Our Early Ancestors

OUR EARLY ANCESTORS

The First Filipinos

* The first explanation we have about our distant past come from three main sources: (1) the story of God's creation in the Bible; (2) the story of evolution made by human scientists; and (3) legends and fairytales made up by imaginative people.

* Because we are Christians, we believe that the story of God's creation of man, as described in the Holy Bible, is the real truth. Any other explanation about how early man came into being, is only the product of human theory or thinking, and it cannot be the truth. Because God made man in His image and likeness, we must love all men as the creation of God, even though they come from primitive or backward ways of living.

The Biblical Story

* According to the Holy Bible, all men and women originated from the first man (Adam) and the first woman (Eve). After the Great Flood, Noah and his three sons left to settle the earth. Noah's sons-Shem, Ham and Japheth- themselves had sons after the flood. On of the sons of the youngest, Japheth, was named Javan. Out of Javan, Noah's grandson, came four sons named Elishah, Tharsis, the Kittim and the Rodanim. "From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territory by their clans within their nations, each with its own language." Fr. Francisco Colin, a Jesuit historian, wrote that the first settlers of our country was Tharsis, son of Javan and great grandson of Noah, together with his brothers and their descendants. The descendants of these Biblical characters settled in the parts of the world that we now know as Asia, including the islands of the Philippines.

* Scientists do not believe in the story of God's creation as told in the Holy Bible. They have invented the theory of "evolution", or the story of how the first man came from apelike creatures who walked the face of the earth thousands of years ago.

* As Christians, however, we do not believe that man evolved from apelike creatures. Instead, we believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, because God loved us.

The Theory of Evolution

* Archaeologists-scientists who study about the past. They study old material relics like bones, jars, pottery and antique jewelry. These relics are found in the sites of old burial plots, homes or villages of people who lived long, long ago.

* These scientific explanations about the origin of the early Filipino, however, come from the theory of "evolution", or the belief that man came from apelike creatures who lived thousands of years ago in caves and had very crude tools.

* One group of scientists believe that the early Filipinos came from "waves of migration"-Negritos, Indonesians and Malays-who peopled these islands thousands of years ago. Another, more