To begin where the last post ended— In none of this literature is Adam ‘everyman’, any more than Eve is ‘every woman’ though there are some hints in the latter direction in Sirach. What is in any case assumed in all these intertestamental reflections is that Genesis is telling a historical story about real people who affected not only themselves but their descendants in various ways. They are not merely literary figures who set bad examples for those who read... Read more

Chapter 7 which begins on p. 147 is a helpful review of the mentions of Adam (and sometimes Eve) in intertestamental Jewish literature. Scot is right that they are depicted in various ways, and the story is developed and analyzed in various ways. This is correct. The point I want to make is that in each case, so far as we can tell, the assumption that there was an historical Adam and Eve is the basis of the further development... Read more

The flood as depicted in Gen. 9-11 is not a problem if it is a description of a flooding of the then known ANE world, in other words a massive regional flood devastating that population. And in fact there are mud layers and other geological evidence in that region that something cataclysmic did happen thousands of years before Christ in that locale. The ANE writers are not making up a fairy tale in their various tales about a Noah figure,... Read more

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... Read more

The second edition of Guardians of the Galaxy took quite some time to emerge (the first one appeared in summer of 2014). Somehow mysteriously during the interim we lost big Groot and acquired baby Groot, as well as a bunch of other characters, for example, Nebula (Karen Gillan) as the antagonistic sister of Gamora, or Kurt Russell as EGO (and boy is he appropriately named, he’s god in his own little world which he created), and Sylvester Stalone (basically playing... Read more

Boy do I have some fabulous news for all ya’ll. The brand new collection of C.K. Barrett’s sermons has launched on Kindle at a ridiculously low price. Here’s the deal…. Luminescence, Volume 1: The Sermons of C. K. and Fred Barrett Kindle Edition by C. K. Barrett (Author), Fred Barrett (Author), Ben Witherington III (Editor), & 1 more Kindle $9.99 Yep, only $9.99. Of the hoards of people who have been asking when all these juicy quotes from CKB are... Read more

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... Read more

I like the line on p. 140 from Durham’s own Venerable Bede— “Adam had the burden of embarrassment, but not the humility of confession.” Scot’s next comment is near the mark on the same page— “Every conceivable relationship is affected by their choice, and this infection begins to spread until in 8.21 God can say this of human “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood”. I agree with the view that the banishment from the garden is... Read more

One of the best insights comes with Thesis 9 (pp. 139-40), namely the sharing of responsibility with God to govern the creation necessarily implies freedom—‘you are free to eat from any tree except’ implies both permission and prohibition, and more importantly it implies that humans have the power to freely choose one or the other. Where I would disagree with Scot is it does seem to me that he has underestimated what the Bible actually says about human fallenness as... Read more

Thesis 6 is about the fact that humans are bi-gendered for the sake of procreation, so humans can multiply and flourish themselves. They are gendered not just for multiplication but also for mutuality, for relationship, a one flesh relationship that only a male and female can share. Scot discussion of ezer kenegdo is right on target (pp. 134-35). It means a suitable helper, and since God himself can be called the helper of Israel (Ps 121.1-2), the term implies no... Read more