Posted on 12/07/2019 11:08:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind
We all know that Eve ate the apple in the Garden of Eden so that the Fall is all her fault.
Except that Genesis nowhere states that the forbidden fruit was an apple.
In fact, unless climatic conditions were much different then in that region, apples would likely not have grown in the area.
And Adam was with Eve in the Garden and ate the fruit as well.
What else do we know that we don’t?
Were Adam and Eve symbols?
Some people, anxious to bridge the perceived chasm between science and faith, are quick to suggest that Adam and Eve were not real persons at all.
Perhaps they were mythical figures, symbols for humanity in general. When Robert Frost writes of two roads diverging in a yellow wood, I don’t need to know where the wood is located because I understand that he’s using poetic language. Maybe the same is true with the first humans.
The Hebrew word adam simply means “man.” Nowhere does Genesis say that God or anyone else gave him the proper name Adam; you can translate the Hebrew as “man” everywhere “Adam” appears and be correct. The New International Version follows most translations in rendering Genesis 1:20, “for Adam no suitable helper was found.” But there’s no change in the Hebrew from earlier references to him as “the man” (cf. 1:27, 2:7, 15, 18).
Similarly, “Eve” doesn’t make her appearance by name in the NIV until Genesis 3:20; previously she is “woman” (2:21, 23, etc.). Her name probably means “living,” pointing to her status as the first mother of humanity. So perhaps “Adam” and “Eve” are symbols for “man” and “life.”
This wouldn’t be the last time Scripture uses symbolic language to make its point. Jesus called himself the “true vine” and his Father the “gardener” (John 15:1), but no one thinks he is describing botanical truth. Earlier, he described himself as “the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7), and his disciples knew he was not speaking as a carpenter.
Could it be that the writer of Genesis used “man” and “life” to make larger symbolic statements about humanity?
Perhaps their temptation narrative is meant to describe such experience as we all face it. Perhaps the later narratives which describe the Tower of Babel and Noah’s flood, equally troubling to some who wish to reconcile Genesis with current scientific knowledge, are equally symbolic in nature.
How does the rest of the Bible see Adam and Eve?
The first question to ask in interpreting any piece of literature is to ask what its author intended to say.
If the text is clearly poetic or symbolic in nature, we can know that the writer wants us to avoid literalistic interpretation. If the text is clearly historical and narrative in nature, giving places and dates and events, we can know that the writer wants us to treat the literature as factual rather than symbolic.
There is poetry to be found in the Genesis records of Adam and Eve. Note the man’s ecstatic reaction to the creation of woman (Genesis 1:23), and God’s condemnation of the snake’s deception and the couple’s sin (Genesis 3:14-19). But the rest of the text is written in a straightforward, historical narrative. Nothing here causes us to believe that the writer intended us to view his writing as mythical or symbolic.
Now let’s consider how Adam is regarded in the New Testament.
In Romans 5, Paul wishes to explain how sin entered the human race. He begins: “Sin entered the world through the one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned” (v. 12). As a result, “death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses” (v. 14).
Then he compares the “trespass of the one man” to the life given “through the one man, Jesus Christ” (v. 17). Clearly, Paul treats Adam and his sin as factual events in history.
In 1 Corinthians, he expands the argument: “Since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22). He treats Christ and Adam in equivalent ways: either they are both historical figures or neither is. Later, the apostle reminds Timothy, “Adam was formed first, then Eve” (1 Timothy 2:13).
It seems clear that Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, considered Adam and Eve to be real figures of history.
For that reason, I see them the same way.
Why I believe Adam and Eve were real
What difference does it make whether they were actual or symbols?
I have seen no list of truths fundamental to the faith that makes the historicity of Adam and Eve a crucial litmus test for genuine salvation. When I baptize new believers, I do not ask what they believe about Adam and Eve, but about Jesus.
So where is the larger relevance of the issue? It is found at two points.
First, we should interpret Scripture as it interprets itself.
If Paul sees Adam and Eve as historical, his inspired opinion should guide mine. We are not free to treat the Bible as a work of modern art, projecting our own thoughts onto its canvas. Those who believe that Adam and Eve were symbols should give us biblical reasons for their position.
Second, we should interpret science through Scripture, not the reverse.
Current opinion regarding the age and origin of man must not determine how we read the Bible.
Here’s one more reason why I think Adam was real: I see him in me.
I have his eyes for forbidden fruit, his ability to blame others for my sins.
Does he live in your mirror as well?
Even the most hardcore evolutionists have to admit that a some point there was no Homo sapiens and then somehow there were at least two Homo sapiens with the ability to reproduce. A Homo sapiens would have the ability to transmit a story.
“We all know that..”
That’s Hell Speak. Translated it means: The following is authored by Satan.
“Eve ate the apple..” bad scholarship right there. It was the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Nowhere in the Bible does it say Apple.
And yes they were real and etc. in Adams fall we sinned all. Jesus refers to them as real people, as does the rest of the totality of scripture.
Even more, there’s verses in the NT about such questionable behavior:
2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Were they flesh or “Angelic” beings who disrobed to intermingle with mankind in order to create a hybrid race of giants and freaks?
I’m of the opinion that Nephilim (hybrids) are also around today among us.
First, answer definitively these questions:
When was the alphabet and system of writing developed? All at once, or did writing evolve over many generations?
Who wrote the book of Genesis, and when?
It’s commonly held that the first 5 books may have been written by Moses.
Didn’t even get to the second sentence, did you?
“Even the most hardcore evolutionists...”
The subject of whether Adam and Eve were actually the very FIRST humans is a separate matter from whether they were human in a literal sense or not.
Obviously, Luke flatly proclaims they were human literally. And lists the chain of actual human generations from Christ back to Adam.
The bible is the story of this blood line and what it means to our option for salvation.
Whether the guy we refer to as Adam was actually the very first physically ‘human’ fellow in a scientific sense does not really matter and is logically debatable.
But he WAS the first pile of flesh referred to as the ‘son of God’ in this blessed line which led to Christ.
There is a stylistic confusion in the Old Testament, in which individual names are sometimes confused with tribes. And it gets worse because the name might refer to the current tribal leader, or the founding or greatest leader of that tribe no longer alive.
Sometimes the context makes it clear, but far too often it isn’t. The name Adam is even worse, because it is also used as a synonym for “mankind”. Likewise, in Hebraic tradition, there are other Adams, such as Adam Kadmon, which is the first spiritual World that came into being after the contraction of God’s infinite light. Adam Kadmon is not the same as the physical Adam Ha-Rishon.
Adam Kadmon is divine light without vessels, i.e., pure potential. In the human psyche, Adam Kadmon corresponds to the yechidah, the collective essence of the soul.
A personal thought
The Bible gives the genealogy of Jesus from Adam.
If Adam is a myth then Jesus must also be a mith.
Jesus is real, so wes Adam
You know why Adam was created before Eve?
God figured He didn’t need the advice.
Yep, itching ears.
Logic and physics are needed to understand Adam and Eve.
Yes, Adam and Eve were real, since God made them either out of dust or out of sharks. Catholics know where their graves are. Cool stuff.
No, the Bible is not the answer key for scientific conclusions, since the Bible lacks equations.
There are four ways to interpret God’s Word and science works with motion.
Peter Abelard clarified all this in 1100 in Paris.
Two good books worth reviewing:
Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (2003) by Stephen M Barr
The Genesis Enigma: Why the First Book of the Bible Is Scientifically Accurate Paperback (2010) by Andrew Parker
Time Lapse of Sunflower from Seed to Flower
Adam had no match to help him, but help was on the way.
...when G‑d created the world, Shabbat pleaded with G‑d, saying: “Everyone else has a mate [e.g., Sunday has Monday as a partner, Tuesday has Wednesday, etc.], but I have no one!” G‑d answered: “The community of Israel will be your mate.”
The idea behind "retro" anything is about *return*.. to a simpler and happier time, where things just worked as they should.
The Messianic era as it were:
Happy Days
Sunday, Monday, Happy Days,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days,
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days,
Saturday, what a day,
Rockin all week with you.
This day is ours
Won't you be mine. (Oh Happy Days)
This day is ours (Oh Happy Days)
Oh please be mine.
Hello sunshine, goodbye rain,
She's wearing my high school ring on her chain.
She's my steady, I'm her man,
I'm gonna love her all I can.
Garry Marshall was the producer best known for creating happy days.
RE: Catholics know where their graves are. Cool stuff.
Really? Where?
The first sentence in tbe article is a lie
She ate fruit from the forbidden tree
Never says apple
(Of course, they are not real people.)
She loved tomatoes -- tomato sammiches, tomato soup, tomato everything...
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