The bible begins with the story Adam and Eve. Who were Adam and Eve and when did they live? If you have read my blogs ‘What is Genesis 1 Talking About Part 1 & What is Genesis 1 Talking About Part 2’, you will be familiar with my distinction between figurative and fictional. Often people look at the bible and, since the way the story is told does not match with how a modern historian would record the events, they conclude that the story must be fictional. The story however, can be both figurative and true. Today we have developed both expository and poetic writing styles and we forget that, thousands of years ago, these two styles were merged. For example, we can pick up a book on the history of World War I written in a forthright and objective manner, and we can also pick up a poem such as Flanders Fields. When we read “We are the Dead. Short days ago” we know full well that this is not literally the dead speaking, but rather a poetic way of expressing the trauma of war in ways that a factual exposition cannot.

If we work from the assumption that Adam and Eve were real people, we need to also recognize that the text is both telling history and telling a story. Adam and Eve could have been real people, but the text in Genesis presents them as archetypical people. Einstein, for example, was a real physicist, but he has become an archetype for someone who is really smart. Calling someone an Einstein does not mean Einstein never existed.

Definition

How does the Story of Adam and Eve square with what science tells us of the origins of the human race? Let’s start with some definitions. The first one is the meaning of the word ‘first’. When we see ‘first humans’, we tend to assume this means first in terms of time and this creates a problem with the anthropological record. This is not how I read it. I have been attending piano, gymnastics and dance competitions for a number of years, as well as promotion ceremonies for Air Cadets. I have learned that ‘first’ has nothing to do with when you performed but everything to do with how you performed. A dancer can be the last performer but win first place. First refers to how important they were. Adam was the most important man, and Eve the most important women; or to put it another way, they are the primary as opposed to the only ancestors of the human race.

Another word is ‘man’. Humans have been around for a very long time, but there came a point when they became modern, when they were able to create a written language, when they evolved to a point where they could make a covenant with God. Adam and Eve were the first to be capable of making this great leap. Human civilization began with the written record. As LDS scholar Hugh Nibley explains “For the churchmen, the whole universe comes into existence in the week before Adam’s own creation. But for the scientists, too, there is nothing to tell before the history. They set the stage for human history, but until a man with a book walks onto the stage there is no story, no play”

If you read my blog about ‘Ages of Old Testament People’, you will also know my thoughts on when Adam and Eve lived. Since generations were not recorded as accurately as our own, Adam and Eve could have lived thousands of years earlier than a simple reading of the bible suggests. Today, we make sure every person in our genealogy is accounted for. The more notorious they are the more eager we are to have them recorded. Back in the day, if you had a questionable ancestor they were deleted and great grandfather became grandfather with a stroke of a pen, so to speak.

When Did They Live

Who were Adam and Eve and when did they live? We cannot answer that from an anthropological standpoint but we can within the context of the Scriptures. If we work off the basis that they were real people, they likely lived 10,000-30,000 years ago on a planet already populated with people. We know that Cain, when cast out, feared for his life so clearly there were plenty of other people around who could cause him concern. Also, he needed someone to marry and I doubt he would have married a sister. Cousin perhaps, but not a sister.

They were the start of a civilization and perhaps the first to build a temple since the story of the temple in Genesis revolves around these two. With the construction of the temple, came the foundation of a city. They were the first to have a covenant with God and were therefore the first dispensation of the gospel on the earth. Subsequent dispensations included Noah, Moses, and John the Baptist. The later dispensations occurred as a recovery from an apostasy, the first dispensation was started in similar fashion, only there was nothing to be restored. Instead, it was revealed for the first time. I would also propose that his line is the only surviving line that is common to all humans.

Made from Dust

I hear the argument that Adam and Eve were not born because the bible tells us they were shaped out of the dust. According to Psalms 103, however, so were we. Adam the archetype was formed of dust, so we need to ask, what is the function of dust? Dust represents our mortality. They were formed in mortality as are we all, and the tree of life was put in the garden to keep them immortal. If they were already immortal, there would have been no need for the tree. Now, were they really immortal? I don’t know, but the tree of life and its powers are representative of something else that I don’t have time to get into here, but consider for a moment that if there was no death and no procreation in the garden, then where did the fruit come from? Fruit can only grow if the flowers are pollinated. And if they were placed in the garden (Gen 2:1), then they must have been somewhere else beforehand.

The images in Genesis represent real things; we just are not completely sure what they were. The writer was concerned about function. The serpent served as a function of something, the tree as well. A source of confusion, I think, is that the record of Genesis shifts between telling about Adam and Eve the couple and Adam and Eve the archetype. As archetypes, we know we start out ignorant (naked), and then we hit puberty and our eyes are opened having the ability to abstract and know between good and evil. We also become painfully aware of our bodies whereas just a few years earlier we were quite happy to run around completely naked. There comes a point where our parents sit us down and explain about the realities of life, how we have to get a job, and how having children will turn our lives upside down. And when we are old enough, we move out on our own, get married, and start our own families. This is not a punishment; it is a rite of passage. Adam and Eve were not punished, they were grownups and it was time to leave their parent’s proverbial garden and start their own family and work by the sweat of their brow as their parents did.

Adam & Eve & You & Me

Referring back to my previous blogs on Genesis 1, I explain that the beginning chapters of Genesis are liturgical texts, they recite a religious ceremony about the temple. The Garden of Eden is the holy place where God dwells. Ancient temple worshipers understood that they came to worship at the temple to commune with God, and this worship prepared them to return to the workaday world outside. Adam and Eve of the garden represents mankind generally, they represent you and me. We worship on the Sabbath in order to center ourselves on God, to drink from the fountain of living waters and to eat from the tree of life so that on Monday morning we are prepared to meet the world. In LDS thought, Adam equals nature, or our natural inclination (Mosiah 3:16). If Adam is our natural disposition, what is Eve?

Thank You Eve

Eve was the instigator and many religious writers have made her out to be a wicked and weak minded individual. This could not be further from the truth. She is the true hero of the story. She saw the proverbial fruit and realized that the only way to move forward was to understand good and evil and to be able to make choices. After explaining this to Adam he too partook and modern humans were born. I find it fascinating that Eve was instrumental to bringing life, and Mary was present when Jesus was resurrected. Two women, two bookends.(two trees) Life is born of women, and the knowledge of good and evil is by and large taught to children by mothers.

How could the fall of Adam occur after humans were already on the earth? If the fall occurred when Adam ate the fruit, then was not the human family living blissfully in the garden up until this point? Consider this: how could Jesus be the last if he was not really the last? Adam and Eve and Jesus Christ are two book ends. Adam and Eve started the Fall, and Jesus finished it. If people could live after Jesus solved the fall, why couldn’t people have lived before Adam started the fall?

Was there life before Adam and Eve? A better question is, does the fact that there was life before Adam the person have anything to do the gospel message about Gods covenant with Adam the race? Let science figure out how we got here and let the scriptures teach us why we are here. There is no science in the bible, only gospel principles. Science tells us that humans have been on the earth for a very long time, far longer than anyone like Adam came about. Adam the man and Eve the woman had parents and grandparents before them, and had children who married. Adam and Eve the archetypes represent us. We are the ones in the garden, not Cain and Abel’s parents.