Building Bridges Between Adam, Eve and Evolution - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Building Bridges Between Adam, Eve and Evolution Slide2

Some personal family history

Dr Samuel Philip Alexander and his third son, Lee Alexander, Portsmouth, England, 1906Slide3

Sailing to New York

The Empress of Britain

used as a troop carrier in the First World War

Philip Alexander

[Died, Battle of the Somme,30

th July 1916]

Alan Alexander

[Died, Jerusalem,

8

th

Dec. 1917]

Dr. Samuel Alexander

[Died, Spanish Flu,

New York, 14

th

Dec 1918] Slide4

The complexity of providential eventsSlide5

Starting Assumptions

The Bible is the inspired Word of God from cover to cover.The Bible contains reliable scientia

but not science.Concordism is unhelpful.The early chapters of Genesis presents a series of profound theological essays. Evolution is the paradigm within which all biological research is carried out.

Slide6

The first meaning of Adam: ‘Humankind’

Then God said, “Let us make

adam 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.”

So God created adam

in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them

. Genesis 1:26-27

When

God created

adam

, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called

them

adam

.

Genesis 5:1-2

Slide7

The First Toledoth: This is the family history of the heavens and the earth when they were created

Gen. 2:7 the LORD God formed [Hebrew yatsar]

the adam

from the dust of the ground [the adamah

] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and

the

adam

became a living being.

2:9

after placing the man in ‘a garden in the east, in Eden’, God then ‘made all kinds of trees grow out of

the ground [

adamah

]

For the kingly and priestly connotations of the ‘image of God’ language, see Richard Middleton (2005).

The liberating image : the Imago Dei in Genesis 1

. Grand Rapids, MI:

Brazos

Press. Slide8

The use of Adam

and not ‘Ish for ‘Man’

The usual word for ‘man’ in the Old Testament is ‘ish, used 1671 times [“Noah was a righteous

‘ish”, Gen. 6:9] .

So there must be a special reason for using Adam

for ‘man’ in Genesis 1-5.

the choice of ‘adam

’ here for man seems a deliberate teaching tool to

explain to the reader that

adam

not only comes from the

adamah

, but is

also given the important task by God of caring for the

adamah

.

Also

there is a definite article in front of ‘Adam’ which remains in place all the way though to Genesis 4:25 [‘The Man’ is mentioned twenty times in

Genesis 3 and 4]. Personal names do not have a definite article in Hebrew. Slide9

The three distinctive meanings of Adam in Genesis 1-5

Humankind.

The Man, perhaps referring to ‘Man’ as a representative for

humankind.

3. An individual who marries Eve.

Slide10

Adam in the Bible After Genesis 5

One clear mention in the Old Testament; nine in the New Testament. Citations seem to interpret Adam & Eve as individuals e.g.

the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1 and Luke 3, and 1 Corinthians 15:45 where Paul compares the ‘first Adam’ with the ‘last Adam’ Christ. Slide11

Prof. John Walton,

Wheaton CollegeInter-Varsity PressMarch 2015Slide12

18,000 yrs ago

60,000 yrs ago

43,000 yrs ago

50,000 yrs agoSlide13

An original anatomically modern human population

POPULATION 1

POPULATION 2

POPULATION 3

BOTTLE-NECK

POPULATION 4 [

c

. 10,000]

POPULATION 5

Etc.

TIME

200,000

years agoSlide14

Gene flow between humans and hominins

Gene flow is indicated by the red arrows

Prufer

e al., Nature, Jan 2nd 2014, pages 43-48

NI =

Introgressing Neanderthal

DI = Introgressing

DenisovanSlide15

BUILDING MODELS

- bringing theology into conversation with anthropology

The

Theological Narrative

The

Anthropological

Narrative

?

MODELS?

INTERACTIONS?Slide16

Adam & Eve, the Fall and Evolution

- 4 Models

MODEL A: the

Ahistorical ViewThe purpose of the early chapters of Genesis is to provide a theological account of the role and importance of humankind in God’s purposes, cast in the mould of a narrative of Adam and Eve which is a myth in the technical sense of being a story or parable having the main purpose of teaching eternal truths without the constraints of historical particularity.

“The Fall account in Genesis 3 is the story

of ‘every person’” [Rom. 3:23].Slide17

Does Model A go far enough?

It represents the separation view: any kind of conversation between the theological and scientific narratives is inappropriate. BUT questions remain e.g.

Personal knowledge of the one true God somewhere, some time? Personal responsibility before God

– How? When? God must have started his new spiritual family on earth at some time.

When?Slide18

Adam & Eve, the Fall and Evolution

- 4 ModelsThe model suggests that as anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa from 200,000 years ago, or during some period of linguistic and cultural development since then, there was a gradual growing awareness of God’s presence and calling upon their lives to which they responded in obedience and worship.

In this model, the early chapters of Genesis provide a theological representation of this early gradual spiritual development in a form that could be understood within the Near Eastern culture of that time.

MODEL

B1: A gradualist Protohistorical View

:Slide19

The Fall in Model B1

The Fall is interpreted as the conscious rejection by humankind of the awareness of God’s presence and calling upon their lives in favor of choosing their own way rather than God’s way, albeit by a process happening over a long period of time leading to spiritual death.

Slide20

Adam & Eve, the Fall and Evolution - 4 Models

MODEL B2: A real couple within the ‘original’

founder population in Africa

REST OF HUMANITYSlide21

Against Models B1 and B2

They evacuate the narrative of any Near Eastern context, detaching their accounts from the Jewish roots of the theological texts. Model B1 will not satisfy those who wish to view

Adam and Eve as historical individuals.Slide22

A scientific problem with Model B2

POPULATION 1

POPULATION 2

POPULATION 3

BOTTLE-NECK

POPULATION 4 [

c

. 10,000]

POPULATION 5

Etc.

TIME

Genetically

the couple in ‘population 4’

could not have been the physical ancestors of the whole of humanity

Slide23

CREATION

FALL

REDEMPTION

Genetically the putative couple in a community of 10,000 reproductively active individuals 200,000 years ago could not have been the genetic ancestors of the whole of humanity.

Adam and Eve embedded

within an early human

population 150-200,000

years agoSlide24

Adam & Eve, the Fall and Evolution - 4 Models

God chose a community or a couple of Neolithic farmers in the Near East to whom he chose to reveal himself in a special way, calling them into fellowship with himself – so that they might know Him as the one true personal God. From now on there would be a community who would know that they were called to a holy enterprise, called to be

carers of God’s creation, called to know God personally. This new believing community is seen as the earliest progenitors of the Jewish faith.

MODEL

C: A more ‘event-based’ Protohistorical

View The Homo

divinus

Revd

John Stott

[1921-2011]Slide25

The Homo

divinus model and the Fall

Adam & Eve

(Third Century) Fresco. Catacomb

of St Piretro and St. Marcellino, Rome

Federal Headship

REST OF

HUMANITY

Federal Headship

REST OF

HUMANITY

Michelangelo's

Temptation and Fall

from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

THE FALL

Federal Headship

REST OF

HUMANITY

Federal Headship

REST OF

HUMANITY

SIN

SIN

SIN

SIN

SIN

SIN

Homo DivinusSlide26

The Homo

divinus model and Federal Headship

Derek

Kidner

[1913-2008]

“With one possible exception…the unity of mankind ‘in Adam’ and our common status as sinners through his offence, are expressed in Scripture not in terms of heredity (Is 43:27) but simply in terms of solidarity. …. Adam’s sin is shown to have implicated all men because he was the federal head of humanity, somewhat as in Christ’s death ‘one died for all, therefore all died’ (2

Cor

5:14)….Adam’s ‘federal’ headship of humanity extended, if that was the case, outwards to his contemporaries as well as onwards to his offspring, and his disobedience disinherited

both alike”.

Kidner

, D. (1967).

Genesis

. London: Tyndale Press,

p

.

29,30

Slide27

Atatürk – Federal Head of all Turks

ALL TURKSSlide28

Adam as the representative man- an example of corporate solidarity?

PRESIDENT DRAGS COUNTRY INTO WAR BY A BAD ERROR OF JUDGMENT

THE WHOLE POPULATION ENTERS INTO A STATE OF BEING AT WARSlide29

CREATION

FALL

REDEMPTION

“sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned…

” [Romans 5:12]

Sin inherited

from

a single couple

OR All people sinners

because of

a single couple

THE VERTICAL MODEL

THE CORPORATE SOLIDARITY MODELSlide30

Denis Alexander,

Oxford: Monarch, Sep. 1st

2014Second Revised Expanded Edition[www.faraday-institute.org

]

Denis Alexander,

Templeton Foundation Press, 2011[

www.faraday-institute.org

]

350+ on-line lectures at:

www.faraday-institute.orgSlide31

For centuries the idea of human solidarity and the federal headship of Adam have helped to remind us that “the whole world is a prisoner of sin

” [Gal. 3:22], and that the only way of being rescued from both sin and mortality is through the sacrificial work of Christ’s atoning death upon the cross. Slide32

Philip Alexander

[Died, Battle of the Somme,

30th July 1916]

Alan Alexander

[Died, Jerusalem,8

th Dec. 1917]

Dr. Samuel Alexander

[Died, Spanish Flu,

New York, 14

th

Dec 1918]

Lee Alexander

[1903- 2001]

Seymour Alexander

[1906- 1991]Slide33

‘You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve’,

said Aslan, ‘And that is both

honour enough toerect the head of the poorest beggar’.

C.S.Lewis, Prince Caspian