Question: .

This has always bothered me. According to Genesis, the first humans on earth are Adam and Eve, who in turn, had children. If this was the case, since there were no other humans around that time how did they have children? Is the large part of humanity a product of incest?

Is the Bible account of Adam and Eve to be taken literally? Or was it meant to be allegorical? I have always believed that "all" humans came from Adam and Eve but the logic seems difficult to grasp. I have always wanted to ask the question.

-Jesse

Answer:

Dear Jesse,

Great question, and one that is often asked. I'll try to give you as brief a response as possible. First, did Adam and Eve's children marry each other by necessity? Was this incest.

Gen. 4:17 tells us that Cain married, yet the only humans that Genesis has mentioned were the parents, Adam and Eve, as well as their sons Cain and Abel (whom Cain had just murdered). The only possibilities were that Cain married one of his sisters, or even possibly a niece, as we are not told Cain's age at this time. Of course, if Cain married a niece, that niece would have had to have been the offspring of a brother and sister marriage. Adam lived 930 years (Gen. 5:5) and thus had child bearing years with his wife Eve far beyond those to which we are accustomed.

Gen. 5:4 says that Adam "begot sons and daughters". Was this the incest that the Bible condemns (Lev. 18;6) and that science tells us produces genetic abnormalities - thus civil laws that prohibit such marriages? There was no command at this time against what we call incest. That came later, with what is called the Mosaic code. Second, we must remember that Adam and Eve were perfect physically, and did not carry all of the genetic baggage (the sins of the fathers, of generations that have gone before us).

The pragmatic answer of course is simple - since the human race began with Adam and Eve, their children had no one else to marry except their own siblings.

Your second question concerns the nature of the Biblical record, the genre of the literature God inspired for us to understand, etc.

1) The primary reason for Genesis was to remind the Hebrews, and later readers (among them, of course us - but we are in a long line of readers) that there is one God. The book of Genesis, especially the early creation account, is written to help humans understand that God alone is creator. There is not a pantheon of gods, there is simply one God who is sovereign and supreme.

2) The creation account is written, in Hebrew, as poetry. Thus, while God inspired it, and it is literally true - not myth - he wrote it as poetry. He did not write it as a blueprint for a house - giving HOW he did it - or a recipe for a cake - explaining HOW he made it. He inspired this account in poetry to teach us and inspire us THAT he did it.

This does not make this portion of the Bible myth, or not as inspired as any other portion - it simply means that there are profound and complex truths being explained in broad, sweeping, conceptual terminology.

3) It is important to note that immediately following the creation account - the lesson being that there is one God - we read of the original sin, of the broken, fallen, and sinful state of Adam and Eve (and by implication, all humans to follow - the fact that Adam and Eve chose to leave Paradise - the Garden, the presence of God - and followed by the first murder - the first human attempts at culture and society which also are products of sin.

All of this is deeply symbolic and meaningful - a philosophic and theological commentary on the human state, without God. It is a preparation for the need that humans have for a Savior. What happened is literally true - but it is not JUST literal, it is literally true with a deeply profound undergirding of symbolic truth and commentary.

If you are interested, Plain Truth Ministries has published a booklet titled, "In the Beginning - Answers to Questions from Genesis".

I hope this brief answer helps.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht