MISREADING IN GENESIS 1-3 POSTSCRIPT: READING SCRIPTURE (ADAM AND EVE)(1)

 Main Point
Although for good comprehension of the Bible, one needs to recognize that it contains different types of literature (e.g. law, letters, psalms, narratives) that each have to be read differently according to their communicative purposes and unique literary features (e.g. Paul’s letters have the parts of a typical Greek letter), for application Scripture should be read primarily for how it provides us wisdom that leads to salvation and how it prepares us to do God’s good works (2 Tim 3:15-17).

Issue: Historicity of Adam and Eve
Having taught biblical studies for over 30 years, I understand how speaking about the narratives of Adam and Eve raises concerns.  Without much forethought, people tend to think simplistically that fact equals true and fiction equals false.  However, the instructive value of narrative communication cannot be reduced that simply.  In our own culture as in the ancient Near East, we actually have different types of narrative (e.g. scholarly history, popular history, dramatized history, historicized fiction, realistic fiction, parables, tall tales, legends, fairy tells, fables). All of these types are useful for instruction.  This is because narratives create an inner world of characters, actions, and consequences that can portray true-to-life experiences.  Although we rightly speak of learning from history (the first types in the above list), we actually use the latter types for more direct wisdom teaching about life.  That is to say, even the fiction of fables can be true to life and teach us how to live wisely.  It should not surprise us, then, that the Bible also has different types of narratives.  As noted in the post "Background,"² some of the biblical composers of the first few chapters of Genesis have adopted and adaptively rewritten ancient narratives that were already present in the cultural environment of the Hebrews/Israelites.

The narratives about Adam and Eve are explanatory narratives.  To understand what that means about their historicity we have to understand the purpose of these narratives.  The biblical composers, with inspired insight, projected back into the past theologically and biologically (so to speak) to explain what “must have happened” to account for the origin of the universal human condition regarding temptation and sin, disobedience and the resultant encroachment of chaos.³  One might say, then, that these narratives do make a historical claim that something like this must have happened.  However, their main intention is not to provide a modern historical or scientific account of the birth of sin.  These narratives teach universal truths in order to provides us wisdom that leads to salvation.

The text in Hebrew more clearly demonstrates this blend of historicity with universality.  First, the personal names of the two characters are generic.  The noun adam is a wordplay on the Hebrew word adamah ("ground") from which humanity’s substance comes.  Depending on the context, adam can mean "man,” “human,” or “humankind” generically (e.g Gen 2:5); or it can be used as a proper name, “Adam.”  The name "Eve" (chavah) is a wordplay on the verb meaning “to live, to breath, to give life,” as explained in Gen 3:20.  This usage of generic terms would be like hearing a story in which the world's first parents name their two children "Son" and "Daughter."  Second, although some English translations are misleading, in all of Chapters 2-3, “adam” as a proper name is rarely used (possibly Gen 2:20b, 3:17,21).  Instead, the noun adam occurs with a particle of definiteness (ha-adam) that never occurs with a proper name and means something like “the man,” or “the human.”  Moreover, “the man” is not clearly called Adam until Gen 4:25.  As a result, the original Hebrew-speaking audience would have understood the universal implications of these narratives of Adam and Eve.  These texts explain the human condition in regard to temptation, sin, and its consequences.

Lord, help me to receive your Word such a way that it makes me wise unto salvation and prepares me to a better servant of your will.  Amen.
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1. Preceding this post was a short series “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3.”  I meant for the last post to close the series, but thought that a follow-up about reading Scripture could be helpful.
2. See, Nov. 22, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Background.”
3. See, Dec. 10, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: Why Humans Die” and Dec. 16, 2024, “Misreadings in Genesis 1-3: ‘Original Sin’ and the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”