These days because of the assaults by proponents of creationism against the teaching of evolution, science and religion have again been thrown into a manufactured, primitive conflict. In this instance, science dramatically reinforces the unity of the human family enunciated in the opening chapter of the Torah and exquisitely elaborated by the Rabbis. There is nothing self-evident about explaining the bracing reality of human diversity in terms of a single common ancestor. In a world of myths populated by many deities, the origins of humanity could be imagined in sundry ways. For the Torah, human life springs from the formation of one generic couple culminating the order of creation.
Genealogy is meant to deliver a moral message.
From those strands, encoded with the unity of humankind, the Rabbis wove an extraordinary tapestry to celebrate our shared humanity. The locus of this discourse was to be a court of law sitting in a capital case. Prior to giving testimony, witnesses were reminded of the gravity of capital punishment. Speculation could lead to the taking of an innocent life. The first lesson imbedded in the opening chapter of Genesis is that all human life is of absolute and ultimate value.