Kwun Hyo Lee Avatar

Views on the Historical Adam

There are differences in perspectives. They surface as if they are just issues of biblical interpretation. In fact, they’re almost always issues about a fundamentally different view of reality.

And so if you look at the first decades and centuries, you’ll find that there had never been consensus when it comes to historicity issues.

Four Views on the Historical Adam

  1. The literary-symbolic view
  • Description: Adam and Eve are purely literary figures in a divinely inspired story meant to prefigure the identity and failure of all the following failure narratives in the Bible.
  • On this view, the Eden story is intended as a parable prologue to the rest of the biblical story, and Adam and Eve are symbols of the patriarchs and matriarchs of Genesis, and of the Israelites in the promised land.
  • Current representatives:
    • Daniel Harlow, “After Adam: Reading Genesis in an Age of Evolutionary Science,” in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, vol. 62 (2010), 179-195
    • Peter Enns, The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins
    • Dennis Lamoureux, Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution
    • Dennis Venema and Scot Mcnight, Adam and the Genome: Reading Scripture after Genetic Science
    • Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

  1. The first-ancestor view
  • Description: Adam and Eve are two actual people, specially created (”de novo”) by God in precisely the way the text describes, and apart from any previous hominid ancestors. They are also the actual first ancestors of all following human beings.
  • On this view, the narratives do not contain metaphorical imagery or symbolism, but are offering a description of “what actually happened” at the origins of the human race on planet earth.
  • Current representatives:
    • William D. Barrick, “The Historical Adam: A Young-Earth Creation View,” in Four Views on the Historical Adam
  • Kevin DeYoung, “Ten Reasons to Believe in a Historical Adam,” [Essay posted on gospelcoalition.org, Feb 7, 2012]

  1. The archetypal view

(3a) The archetypal, first ancestor of all humanity

  • Description: Adam and Eve are both the archetypal representatives and the first biological ancestors of all human beings, but the narratives are told in style and imagery of ancient Hebrew culture. We should not assume a simple reference between textual imagery and what we might consider “historical” reality.
  • Current representatives:
    • C. John Collins, Did Adam and Eve Really Exist? Who Were They and Why Should You Care
    • William Stone, “Adam and Modern Science,” in Adam, the Fall, and Original Sin
    • Fazale Rana with Hugh Ross, Who Was Adam? A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Man

(3b) The archetypal representative of all humanity

  • Description: Adam and Eve are real archetypal representatives of humanity, but not necessarily the first biological ancestors. The narratives are told in the ancient Hebrew style that uses imagery and metaphor to communicate truths about history. The narrative refers to a “real” history through an image-expressive medium.
  • Current representatives:
    • John Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve
    • Derek Kidner, Genesis: Tyndale Old Testament Commentary
    • Joshua McNall, “Where Are You, Adam? Recapitulation and the Human Origins Debate,” p. 48-73

(b) Does the integrity of the good news about Jesus depend on a first-ancestor Adam and Eve, or on a representative Adam and Eve.

  • In the New Testament, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is portrayed as a divine resolution to the problems of death and sin that began in the Adam and Eve story.
    • Luke presents the baptism and mission of Jesus (Luke 3:1-22, 4:1-44) with a genealogy that traces his lineage back to Adam and God (Luke 3:23-38).
    • In Romans 5:12-21 Paul presents Jesus as a “second Adam.”

Each of these views are paying attention or highlighting certain things in the text but having to underplay others.
— Tim Mackie, Adam to Noah, Session 32: Views on the Historical Adam, 12:30

Yet, what we ought not to do is to sacrifice, in the midst of our concern for what really happened, is simply how brilliant these authors are and what they are trying to communicate to us through these texts.

Though there are many worldviews and cultural divides, the body of Christ transcends and has transcended all these divisions. There is a central confession about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and about the nature of the church, and we all together have a common story to tell.