The struggle of leaving Young Earth Creationism and a plea to Biologos

[Christy (Christy Hemphill)]

@Marshall always has interesting ruminations on Adam. For more see here:

Non literal Adam and Eve

While science led me away from YEC, it was Scripture that shifted my view on Adam from one actual man to a literary figure for humanity. In Genesis, Adam is the name or word for humanity in 1:26–27 and 5:1–2. In between is the story of the Adam. Given what surrounds it, I find it most natural to read this as retelling the story of humanity’s birth in a symbolic story. Adam representing humanity is not the only symbol: there are also the trees, serpent, and a very human-looking God who potters ab…

The pros and cons of Eve-dropping

I think a footnote from another thread deserves a discussion of its own: I haven’t read WLC’s book, but as someone else who mentions Adam more than Eve, I’m interested in a more general discussion of this. Historically, seeing Eve’s role in the story has rarely elevated women. Extremely misogynous readings were extrapolated from how Eve was bested by a beast and ate first. Adam, meanwhile, was sometimes praised for selflessly sinning so Eve wouldn’t face punishment on her own, or derided for …

Adam as the first human is theologically necessary or not?

That’s a really long article. I didn’t read it all, but here are a few comments from the first part. When Jesus taught on marriage in Matthew 19:4–6, and when Jude referred to Adam in Jude 14, they used no caveats or anything to suggest they doubted Adam’s historical reality or thought of him any differently than they did other Old Testament characters. In Exodus, Pharaoh’s magicians are not named or limited to two men. Hundreds of years later, extrabiblical literature added more detail to t…