The early chapters of the Biblical book of Genesis are foundational to the Judeo-Christian scriptures, doctrines, and worldview. The first four chapters cover the seven days of creation, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Fall from grace, and mankind's first generations in the world. These chapters have been the focus of much discussion over the centuries and I would like to add a few observations and ideas of my own to the mix.
I believe there are two opposite errors in interpreting these chapters. One is an overly literal reading as a detailed historic account of actual events. That is a fairly recent fundamentalist way of understanding scripture. The other is to dismiss it all as a myth that science has "disproved"; the modern or "progressive" way of reading and then ignoring scripture. Between these two extremes, much has been written about these short chapters of the bible. They are central to the creation-evolution debates, and of course, they set the starting point for all of theology and Christian doctrine. I will not repeat what is widely available elsewhere. In particular, I will not comment on most of Chapter 1, and especially the "seven days" of creation which have been the subject of much argument and speculation. Rather I have some insights (I hope) and observations that may help shed further understanding on parts of the text, and possibly defuse some of the polarized arguments, at least for people looking for serious study of these first parts of the Bible.
Adam & Eve and the Image of God:
Introduced in Gen 1:26-27, the image of God concept is, I believe, one key to understanding some of the seeming difficulties in Genesis. Humans (species Homo sapiens) have physical bodies and are alive like any other mammal, but we more than that. The Bible teaches that we each have a spirit, a divine spark of the divine, setting us apart from other animals. God himself is entirely spirit; apart from Jesus' incarnation, he has no body, so his "image" is surely also spiritual rather than physical. Our human spirits from God give us self-awareness, introspection, and other higher consciousness attributes unique to humans; for example, the ability to wonder about morality, mortality, God, the future, the universe, etc. Our spirits also make us capable of creativity, complex language and social skills, and higher intelligence, among other special attributes setting us apart from other animals.
Thus, one way to read Genesis is that Adam, the first man, was a spirit-infused hominin, thereby transforming a clever ape into a human being having a spirit. Gen. 2:7 can be read to support this idea. Hominins were formed from the "dust of the Earth" as God's handiwork in creation, over eons of time. Once God deemed the species capable of sustaining and enabling a spirit, perhaps around 50k years ago, it was time to create man (Adam). Thus, there could have been a hominin population in the Pleistocene, from which two healthy, young, representative adults were selected by God who then breathed spirits into them. Voila, Adam and Eve, who were then separated out and placed in the garden of Eden. As newly born spirits, they would be naïve of morality (i.e. no knowledge of good and evil), yet able to learn and commune with God their creator, for his good purposes.
Versions of this approach have been suggested by others. It does justice to the Biblical text, while resolving various issues many have with it. One intriguing thought is about language. Adam and Eve may have had rudimentary vocal communication from their hominin past, which God augmented, perhaps aided by their naming all the animals (Gen. 2:20). The perennial question about who did Cain marry (Gen 4:17) can be easily answered by Cain selecting another hominin female. God then ensured that their children also received spirits. Similarly, a population of non-spiritual hominins could explain who Cain was afraid of in Gen. 2:14, and how Cain could build a city by himself in Gen. 2:17. Using his superior intelligence, Cain could train and lead other hominins. The odd verse in Gen 6:2 about the sons of God choosing spouses from daughters of men may suggest that others of Adam's descendants also married un-spirited hominins they were attracted to. One effect of the Fall may have been not recognizing whether other hominins carried spirits. God in his mercy ensured that all offspring of spirited hominins (i.e. humans) would have human spirits. Thus, over time as the superior humans took over, all Homo sapiens would have spirits.
Original Sin:
This concept of humans as spirit-infused Homo sapiens may also help some better understand the doctrine of original sin. The Pleistocene hominins did not have spirits. Thus, they were like other animals, without any moral compass. No one calls a lion evil when it catches, kills and eats an antelope; that is simply its nature. Similarly, ethicists and scientists alike balk at the idea that a male chimpanzee killing an unrelated baby chimp is somehow evil. Humans do not, properly speaking, attribute morality on animals. Thus, before receiving spirits from God, the hominin group was incapable of sin, even if they beat, cheated, or even killed each other. That would simply have been part of their "nature" as a species.
Once the original couple was chosen and infused with spirits, however, God gave them some simple moral duties and rules (Gen. 2:15-16). This, in a way, may be considered being granted "free will", or a moral conscience, as a gift from God. Even though they did not yet have the "knowledge of good and evil", they were now free to either obey or disobey God. Tempted by the serpent, they chose (however naïvely) to disobey, and so became the first human sinners, resulting in the Fall as recorded in Chapter 3. The Bible says that all subsequent humans have inherited this propensity to disobey God and to knowingly sin, from Adam and Eve, as our first parents. Indeed, original sin is perhaps the one Christian doctrine that is on clear display every day in every culture!
Good, not Perfect:
Some Christians claim that God's initial creation, prior to the Fall was "perfect". But the text does not actually say that. Only God is perfect and he himself deemed creation "good", and at the end, "very good". As creation's engineer (designer) and maker, God knows that no complex system can be deemed "perfect". Any design can at best, only be "optimal", according to some criteria selected by the designer. In any design there are tradeoffs among varying and sometimes conflicting design goals and purposes. Thus no reasonable engineer will claim his design is "perfect", although he may say it is very good; i.e. good enough under the specified constraints and specifications. The upshot is that Eden was not "perfect", and realistically, seeming imperfections or conflicting purposes could occur among different intents and perspectives within the garden, even before the fall.
Death:
An important consequence of the above is the introduction of death into the world. Many Bible believers assume there was no death in Eden, and that mortality came into existence after the fall. I think this is an overly simplistic reading. First, when God told Adam not to eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17) and that if he did he would die, Adam must have known what that meant, or else it would have been a meaningless warning. Adam must have seen plants and/or animals die (perhaps in his pre-spiritual life?), so he had a fair idea what death was. Moreover, all living involves death on a small scale: the shedding of hair and skin cells, and the daily turnover of blood and intestinal cells. Adam would not have thought of these as "death", of course, but cell death is death nonetheless. At a larger scale, Adam would surely have seen insects die, some with short lifespans, and possibly by stepping on or swatting some himself. Plants too go through cycles of life and death. Certainly plants would die when eaten as specified in Gen. 1:29-30. Thus, there must have been some forms of death inside Eden.
More importantly, I believe the death God warned against was spiritual rather than physical. Adam and Eve did not physically die immediately upon eating the forbidden fruit. Indeed, Adam lived rather a long time afterward (Gen. 5:5). However, after the Fall, Adam and Eve lived apart from God. They avoided him (Gen. 2:8), and except for his initiatives, they lived away from his presence. As God's image bearers, Adam and Eve had spirits from God. Spiritual death is usually understood to mean separation from God, which describes what happened to this couple when they were evicted from the garden (Gen 3:23). Thus, the role of death in the fall ,may be seen as spiritual rather than physical. Indeed, God banished them partly so that they would not physically live forever by eating the fruit of the tree of life (Gen. 3:22). It is clear therefore, that Adam at least had the potential of dying physically, even before the Fall.
By the way, the description of the fruit trees and the rules for what they might and must not eat (Gen. 2:9 & 16) suggest that Adam and Eve had not been in Eden very long before the Fall. They were told not to eat of the one tree, but could eat of any others, including the tree of life. The fact that they had not yet eaten of that tree (Gen. 3:22 again), suggests that they were still in the early stages of living in Eden. They must have been there a few days at least (Gen. 2:15-23) since Adam had time to be lonely, name the animals, sleep, tell Eve about the rules, and have some fellowship with both Eve and God. But if they had been in Eden for many months or years, they would surely have tried every tree's fruit to see what it tasted like, including the tree of life. One could argue that the tree of life had no fruit for a long time, I suppose, but that would surely not hold for more than a year or two at most.
The serpent's half-truths:
In tempting and tricking Eve (and hence, Adam) in Gen. 3:1-4, the serpent (identified as Satan) was not lying. Rather, he may have used the ambiguity of "death" noted above, to fool her. He meant (verse 4) that Eve would not die (physically) upon eating the forbidden fruit, while God likely meant spiritual death in his warning. Eve, being naïve (without the knowledge of good and evil) took Satan at his word, and overlooked God's rule, which she must have learned from Adam since she was not yet in the picture when God gave Adam the rule. Being tempted by the serpent's promise of becoming like God, she ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to Adam, who also knowingly ate it. Moreover, Satan did not lie about the other effects of eating the fruit; "you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (verse 5). After all, God admits the same in verse 22. This does not mean, however, that Satan is to be trusted! The father of lies is most successful when he tells half-truths and twists meanings.
The Garden of Eden:
Genesis 2:8 clearly says that God planted the garden of Eden. This suggests that the rest of the world was not a garden, and therefore was natural wilderness, complete with the thorns and thistles encountered by Adam after his banishment (Gen 3:18). This wilderness might, perhaps, include the wild and more dangerous animals as well. Once evicted from the garden, with no one to look after it (Adam's job in Gen. 2:15), it would have reverted to wilderness and disappeared. Thus, there is no Eden today, and the angel put there to guard it (Gen. 3:24) could have left after a few decades.
There are doubtless other aspects to discern in these first few chapters of Genesis. Many books have been written, underscoring the importance of the early parts of Genesis for our understanding of God, people, and the world. While many dismiss Genesis chapters 1-10 as mere myths for primitive man, the stories and ideas included there form the basis for a significant portion of western civilization and human history. Even non-believers can gain insights from reading these chapters with an open mind. The above suggestions and interpretations are not intended to be gospel truth by any means - even I do not necessarily believe them all. Rather, they are offered here to promote thinking about the Bible and how we might understand Genesis.
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