The bible begins with the story Adam and Eve. Who were Adam and Eve and when did they live? If you have read my blogs ‘What is Genesis 1 Talking About Part 1 & What is Genesis 1 Talking About Part 2’, you will be familiar with my distinction between figurative and fictional. Often people look at the bible and, since the way the story is told does not match with how a modern historian would record the events, they conclude that the story must be fictional. The story however, can be both figurative and true. Today we have developed both expository and poetic writing styles and we forget that, thousands of years ago, these two styles were merged. For example, we can pick up a book on the history of World War I written in a forthright and objective manner, and we can also pick up a poem such as Flanders Fields. When we read “We are the Dead. Short days ago” we know full well that this is not literally the dead speaking, but rather a poetic way of expressing the trauma of war in ways that a factual exposition cannot.

If we work from the assumption that Adam and Eve were real people, we need to also recognize that the text is both telling history and telling a story. Adam and Eve could have been real people, but the text in Genesis presents them as archetypical people. Einstein, for example, was a real physicist, but he has become an archetype for someone who is really smart. Calling someone an Einstein does not mean Einstein never existed. (more…)