Adam & Eve / The Fall

[Anonymous]

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It appears Adam and Eve were told to multiply before they had bodies and were placed in the garden. Is that important?

I believe so, since I see the entire story as a mythological telling of the pre-existence. That also allows me to position “The Fall” in the pre-existence and eliminate entirely the problem with the statement that there was no death before the Fall.

Finally, the last questions get tricky, since “Adam” is used in at least three ways in the Bible, as a reference to: the first man (helpmeet of the individual Eve), all men and all humans. Similarly, “Eve” is used to mean the first woman (helpmeet of the individual Adam) and all women.

Thus, I personally don’t worry much about the distinctions in your last questions. I just go with whichever usage makes the most sense to me in each situation.

[Anonymous]

Curtis wrote:

Quote:

It appears Adam and Eve were told to multiply before they had bodies and were placed in the garden. Is that important?

I believe so, since I see the entire story as a mythological telling of the pre-existence…

This is an interesting theory – one that I haven’t heard before. I am pondering this.

Curtis wrote:

Finally, the last questions get tricky, since “Adam” is used in at least three ways in the Bible, as a reference to: the first man (helpmeet of the individual Eve), all men and all humans. Similarly, “Eve” is used to mean the first woman (helpmeet of the individual Adam) and all women.

Thus, I personally don’t worry much about the distinctions in your last questions. I just go with whichever usage makes the most sense to me in each situation.

I do see how the various usages are important to consider. In the book of Genesis, verses 1:26-27 seem to use “man” and even “him” to refer to all people:

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Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

In these verses, Adam is alone as one man:

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2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden…

2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man…

2:18 …It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

2:20-21 And Adam gave names to all…but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs…

In the following verses, Adam and Eve are specifically referred to separately or with plural pronouns:

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2:22-23 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife…

3:6-7 …she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

3:8 And they heard the voice of the Lord…Adam and his wife hid themselves…

3:9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him

3:10 And the Lord God said unto the woman

3:15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed…

3:17 And unto Adam he said…

It seems the following verses refer only to the one man Adam:

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3:22-24 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man…

However, I can see how there could have been a transition to the usage that refers to the couple, even though it says “he,” “his,” “him,” and “the man.” Obviously, they stayed together. I am probably wasting my time on this 🙂

[Anonymous]

I made a little table as an image. I took the thoughts from Curtis and expanded on them:

[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-juSX-q2mnxY/UulJYNVrf6I/AAAAAAAAAmE/dVAT2eGyAqY/s1600/rtzsdfzxcvsdf.png[/img]

Maybe the story of Adam and Eve really is another way of telling the pre-existence story. It’s interesting that Option A entails following Heavenly Father in the pre-existence and disobeying him in the garden. It makes more sense to use Bruce McConkie’s words: “…our first parents complied with whatever laws were involved so that their bodies would change from their state of paradisiacal immortality…”

Of course, Adam and Eve couldn’t multiply and replenish the earth before partaking of the fruit. But were they really commanded to multiply and replenish the earth? Maybe they were blessed with the ability to multiple but were not commanded to do so:

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Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:

and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth: if this is not an express command, as the Jews understand it, for marriage and procreation of children, it seems to be more than a bare permission; at least it is a direction and an advice to what was proper and convenient for the increase of mankind, and for the filling of the earth with inhabitants, which was the end of its being made, Isaiah 45:18. This shows that marriage is an ordinance of God, instituted in paradise, and is honourable; and that procreation is a natural action, and might have been, and may be performed without sin,

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament:

By the blessing in Genesis 1:28, God not only confers upon man the power to multiply and fill the earth, as upon the beasts in Genesis 1:22, but also gives him dominion over the earth and every beast.

http://biblehub.com/commentaries/genesis/1-28.htm

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