Questions About Adam and Eve

[Berzerker]

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

Now I'm told Adam and Eve were the first people, and if thats true, God told them to be fruitful and multiply after making them on the 6th Day.

But God takes Adam to the Garden instead to look for a companion from among the animals.

Why would Adam need to see a bunch of animals to look for a companion if he was the male created on the 6th Day? He already had a female companion and they were told to be fruitful and multiply.

So Adam is taken away to the Garden where no companion is found from among the animals and God takes Adam's rib and makes Eve. But that means Eve wasn't there with Adam on the 6th Day.

So who is "them" in that verse?

Eve didn't exist yet, and if Adam existed, why wasn't he being fruitful and multiplying with the female who did exist?

Adam and Eve weren't the first people, thats why Cain was worried someone would kill him and thats how he found a wife when supposedly only he and his parents were alive.

Adam and Eve in the Garden are described as innocent, unknowing of good and evil, naked and not ashamed. Adam is even asked to find a companion from among the animals but none is found.

And their sin? They were "primitive" beings close in nature to the other animals, but they acquired knowledge and shame - they departed from their animal nature and became human. They evolved!

 

[BvBPL]

"Them" is man and woman (or, arguably, the whole race of humanity). It says right there that He created them together.

What's happening is that you're confusing the first creation story in Genesis, where man and woman were created contemporaneously of each other (1:27), with the second story of creation, where Adam preceded Eve (2:7,18,22).

 

[Perfection]

Why would Adam need to see a bunch of animals to look for a companion if he was the male created on the 6th Day? He already had a female companion and they were told to be fruitful and multiply.

That is an elaboration of what occurred the sixth day in between the time God created the first man (Adam) and the first woman (Eve).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

God was grammatically-challenged.

 

[History_Buff]

When you put it that way, it's almost as if the Bible weren't an accurate portrayal of early human existence.

 

[Antilogic]

Sssh...

You can't spell it out that explicitly!

 

[Berzerker]

"Them" is man and woman (or, arguably, the whole race of humanity). It says right there that He created them together.

What's happening is that you're confusing the first creation story in Genesis, where man and woman were created contemporaneously of each other (1:27), with the second story of creation, where Adam preceded Eve (2:7,18,22).

The confusion is created by the claim Adam and Eve were the first people. Adam may have been made on the 6th Day, but Eve wasn't - and if Adam was the 6th Day male why did God tell him to be fruitful and multiply only to take him away from the female(s) and put him in the Garden to find a companion from among the animals?

That is an elaboration of what occurred the sixth day in between the time God created the first man (Adam) and the first woman (Eve).

But the 6th Day people - male and female - were made together and if Adam was the male, he wouldn't need a zoo to find a companion or a rib to make Eve. Are you saying the events in the Garden were all on the 6th Day?

When you put it that way, it's almost as if the Bible weren't an accurate portrayal of early human existence.

It describes the evolution of primitive man to "modern" man

 

[BvBPL]

The confusion is created by the claim Adam and Eve were the first people.

Yes, that is confusing because Adam and Eve are not described in the Bible as being the first people created.

Adam and Eve are not the first people as described in the first creation story. 1:27 states that he created "man and woman" on the sixth day, not
"Adam and Eve." Adam and Eve are not named until chapter two (King James) or three (New American, although the New American's exegesis makes a point of noting the relationship between the word used for "man" in chapter two and "Adam.")

Adam may have been made on the 6th Day, but Eve wasn't - and if Adam was the 6th Day male why did God tell him to be fruitful and multiply only to take him away from the female(s) and put him in the Garden to find a companion from among the animals?

Adam and Eve were not created on Biblical creation days. Their story of creation comes in chapter two at which point there is no demarcation of creation by days. In fact, in chapter two, God creates Heaven and Earth, then some water, than Adam, and then the Garden of Eden (vegetation), animals, and then Eve. The order of creation differs between chapters one and two.

You are confusing the two interlocking creation stories. The order of creation and direction by God in chapter one is not necessarily the same as given to Adam in chapter two. God never directly tells Adam to be fruitful and multiply, that direction was given at the contemporaneous creation of man and woman in 1:27.

 

[classical_hero]

This is just not worth it.

 

[Antilogic]

It was actually Adam and Steve on the 6th day, but the censors cut that part because it talked about butt stuff.

 

[Perfection]

But the 6th Day people - male and female - were made together

Bible doesn't say that it was the same time that's you're assumption.

 

[classical_hero]

No matter how many times that has been pointed out, he still keeps to what he believes about the bible.

 

[warpus]

Why would Adam need to see a bunch of animals to look for a companion if he was the male created on the 6th Day? He already had a female companion and they were told to be fruitful and multiply.

I was under the impression that Adam was created first.

God likely wasn't sure at that point what sort of sex was "alright", so he gave him a bunch of animals to pick from. If Adam had at that point picked an elephant as his companion, the Bible would read "Adam and peanut", not "Adam and Eve".

Women wouldn't exist and we'd all be boning elephants. Fortunately Adam had the light of mind to reject animal sex. Thinking a bit more about it, this was probably a test put forward by God to see if Adam knew what his penis was really for. Good on Adam to realize it was for women even before women existed.

 

[downtown]

Seems a bit silly to get super hung up on whether Eve was created on the 6th day or not. It certainly didn't happen on the 7th, and we have no idea how long those days were.

 

[warpus]

Seems a bit silly to get super hung up on whether Eve was created on the 6th day or not. It certainly didn't happen on the 7th, and we have no idea how long those days were.

The thing is that you're right, it isn't an issue, because the whole thing is just a metaphor.. it's meant to teach lessons, not be a word by word telling of what actually happened.

But there are people out there who claim that it did indeed happen, in which case a detailed analysis of the text word by word makes a lot more sense. In that case it would make sense to question whether the text makes logical sense in terms of who was created first, and so on.

 

[Leoreth]

This is just not worth it.

This is a rare occurence given the subject, but for once I am in complete agreement with you.

 

[El_Machinae]

Isn't it better to acknowledge the mainstream analysis that there are actually two genesis stories merged into one document?

 

[Leoreth]

Indeed, but that obviously requires that you accept that the Bible is the result of the work of multiple authors and oral traditions that were combined over a long period of time without any sort of external guidance.

 

[classical_hero]

@El_Mach, there is one creation story, just that 2:5 onwards focuses solely on what happens in the Garden of Eden, not the whole earth, thus it goes into greater detail about what man was doing on that day. The focus of the rest of Genesis in the creation account after telling the whole overview of the 7 days is then to focus on the whole reason why god created the earth, and that was for man. This is not an uncommon literary device where you give the an overview of events and then focus in on one of the events after in greater detail.

 

[JollyRoger]

Isn't it better to acknowledge the mainstream analysis that there are actually two genesis stories merged into one document?

@El_Mach, there is one creation story, just that 2:5 onwards focuses solely on what happens in the Garden of Eden, not the whole earth, thus it goes into greater detail about what man was doing on that day. The focus of the rest of Genesis in the creation account after telling the whole overview of the 7 days is then to focus on the whole reason why god created the earth, and that was for man. This is not an uncommon literary device where you give the an overview of events and then focus in on one of the events after in greater detail.

Actually, the two layer theory makes more sense, but,

No matter how many times that has been pointed out, he still keeps to what he believes about the bible.