The Story Of Adam And Eve Theology Religion Essay
Faithful Christians all around the globe believe in the same story that is presented in the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible; The Story of Adam and Eve. This story supports the creation of the first two humans to walk on earth and why we have the ability to sin. Not everyone believes this though, throughout the years there have been many different interpretations of the Adam and Eve story. The main types of differences in interpretations are: some people believe in the story, some think the story has no value, and some think there is another meaning to the story instead of the one we all describe now. With this taken into consideration, there are many interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve in Christianity that gives different insight to the story.
Starting with the creation of this story, it is located in the book of Genesis. The story was created by the Samarians who passed it down to the Babylonians. The story states that there were two humans, Adam and Eve, who were created by God. God first created Adam. One day Adam told God he was lonely and wanted a companion. God then created animals to keep Adam company to take care of them. Adam again said he was still feeling lonely, so God took one of Adams ribs to create Eve. They were told to live in a garden called The Garden of Eden. This was a beautiful garden where everything was supplied for them to live and prosper. God had one rule only for them, to not eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, if they did there would be serious consequences. As Adam and Eve explore their new home Eve finds a serpent in the tree of knowledge, this serpent represents the devil. The serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Eve could have thought it was careless fun and nothing bad would come of it. “Giving into temptation may be fun at first, but the consequences are never worth it.”(Campus Life,2001)Suddenly Eve starts to see the consequences of her action. Adam and Eve do not know they are naked at this time, but Eve soon realizes Adam and she are naked. She convinces Adam to eat the fruit with her and they both now have disobeyed God. God returns and finds Adam and Eve hiding in a bush. He asks them why they are hiding from him. Adam and Eve reply they are naked and need to cover themselves. God knows that they had eaten from the forbidden tree. God punished them by having each child born from Adam and Eve to be born with original sin. God also had them banished from The Garden of Eden and to live among the animals. This story has been around for thousands of years, meaning there are plenty of ways to interpret this tale. This shows that “What we have sought to affirm through the centuries in pointing to the GenesisA storyA is human solidarity.”(Arraj & Tumulty, pp.21)
The literal interpretation of the story is one the most believed and most taught around the world. It states many things, first it says God created Adam and Eve in his own image. This is self explanatory since it is stated almost exactly like that in the text. As God takes the rib from Eve it shows that they will be joined together forever as God creates Eve in his own image. Once Eve was created she was considered the mother of all things living and Adam was considered the father. Basically, the story is saying they started all of humanity. Another literal meaning from the story is that Eve was deceived by the serpent who was the devil. This showed that the devil is always trying to tempt us to go his way instead of towards God. As we Christians move away from doing good works they are reenacting when Eve took the forbidden fruit. Once this was discovered God banished the devil from the Garden of Eden, therefore overcoming the serpent. In the end Jesus came and saved the Christians from sin by overcoming the “serpent”.This interpretation of the story is what people get from the text without going into greater detail of the meaning through the eyes of a faithful Christian.
Some argue that the stories in the Bible are just for spiritual growth and comfort. Regarding the story of Adam and Eve, there are multiple signs that give people spiritual comfort. With the creation of Adam and Eve we were created in the image of God, showing that we are all equal and beautiful in the eyes of God. To show God our thanks Christians worship him in church, which also has come from God. Just like Adam, God , figuratively speaking, took one of his ribs and created a church. Which is now church considered God’s home, or the Mother of Spirits, and was built for our spirits to be forgiven. This directly relates to Eve who is the mother of mankind. As she was deceived by the devil so was the church. This made it harder for the Church to be spiritually reborn. Then Jesus arrived and overcame the devil and the church was reborn. This meaning is what is suppose to be taken from the story according to the Bible. “The Bible warns us not to be literalistic. “We should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:6)” (“What The Bible Says About…”) Everything from the Bible is spiritual and good lessons of ways to live life.
Spiritual and literal interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve both have valid points. Each gives a background taught to Christians around the world. One type of interpretation we don’t hear often is how this story could be a story commemorating the two people who formed their first society. “It seems Adam and Eve story in Garden of Eden could be an actual and normal event, and not the Creation story of Adam and Eve as the first couple on the surface of the earth, but rather the first couple who founded a tribe which their decedents were remembering them.”(Gollestani, The Truth Shall) This makes sense, showing that Adam and Eve could have been nomads wandering until they found the perfect spot to develop a community. With a community comes rules and regulations. God could have been a nomadic leader or king that set the first ground rules of civilization. For example, no killing, no stealing, and a judgment before a prosecution must be held. Now the story of Adam and Eve was found manly from Mesopotamian tablets and the holy Bible. So the Mesopotamian people could have been the ones telling a story to show there thanks to Adam and Eve for the creation of their community. These show that this story could have actually been to thank the creators of a nation instead of having a true moral meaning.
With science being one of the biggest phenomenon’s of the modern day, it helps us decide what is possible and what is not possible. Can science overtake the way people believe in religions today? Many scientists do believe this and even have a say in the story of Adam and Eve. As already known, people who are strict believers in only scientific means think that the world was created by the big bang theory and everything evolved from evolution. This is already against popular belief of most people in the world, since Christianity is believed by 2.1 billion people. Adam and Eve were created by God, in the image of God, and to start all mankind stated by Christian beliefs. As stated in an article by Christianity Today, ” Reports claim of recent genetic research that the human race did not emerge from pre-human animals as a single pair, as an “Adam” and an “Eve.” The complexity of the human genome, we are told, requires an original population of around 10,000.”(Christianity Today, pp.61) This interpretation has no belief of religion or faith just the justification of science. It’s hard not to believe in facts that have been scientifically proven. People have started to believe more and more in science and religion that they even started a new one called Scientology. Scientology believes in pure scientific means of religious beliefs.
All Christians and other religions that believe in God, whole heartedly believe God is everything and would never do anything to harm us. In this interpretation of the Adam and Eve story , it seems that God setup Adam and Eve. The part of the story where God is explaining to Adam and Eve that they are not allowed to eat from the tree of knowledge, it makes it seem as if God wants them to eat from it. “He plants this special tree in the middle of the gardenaa‚¬”on display.”(Emerging Truths, 2011) It shows that God says not to eat from it but in reality he really wants Adam and Eve to eat from it. There is a point as stated by Emerging Truths that says God “winked” at the reader saying watch they will eat it right now. Continuing the story, the serpent was thrown in there to have someone tempt Eve into eating from the tree, if the serpent was not in the story then the curiosity of Adam and Eve would have gotten the better of them and they still would have eaten from the tree. Even though it is somewhat bizarre to hear that God was trying to purposely trick Adam and Eve into eating the fruit, it is another way to view a legendary story with many interpretations.
The story of Adam and Eve will stay alive for as long as this earth is still spinning. As one of the cornerstones of the human race, it is hard to forget something like that. Five interpretations for this story are very little compared to the amount of information and opinions out there. The truth of the matter is we will never know what the true meaning of this story was. It is good to have different views on the story so everyone can use it for self improvement and entertainment. The people who created it have a meaning and it is up to us to take it how we want. As the Bible stated, do not take the stories literally. The story of Adam and Eve will always be around to interpret by generations to come.
