u"
(written )sometimes takes the place of "," may perhaps be explained by the supposition that in
pronunciation the vowel "i" sounded like "," and that this was rendered by ;hence, conversely, a
is sometimes found for "u" (
= "dushman" ="enemy").
It has already been noted that the Judo-Persian texts carefully designate (by and ) the vowels
"" and "," which in Persian writing are not distinguished from "" and "." Also the suffixes of the
first person plural ("-m," "-d") are frequently written
and
(also
). Modern publications
and manuscripts write "segol" instead of "ere" (see "Z. D. M. G." lii. 199). For short "," the
pronunciation "" is also found (the Samuel commentary writes , also , for "sih" = "three";
,
but also
, for "gird" = "around," "about"). In the transliteration of Arabic words the JudoPersian texts of both ancient and modern times indicate the "imalah" of the "a" sound; the Samuel
commentary also writes
("ishtew") for the Persian word "shitb." For the shortening of vowels
in Judo-Persian see Nldeke, "Litterarisches Centralblatt," 1889, p. 890. The above-mentioned
transcription of short vowels by means of "shewa" points to a shortened pronunciation of the
vowels.

Cyrus13
Cyrus' Religious Belief14.
There can be no doubt that Cyrus and his Persians, like Darius at a later period, were faithful
believers in the pure doctrine of Zoroaster, and disdainfully regarded foreign cults; that they had the
consciousness of a superior religious belief, and relied upon the protection of Ahuramazda, the great
god who had created heaven, earth, and man, and had placed the world at the feet of the
Achmenian kings. In a political sense, however, they were compelled to reckon with the religions
of the subjugated peoples; and Cyrus and his successors skilfully employed this necessity as a
means of securing their power. The time-honored customs of the people were everywhere
preserved. Cyrus always conformed to the traditions of the thrones he usurped, and, together with
his son Cambyses, rendered homage to the native deities. On the first day of the year, Nisan 1
(March 20), 538, in conformity with Babylonian custom, he grasped the hands of the golden statue
of Bel-Marduk, and thus became consecrated as monarch. From this ceremony dates the first year
of his reign as "King of Babylon, King of all the Lands."
10
11
12
13
14

Judo-Persian (article)
Punctuation (article)
Vowels
Cyrus (article)
His Religious Belief

Adam admon15
Adam admon (more correctly, admoni. The oldest rabbinical source for the term
"Adam ha-admoni" is Num. R. x., where Adam is styled, not as usually, "Ha-Rishon"
(the first), but "Ha-admoni" (the original). Compare the very ancient expression
"naash ha-admoni" (the original serpent, the devil). Adam, Hebrew for "man";
admon or admoni, "first" or "original"):

Philo16
The various philosophical (Gnostic) views concerning the original man are, in spite of their
differences, intimately related, being a compound of Oriental mythology, Greek philosophy, and
rabbinical theology.
The first to use the expression "original man," or "heavenly man," is Philo, in whose view the
, or , "as being born in the image of God, has no participation in any
corruptible or earthlike essence; whereas the earthly man is made of loose material, called a lump of
clay" ("De Allegoriis Legum," I. xii.).
The heavenly man, as the perfect image of the Logos, is neither man nor woman, but an incorporeal
intelligence purely an idea; while the earthly man, who was created by God later, is perceptible to
the senses and partakes of earthly qualities ("De Mundi Opificio," i. 46).
Philo is evidently combining Midrash and philosophy, Plato and the rabbis. Setting out from the
duplicate Biblical account of Adam, who was formed in the image of God (Gen. i. 27), and of the
first man, whose body God formed from the earth (Gen. ii. 7), he combines with it the Platonic
doctrine of ideas; taking the primordial Adam as the idea, and the created man of flesh and blood as
the "image."
That Philo's philosophic views are grounded on the Midrash, and not vice versa, is evident from his
seemingly senseless statement that the "heavenly man," the (who is merely an
idea), is "neither man nor woman."
This doctrine, however, becomes quite intelligible in view of the following ancient Midrash. The
remarkable contradiction between the two above-quoted passages of Genesis could not escape the
attention of the Pharisees, to whom the Bible was a subject of close study.
In explaining the various views concerning Eve's creation, they taught ('Er. 18a, Gen. R. viii.) that
Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynos), explaining
(Gen. i. 27) as "male and
female" instead of "man and woman," and that the separation of the sexes arose from the
subsequent operation upon Adam's body, as related in the Scripture.
This explains Philo's statement that the original man was neither man nor woman.

15 Adam admon
16 Philo (c. 25 BCE c. 50 CE) - Philo read the Jewish Scriptures chiefly in the Septuagint Greek translation.

Contents
Common creation legends...............................................................................................................1
Adam and Man in Swadesh Lists.............................................................................................2
Magnus = Mannus (?).................................................................................................................2
Adam and Eve.............................................................................................................................3
Extracts from the Jewish Encyclopedia (1907)....................................................................................4
Zoroastrianism.................................................................................................................................4
Resemblances between Zoroastrianism and Judaism. ...............................................................4
Judo-Persian..................................................................................................................................5
Punctuation..................................................................................................................................5
Vowels.........................................................................................................................................5
Cyrus................................................................................................................................................5
Cyrus' Religious Belief. .............................................................................................................5
Adam admon.................................................................................................................................6
Philo............................................................................................................................................6