Tim Keller on Adam & Eve

Posted on by Jeremy Berg

At Jesus Creed, RJS has a great discussion of Tim Keller’s essay “Creation, Evolution and Christian Lay People” exploring the topic of the historical Adam and Eve, evolutionary theory, the trustworthiness of Scripture and the complex relationship between science and the Bible. Keller first addresses whether one needs to take Genesis 1 literally, and second whether all theories of evolutionary processes violate the Scriptures. RJS focuses her discussion on the third question of Keller’s essay.  Here is Keller’s introduction:

Question #3: If biological evolution is true and there was no historical Adam and Eve how can we know where sin and suffering came from?

Answer: Belief in evolution can be compatible with a belief in an historical fall and a literal Adam and Eve. There are many unanswered questions around this issue and so Christians who believe God used evolution must be open to one another’s views.

My answers to the first two sets of questions are basically negative. I resist the direction of inquirer’s thought. I don’t believe you have to take Genesis 1 as a literal account, and I don’t think that to believe human life came about through EBP (Evolutionary Biological Processes) you necessarily must support evolution as the GTE (evolution as Grand Theory of Everything).

However, I find the concerns of this question much more well-grounded. Indeed, I must disclose, I share them. Many orthodox Christians who believe God used EBP to bring about human life not only do not take Genesis 1 as history, but also deny that Genesis 2 is an account of real events. Adam and Eve, in their view, were not historical figures but an allegory or symbol of the human race. Genesis 2, then, is a symbolic story or myth which conveys the truth that human beings all have and do turn away from God and are sinners.

Before I share my concerns with this view, let me make a clarification. One of my favorite Christian writers (that’s putting it mildly), C.S.Lewis, did not believe in a literal Adam and Eve, and I do not question the reality or soundness of his personal faith. But my concern is for the church corporately and for its growth and vitality over time. Will the loss of a belief in the historical fall weaken some of our historical, doctrinal commitments at certain crucial points?

Read the rest of Keller’s essay and RJS’s discussion of it HERE.

What do you think?

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10 thoughts on “Tim Keller on Adam & Eve”

  1. Adam and Eve are representatives for all of us. God is telling us two stories with the words of one. God has hidden a prophesy about the future in the story. The following is my interpretation of the story about Adam and Eve in the present. I start at Genesis 2:17

    Gen 2 : 17 But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”

    Trees don’t grow knowledge so I know God is talking in symbols. Knowledge comes from Books. Books are made from the pulp of trees. So the Tree is a Book. A Tree is a metaphor for a Book This book has knowledge of good and bad. The Book is the Bible. The Bible contains the knowledge of good and bad. Besides I took this verse right out of the Bible. You can’t eat from a book and gain knowledge, but you can digest a book . As in Readers Digest. You are taking the words in, like food. God says, you will positively die. The Book has poison in it. The poison is the fruit on the tree.

    What is the fruit on the tree that we must not eat? Or, What is the fruit in the New Testament? We know that a Cross is also a Tree and Jesus was nailed to the tree. The fruit from the Bible is Jesus. Clues are Adam and Eve are bare naked. Bare sounds like Bear.
    The Tree bears Jesus

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  2. In the next verse God tells us exactly who Satan is:

    Genesis 3 : 1 Now the serpent proved to be the most cautious of all the wild beasts of the field that God had made. So it began to say to the woman: “Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?” 2 At this the woman said to the serpent: “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. 3 But as for [eating] of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, “You must not eat from it, no, You must not touch it that you do not die.’”

    The snake talks. Again we know that snakes don’t talk so God is talking in symbols. God says the snake is a wild beast. That’s not true, snakes are reptiles. A beast is a mammal. So the Serpent is really a mammal that talks. Man is the only mammal that talks. The serpent is really a man. Then, how do snakes deceive us. We think the snake is a stick until we almost step on it. Then it moves. Now we know the Serpent is a Man with characteristics of a stick. The snake speaks from the stick. Does this sound familiar:

    The Church speaks from the Cross.

    The Cross is a metaphor for a Stick. The serpent talks from the stick and the Church talks from the Cross. If it sounds the same it is the same. The Roman Catholic Pagan Church is Satan. The great deceiver, who would have ever known if it hadn’t been written by God himself right into the Bible. Satan is really the Christian Church.

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  3. Genesis 3;1
    Now the serpent proved to be the most cautious of all the wild beasts of the field that God had made. So it began to say to the woman: “Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?”

    The serpent knows what God said. How does Satan know what God said? The Romans read the Old Testament. Then they wrote they New Testament. The Roman Catholic Church (Satan) has deceived just about all of us. Except the Jews.

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  4. God said do not take in the Fruit, it’s poison.

    Genesis 3 : 4 At this the serpent (church) said to the woman: “You positively will not die. 5 For God knows that in the very day of your eating (digesting) from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” 6 Consequently the woman saw that the tree (book) was good for food and that it was something to be longed for to the eyes, yes, the tree (book) was desirable to look upon. So she began taking of its fruit and eating it (reading it). Afterward she gave some also to her husband when with her and he began eating it (he also began reading) . 7 Then the eyes of both of them became opened and they began to realize that they were naked (sinners). Hence they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings for themselves (hidding their sin) .

    You don’t realize your naked from eating fruit. There is no known food that makes you suddenly realize you don‘t have clothes on. You do realize your naked if you read the New Testament and it states that being naked is a sin.

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  5. The interpretation continues in the following verse from Genesis. Satan says take in Jesus and you positively will not die. The Catholic Church says: believe in Jesus and you positively will not die. Satan and the Church sound similar to me.

    Genesis 3 : 4 At this the serpent (church) said to the woman: “You positively will not die. 5 For God knows that in the very day of your eating (taking Jesus in) from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.”

    The Serpent says: “Take in Jesus and you positively will not die”. The Church says: Believe in Jesus and you positively will not die. Sounds the same to me. If it sounds the same it is the same. The Serpent is the Church.

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  6. God returns to the garden and Adam and Eve are naked hiding in the bushes. There is a child like innocence to the story as they answer to God. God asks Adam who told you were naked. Did you eat from the tree? Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent.

    Genesis 3:8 Later they heard the voice of God walking in the garden about the breezy part of the day, and the man and his wife went into hiding from the face of God in between the trees of the garden. 9 And God kept calling to the man and saying to him: “Where are you?” 10 Finally he said: “Your voice I heard in the garden, but I was afraid because I was naked and so I hid myself.” 11 At that he said: “Who told you that you were naked? From the tree from which I commanded you not to eat have to eaten?” 12 And the man went on to say: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me {fruit} from the tree and so I ate.” 13 With that God said to the woman: “What is this you have done? To this the woman replied: “The serpent–it deceived me and so I ate.”

    Adam and Eve are hiding from God because after they read from the Bible they realized that being naked was a sin. They were ashamed and embarrassed of their sin.

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  9. I was glazing over these comments and saw some pretty wierd logic that i wanted to point out. As old as this is, PLEASE people THINK about what you are saying! you are saying to use “logic” to explain the Bible. the FALL was NOT symobolisim YES the snake talked! (the DONKEY in the NEW testament!) IF we use your warped logic to define Chrit’s death AND resurrection, we can think “we all know people donlt come back from the dead” so chrsitianity is false. BUT LISTEN TO YOURSELF. Note: I am am NOT saying evolution is false i am saying that we have NOT seen it happen in the way charles darwin said it did. we ALL KNOW that chickens DO NOT turn into humans! AND that primordial slime does not turn into people! ALL WE SEE IS the results. we CANNOT prove the process! okay LOOK at yor warped logic here! there WAS a tree of the knowledge of good and evil was NOT the bible. It MAY have been symbolism for what you guys are doing HERE. THINKING that You can know right from wrong THAT is what it meant. Its the TREE of “pretend” good and evil. making good and evil :sbjective” whcih is NOT what God;s wants! the BIBLE IS NOT POISON. IT IS God’s word! IT TELLS US the history in the OT, Jess in NT RIGHT from wrong JESUS CAME to TEACH US! we like to THINK we know “everything” WE NEVER WILL GUYS! yo will not know wnat god can;t do! Just because something seems impossible in the Bible NEVER means it did not happen! The symbolic stories are DEFINED on the bible! They are called parables and DREAMS. if it is not specified on the bible which it is TAKE IT AS TRUTH! man FELL! okay, get off your moral high horse and think about what you are saying! if you are a christian, ADAM AND EVE existed! COuld it be ever think about this, that adam and eve were the first humans from evolution?? hmm?? the bible says THEY CAME into being! it NEVER SAYS how THink about that one for a minute.

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  10. William thanks for your comment. However your thoughts are so jumbled I have a hard time trying to figure out what your saying. I think your feeling shock. The entire Bible is not posion. It is the fruit on the tree that is poison. Jesus is the fruit from the New Testament. Remember:
    “The Tree Bears Jesus”.

    So Jesus is the fruit God has commanded us not to take in. Does that help Bill?

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