Adam and the Genome– Part Twenty Four

In the last main chapter of the book (pp. 171ff), Scot addresses the issue of what Paul says about Adam and Eve. He is correct that Paul does not say in Rom. 5.12-21 that all have sinned ‘in Adam’. He says all are condemned because all have sinned like Adam. But one has to ask— why would that be universally true if there was not a universal bent to sinning? And if there is such an inclination— Where did it comes from, if God didn’t make us that way? One of things I think is least helpful about the ongoing argument of Scot’s is the idea that Paul and the gang are using the literary Adam and Eve to make an argument, and the literary Adam and Eve is all they know, say for example in Rom. 5.12-21; 1 Cor. 15; 1 Tim. 2.13 and so on.

It is not merely the literary Adam and Eve that Paul is using for theological reasons. He is drawing historical and theological conclusions for historical and theological reasons based on the clear assumption that there really was an Adam and Eve that affected their descendants. The theses in this chapter are all true enough as far as they go— Adam is a prototype, Adam is a progenitor, Adam is a bad moral example, but they do not real grasp the nettle when it comes to the historical bases of these assertions.