>Actually it doesn't really work that way. Although Adam and Eve were the
>first people, there's nothing that says that they were the _only_ people.
>At several points in the bible there are references to "others" - for
>example there's a line where Cain, being faced with exile for killing Abel
>claims that he's afraid the "others" will "find him and kill him". Remember
>also that Cain was married. There also mention of a "city".
>
>
>
>In short by the time Cain killed Abel there's ample evidence in the bible
>that there were a lot of folks floating around.
This is actually a great point. Most biblical scholars will point out that
Adam was in fact not a single person. The technical term used in class is
Adam 1 and Adam 2. If you read through the first parts of Genesis (Chapter
1) there is text that explicitly states that created Man. I'm going to
draw in from memory, but I think around Chapter 3 a similar passage
appears. In Church it is often not even addressed why such text appears
twice and on the off chance it is, it is assumed to mean that it is just a
repeat of an event that already occurred. But many biblical scholars, and
by scholars I mean academics, think the passage is in twice because it
describes two distinct humans. And the theme of duality of man is actually
the oldest story in mankind. The scholars believe this because the 2 Adams
are so different. One of the Adams, I can't really remember which, is a
servant. He cares for the Garden. His role is to be a cog in the system
and dutifully serve for the sake of serving. The other Adam servers too
but he takes pride in the good job he does. So we have an Adam that serves
because it his job and we have an Adam that serves for recognition and pride.
Some of the orthodox and fundamentalist will bristle and what they perceive
as non-sense. They have that choice. But what they can't ignore is that
is what is being taught to young theological scholars. And more over, it
is impossible to prove that one version is actually wrong or correct
because both viewpoints draw their conclusions directly from the Bible. Of
course, through the history of time the singular Adam theory has enjoyed a
much more privileged standing.
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