Deep History

From the book of Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ...

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ...

Then God said, "let the land produce vegetation and living creatures, ... the water teem with living creatures, ... "

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, ..."

Modern science clarified the details of these events as follows:

The four creations that we know about:

1- The Big Bang created the universe - matter & energy evolving based on physics

• 13.8 billion years - the universe is launched  virtually from nothing. It evolved according to the laws of nature (physics) ever since. Sub-atomic particles are formed from energy, then hydrogen, the simplest atom, is formed from these particles.

2- The stars created chemistry - the elements in the periodic table

• Through billions of years of nuclear fusion (combining simple elements into complex ones) stars created chemistry. All the complex elements of the periodic table were born.
• 4.6 billion years - formation of the solar system centered around the Sun (an average sized star), including our planet Earth from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud, in an unremarkable location of the Milky Way galaxy.

3- The earth created biology - life

• 3.8 billion years - the earliest cellular level life form/organic matter appears.
• 3.5 billion years - photosynthesis capable bacteria, starts generating oxygen.
• 2.5 billion years - the cell architecture that present complex life is based on, the result of a symbiosis of two bacteria, hence the mitochondria with a different DNA, used in genealogy to track maternal lineage. First microscopic organisms to utilize oxygen.
• 640 million years - first multi-cellular beings appear.
• 500 million years - first vertebrates appear.
• (240 million years - dinosaurs appear - not in our line of ancestry).
• 220 million years - small mammals appear.
• 125 million years - placental mammals appear.
• 50 million years - large mammals including primates appear after dinosaur extinction.
• 24 million years - the ability to convert sugar into fat in primates to survive cold climates. Most likely evolved in Asia and made it back to Africa before the evolution of humans.
• 6 million years - first hominids appear, genetic separation with the chimpanzees.
• 3.2 million years - first bipedal hominids (Lucy) appear in the Rift Valley of Africa.

• 2 million years - Homo Erectus appear in the Great Rift Valley . Human like: taller (6 feet), slimmer, significantly bigger brain at 900 cc (chimps & Lucy at 400 cc). First use of stone tools and weapons, hunting large mammals, first use of controlled fire. Leaves East Africa and spreads throughout Eurasia, survive until 50,000 years ago in pockets in East Asia.
• 250 thousand years - homo sapiens (wise human) appear in Africa, characterized with a larger brain (1,400 cc).
• 150 thousand years - Mitochondrial Eve in East Africa, most recent common female ancestor.
• 70 thousand years - Y-chromosomal Adam in East Africa, most recent common male ancestor.
• 70 thousand years - homo sapiens leave Africa and start spreading worlwide, all non-Africans carry the M168 mutation. Estimated number of homo sapiens is ten thousands (what fits in a small town today!).

4- Humans created intellect - technology, science, art, religion, etc.

• 42 thousand years - Paintings in caves of France and Spain.

• 13 thousand years - the J haplogroup (M304 mutation ) immerges in the Middle East/Fertile Crescent and its members initiate farming by domesticating plants and animals, which leads to the social evolution from nomadic hunter-gatherers into settled agriculturalists, which in turn leads to the first civilizations.
• 5500 years - first large civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, first writing systems, invention of the wheel, first organized armies/wars, etc.

• 3900 years - Abraham's time and the start of monotheism.
• 3500 years - the Phoenicians immerge along the eastern Mediterranean coast and excel at ship building, sea faring, settlement development and trade throughout the Mediterranean. They invent the linear alphabet, a profound innovation that was adopted by the Greeks and the Hebrews. They established the first world-economy surrounded by empires. Recent studies show that they belong to the J2 haplogroup (M172 mutation), a descendent of J.

• 2000 years - Jesus' teaching of peace, love and forgiveness ushers the Christian faith which is now adopted by more than two billion people.
• Fifth century AD - Saint Maroun, the patron saint of the eastern Maronite Catholics, lives in the coastal mountains of Syria during the Byzantine era.

• Seventh century AD - the Maronites take refuge in the mountains of Lebanon. Presently they number about one million in Lebanon, and a diaspora of several million including several well known. (for example, Carlos Slim is of Maronite Lebanese parents, his last name is a morph of his father's first name: Salim).

• Sixteenth century AD - Lebanon falls under Ottoman rule
• around 1820 - Nimr AbouEzzi, a Maronite Lebanese, seems to be the first to adopt the AbouEzzi last name and settles Kherbit-Qanafar in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon. Kherbit means "the ruins of". Qanafar has Greek roots and is derived from 'faros'  "light house". Legend says that there was an old town with a light house on its hills to guide travelers in the Bekaa valley. 
• 1910 - Michel Salim AbiEzzi is born in Kherbit-Qanafar and ends up with the "AbiEzzi" variation of the last name due to a typo on his ID card.
• 1920 - Lebanon and Syria are placed under a French mandate
• 1943 - modern Lebanon is born, independence from French colonial rule
• 1970 - Joseph Michel AbiEzzi is Michel's second son and the first AbiEzzi to immigrate to the USA. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Mass, Lowell. He paved the way for his siblings and their families to follow upon the civil war in Lebanon in the eighties and nineties.
• 1977 - Michel Antoine AbouEzzi is the first of the grandchildren to start university education in the USA. Completed a Master's degree from MIT with focus on solar energy, made grandpa proud!
• 1980 - Salim Samir AbiEzzi, Michel's second oldest grandson, joined his cousins Michel and Amal for university studies. His DNA testing later on indicated the J2 haplogroup.
• 2002 - Andrew AbiEzzi is born, following his sisters Ashley & Sophia, to proud parents Laurie and Salim in the Seattle area of Washington state. He is among a whole new generation of AbiEzzis and AbouEzzis who are born in the USA. Thus in a few decades a whole family lineage immigrates to the new world after thousands of years of localized living in the Middle East. Starting in East Africa, Middle East and now North America; the journey of man continues!