Adam and the Genome– Part Twenty

Tom Wright’s suggestion (cited on p. 145) that maybe Adam and Eve were picked out of the 10,000 hominids and endowed with representative power as in the image of God, is certainly possible, but not necessary. As Scot says, the Genesis story leaves the impression that Adam and Eve are the only persons around. One could argue they are the only progenitors of God’s people, who are the only people about whom the story is told. Adam and Eve may not be Israel, but the story is suggesting they are the origins of the chosen people of God, NOT necessarily of everyone, as the wives of Cain and Abel show. Again, the point is that the Bible is not the story of the whole human race but about the beginnings, middle and ends of God’s people. Other peoples come into the story only when they come into contact with Israel.

Perhaps the story is suggesting that God’s people were uniquely created by God to bear his image. Perhaps Wright is correct, if evolutionary genetics is right about human origins. Either way, Adam and Eve are clearly viewed as real people who are the ancestors of Noah, and Shem, and Abraham etc. It is true, but insufficient to call Adam and Eve merely literary figures in a story. The writers of Gen. 1-11 would be surprised to hear it.