On pp. 143-44 we run into more problems. Adam and Eve are not Israel, they are the progenitors of the people who became Israel. Yes, Israel’s experience mimics the experience of Adam and Eve right down to the exiling part, but the two should not be equated, any more than Christ is Israel. Christ is the last Adam, that’s clear from Paul, but it is equally clear in Paul that Israel means non-Christian Jews in Rom. 9-11, who are distinguished from their messiah in Rom. 9.1-5.
So it is a mistake to mush together either Adam and Eve with Israel or Christ with Israel. And it is especially unnecessary to suggest that the story in Genesis is more about Adam and Eve being Israel than about historical and genealogical Adam and Eve. It’s pretty hard to deny the author of Genesis intends to speak about people he thinks really existed when he proceeds to give their genealogy and writ their obituaries! This genealogical Adam is not first conjured up by Luke in Luke 3. Adam and Eve are not depicted as ‘everyone’ any more than Christ is depicted as ‘everyone’. The concept of federal headship is in play with both the first and the last Adams. Their actions affect all those who are ‘in them’, so to speak. They represent and act for the group. The whole principle of a rhetorical comparison like that in Rom. 5.12-21 is that one is comparing apples to apples, one historical person to another, and then drawing some contrasts.
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