Humanity
This is part three of a series on the Story of the Bible from my perspective. The previous part looked at creation as a whole. This installment will zero in on humanity. But be warned, it is fairly long.
Both creation accounts in the first two chapters of Genesis highlight the creation of humanity, although they do it in different ways. In the first chapter, humanity is created as the final act.
Creation had been prepared, and then humanity came. But in the second chapter, humanity is at the center of creation, with much of the rest of the creation playing a supporting role.
The Role of Humanity
The two creation stories in Genesis provide complementary descriptions of humanity’s role in creation. Genesis 1:26-28 tells us that we are made in the image of God and are to have dominion over the other creatures of creation and subdue the earth. And we are to be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth.
In Genesis 2:15, the command is in connection with Adam’s garden home. He is to work the garden and keep it. At this point in the second narrative, the animals had not yet been introduced.
We generally understand that humanity’s role was to manage the rest of the creation as God’s vice-regent on earth. We have often taken the command to have dominion and subdue in a negative fashion, exploiting the creation for our own benefit. However, a better approach would be to see us as caretakers, caring for creation and helping it flourish.
Angels and Humans
Humanity appears to be at the top of the food chain, at least in the physical world. But how do we stack up against the angels, another part of God’s creation?
Psalm 8:4-8 affirms the Genesis accounts, saying that God has made humanity the ruler over all the works of God’s hands, including domesticated and wild animals, birds, and fish. Yet, we have been made a little lower than the angels. So, while God has put all physical creatures under us, we are less than the angels.
But will it always be that way? In 1 Corinthians 6:3, Paul tells the Corinthian believers that we will judge angels. That would point to a role reversal in the future. 1 John 3:2 also hints at this. When Christ returns, we will be like him. That would hint at an elevation over the angels.
That we were made lower than the angels, but will surpass them in the end, is another clue that the creation recorded in Genesis 1 wasn’t the end. Instead, God is still working to produce something better than that.
A Literal Adam and Eve?
Were Adam and Eve literal people created by God as the first couple and placed in a garden, as recorded in Genesis 2? This is an easy question for those who believe the Genesis creation accounts are historically and scientifically accurate. The answer is an easy yes.
But for those of us who believe that the creation is much older and that evolution played a role in the diversification of life, the answer is much more challenging. It is admittedly, at least in my mind, the biggest obstacle to accepting an evolutionary origin for humanity. What do we do with Adam and the Garden of Eden?
Various solutions to this have been proposed, none of which I find entirely satisfactory. Some will argue that even though the creation itself is ancient, humanity was indeed created as Genesis 2 records. Although maybe more than 6000 years ago.
Others propose that God took a pair of hominins, breathed into them the breath of life, and they became the originators of modern humanity. And this could explain how Cain got a wife. Rather than a sister, she could have been another hominin from Adam and Eve’s originating clan.
Others see Adam and Eve as figurative people, and their story provides a way of explaining how humanity came to be in rebellion against God. A story that is really the story of every living human who chooses their own way over God’s.
A Fly in the Ointment
I am not sold on any of these explanations, although I favor the last one. But it does have a significant problem. Paul references Adam as if he were a real person (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:22, 45; 1 Tim. 2:13-14). How can we reconcile Paul’s reference to Adam with a non-historical Adam?
First, I will affirm that Paul believed Adam was a literal historical figure. There would have been no reason for him to doubt that. But does that prove Adam was a real person?
Until the Copernican revolution, it was believed that the Bible taught that the earth was unmoving and everything else revolved around the earth. Realizing that was not the case did not invalidate what the Bible had to say.
So, with Adam, I have to ask, does it matter if he was an actual historical figure or not? Does it make a difference if he was only a legend passed down through the ages to explain where we came from and how we got to where we are today? Is our faith dependent on his historicity?
The historicity of Jesus, along with his crucifixion and resurrection, are essential components of our faith. If he was not a real person crucified and resurrected on the third day, our faith is in vain (1 Cor. 15:17). But is that true of Adam? I do not believe so.
