CHRISTIANS - - - Do you consider the "Adam & Eve" story allegorical (figurative, not literal)? Why / why not?

Question

By the way, I haven't given anyone a thumbs down. It's not me, folks.

Answer 1

I wasn't going to answer this question because it is aimed at the christian community, but, I have noticed that said community have not actually answered the question properly. The problem I see, is that all answers given by Christians relate to bible as reference. I think the question was asked to the group as a personal question, one that should be answered with the heart, not with quoting scripture. I do not believe in the Adam & Eve creationism theory, for I believe the story was told to jews/christians as an allegorical story, a metaphore, used to teach the unlearned about the sins of mankind, that such sins will cause the expulsion of mankind from Gods garden, garden meaning the earth, the adder meaning temptation, it is just a metaphor. this story/poem was passed through generations until it became part of legend/myth. we know how today, facts can easily become fiction, the passage of time, foe each person adds their own interpretation of the story, adds their own personnality and beliefs to the story, this happens in modern dfay society.
if a celeb is seen with someone else talking in a restaurant, it will be in the paper saying they are an item, that they intend to marry. this is another exampleof how facts become myth and lies through the passage of time.
to all the christians who answer this question, answer it as, I , have, with what you believe in your heart and not what has been taught in the bible. you must know why you believe in the story, you must have come to your own conclusion on the story, you must not have just read it and decided it must be true because itis written. share your thoughts

Answer 2

Hi Zero

I just now saw this question. Apologies.

Yes, I believe the biblical creation story is allegorical. My thoughts on this is due to my belief that when human beings began composing rational thought, there were things that could not be explained in a literal way. Therefore, it had to be "magic". This line of thinking progressed into a belief of a Supreme Being or "God" if you will. Anything that could not be explained was attributed to being God's work. "Who are we? Where did we come from?" are questions that have been in the minds of men from the beginning. Every religion has its version of a creation myth. Man had to make some sort of sense in a scary, mystical world.

Now...were Adam and Eve literally existant? I do not believe so. I believe "Adam" is a generic term for early man and the same for "Eve". I think it is a story created to explain our existance on the planet.

Answer 3

Well it's both, it's literal in the sense that according to the Bible Adam and Eve existed, but allegorical in the sense of the apple.

Missing Pieces of the Bible: Lost Books Fill-in the Blanks (The Updated Version) answers it all (you can read for free at authonomy.com - Harper Collins website where people feature their books for free reading).

Answer 4

I believe both, it is literal becaure it is the jewish lineage. It is allegorical because the creative process discribed is common to all humanity.
We had a oneness with God,then the more we sought knowledge the more Involved we became, until we were hiding from this fearful world,in caves.then prodigal humanity made a spiritual turn toward our creator and began to Evolve back to higher awareness. PS you are a being of light,covered with the skin of animal. You are not the body.You are the life of the body. PS/PS why do you think christians are the only ones who understand the bible??

Answer 5

Although some parts of the bible are clearly figurative, I believe the creation story (Adam, Eve, et al) to be a literal account. The style in which Genesis is written suggests that the author intended it to be taken literally.

Answer 6

Jesus came here because of of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God, which also includes all of us. If there was no first Adam, then there would be no second Adam as refered to in 1 Corinthians 15:22, For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.... And 1 Corinthians 15:45, The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam (Jesus), a life-giving spirit.

Answer 7

No, I consider it to be literal. The Bible not only gives a complete genealogy of Adam's descendants, but it also pinpoints where they lived, how old they were when their children were born, and how old they were themselves when they died. If Adam and Eve were simply symbolic, there would be no such genealogy.

Here they are if you care to read them:

Genesis 5
1 Chronicles
Luke 3:23-38

The Bible also gives detailed accounts of where his children and descendants settled and the establishment of their nations (often named after the person).

Answer 8

I think its allegorical along with most other things in there. Why? Because it just sounds too fairy-tale-ish to me. I don't know. Sounds an awful lot like Greek Mythology or something. A story to explain away the mysteries of life.

Answer 9

Literal. If we start to take different stories in the Bible and say they are allegorical when the Bible purports them as actually historical, we start to lose the basis for saying it that it is the authoritative, inerrant word of God.

Besides, I have no problem taking that story as literal. It seems very plausable to me!

Answer 10

I consider it to be literal. Jesus spoke of it as a literal event (Matthew 19:4-6). Also, the fact that we all come from Adam and Eve is made evident by the fact that all of us have inherited sin and death from them (Romans 5:12). I believe the Bible when it says:

"And he made out of one [man] every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth" -Acts 17:26