Adam and Eve
It all seemed so simple as a child in Sunday School. The story went something like this:
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent
God decided he was ready to create people, so he scooped up a lump of clay and made Adam, then placed him in a special place called the Garden of Eden. When Adam got lonely, God caused him to sleep, took one of his ribs, and formed Eve. Adam married Eve. God instructed the new couple not to eat fruit from a certain tree, but a talking snake (the devil in disguise) convinced them it would be okay. Adam and Eve listened to the snake, disobeyed God, and ate the forbidden fruit; this act of disobedience was called sin, and led to their eventual deaths. Because we are all related to Adam and Eve, we too are sinners and deserving of death.
Then I went to college, became a geologist, and the story of Adam and Eve got complicated and confusing.
Our church recently sponsored a lecture series on the Old Testament. The professor, Dr. James Platt, finished his opening lecture on Genesis 1 – 3, then handed each of us a sheet with two questions to discuss: 1) Were Adam and Eve a historical couple, the first human beings? 2) Did Adam have a belly button? The ensuing discussion was vigorous and diverse. Some landed on a very literal interpretation of scripture, somewhat akin to my early years in Sunday School; others were convinced the Adam / Garden of Eden story was meant to teach us more figuratively like a parable. How might you have answered those questions?
The following four points represent some of the obstacles in the path to my relating to a literal, historical couple living in a Middle Eastern Garden of Eden:
- Genetics: y-chromosomal Adam and mitochondrial Eve can not be traced back to a single genetic pair of humans; best case scenario is a population of homo-sapiens of around 10,000. Also, the human genome of today is nearly identical to the genomes of the oldest known homo-sapiens found in Africa, strengthening the case we are related.
- Anthropology: bones of the earliest specimens of homo-sapiens are found only in Africa, not the Middle East or elsewhere; they have been dated to around 150,000 years ago.
- Geography: The Genesis account places the Garden of Eden in southern Iraq adjacent to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; science would place a “Garden of Eden” in Africa where the earliest human population lived.
- Genealogy: Tracing Adam’s genealogy implies a very young age for the Earth of around 7,000 years (Young Earth Creation); geologists have published considerable evidence that the Earth is very old, on the order of 4.5 billion years.
Literalists make a good point too: “If Genesis is not offering a straightforward historical-geographical description, then:
- Perhaps nothing else in scripture is historical-geographical either, including the incarnation and the death and resurrection of Jesus.
- Perhaps the Bible can’t be trusted as the authoritative word of God.”
Do we have to pick sides? Isn’t the God who created all things the same one who inspired scripture? In my mind, both Nature and Scripture proclaim God’s truth. God is not in conflict with himself! Dr. Kenny Rhodes (https://reasons.org/about/kenny-rhodes), a guest writer for Reasons to Believe, in his two-part series titled “Journey from the Center of a Young Earth”, illuminates this idea:
“God is as much the author of reason as he is of Scripture, and the two must harmonize or we have interpreted either one or both incorrectly. God has designed his creation such that all people will be subject to the nature of reality as he has created it. Once I understood that God was the author of creation and the Bible then I knew that they must agree, and that reason could be helpful in understanding Scripture.”
Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Mathew 18:2-3) I think Jesus gave us a key here. The God whose intelligence is incalculably higher than ours chose how he would communicate eternal truths found in Genesis 1 – 3 to an audience of a child, or of an Einstein. A recent article written by a theologian, Dr. Josh Strahan, presents an interesting perspective on Adam and Eve, referring to a story told by Jesus found in Luke 16:19-31, of the rich man and Lazarus.
The rich man and Lazarus
Did you know neither Luke nor Jesus said this story was a parable, yet most scholars put it into the parable genre? The same can be said about the stories in Genesis 1 – 3. At first glance, both accounts appear to contain straight-forward literal truths. Dr. Strahan asked for clues that the Lazarus account might be a parable; they came up with:
- The characters seam archetypical: a certain rich man; a certain poor man
- The setting was extraordinary: Hades, Abraham’s side (likely referencing the Great Banquet)
- Extraordinary situation: an afterlife dialogue across an unpassable chasm
- Ancient parallels: an afterlife scene, messengers (angels) to the dead
He then asked the class for some (parable) clues regarding the story of Adam and Eve:
- Characters that seem archetypical: Human (Adam), Life (Eve)
- Extraordinary setting: Heavenly council, cosmic viewpoint, Paradise
- Extraordinary situation: God forming the world; God forming humans; sin’s entrance
- Ancient parallels: Humans made from clay and the blood of a god, a snake that steals life-prolonging fruit, etc. Note, ancient near east cultures of that time were loaded with creation accounts.
Today, Adam and Eve are at the forefront of heated debate, both theologically and scientifically. The stakes are high. Complexities are way too high to address in a short blog. Perhaps a few quotes from Dr. Strahan’s article will be meaningful to you as they were to me.
“Why didn’t God just describe creation more like it actually happened instead of using folklore?...perhaps God thought it better to communicate truths in ways that met people where they were, rather than communicating truths in ways that were incomprehensible to the ancient audience – and to most of us, too.”
“Christian doctrines should arise from listening to the canonical witness (scripture) while keeping an ear open to the church’s historical witness, particularly the church’s great Creeds…the diversity of canonical descriptions of God’s creative act along with the Creeds’ silence on the mechanics and timeline of creation all suggest that Christians are not required to hold specific views on the chronology, timeline, or technique of God’s creative act.”
“A genre that contains folkloric elements can nonetheless communicate authoritative truths…not all genres come with labels, so we have to be attentive to the genre clues...be careful not to interpret the subgenres according to the same exegetical rules as the over-arching genre, and vice versa”
“It is unwise to treat the Bible’s folkloric elements as straightforward, precise descriptions of reality (e.g., talking snake).”
As I summarize my thoughts on this subject, I see the wisdom Jesus taught on viewing his Kingdom matters through the eyes of a child (Mathew 18:2-3). I can rest in peace without having to figure everything out and take sides. God knows best how to communicate to humans.
