If I accept theistic evolution, how can I understand passages like Genesis 3:20 (the mother of all the living) or Acts 17:26 (from one man every nation)
Question:
I have a question about the idea of theistic evolution (I have been reading many of the articles under "creation" by you and John Laing). This interpretation seems to resolve many questions such as: Why was Cain was afraid someone would kill him? Who would be living in the city Cain built? etc… (Genesis 4:14-18) However, many difficulties seem to come up. "Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living." (Genesis 3:20) "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the time set for them and the exact places where they should live." (Acts 17:26)… All of my references are NIV.
Answer:
I agree that the passages you bring up do make a problem for the claim that there were other evolved primates who did not have a soul and a spirit around at the time of Adam and Eve. I do not want to be dogmatic about such debatable matters, but I think the answer which those who hold to this idea might give is that Adam and Eve were indeed the parents/progenitors of all those who were in the image of God. Some call their descendents "homo divinus." At the flood, those who were human genetically but not in the sense of having soul, spirit, the "image of God" perished. I do not necessarily subscribe to this view, but I think it is a reasonable interpretation of both the science and the scripture.
John Oakes, PhD
