Subject: Are we all descendants of Adam and Eve? |
Bible Note: Thank you, Tim, for your good questions. The first question is essential, and frankly I will have to look into it again. It has been a while since I have worked it through. Off the top of my head, there are things like the poetic structure of the days in Genesis 1, the fact that there are days before there is a sun, the 2nd version of the creation story that has a different emphasis... Basically, there is a huge symbolic resonance - and lack of historical data - to everything that happens. The tower of Babel. The ark. I realize I am presenting a generalized case here. But when it gets to Abram and Sarai, there is so much more particular information about their travels, their characters, their ethical choices. Please understand -- when I suggest certain passages are intended to be mythic, I am not diminishing their value. I believe God has presented these myths for us to live by. Secondly -- New Testament references to Adam and Eve. I don't see any trouble here, actually. The New Testament writers lived by the Adam and Eve story just as we should. Those passages still make sense either way. I do believe that rebellion against God is a key part of being human (as Adam and Eve show us) and that Jesus reconciles us to God -- so Romans 5 is a concise and powerful explication of this. The geneologies (ie. in Luke 3) pose interesting problems. The fact that the 2 geneologies for Jesus (Matthew and Luke) are different is a problem anyway - aside from Adam and Eve. So I have taken them to make a point like this -- Jesus is a descendent of David (how exactly doesn't matter) and thus fulfills the promises of God; -- the structured number of generations (whether they are literal or not) express that God is the God of history, and is in control. -- Jesus is not some upstart, but is the fulfillment of the entire history of Israel. So some geneologies are Jewish record keeping, but others (like at the beginning of the gospels) are freighted with other significance. These other meanings were so urgent, that discrepancies in the details pale in comparison. Turning back to the early geneologies in Genesis (and quotes elsewhere) -- their function is to emphasize "all of humanity is one family." Would you permit me a moment of conjecture? Perhaps the geneologies around Abraham are historical -- especially since the Hebrews identified themselves as followers of the "God of Abraham." Perhaps the earlier chapters where contributed later -- but adopted the structure of geneologies elsewhere in Genesis. Thus linking the mythic truth of origins to the particular lives of specific people. To put this digression in perspective -- I will reiterate my main point. It doesn't really matter whether these bits are historical or mythical, so long as we really commit ourselves to live by the message it conveys. |