The Biblical Adam and Eve
Going to Work
Humans in God’s Image
We Agree!
How Humans Differ from Apes
What Was Life like in the Garden of Eden?
The First Humans
We have examined the evolutionary explanation of the first human. Now it’s time to look to Genesis.
The Biblical Adam and Eve
Adam was made from dust. God breathed into his nostrils “the breath of life.”
God said, “It’s not good for man to live alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
He brought all of the birds and wild animals to Adam to see what he would call them. Adam named them. (Try that. I bet you can’t do it!) But Adam did not find a suitable helper.
So, God performed the first surgery. It was orthopedic! He took a rib from Adam’s side and used it to create the woman.
Adam said, “She shall be called ‘woman’ for she was taken out of man.”
It has been noted that Eve was not taken from Adam’s head so she would be the boss. She was not taken from Adam’s feet so he could trample on her. She was taken from his side to partner with him in the work God gave them to do.
Going to Work
What was that work? “…rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” They were to be king and queen of planet Earth!
God also commanded, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”
“Be fruitful and multiply” is the only command that humans have always enthusiastically obeyed!
The earth refers to the geological earth: the ground. It does not refer to subduing anything living. Humans were to rule non-human creatures, not subdue them. Also, humans were not commanded to rule over each other.
To subdue the earth means to bring it under control for the good of themselves and the creatures they kindly rule.
The diet of every living thing was to be all of the green plants. The diet of humans was also vegetarian: every seed-bearing plant and every tree with fruit containing seed(s).
I know. This brings up questions such as, “Then why did predators have teeth.” Or, “Didn’t this mess up the gastrointestinal systems of predators?”
Hey, I didn’t say Biblical theories don’t raise questions. And we may never know the answers. Moses writes on a need to know basis and this is something we apparently don’t need to know.
Humans in God’s Image
How could they accomplish all of this? Because man and woman were created in God’s image. At the very least, that means that people are in a different category from animals.
Therefore, there are three biological kingdoms: plants, animals, and humans.
We Agree!
All historians I have heard of agree on some things. In the earliest preliterate days, humans were smarter than apes. We just don’t agree by how much.
Let’s look at apes!
Apes have instincts. All animals do. This built-in action helps the apes survive.
You have instincts too. If your hand gets too close to fire, it jerks back. You don’t think about it at all.
Apes are intelligent. They solve problems using tools. An ape might use a rock to crush nut shells. A branch lying on the ground could be used to reach fruit. This is using nature as it is found.
Apes are even smarter than that. If there is no branch lying around, an ape can break one off of a tree. The ape might make it shorter. Maybe the twigs need to be removed. This is changing nature to make a tool.
They also remember this invention the next time the need arises.
However, that’s as far as apes go.
How Humans Differ From Apes
Apes are usually presented as being very close to humans, something like a second cousin. Are they?
- The National Library of Medicine says that there is a 4% difference between ape and human DNA. In fact, there are “35 single nucleotide differences” and “approxiamately 90 Mb of insertions and deletions” in the DNA. Read it here:. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16339373/#:~:text=Humans%20and%20chimpanzees%20shared%20a,Mb%20of%20insertions%20and%20deletions. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound close at all to me.
- Humans focus on the future. We are always thinking what we will do tomorrow. In fact, since “tomorrow” is not yet in existence within our world, it is actually the first part of eternity. Because we live in the future, always thinking about tomorrow, we invent tools to help us do our work easier, faster, or better next time.
- Humans also create the arts. Create means “to make out of nothing.” We can’t quite do that, but what humans can do is the next best thing. We can create out of our imagination. We don’t only modify and improve existing objects. We actually can create new objects, tools, toys, machines, shelters, clothing, weapons, and works of art.
This is different from problem solving.
You see, painting can’t feed you (unless you sell it). A drum can’t help you sleep. Quite the opposite! There is no reason for the arts…except they are fun!
Yet, humans in all times and places have produced art.
- Humans have free will. We aren’t bound by instincts and survival problem solving. We can choose to act against instinct and survival. And we do—frequently.
What Was Life like in the Garden of Eden?
Dream Time is remembered in the human collective consciousness. Amazing!
There is a universal longing to return to that time. You see it at every zoo. You see it 24 hours a day on Animal Planet channel. People long to rule animals with love and be loved in return. Just think of all of the pets in the United States alone!
The Bible says those days will return. Prophecy is poetic language, which you may recognize in the description below. This scene is not an actual scene, but a description of the Peaceful Kingdom, as it has been called.
“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child shall lead them.
“The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
“The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.” Isaiah chapter 11, verses 6-8.
Don’t you long for a world like that? I do!
Read it for yourself: Genesis 1:27-31 and 2:18-25
Photo credit: Vieriu Adrian
