Adamitic (or Tertiary, from the Creation of man to the Great Flood Gen 2:5 to Gen 7:8), corresponding to St.Secondary (creation of plants and animals).Primary (the formation of the physical universe and the earth).Pre-Adamitic (the first 5 days, Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3).Early scientific interpretation of the biblical narrative divided the antediluvian into sub-periods based on the six days of Creation:

Thomas Cole, 1829Įarly scientific attempts at reconstructing the history of the Earth were founded on the biblical narrative and thus used the term antediluvian to refer to a period understood to be essentially similar to the biblical one. The Deluge subsides, thought in early geology to be responsible for the formation of sediments, with only traces of the antediluvian world. Nevertheless, the Nephilim (literally meaning 'fallen ones', from the Hebrew root n-f-l 'to fall') reappear much later in the biblical narrative, in Numbers 13:31–33 (where the spies sent forth by Moses report that there were Nephilim or 'giants' in the promised land). The antediluvian period ended when God sent the Flood to wipe out all life except Noah, his family, and the animals they took with them. The Gibborim were unusually powerful Genesis calls them 'mighty men which were of old, men of renown'. There were Gibborim (giants) in the earth in those days as well as Nephilim some Bible translations identify the two as one and the same. The Bible speaks of this era as being a time of great wickedness. (These genealogies provide the framework for the biblical chronology, in the form 'A lived X years and begat B'.) The elements of the narrative include some of the best-known stories in the Bible – the creation, Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, followed by the genealogies tracing the descendants of Cain and Seth, the third mentioned son of Adam and Eve. According to Bishop Ussher's 17th-century chronology, the antediluvian period lasted for 1656 years, from Creation (some say the fall of man) at 4004 BC to the Flood at 2348 BC. In the Christian Bible, Hebrew Torah and Islamic Quran, the antediluvian period begins with the Fall of the first man and woman, according to Genesis and ends with the destruction of all life on the earth except those saved with Noah in the ark (Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives). Noah prepares to leave the antediluvian world, Jacopo Bassano and assistants, 1579

Diluvion map