The Journey to the Americas: An Ancient Mystery Unveiled

A fascinating scientific question: Where did humans originate, and how did they reach the many continents of the world? Science suggests that humans first appeared in Africa, which leads to the immediate inquiry: How did humans arrive on other continents? After all, when modern humans arrived, each continent was already inhabited by earlier "native" people.

In America, the Native Americans.

In Australia, the Aboriginals.

In Japan, the Jomon people.

How did humans reach these distant lands? Here, we'll first present the scientific answer, followed by insights from the Torah, based on the straightforward reading of the scriptures.

How Humans Reached the Americas: Scientific Perspective

How did humans reach these remote continents? According to science, humans migrated. This migration took them from Africa through Europe and Asia to America, Australia, and Japan.

But wait, there's an ocean... how could they cross it?

Science offers various theories to explain this great migration, with a different hypothesis for each continent. Here's what they propose.

The Americas

Scientists suggest that humans arrived in America via the polar route. According to some scientists, there was a time when there was a traversable path from Europe to America across the pole, which was ice-free.

In other words, humans embarked on an arduous journey into the icy polar region (even if without ice), with no idea of their destination, no knowledge that something lay on the other side, and without knowing the way—a true suicide mission... and yet, miraculously, they found the path and arrived in the Americas.

But hold on, it wasn't just humans. There were animals too. Before modern humans arrived in the 15th century, the Americas were already home to animals similar to those found on other continents: dogs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, bears, deer, and some say even horses. Therefore, humans would have needed to accompany these animals on the remarkable journey through the pole.

This, of course, sounds illogical even to scientists, leading to another proposition: animals themselves crossed the ocean during the Ice Age, when it was covered by ice. A journey of at least 50 miles (as seen on the map in the attached document), across a barren ice surface.

Australia

According to science, people reached Australia from Asia by sea on primitive boats during the prehistoric era. The distance is naturally impossible for such vessels, prompting science to resort to several hypotheses to facilitate this extraordinary journey. These claims are:

1. The sea level was lower than it is today, by about 492 feet.
2. Because the sea level was lower, the sea distance was shorter: about 56 to 93 miles.
3. This distance is still too great for the proposed journey, so there's another claim that islands existed along the way, where travelers could stop.

The low-sea hypothesis seems tenuous in itself, as if created to resolve a problem against findings. But for the sake of discussion, let's assume these assumptions are correct, and let's do the math together: On a lake (not an ocean), in modern-day, well-engineered scientific and industrial canoes, paddling vigorously without rest, it's a continuous journey of 30 hours. With extremely cumbersome prehistoric canoes—or maybe even before such canoes existed—in a real ocean, it's an unfathomable journey.

Regarding the islands along the way, well, they aren't around today (sea level has risen again, according to science), and for those that do exist, no signs of settlement or people from that era have been found. So we're dealing with speculation without basis—appearing like an ad hoc hypothesis created just to historically enable the journey.

Japan

How did humans reach Japan? That's not quite clear either. Here, too, the scientific answer is similar: in the past, the sea was lower, or virtually nonexistent, allowing ancient humans to simply walk to Japan.

What Does the Torah Say?

Let's present our own proposal for how humans reached remote continents, based on the verses in the Torah.

We begin with Genesis: "And God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered... and let the dry land appear'" (Genesis 1:9).

According to the Torah, at the dawn of history there was one single continent. Science, by the way, discovered this phenomenon known as "continental drift" only about 70 years ago, a major find in the mid-20th century.

Now, let's note that according to the Torah, Hashem names the single continent. This name becomes significant as we continue. Here's the verse: "And God called the dry land Earth" (Genesis 1:10).

The continent is named "Earth." As we move on with the verses, after the Tower of Babel sin, the Torah states: "And Hashem scattered them over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:8).

Following the Babel Tower sin, Hashem disperses humans across the entire continent. Note—they're still on a single continent.

Now, the key point: at this juncture, with humans and animals alike already spread across the continent, take a look at what happens to the continent (remember the "Earth"?): "the Earth was divided" (Genesis 10:25), "the islands of the nations separated" (Genesis 10:5), "the Earth was divided" (Onkelos translation, Jonathan translation).

Now the continents divided. Notice—the separation of the continents occurred while humans were already on them.

This easily explains why we find the same humans, and the same animals, across different continents.

So, what do you find more logical?

Perilous polar expeditions, animals crossing icy oceans, impossible journeys in primitive canoes into the depths of the ocean, or a single continent populated with people, splitting as described in the Torah?

Final Notes:

1. Opponents of this idea may argue that it doesn't align with scientific dating. However, scientific dating is problematic and flawed, see the chapter "Scientific Dating" in this book.
2. The idea presented here is neither Talmudic nor Midrashic, but a novelty blending Torah and science, based on a straightforward interpretation of the scriptures.

The text is from the book "Worlds Intertwined." To download and read the chapter in a PDF file, click here.

The author holds a B.Sc in physics with honors from the Technion.