Question:

Did Adam and Eve really exist?  Some say they have disproved their existence.  I have seen this claimed many  times.  For example, on wiki answers they say that the Bible does not contain the earth rotating on its axis. But we can look at what God said in the book of Job (38:12-14) “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? IT CHANGED LIKE CLAY UNDER THE SEAL, and its features stand out like a garment.” Also Isaiah tells us the earth is a sphere.  Is this just another way Wiki excuses the Bible?  Or is it a way some try to put more science into scripture?  It seems to me people are trying to put evolution into the creation acount. Thank you so much.  You are a big help May God Bless you for your hard work, its great to know the truth about life, and that comes from Gods True Book.

Answer:

If you are asking my belief, yes, I believe that there really was a first couple whom God created in his image. I believe this, principally because it is claimed to be true in the Bible and because it seems clear that both Jesus and Paul accepted the historical reality of Adam and Eve. I cannot “prove” scientifically that such a first couple who had a soul and spirit lived. What would the proof be? Certainly we will never find a cave with the verifiable inscription “Adam and Eve slept here.” There is no conceivable physical evidence which would prove that God created us in his image many thousands of years ago. Similarly, although science cannot “prove” Adam and Eve, it also can never disprove the reality of a first homo divinus –humans created in God’s image. By its very nature, science cannot ever disprove the miraculous imparting of a soul, a spirit and the “image” of God into the first couple. Science can tell us something about our physical ancestors, but it cannot help decide when and who was the first human–made in God’s image. Whether God created a first couple ex nihilo (from nothing) or added his image to an already existing pair of evolved hominids, I cannot say for certain, but I am absolutely convinced that the human soul, the human spirit, our “conscience” and our human consciousness are not something which could have or would have evolved by any series of random events. However God did it, he created us, as described in Genesis 1 & 2. I am convinced of this.

Then you say “for example,” but in fact you change the subject to something quite different, so let me dissuss this one as well. You certainly cannot count on wiki answers for reliable information about either the Bible or science, so I am not sure how relevant what they say is. As for Job 38:12-14, I am not sure how to respond to this. Do you have a question about this verse? I cannot tell what the issue you are raising is. In any case, in this passage the Lord speaks, but he is using poetry, with much metaphor and imagery. I do not believe you can draw any significant conclusions about cosmology or the nature of the physical earth from this passage. In this passage, God is taking credit for forming the earth and is challenging Job (or anyone else for that matter) as to whether they could create a universe or the earth of any of the other marvelous things God has done. “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea?” (v. 16) is not a scientific statement that the sea has springs, but a rebuke to the human being who thinks he or she is as great as God or that we have the right to challenge God’s authority. This is a theological not a scientific passage of scripture and should be treated that way.

Next, you mention Isaiah 40:22 (“He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.”). This passage has been used by some Christian apologists as proof that the Bible is inspired because it tells us that the earth is spherical, long before this was ever discovered or even proposed by scientists or mathematicians. The problem with this is that others have used the very same scripture to claim that the Bible has a scientific error because it describes the earth as a flat circle–similar to what the ancients thought. The fact is that the Hebrew word used here could be translated as a circle (a two-dimensional shape) or a sphere. Bottom line, this passage should not be used for either purpose–to prove the inspiration of the Bible or to disprove it. As with Job, this is a theological statement about God and is not intended to be a scientific statement about the shape of the earth. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps God is making a statement about the shape of the earth here. I doubt it, but who knows. Either way, because of the ambiguous nature of the Hebrew word, we should be hesitant to use this passage to prove the inspiration of the Bible. Perhaps it is evidence for inspiration, but if it is, it is a relatively weak evidence, which could be dismissed fairly easily by skeptics.

Next, you change the subject to the Bible and evolution, which is a very different subject indeed. Since you did not ask a specific question, I will not respond to this unless you have a specific question you want to ask. I have answered several questions about evolution recently at the site, so you might want to check these out first.

John Oakes